"Mom!" the little girl shouted, still perched on Takashi's shoulders, when she spotted her mother on the porch of their house.
"Alice, Takashi-kun!" She greeted them, feeling at ease seeing her daughter under the care of the only teenager she trusted with her child's safety.
"Welcome back, Yukka-san," Takashi returned the greeting.
"Eh?" Maresato found it strange that a group of eight girls had come along with Komuro. "Are these your friends, Takashi-kun?" she deduced, since they were wearing school uniforms.
"They are. They're my friends." Once again, he introduced them one by one to Alice's mother and lowered the girl from his shoulders so she could go to her mother.
"…Girls, this is Maresato Yukka, Alice's mother."
"Pleased to meet you, young ladies. And tell me, Takashi-kun, which one is the lucky one?" Like mother, like daughter—Yukka asked which of them was Komuro's girlfriend. The girls turned red and embarrassed again. "Or are you telling me you're going out with all of them?" she teased.
"Are they your harem, Takashi-kun? Who would have thought a handsome boy like you would turn out so naughty and mischievous?" She pinched his cheek, continuing her game.
"Yukka-san, stop saying things like that. They're just friends." That infuriated the herd.
"Komuro, if you're done, we can go to your house now to help you prepare for the midterm exams," said Takagi, with Miyamoto backing her up with a murderous aura behind her.
"No! Senpai is coming with us to the movies to watch a film!" Kawamoto and Taniuchi, backed by Toshimi and Ichijo.
"Komuro, I just want to know your answer to my proposal about joining the Kendo Club," declared Busujima, maintaining her mature stance above the others.
"I… I'd better not say," Miku stayed behind.
A pitched battle could have broken out on that particular street between the houses, but Yukka knew how to put an end to this war of student female hormones.
"I'm sorry, girls." Suddenly, Yukka grabbed Takashi by the arm, hugging him as if she were his girlfriend. "But I need to talk to Takashi for a moment.
His babysitting shift with my Alice isn't over yet, right?" She looked him very closely in the face.
"Yes, sorry."
All of them were left dumbfounded, watching as she whisked away the boy they wanted to defile so quickly they didn't even realize she had outsmarted all of them.
Inside the Maresato house, with Alice doing her school homework in the living room, Komuro was talking with Yukka at the main table, away from the girl.
"Takashi-kun, what a ladies' man you are, having formed a harem of cute girls," Yukka teased.
"They're not my harem, Yukka-san. They're just friends from school, though I've known some of them for a long time," Takashi said, embarrassed.
"Really? I'm not your mom, Takashi-kun, so feel free to tell me if any of them is your girlfriend. Or are you dating all of them at the same time?" She kept up the joke, making Komuro uncomfortable.
"Yukka-san!"
"Forgive me." She held back her laughter. "It's just that you're adorable when you get embarrassed, Takashi-kun."
"Your husband still hasn't arrived," Takashi commented, changing the subject as the hours grew late.
"Gudao sometimes stays late to perfectly write his news pieces. That's how he's been lately," she remarked, taking a seat across from Komuro at the table. "Tell me, are you still looking for work?"
"Yes, but I haven't found any kind of job right now. I guess I'll have to wait until summer to get a job offer." Unfortunately, jobs weren't as abundant as he would have liked.
"You must be bored being at home with nothing to do," Yukka remarked.
"You know, this weekend there's a scientific conference in Osaka."
"Eh?"
"See, there's a conference very soon outside the city, and I thought it would be nice for you to go. I was given a pass for the weekend, the event lasts. I think maybe it would be fun if you came."
"I don't know." Takashi hesitated for a moment. "Wouldn't it be better to take Alice?"
"No, this weekend she's going with Gudao to visit her grandmother. So I thought it would be nice if you came with me. Think of it… as a date, but without it actually being a date, of course," Yukka said, embarrassed.
How could she talk about a date while being a married woman? "What do you say?"
"I don't know. I don't think it's right…"
Days prior…
Weekends for Takashi had become times when he and Yuriko acted like rabbits the entire time. However, during the last visit, she had to give him some news.
"Forgive me, Takashi-kun, but next week Souichirou wants me to accompany him on a business trip to the south of the country, so I won't be able to visit you," Yuriko said, lying on the dark-haired boy's chest after a long, uninterrupted session of adulterous intercourse that left their bodies sweaty and their scents filling the room.
"It can't be helped. What will I do this weekend without Oka-san?" Takashi said sadly.
"It'll only be this one time, Takashi-kun. I promise. On the next visit, Oka-san will make it up to you with interest. I'll let you do the dirtiest things to me you want," Yuriko said.
Back at the moment…
"I'm kidding. Of course, I accept," Takashi said, remembering he would have this weekend free. "It'll be fun to be with you."
Despite already having a daughter, Yukka still behaved very innocently in Komuro's eyes, which made Maresato all the more attractive to him than she already was. She was one of the women Takashi fantasized about the most.
The weekend arrived sooner than expected. For Yukka, it was unexpected to see Takashi in clothes other than his school uniform. They weren't casual clothes either.
He had come with a good degree of elegance, which made her blush. A long journey by car awaited them, but sooner rather than later, Komuro realized that Maresato had other plans in mind.
"I didn't think things like this appeared on the news," Takashi said, starting a conversation with Maresato even though she was the one driving her compact car.
"Yes, medical advancement conferences are very important," Yukka remarked.
"I thought you said it was a scientific conference," Komuro corrected, making the thirty-five-year-old red-haired woman nervous.
"Yes! That…"
"We're not going to any conference in Osaka, are we?" Then she could no longer hide it. Yukka had to tell him the truth.
"Just… just wait until we get to the hotel, Takashi-kun," she said.
To be continued…
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Early Chapters: ko-fi.com/harem_kingg