Summer Vacation Arc: 55 Intercom and Home Visit

Summer Vacation Arc
55 Intercom and Home Visit

Summer vacation began.

On the first day, Meru lazed around her house as she had originally planned without making any other plans in order to relieve the fatigue of the school term.

“Haa, it’s been a while since I had some peace.”

Meru said and flopped down onto the sofa on her side. Seeing her like that, Mariko chuckled.

“Today Kei has club activities and Shigeharu-san won’t return until the evening, so rest up, Meru-chan.”
“Ye—s.”

Meru said and, still lying on the couch, set to work on her accumulated thick books.

“Mom…”

After a short time, Meru called out to Mariko without taking her eyes from her book.
Mariko was drinking tea at the table in front of the sofa.

“What is it? Meru-chan.”

Mariko tilted her head with a smile.

“A long time ago…not long after I’d come here, when I came back from elementary school and stayed at home studying without going out…you asked me, ‘Aren’t you going to play with your friends?’, right?”

When Meru spoke nostalgically, Mariko nodded as she sipped her tea.

“And then, Meru-chan. You said, ‘I don’t have something like friends because I don’t need them’ without any expression.”

When Mariko said that, Meru smiled wryly.

“Until I became a high school student, I didn’t change my mind, but…”

Meru spoke embarrassedly.

“Now, I think ‘Friends are nice.’”

The faces of everyone from the student council, Maiko, Takimoto, and all of her classmates in Class F surfaced in her mind.

‘Friends.’

Just thinking about that, Meru’s whole body heated up. Embarrassed, Meru flopped down. Her ears were just a little bit red.

“That’s a good way of thinking.”

Mariko’s face relaxed as she drank her tea. Meru continued flipping through her book as she read.

 

 

 

 

Even though she wasn’t doing anything specific, lunch time arrived before she knew it while she was lazing around.

“Well then, Mom. What do you want to eat?”

When Meru went to get up from the couch to make lunch, Mariko stopped her.

“You have to rest today, Meru-chan! Leave the cooking to me.”

At the moment those words left Mariko’s mouth, Meru’s face paled.

“Rejected.”

Meru immediately replied and rushed off toward the kitchen.

“Meru-chan, you’re so mean. You’re too good at cooking, so my cooking looks really bad! If you look at it normally, my cooking is also normal!”
“Hmm.”

Meru replied with her eyes half closed.

If one were to put it simply, Mariko’s cooking was black. All of her cooking was pitch black. If it was stir-fry, it would still be understandable, but she once somehow amazingly even pulled out a pitch black salad.
If it just looked bad but tasted good, it’d still be ok, but it tasted as bad as it looked.

And more than anything else, the kitchen always looked like the scene of a bomb explosion after she used it. It took a lot of effort to just clean up after her.

The first time Meru saw Mariko’s cooking, she was at a loss for words and promised that she would do the cooking.
And the ones who were happiest about that were Kei and Shigeharu. Until Meru came, they had eaten Mariko’s cooking without leaving any leftovers for Mariko’s sake.

“It’s already been ten years since you started taking care of our meals, huh… It feels both long and short at the same time…”

Mariko murmured, drinking her nth cup of tea.
Meru said, “That’s true,” with a smile as she pulled on her apron.

Meru and Mariko ate the hiyashi chuuka Meru made in peace.

 

Ding dong.

The Kusuhara household’s intercom sounded out in that peaceful atmosphere.
Mariko skipped over to the entryway.
Meru figured it was a salesperson or something and had no interest as she washed the dishes. Yet the conversation at the entrance reached her ears.

“Oh my, you are…”
“It’s nice to meet you. I, ah, I’m Rengetsu Fuuga! Please take care of me, mother-in-law!”¹

As soon as Meru heard that voice, she left the dishes and dashed to the door.

“…What’s wrong?”

Meru’s eyes widened in surprise as she stood straight in front of the entryway.

“Ruu-chan, we came to play.”

Laila said, waving her hand as she stood in the entryway.
At the moment he saw Meru in her apron, Fuuga’s eyes sparkled even as he was hoping to shake Mariko’s hand.
Getting nothing but bad premonitions, Meru immediately took her apron off.

“Why did you take it off!? I was going to take a picture!”
“Ahh. Then, my feeling was accurate, yeah.”

Meru said, looking off into the distance. Seeing her like that, Mariko smiled wryly.

“Even though a guy this good-looking came looking for you, you’re too cool, Meru-chan.”
“That’s Ruu-chan’s good point, though.”

When Laila said that with a smile, Mariko took Laila’s full appearance into account and her face lit up with enthusiasm.

“Laila-kun, right? Uwah, women’s clothes really suit you! The uniform you wore at the athletic festival also suited you, but you’re also great like this!”

Laila’s eyes widened at Mariko’s reaction.
Right now, Laila had long, blonde hair and was wearing a white, lacy dress. When she had greeted Mariko at the athletic festival, her appearance had been her original male one.

“You recognized me quickly.”
“I didn’t recognize you at all, though? But I heard from Meru-chan that women’s clothing suits you.”

Mariko said and smiled.
Laila was struggling with how to greet her all the way up until they reached Meru’s house. She had met Mariko in her male appearance once, so she was worried about her reaction. Ordinarily, people would find it suspicious. Even if they were to say it was fine, their faces would tell a different story.
However, that worry came to nothing.

“It’s true when they say beauty has no gender. That appearance really suits you, too.”

Mariko said and asked questions like “Which store is that dress from?” carefreely.
Laila let out a laugh at Mariko’s reaction.

“What’s wrong?”
“Ruu-chan inherited this from you, I see.”²

Mariko smiled a little helplessly at Laila’s words.

“It might be true that Meru caught my happy-go-luckiness.”

Mariko said and showed Laila into the living room.

“Meru-chan, where’s your room?”
“Umm… Go out the door and turn right at the corner.”
“That’s outside!!”
“Ah, sorry. I thought you were asking about the bookstore.”³

While Meru was playing with Fuuga, she continued with Mariko and Laila.

“Just the two of you came?”

Meru asked as she passed tea to Fuuga and Laila.

“Yeah. Fuu-chan would get surrounded by girls, so we came as a pair.”
“Ah, your strategy was to act as a couple to keep them away.”

Mariko tapped her fist against her hand in understanding.

“But people ended up taking our pictures and stopping us from leaving, going on about a ‘best couple’…so we got here after lunch.”
“I thought the others would get here sooner, though.”

Meru knit her brows listening to Fuuga and Laila talk.

“Wait… That means…”

When Meru was about to give voice to her realization…

Ding dong.

The intercom rang again.
Having more or less grasped the situation, Meru hurried to the entryway.
Mariko followed after Meru happily.

“I’m intruding, Kusuhara.”

Opening the door, Meru tilted her head back a little.

“Yo, Katsuragi-kun, Aidou-kun. Thanks for your trouble coming to visit without an appointment.”

Meru greeted them with a little bit of irritation.

“My apologies. It was decided suddenly.”
“I wonder when exactly it was decided.”
“Meru-chan, don’t say that, good-looking guys are greatly welcome!”

Mariko said, looking at Meru’s narrowed eyes.
Noticing Mariko when she spoke, Shoutarou and Yuuri bowed toward her.

“I’m Katsuragi Shoutarou. I’m from Reiryuu Academy high school section’s Class E, and the duty of the vice president of the student council…”
“I’m Aidou Yuuri. This is a box of cakes from him and myself.”
“Aiodu! You, I’m still introducing myself!”
“Thanks, Aidou-kun.”

Meru took the box from Yuuri, interrupting Shoutarou who seemed about to start lecturing Yuuri.

“Thank you, too, Katsuragi-kun.”
“You’re just tagging me on as an afterthought.”

Shoutarou spoke sulkily, so Meru properly regave her gratitude.

“Shoutarou-kun, Yuuri-kun, you’re late.”
When the two arrived, Fuuga spoke.
Meru listened to their conversation while she got tea for the newly arrived duo.
At Fuuga’s comment, Shoutarou made an unpleasant face while Yuuri sighed.

“Did something happen?”

When Laila asked that with a worried expression, Yuuri opened his mouth to speak.

“Katsuragi-kun and I stopped by a shop to pick out the cake box, but several women started talking with us… And then as usual, Katsuragi-kun said something rude, so by time we apologized, we ended up being late.”

One could feel how troublesome that had been from Yuuri’s tone.

“Uwah, you’ve been through a lot. Aidou-kun.”

Meru looked at Shoutarou with half-opened eyes. Being looked at like that by Meru, Shoutarou’s brow wrinkled.

“It can’t be helped, right. I have things I’m bad with, too.”
“Even though you’re fine with Ruu-chan, right?”
“Right?”

Meru and Laila exchanged a glance and nodded.

“What did you do to apologize?”

When Fuuga asked that, Yuuri spoke while drinking the green tea Meru had poured.

“I left picking out the sweets to Katsuragi-kun while I had some tea with those women.”
“As expected of you, Yuuri-kun.”
“I’m not good at conversing like you, Rengetsu-kun, so I struggled a little.”

Yuuri recalled the incident and sighed again.

“It might be because it’s you, Yuu-chan, that it ended with just tea. If it was Fuu-chan, he would probably be accompanying them to shop right about now.”

Meru also nodded at Laila’s words.

“In conclusion, Katsuragi-kun is someone who can’t be helped and Aidou-kun was sacrificed, so you were late.”
“That’s right.”
“No, it’s not!”

While they were talking about that, the intercom rang again.

Without being further surprised, Meru slowly stood and went to the entryway.

“Yep, Kamishiro-kun. Hello.”

Meru had no sooner opened the door than she said that.
Seeing her like that, Hayate smiled wryly.

“Are you mad that we didn’t make an appointment?”
“Nooope, not really. Just surprised.”
“Then I’m glad.”
“But if I wasn’t home, what would you have done?”
“We may have waited in the entryway for you to return home.”

He spoke with a smile, and Meru was glad that she was actually home.

“Oh my, Hayate-kun, correct? Hello!”

Quickly coming from the living room, Mariko waved at Hayate.

“Hello. It’s the first time we’re meeting, isn’t it, Mariko-san?”

Hayate bowed to Mariko with a soft smile.

“Hayate-kun? Mariko-san?”

It had to be the first time they had met one another, but they seemed incredibly close. Meru was honestly a little bit surprised about that.

“Hayate-kun is my phone friend.”
“Hah?”

When Meru looked at Hayate, he smiled faintly.
Maybe it was unsurprising that he had won over her parents. Meru was frankly impressed.

“I’ll be intruding.”
“Go ahead.”

Meru was helpless, but she smiled a little happily as she led Hayate into the house.

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1 Fuuga usually refers to himself with ‘ore’ but switched from ‘ore’ to ‘boku’ in order to sound softer/more polite.
2 The word used for inherited here is specifically genetic.
3 It might be a little stretch, but room is heya (Fuuga made it politer by saying oheya) and bookstore is honya, haha.

<TLN>
The Ouran influence is so strong ahahaha. Look at that good Kyouya move Hayate made.

30 chapters left in the summer vacation arc!

Now that this one is out and I’m back to being caught up, I can shamelessly plug my ko-fi again.

Ko-fi link here.
August bonus chapters funded: 0/3 ($0/$30 to the first one!)