Kyon: Big Damn Hero

• Kuyou's connection to Kyons PDA by Yuki was described... As a very intimate process. Might count, for beings like Yuki and Kuyou.

Deciding that was confirmation enough, Yuki let Haruhi's change propagate, confining Kuyou's unfamiliar power and being into a knowable form. Something escaped her makeup — a memetic transfer designed for interfaces such as Yuki, not Kuyou — and Yuki accessed it curiously, finding it the most recognizable part of Kuyou. It was strangely intimate, with Kuyou submitting entirely to Yuki's manipulations, and Yuki — for her part — proceeding as cautiously as possible, not wanting in any way to damage the other entity.

• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • This excerpt from Chapter 54:

• Sometimes Yuki's narration is kind of eyebrow-raising. From Chapter 56:

• Or earlier, in Chapter 43:

Father's Day

He intended to arrive early to the office that morning. The Daitokuji account needed to be settled by the end of the day and there was still a lot of work left to do before the deadline.

He even went to bed early the night before and managed to wake up 45 minutes earlier than the usual. The lighter traffic would allow him to add other thirty minutes to his early start.

Alas, it was not to be.

It started well enough. His suit and briefcase were already prepared and more than fifteen years of practice allowed Yuuto to disentangle from his cuddling wife with very little fuss.

Yeah, anyone but him would need to read that sentence twice or thrice before pretending it never happened. Also it would surprise people to the point of willful (or in one case, alcohol-assisted) amnesia just to have an inkling of how different her personality was on the very rare occasions when they were alone and their two children were staying over elsewhere.

Anyway, Yuuto walked to the kitchen across a silent house with the day's clothes folded over his arm, turned on the coffeemaker and then hurried up to take a quick shower. The running cold water helped him to put his ideas in order and the breakfast was spend checking his emails for changes on today's work schedule.

As he was about to grab his car's keys, his mind drifted to thoughts of his daughter. During dinner it was obvious enough from her uncharacteristic dispirited mood that a cold managed to catch up with her. Glancing at his watch, Yuuto decided that he could afford the time to go upstairs and check on her.

He was careful to open the door to her room as quietly as possible and this should have been pretty much the end of it. However this time around, Nonoko actually took notice of him.

"Kyon-kun? Is that you?" Yuuto couldn't help but chuckle a little at that. As most older brothers he knew, Kyon wasn't really appreciative of little kid sister's unmitigated fondness of him.

"Try again, Nono-chan." he left his briefcase next to the door and walked to the side of her bed without turning on the lights.

So far the signs weren't very good. Nonoko's breath was a little labored and she was sweating a lot. Yuuto slowly caressed her forehead to check her temperature and her fever was evident enough that he didn't need to look for the thermometer.

"Cold hand... feels good." she said weakly, inclining more of her head to it.

"How are you feeling?" Yuuto asked while fumbling with his phone in his left hand. He knew that Akane didn't like to wake up at the sound of her cellphone, but leaving Nonoko alone wasn't an option now.

"Thirsty. I dreamed I was a magical girl." the father of two could only sigh at that. You can't blame a feverish kid for not knowing what information is really relevant in such a state.

"Oh, really?" he prompted as he dialed his wife's number again.

"Yes! I helped Kyon to defeat a Dark Magical Girl! Well, I wanted to defeat her but..." she coughed a few times before getting back her voice. "... he wanted to befriend her. So I was nice with her..."

"Wait for a moment, Nono-chan. Dear? It's me. I'm in Nono-chan's room and her cold got worse. She got a fever and I don't know where her medicine is. Could you come up?" Yuuto quickly informed Akane. Her sudden shift in her voice from sleep to wakefulness told him that she would be there very soon.

"... and then he broke her Mind Control with a kiss!" Nonoko finished her unheard tale as enthusiastically as she could under the circumstances.

"That's amazing. I didn't know Kyon's kisses had that much power in them." he pretended to have followed the narration of her oneiric experience while he checked if her pajamas needed to be changed.

"Of course they do. It's a magical kiss!" Resisting the urge to laugh openly, Yuuto gazed at the door at the precise moment Akane walked through it. She greeted with him a nod then turned her attention to their daughter.

"Does it hurt somewhere, Nono-chan?" she asked as she uncased the digital thermometer from its plastic container and turned it on.

"My stomach hurts and my head feels funny. I'm very thirsty too" Akane placed the device under Nonoko's armpit and then patted her own left wrist twice with index and middle fingers while giving her husband a meaningful glance.

"Something else?" Yuuto enquired Nonoko, acknowledging Akane's unvoiced question about the time with a nod and started to walk towards his briefcase by the door.

"The ceiling is taller." His little chagrin at the fact that the small girl could give proper answers to her mom was undeniable, but he could take comfort from the fact that the last one apparently was also a symptom of high fever.

"Can you send Kyon to fetch some clean washcloths and a bag of ice before you leave?" Akane said when he was about to exit the room.

"Got it."

Had he had more time that morning, Yuuto would surely have not stepped into his son's room without knocking. The fact that, in Yuuto's knowledge, Kyon until just recently was most definitely Not a Morning Person didn't help.

The fact that his vision was a little adapted to the dark by then helped even less.

But the truth was that Yuuto would remember the next couple of minutes for years to come. After all, it's not everyday a father opens a door to unexpectedly find his son and his fiancée in bed.

That still sounds common enough. Let's try again: It's not everyday a father opens a door to unexpectedly find his son half-laying over a girl and kissing her awake.

Not quite there yet. One more time: It's not everyday a father opens a door to find his son and his fiancée in bed with him half-laying over another girl and kissing the latter awake.

Yes, third time's a charm.

By the time Yuuto's briefcase hit the floor, Tsuruya and Kyon learned that, no matter how much training to handle dire and sudden crises a person may receive, they're still human and instincts are indeed a very powerful thing.

For one, the heiress of biggest and most influent ninkyo dantai family in the city was frozen still at the left side of the bed, in a pose that Japanese photographers call wariza (割座) or sometimes onna-no-ko-zuwari (girl's sitting). Her arms remained where their attempt to tie the right half of her long green hair left them, the almost completed bun becoming undone, hanging around the white yukata she used as sleepwear that night.

Her face was quite a sight. Probably no one ever saw her eyes widen like that before, with an expression that suggested that absolutely no thought went through her mind during that instant.

On the other hand Kyon, a young man with more than fifty years of dedicated martial arts training under the belt before his seventeenth birthday, succumbed to a primal portion of his brain that told him that if he remained quiet and very, very still, he would go unnoticed.

For her part the brown-haired girl partially hidden from the door's point of view simply put a hand behind Kyon's head and pulled him more heavily into the kiss. His lack of response granted a whining overtone to her soft moans but she didn't actually stop until Yuuto's felt the need to clear his throat just to make a point.

Speaking of Yuuto, God bless his acute sense of priorities.

Whereas another father would feel righteous outrage at his teenage son's gall, he instead thought of defusing a very volatile situation. Whereas others would seek a suitable punishment, he sought to spare his son from such at his mother's hands. Whereas lesser men would let their outcries to be heard, he only whispered:

"Kyon, get them out of here while I stall your mother in Nono-chan's room. Then get clean washcloths and the bag of ice and take them there. Hurry."

Simple orders outlining a most suitable plan for an explosive predicament like theirs.

Alas, it was not to be.

"Yuuto, is Kyon awake?" Akane's pressing, and more importantly approaching, voice asked. Predictably, that got everybody to move.

Kyon performed an impressive maneuver where he got out of his prone position by placing an arm to each side of the girl beneath him and pushing himself up, somehow twisting his body midair and landing on his two feet at the foot of the bed.

Tsuruya turned around and not quite dived for the small closet in Kyon's room, barely managing to get between all those expensive suits that Kyon recently got and closed the door. Yuuto was pleased to notice that she at least was smart enough to not try to empty it first as it would have been a telltale hint with the room as tidy as it was.

Kyon's father didn't see what the other girl attempted, but whatever it was he prayed for her to get it done fast.

The by-now strong candidate for the title of "father of the year" tried to get between his wife and the door, but the worried mother was so focused checking the expiration date of the antipyretic medicine in her hand that she absently dodged him with a side step and walked into the room.

He turned again and tried instead to place a hand on her shoulder so he could make her to look at him before it was too late. To his surprise, only mother and son were present within the bedroom.

"Kyon, did your father tell you t—? Are you alright? Your face is very red. Don't tell me you caught Nonoko's cold and you also woke up burning hot and bathed in sweat."

Yuuto couldn't help but mentally remark how close to the mark her words were. He also crossed his fingers so that nobody would upset the bedclothes.

"I'm OK, Mom. I'll get the things Dad asked for." Kyon was quick to reassure with a placating gesture and tried to get to the door, ostensibly to get his mother to follow him outside.

"Give me your forehead first." Akane ordered, reaching for Kyon's head to check his temperature by touching foreheads. Kyon was even quicker to lower himself to her level so she would not have to look up to him. The gesture caught Yuuto's attention and a sudden inspiration made him look up.

There is a term in climbing related sports called "stem". It can refer to two things: a) The simultaneous use of two widely spaced footholds, and b) Climbing using two faces that are at an angle less than 180° to each other. Neither accurately described the awkward posture that inexplicably kept brown-haired girl's back glued to the ceiling.

She placed her soles in two adjacent walls, her legs extended forming a 90° angle. Her hands firmly grasped the lights' socket and some other invisible fixture on the ceiling. Some autonomous part of Yuuto's mind idly mused that her physical condition must be top-notch to pull off a stunt like that.

Fortunately, her sleepwear was modest enough, a short-sleeved shirt and knee-length pants both apparently of Chinese design, otherwise "awkward" wouldn't have had the proper connotation to describe this moment.

While Yuuto wasn't looking, Kyon was successful in leading his mother out of the room. He picked up his briefcase and followed suit. Trusting the threesome… er… group of three teens had the situation in hand, he said his goodbyes and left for work, lest Akane become suspicious because of that.

The trek to car was an atypically slow one. Yuuto strained his hearing, hoping to not perceive an unmistakable call to run damage control. Once outside the house, he instead paid attention to the upper floor's windows. There was light on Nonoko's room now and Kyon's window was open, but that was all.

After releasing a long sigh, he sat behind the wheel, started the engine and drove to the office. He hoped that his preferred activity of his youth would work its magic and soothe his frayed nerves.

Alas, it was not to be.

"Excuse me." a completely unexpected female voice said in a somewhat contrite tone. Yuuto's surprise was big enough that he went against his better judgement and turned his head around.

Sure enough, the two girls he walked into in less than ideal circumstances that morning were in the car and for some reason the heiress was laying lengthways on backseat with the young acrobat holding her as if she was until just recently carrying the former in her arms bridal-style.

Angry car horns broke the moment and remembered Yuuto to pay attention to the road. The last thing they needed was to be pulled over by the cops and have to explain them why a thirty-three years old man was driving two unrelated high school girls in their pajamas.

The brown-haired girl got her bearings back first and asked "Can I have your phone?"

"Sure, it's in the coat." Yuuto replied. The green-haired girl had better access to the outer garment and handed the appliance to her.

Apparently, there is a cosmic law that demands that any prolonged awkward moment must be accompanied by an equally awkward conversation. This one went like this:

"So, Tsuruya-chan?"

"What is it, father?"

"Can I ask who is she?"

"She's our friend."

"I noticed that."

"I-I mean, she is Suzumiya Haruhi. She goes to Kyon-kun's class and—"

An ineffable relief washed over Yuuto at the fact it was a name could recognize. That should teach him to pay attention to whatever his daughter says about her brother, however he wasn't ready to simply ask what the bit about "magical kisses" is about.

"Yuki, what do you mean with 25 meters?" Haruhi's question to the person at the other end of the line interrupted their dialogue. Yuuto then stopped the car because of a red light and almost simultaneously someone opened the passenger door and jumped inside.

The sheer audacity of the small girl wearing Kitago's uniform kept Yuuto from doing anything. The lavender-haired girl greeted him with an oddly courteous nod given the situation and handed the big bag she was carrying over to the girls on the backseat.

"Hooded coats and shoes." she simply stated. Somehow, this instant was what surprised Yuuto the most until that point.

"Thanks Yuki-nyan!" Tsuruya was quick to take the bag. Probably most of teenage boys would be supremely distracted by the sounds of two beautiful girls trying to disentangle themselves from each other and get dressed in a confined space. Yuuto was too intrigued by their cryptic exchange to notice.

"Yuki, what happened with the escape system you said you got in place?"

"It is triggered when an unauthorized person tries to open the door."

"Then, what went wrong today, Yuki-nyan?"

"Nothing. His father is trustworthy."

""...""

"The following light will be red. Could you pull over the car next to the advertising sign?" It took Yuuto a few seconds to realize Yuki was speaking to him. After he did so, the girl in the passenger seat bowed politely to him and formulated, "We apologize for any and all inconvenience you experienced this morning. I will see it will not happen again."

"It is not— Wait. Do you mean... you, just like them...?" He asked, not quite pointing to Tsuruya and Haruhi leaving the car.

"Yes. I'm looking forward to make an acquaintance with you under better circumstances in the future. Thank you." And with that, the youngest-looking girl of the group left the car and joined her friends, who waved their goodbyes through the door's window.

Afterwards, son and father treated the narrated events in a truest filial/parental fashion. The former didn't say a word about it and the latter sent occasional, unreadable weighted stares to his offspring.

It was the third Sunday of June when the matter was finally yet indirectly addressed.

After Kyon's small birthday party at home with his parents and sister, he discreetly handed an envelope over to his father. The next day at work, he opened it to find a "gift certificate" exchangeable for a five-day long practical course of the likes the government give to drivers of emergency vehicles and instructions of how to contact someone called "Aida-san" to get the whole week containing said days as a paid vacation.

Nobody can deny that Yuuto's parenting methods have their perks.

The sheer audacity of the small girl wearing Kitago's uniform kept Yuuto from doing anything. The lavender-haired greeted him with an oddly courteous nod given the situation and handed the big bag she was carrying over to the girls on the backseat.

The green-haired girl got her bearings back first and asked "Can I have your phone?"

"Sure, it's in the coat." Yuuto replied. Tsuruya reached for the appliance and after some fumbling to sit herself properly, she seemed to devote a great deal of focus to remember and dial a number.

That left two people, whose only interaction to date they would rather forget, in an uncomfortable silence and devoid of a convenient mediator to avoid asking or answering even more uncomfortable questions.

"So, probably you're wondering what all that was about." Count on the Supreme Commander of the SOS Brigade to simply bull through the problem and believe herself to be able to deal with it.

"..." Count on Kyon's father to find a way to stop her in her tracks with just one unimpressed look reflected on the rear-view mirror.

Ironically, such an unamused expression was familiar enough territory for the girl to try to explain their actions again...

"I-I mean, it wasn't like that! What you saw was the worst of it. I was sleeping until then so Tsu-chan and Kyon wouldn't have gone further than that… I think… I'd have noticed otherwise… probably… The point is Kyon doesn't look for… then again…"

... Sadly, this was not a good thing. Just for the record, the young fiancée in the car with them was too busy with her phone call to hear any of that, or at least that was be the story that she stuck to.

The silver lining in this "digging yourself deeper"-shaped cloud was that schadenfreude is not something you can blame Yuuto for.

"Let's start over. I'm Yuuto, Kyon's father. What's your name?"

"I'm Suzumiya Haruhi."

"Haru— Wait. Are you same person that Nono-chan calls 'Haru-nee-chan'?"

"Imouto-chan? Yes, that's right."

An ineffable relief washed over Yuuto at the fact it was a name he could recognize, something that ruled out the some of most unsavoury scenarios playing in his head.

"If memory serves, you're Kyon's classmate?" an imperceptibly more relaxed parent asked.

"Eh? Well, yes. I… That's true." Yuuto didn't miss the fact that the girl didn't seem too happy to be labeled as 'a classmate'. Perhaps...

"You and Kyon have been friends for a year, right?" He asked.

"Yes, since—"

"Are you good friends with Tsuruya-chan too?" He interrupted and asked her a new question.

"Yes, the best—"

"Are you the president of the school club Kyon attends to after class?" the third enquiry quickly followed.

"Yes, the SOS—"

"How long have you and Kyon been dating?"

"A month and a half."

It took Haruhi a few seconds to register what just happened. At her side, Tsuruya let her arm fall to the seat as she was just about to grab Haruhi's hand to make her stop.

"I apologize, Suzumiya-san. I just… thought I needed to know." Yuuto said in a remorseful tone and without parting his eyes from the road.

Haruhi remained quiet. Yuuto couldn't see it, but Tsuruya fixed a wary stare on the back of his head.

After almost a minute of silence, Yuuto spoke again.

"I'm just guessing here but... Did we… I mean, did my wife, Tsuruya-chan's father and I get in your and Kyon's way with the engagement, Suzumiya-san?" Tsuruya couldn't help but blink at that, then she turned her head to silently regard Haruhi.

"No." her firm answer came as a surprise to more than just Yuuto. "If anything, your plans made ours move ahead faster."

"Then, the three of you… for the foreseeable future…" he not-too-ambiguously posed.

""Yes."" both girls promised as one.

After a moment, Tsuruya looked at the device in her right hand and noticed the still running timer on the screen quantifying the duration of her almost forgotten phone call.

"So, what happens now?" she asked before checking on the person at the other side of the line.

"Now, I drive you both wherever you need while I come up with a good excuse to tell the other Suzumiya-san I know for arriving to work later than I promised and afterwards I will know nothing I'm not supposed to until you decide otherwise."

The words Haruhi was about to say didn't get the chance to left her mouth when a sudden thought found its way out first.

"Wait. Kyon once said you worked at Nishinomiya Heavy Industries. Is that correct?" she asked with a little of apprehension.

"Eh? That's right." Yuuto replied. He and Tsuruya wondered where the last bit came from.

"Finance division?" somehow her intonation managed to a convey a 'please say no' at the same time.

"Yes?" he uncertainly voiced but nevertheless confirmed.

"Your immediate boss doesn't happen to be named Suzumiya Akira, right? I mean, 'Suzumiya' with two kanji. 'Suzu' as in 'to cool oneself' (suzumu) and 'Miya' as in 'residence of a prince' (miyake), right?"

"Er... yes?" Yuuto cautiously said.

"Sh—, I mean shoot! Could this get any more awkward?" Haruhi put a hand on her forehead and covered her eyes, as if tiredly daring the world to answer her question.

Of course, that was exactly what happened next.

"You don't happen to be the 'Haruhi-chan' who took piano lessons since kindergarten up to she was twelve or thirteen years old, who drew Nazca-like symbols on her middle school's sports field and the one whom the police brought home once because she—"

"That's enough! I see my old man still likes to tell embarrassing stories to anyone!" Haruhi complained. Tsuruya couldn't help but marvel at the shift in the conversation and be a little curious about the incident that Haruhi didn't want Yuuto to mention aloud.

"Er..."

"There is... more?"

"Actually, he thinks you... Do you really want to know?"

"... shoot away. With that kind of stuff, the faster the better."

"Right, last month or so, the company changed hands. A lot of restructuring ensued and your father, me and a lot of other people who never worked together before ended in the same department. To smooth the transition and as a bonding exercise, Akira-san suggested to visit a food place nearby after work hours so we could get the chance to know each other in a more informal environment. The place was nice enough and prided itself on the quality of the beer they served..."

"I can see where this is going..." Haruhi lamented.

"In his defense he only refilled his glass once but..." Yuuto interceded.

"Man can't hold his liquor." she finished for him.

"Well, yes. Luckily I noticed before anyone else and I took him to the car. I drove him home but it took him around three hours to guide me there, so..."

"He told you his and my life history in the meanwhile."

"Er... Back to the point. He and your mother, a very nice lady by the way, noticed that..." Haruhi looked incredulously at Yuuto for a moment, looking for a more obvious sign of sarcasm, but then she remembered how the man's wife was like and everything made sense again.

"... after you started high school you recovered your old enthusiasm. Even if they said nothing to you, they were very happy that you finally found something you really wanted to do..."

"I feel a 'but' coming."

"... but then the months passed and they begun to think that more than a 'something' especial for you, you instead found 'someone' especial."

"Ugh!"

"They were very worried, but they regarded 'his' influence as something positive in the end and decided to take a hands-off approach on the matter for the time being. Is this someone especial—?"

"Yes." Haruhi was quick to confirm. She really didn't want to have to say more about the subject.

"Oh. I see. But then..." Yuuto pondered aloud.

"What is it?" she pressed.

"Er... well, they noticed a second important change in you during last April. You started to cook more and seemed more… how I put it—?"

"I get it. They suspect I'm dating Kyon now."

"Actually, they think you two are, 'going steady' I think was the expression he used, for a year. They now are worried that you two, er... took things to the next level?" Yuuto couldn't help but voice that as a question.

"Dammit. Now I understand why Mom wanted to give The Talk again a few weeks ago. I was very close to accidentally TK myself out of there..." Haruhi blurted.

"Tee Kay? What is that?" Yuuto asked, pulling over the car and turning around to look at Haruhi for the first time in a while.

"Ah! It's… English jargon. It means… to improvise something, to wing it."

"First time I hear that one. Never mind that, I think it's important for you to know your father is right there..."

"You are probably right I should trust in my parents more..."

"No. I mean literally. Right there." Yuuto said in a horrified tone.

It took Haruhi and Tsuruya valuable seconds to realize that Yuuto wasn't looking at them and he instead seemed transfixed staring at something through to the rear windscreen of the sedan.

During the long conversation, he absently drove the car through his everyday route and brought the three of them to the headquarters of Nishinomiya Heavy Industries in record time.

To add insult to injury, in that precise moment the gregarious head of the Suzumiya family took notice of the vehicle that took him home once and decided to greet its owner personally.

Yuuto quickly comprehended that stepping on the gas and speeding away was not an option due to the fact it would require to turn around and pass next to Haruhi's father, giving him the chance look inside the cabin. To say nothing that such abnormal behaviour would be too difficult to explain later.

Without other choice, he stopped the engine and he jumped out of the car. His parting words were:

"I will try to lead him away from here. A guard checks the cars so staying inside for long is not an option. There is some cash on the glove compartment for a cab or… I don't know, TK something!"

The last thing he saw of the girls before leaving the car was them ducking their heads and laying their upper-bodies sidewise on the backseat as to minimize how much of them was visible through the rear windscreen. The problem was that there was no way for them to hide from an observer looking through the windows at the sides.

"Good morning, Suzumiya-san. How do you do?" Yuuto intoned, bowing politely.

"Mornings to you too. There is no need to be so formal, Yuuto-kun." Akira said, greeting him back.

"It's just proper, Sir."

"Alright. We don't have much time to have this chat today. Let's go!" and with that Haruhi's father begun to cross the street and walk away from the car.

"I'm on my way, Sir." Yuuto followed suit and soon walked a little ahead of his boss, trying to subtly encourage him to walk faster.

That ended backfiring on him.

"Yuuto-kun, did you finish the first trimester's overall balance?" Akira asked suddenly.

"Yes, Sir. It's in my briefcase."

"Briefcase?" Akira pondered, looking at Yuuto's empty hands.

"Ah! I forgot it in my... car."

"Don't worry. I'll fetch it. I'm closer after all." he said and started trotting towards the vehicle.

Most likely nobody needs to be told what kind of words crossed Yuuto's mind in that moment.

That was when Yuuto met a pair of teenage girls in the oddest circumstances. Considering how that morning went for him, that's saying something.

"W-Would you like to buy some homemade cookies?" A girl's voice suddenly asked as if conjured out of thin air. Her unexpected question startled Yuuto and Akira, who turned their heads to regard her silently for a few seconds.

She was a very beautiful brown- almost auburn-haired girl in a modest maid outfit. She carried a basket in her hands, with both arms hanging in front of her in what probably she intended as a demure gesture, but the pose had the (for many interesting) side-effect of emphasizing her... er... assets.

"W-We have free samples too!" A new presence made itself known at some point behind both men. They turned to see a younger short-haired pretty girl who nervously opened a lidded tray and presented its contents to them. She was also dressed up, garbing a stewardess outfit. The juxtaposition between her small frame, her blue uniform and her somewhat timid attitude made for an adorable sight.

Suzumiya Sr., who always had something of a sweet tooth, couldn't resist the offer and requested one sample. Taking into account that both his wife and his daughter rarely baked, one can't really blame him.

While this happened, Yuuto recovered his bearings and took the chance to retrieve his briefcase before it was too late.

When he took a look at his car, he saw two hooded figures leaving the backseat and a third unknown girl with a lavender hair wearing a school uniform who closed the door behind them and even dared to bow politely to him before following them.

Yuuto had no idea how the girls arranged something like that, he suspected that it was Tsuruya by phone because simply there were no other alternative, but he was honestly awed. They even found the time to fold his coat and place it on the driver seat together with his briefcase and cell phone.

By the time he joined his boss, he discovered that the man (literally) bought the whole basket. After he shared a few cookies with him, Yuuto understood the reason.

The cookies were simply delicious, probably the best he ever tasted, and his sense of awe just ran a little deeper.

Your son is in a mutually-affectionate three-way relationship that includes your boss' daughter and your son's fiancé who's also the heiress of the corporation where you and your boss work? Wow.

In response to almost being found out by your boss, they managed to organize an escape plan, complete with a distraction by two very cute girls who popped out of nowhere dressed for the part, all in a span of a few short minutes? Wow.

Those two very cute girls make very good cookies? WWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-