My Japanese Childhood Friend Is Too Flirty - Chapter 151



150. A Family Sea Trip! (1)

That the person I love loves me back… is a miracle.

For there is nothing so difficult as winning the heart of another.

Each face a world, each heart a galaxy of its own, a swirling vortex of thoughts that shift and change even as we speak – to capture such a heart is a herculean task.

Indeed.

“…Umm.”

“……”

To witness Aki, slumbering so peacefully at my side, feels like nothing short of a miracle.

That thought struck me, and I gently smoothed a stray strand of hair from her forehead, a silent laugh escaping my lips.

Even after all these years of marriage, her sleeping habits remain unchanged. One would think, by now, she’d sleep a little more… serenely.

“Umm…”

Thump.

Aki stirred, turning towards me.

Not awake, merely murmuring in her sleep, likely due to my touch… Or perhaps the aftermath of last night. Her clothing askew, leaving her fair underarm fully visible.

Though there’s no one to see but me, I cleared my throat unnecessarily, pulling the blanket up to her chest.

And then, as quietly as possible, I attempted to slip away for a wash, but then.

“Umm…”

“……Ah.”

In trying to gently dislodge Aki, who was clinging to me like a vine, I accidentally bumped her torso.

Her entire body shuddered and her eyes slowly fluttered open.

“Umm… Darling…?”

“Awake?”

“Umm… Just woke up.”

Her eyes still half-closed, lost in the land of dreams.

Gazing up at me through half-lidded eyes, she wriggled her body in a cute manner, then wrapped her arms around my forearm. Something soft and yielding pressed firmly against my bare skin.

“Sniff, sniff…”

“……What are you doing?”

“It smells like sweat… Morning skinship…?”

“…….”

I will never understand the tastes of women. What could possibly be so appealing about the smell of sweat that it warrants such audible appreciation?

Frankly, it was a little, no, quite embarrassing. But Aki’s obvious delight was written so clearly on her face that I couldn’t bring myself to stop her. And so, resigned, I offered my arm, and Aki, almost savoring the scent, inhaled my natural aroma… and then…

k*ss.

She pressed a k*ss to my shoulder, then pulled away. Her eyes were still half-lidded, and she wore a knowing, almost feline smile.

“Well fed…”

“…Someone might misunderstand.”

“Heh… Why, does my darling husband want a sniff, too…?”

Aki opened her arms towards me.

“Here, smell anywhere you like.”

“…”

Should I really just… smell?

If I buried my nose between her br*easts and took a deep whiff, wouldn’t Aki be embarrassed enough to stop?

…I entertained that wicked, audacious thought for all of three seconds. Just three seconds, mind you. Because if I actually did it, the consequences… well.

“Aren’t you going to smell…?”

“…Aren’t you hungry? I’m feeling a little peckish.”

Ignoring her, I stood up and changed the subject.

Aki giggled, looking up at me endearingly, before gracefully rising herself and primly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Well… My darling husband did expend a lot of energy yesterday, didn’t he?”

“…”

“Go wash up first. I’ll wake Yura and then make you breakfast.”

“…What’s for breakfast?”

“Your favorite, pork bulgogi. I bought all the ingredients yesterday.”

“Oh… Bulgogi’s good.”

Back when I was in the military, my seniors and I went out for pork bulgogi almost every single day. So much so that, before he was discharged, one senior asked, “Are you possessed by a ghost who died from pork bulgogi deficiency or something?”

Aki, knowing this fact, pulled her underwear up over her hips and said, sounding genuinely bewildered.

“When I was in college, all the guys in my major ate pork bulgogi all the time too. Why do men like pork bulgogi so much…?”

“Hmm. To put it simply, it’s cost-effective, right? Cheap, lots of it. Easy to just mix with rice and it tastes good.”

“Heeeh… I see…”

“What, you don’t think so?”

“No, well… I guess it makes sense when you put it like that. Using pork shoulder makes the ingredient costs really low, and you can make a lot of it. I’m not sure about the taste, though…”

──Mommy. Are you awake…?

Just as we were deep in a discussion about the cost-effectiveness of pork bulgogi, Yura’s voice drifted in from outside the bedroom.

Akki, leisurely dressing in her underthings, started in surprise.

“Ah… Yura, are you already awake?”

─Yesh….

“Okay, okay. Just wait a moment, Mom’ll be out soon…!”

Akki began to hurriedly throw on her clothes.

I sat on the bed, quietly watching Akki’s back, before saying,

“I’ll wash up in this bathroom. Could you watch Yura for me…?”

For a girl soon to be a mother of three, Akki’s waist was remarkably trim. I gently stroked it and quickly stepped back.

From noble mtl dot com

“Aish…! Master, you’re killing me here, I’m so busy…!”

“…Heh.”

Yeah. Akki really is adorable…

* * *

“Thank you for the food.”

“Thank you for the foood…!”

“Mmhm. Both of you, enjoy your meal~”

With Akki’s blessing as the signal, the meal began.

Our little family of three, gathered around the breakfast table on this weekend morning, picked up our spoons and chopsticks, each choosing side dishes for our portions. The morning menu, as I mentioned, was spicy pork. The method itself is simple, but Akki’s cooking skills are so outstanding that it tastes even better than what you can buy.

“Here, Master. Ah~”

Akki wrapped the spicy pork in lettuce and offered it to me. I eagerly took it with a happy heart.

“How is it, delicious?”

“Yeah. It’s incredibly good. What Akki makes is just different. The meat is alive, I tell you?”

“Hmph…. You’re exaggerating again. There’s no reward for that, you know?”

“Why wouldn’t there be a reward? You get Akki’s love.”

Hm. Even though I said it myself, it was quite a dashing line. I genuinely thought so, and looked at Akki.

…It seemed that I was the only one who thought so, as Akki pretended not to hear me and began wrapping a lettuce wrap for Yura.

“Here. Yura, ah~”

“Ah… Nom.”

“Yura. How is it? Isn’t it too big?”

“Mmh…. No. It’s manageable…!”

“……”

Perhaps I should have phrased it with something other than “love,” something like “affection.”

“…But Yura. Aren’t you going to ask *that* today?”

“That?”

“You know, what you ask every morning. How many days until our siblings are born.”

Aki’s due date wasn’t even three months away. Less than 80 days, if counted in single turns of the sun, yet Yura, from 150 days out, had abandoned even her beloved YouTube, glued to Aki’s side all day long.

Asking if it wasn’t almost time, when she could finally meet her younger siblings, chirping like a little chick, wishing the remaining days would hurry past. That’s why I asked. It felt strange, her skipping the daily count.

“Ah. Y-yes. Well…”

Hesitantly.

Yura squirmed, a peculiar twist of her body, her words trailing off. A strange reaction, coming from Yura, usually so confident and full of Aki’s spirit.

“Oh, don’t tell me… you don’t *want* to see your siblings anymore?”

“Huh? Ah, no! It’s not that. It’s not that at all…”

“Oh. Not that?”

“W-well…”

“Darling, shall *I* tell him?”

“Huh? What is it?”

Without thinking, my gaze flicked to Aki.

Aki glanced at Yura, then mouthed the words to me:

‘Yura wet the bed last night.’

‘…Huh?’

‘She wet the bed. That’s why she’s not asking. She’s embarrassed to see her siblings…!’

‘Ah… So that’s it?’

Nothing significant, after all. I’d imagined a grand reason, but I felt relieved. I’d thought it was something like… you know, how firstborn children sometimes get jealous when a sibling is born.

“Yura, did you wet the bed last night?”

“…?!”

Yura’s head snapped up.

“Ah, no! Wh-who said that…?”

“Mom did. She said you wet the bed.”

“Darling…!”

“Oh, was I not supposed to say that?”

“Mooom…! You said you’d keep it a secret…!”

Yura shrieked, a touch of crimson blooming on her cheeks, betrayed by the discovery of a nighttime mishap.

“Oh, sweetie. Yura, Mama didn’t mean to blurt that out…?”

“Eesh…! I don’t know. Mama mean!”

“Hehe…. So cute….”

“……Pfft.”

Watching the familiar back-and-forth of the look-alike mother and daughter, a smile tugged at my own lips.

Maybe it’s because Yura is the spitting image of her mother, growing more and more like Aki in the old days. At first glance, they seemed less like mother and daughter, more like elder sister and late-in-life little sis.

“Speaking of which. Aki, Yura.”

“Yes, dear?”

“Huh?”

“Shall we go to the sea before your little siblings are born?”

“The sea?”

“Yeah. It’s been a while since we went, and once Yura’s siblings are here, we won’t be able to properly go out as a family for a good while, right? Now’s the only time, I figured.”

“Ah…. That’s true. Yura, what do you think? Do you want to go to the seaside?”

“Oh, I want to go! I’ve never been to the sea before…!”

‘……Wait. Have we really never taken Yura to the sea before?’

My memory felt hazy, so I glanced at Aki. As if sensing the question brewing in me, she seemed to mull it over for a moment before nodding.

“We’ve been to the beach a few times, but never properly to the seaside, all together, have we?”

“Oh, really? Guess I’m getting old. I imagined we’d gone when we hadn’t…”

“If you said that in front of real elders, they’d give you what for, dear?”

“……Well, anyway, you both want to go, right? Then it’s decided we’re going to the seaside? Okay?”

“Okay!”

“Yay, we’re going to the seaside~!”

Yura’s eyes shone bright with joy as she grinned. That settled it – the trip to the seaside was on. Now all that remained was nailing down the specifics.

“Weekdays are obviously out, so it’d have to be on the weekend…. When should we go?”

“Well, next Saturday is out. Your mother and father are coming to our place that day.”

“Ah, that’s right. Then, excluding next Saturday, um…. How about next Sunday?”

“Sunday too…. Hmm, isn’t that a bit tricky? We’re supposed to do a deep clean in the morning. It wouldn’t be over until after lunchtime, at the earliest, so traveling there and back would eat up the whole day, no? It’d be fine if the next day was a holiday, but you have your morning lecture on Monday, dear.”

“Hmm. Hmmm….”

“If next week doesn’t work, how about going today?”

Yura chimed in.

“Today?”

“If nothing’s doing today, we eat and leave right after, no?”

“……”

Right.

Why didn’t I think of that…?

Aki and I looked at each other.

“What do you think?”

“Sounds like a good idea…?”

“Then, we go today?”

“Uh-huh. I’m for it.”

A quick back-and-forth, and it was decided.

And with lunch finished, I stood up, announcing,

“Then you two get ready. Let’s go!”