Chapter 47: Arc 2, Ch.21: Meeting the boyfriend’s family

While the husband looked like he couldn’t wait to run over to me and probably greet me with a hug, the wife was collected and calm as she kept her husband at a safe distance from me.

“Hi”, I awkwardly responded.”I’m… Watanabe Riku.”

I cleared my throat. The woman was the one who talked, her tone deliberately quiet.
“It’s nice to meet you. We are Mizuki’s parents.”

...Do I look that scared?

“Uhm…”
I stood up, uncomfortable at not looking proper. Making a good impression would have been easier if I had been prepared. Like this, I felt completely unable to let another sentence come out of my half-opened mouth.

“You’re Mizuki’s boyfriend?”
The father made it easy for me. I nodded and he brightened, a little sunshine rising with the background noise still being irritated curses and happy squeals. He looked like the type of guy who would be able to talk about his hobbies for hours, just completely delighted. A puppy, basically.

“Do you want to come out? We’ve brought takeaway. You can eat along if you want to, but don’t feel pressured.”
Impossible. The no-pressure part, I mean.
I nodded hurriedly, gathered my thoughts on how to move which limb and walked out.

Mizuki looked like he was about to strangle his sister, who continued to tease him in cooing sounds.
“Ouch- Did I intrude? What would have - hey! - happened if I hadn’t? Don’t forget we are here, too!”

She was playing with the devil there, a dangerous game. 

“That’s enough”, said their mother, and the single sentence was enough for both of them to instantly stop. The girl shut her mouth and Mizuki let her go, even though he was still glaring while she stuck out her tongue.

“Kirumi, you’ll leave a bad impression on Riku if you play around like that. If you chase him away, Mizuki will really snap your neck.”

Kirumi winced jokingly, looking over to frightened, curled-up me and then actually wincing.

“Please don’t! I’m sorry, I always tease Mizuki like this, don’t be mad at me, okay?”
She hopped over to me, looking at me with huge, pleading eyes. Her resemblance to Mizuki was obvious, even in their voices, and I was a bit stunned. It almost looked like a softened version of Mizuki doing puppy eyes, which was tugging at my heartstrings.

“Stop that”, Mizuki snarled, dragging his sister away from me by her collar.

I hope it’s jealousy.

“Come, let’s eat. Riku - would you mind me calling you that? - why don’t you sit down, too?”
Mizuki’s father was so openly nice and comfortable that I didn’t feel too troubled agreeing, at least not compared to my expectations.

They kindly gave me the seat right next to Mizuki, but also next to Kirumi - who was still observing me happily. This seat was permanently open, maybe another sibling. The system had said he has a sister with social anxiety, and that definitely wasn’t Kirumi.

“You’re his boyfriend”, she stated again, happily. “My brother has a boyfriend. And one that looks like a nice guy.”

Somehow, she seemed to find that funny, judging by her chuckle. I looked at her in confusion, tilting away a bit. She was a bit too… open for me, considering I didn’t know her.

“I-I am…”, I agreed, quickly looking over to Mizuki who looked a bit pacified by that.

“When did you two get together? How did you meet?”

I felt like a criminal with how they were staring at me. The family was cut in two; Mizuki and his mother with the colder temperament, Kirumi and the father with a sunnier one. Well, Mizuki felt likelier to snap, compared to his mother who looked very controlled.

“Just recently”, I awkwardly mumbled. That made them happy, maybe because that meant that Mizuki hadn’t been hiding it since forever. “I-... We are in the same grade. So, we, kinda met.”

Can’t say I was actively going after him, can I? Not in front of his family, at least. If Mizuki had asked, I would have admitted that I did try to establish some kind of relationship with him. Not that I was helped by a game system, though.

“I don’t remember him talking about you”, Kirumi inserted rudely, tapping a finger against her lips. I don’t think she wanted to be rude, she was just thoughtless.

We only know each other since a pretty short time, went through my mind. Not long enough that he’d comment on me, at least not with his character.

“He tutored me”, I commented, and she made a small noise. That her brother tutored someone, she knew.

“That’s cute. I hope you don’t mind him being such a stuck-up ass.”
She stuck out her tongue again. I felt an imaginary sweatdrop.

“He’s honest, that’s nice. I’m-” I halted, then continued with an awkward, crooked smile. “I’m bad with people who have hidden intentions. I feel more comfortable with someone who speaks their mind. Mizuki doesn’t snap at someone unless there’s a reason, so it doesn’t bother me.”

Four pairs of eyes, staring at me without a movement. I cowered, hiding my hands in my lap. Had I said something wrong?

“You’d better make sure he doesn’t run you away”, Mizuki’s mother suddenly said, giving me a plate full of food but looking at her son.

“Alright, whatever you need for dates, just tell me. If you need money to go somewhere or anything.”
Mizuki’s father patted him on the head, beaming. My boyfriend looked continuously more irritated.

“Goddamnit”, he cursed. “Do I need you lot to interfere with my relationships?!”

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“Oh”, I whispered, looking at him. “You don’t want to meet my family anymore, believe me. I don’t think I can keep them off your back.”

Kirumi hooked her arm into mine, earning a dark look from Mizuki, and tugged at me. She felt a bit like a small Haru as she did that, so it didn’t trouble me as much as I thought.

“What do you like about him?”

Mizuki’s father twitched, as did Mizuki, and his mother hurriedly scolded her.

“Kirumi, that’s enough! That is none of your business!”

Ah, that’s where Mizuki has his hiss from. As expected.

Kirumi was pouting, since she had to let the issue fall, but I could tell by the look on Mizuki’s face that he was going to ask me about it.

Another topic that I didn’t mind talking to him about, just not… his family. I felt like a deer in the headlights. 

His father was doing everything to make me a bit more comfortable and I was relieved to see that they liked me. The father decided to start a conversation about the food and what I liked eating, which kept Kirumi from starting any more uncomfortable topics and at the same time, gave me something easy to converse about.

By the time we were finished, I was honestly exhausted. 

Mizuki stood up from his seat.
“We’re going to my room.”

He said it with a certain finality, like he was making sure they all knew that I was going to be taken to his room and they shouldn’t even try to strike another conversation.

I followed obediently, walking after him into his room. He sighed as he closed the door behind us.
He rubbed his creased forehead.

“Sorry for Kirumi.”
“It’s fine…”

I laughed softly, trying to sound reassuring. Mizuki directed his gaze at me, then walked back to his bed with his laptop.

“What do you…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, most likely because of the word ‘like’. 

I rubbed my neck as I went to sit next to him again. The laptop had gone into standby.

“Do you want me to go through the list?”
I was probably really blushing for once. There were a lot of things. Not even all of them positive and some absurd, but I loved them about him. Even the sight of him cursing at others was terribly charming to me.

Mizuki avoided looking at me.
“One thing, then. Excluding my hair.”

“I’m not going to ever live that down, aren’t I?”
“Nope.”

I chuckled, which loosened the atmosphere a bit, then thought about my answer. One thing that I loved about him and wanted to tell him about. 

“Can it be a stupid thing?”, I wondered out loud and despite Mizuki tilting his head like he didn’t understand, he gave me a nod.

“Usually, you’re quite tense around others. Tenser than other people, I mean.”
I breathed in and he raised his eyebrows, not quite sure where I was going with this.

“But when you relax, you relax completely. Like there’s not a single tense muscle in your body anymore.”
Like when he leaned on me on the train and fell asleep.

“It feels nice. To see you let your guard down. I… like the sight of you being relaxed. It’s peaceful. It’s calming. It makes me want to smile.”
I struggled with explaining, even though that was something I wanted him to know that I felt. 

I huffed some hair out of my face, annoyed at the fact that words couldn’t always convey a feeling, since the moment you said it out loud, it didn’t seem to make sense.

“That really is a stupid thing”, Mizuki said in monotone. I drew my knees to my body.

Something not stupid, huh...
An image popped into my mind, along with a melody.

Naaaaah. Nope. I’m not telling you that. Absolutely not.

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