Summary
Kaede admires her beautiful reflection and basks in self-glory as she admires the various awards and pictures in her room. For fifteen years she has been special and admired, nobody's ever come close or threatened her popularity... there is one problem though.
Her mother is hideous.
Heading into the kitchen, Kaede finds her mother washing dishes and wonders how she could have been born from such a hag. She voices disgust by reminding her mom to change clothes more frequently, and points out that her hair needs to be taken care of. Her mom admits that she usually overlooks these details due to how busy she is, but Kaede doesn't listen as she has a seat. Kaede can't understand why they don't look anything alike, but she's always been ashamed of her mom. Since she was little, she dreaded parents day at school and never wanted her to come.
Kaede refuses to eat the breakfast her mother prepared and she takes off for school, where she pastes on a smile and pleasantly greets her classmates. Her radiance immediately draws a crowd, along with Akina -her boyfriend- who wanted to apologize for their long phone conversation the night before. As a school idol couple they are very popular, and Kaede adores Akina.
Suddenly, attention gets cast to an adult wandering the corridor outside, and to Kaede's horror she realizes the woman is her mother. She spots her lunch in her hands as she tries to ask some startled students for directions, and when her mom spots her at the window, she quickly moves out of view. Her classmates begin to make remarks on the woman's messy appearance and wonder who she belongs to as Kaede silently fumes. She TOLD her mom to never come to school if she forgot something. It's then the juice she was drinking slips from her hands and spills out the window, all over her mother, causing everyone to start picking on her and telling her to leave.
At home, a furious Kaede chews out her mom for disobeying her. Her mom apologizes but Kaede refuses to listen and decides to make things more secure for next time; she tells her mom that she can only leave the house if she wears a mask and sunglasses, and she can't leave out the front door either. She screams at her mom in anger and runs into her bedroom.
As Kaede's true feelings become more apparent, Kaede's mother spends the evening looking up ways of improving her looks. She then gets up to pay Kaede a visit in her bedroom while she's asleep.
The following day Kaede's mood doesn't improve as she grumpily listens to her classmates discuss the granny who showed up the previous day. Akina goes on to wonder what Kaede's own mom looks like, mentioning that he's never seen her before, and right away everyone assumes she must be beautiful too. Kaede claims her family is normal but they play it off as her being humble. She tries to refuse her friends requests, but she eventually gives in. She warns them that her mother is sick and bedridden though, so they can't bother her.
At her place, Kaede anxiously tries giving her friends and Akina a quick tour. Akina asks to at least take a peek at her mother before they leave, causing her to panic and quickly try to change the subject. But he reasons that they have been dating for half a year now and he earnestly wants their relationship to grow properly; words that surprise Kaede as she wasn't expecting him to be that serious. It's then someone approaches with some snacks for everyone and Kaede immediately freaks out and expects the worst, but to her shock she sees that her frumpy and wrinkled, dirty-looking mom has been replaced by a healthier, cleaned up woman!
Everyone notes that her mom appears to be average just like Kaede said, but she is very nice and they enjoyed getting to meet her. While their visit goes fine Kaede is unable to stop wondering what could have happened for her mom's physical appearance to clean-up overnight, and she continues thinking about it the next morning as she tiredly walks into the kitchen. Seeing that her mom looks even younger and in a brighter mood, Kaede is surprised as she goes on to ask if its okay to leave without the mask now. Kaede asks her what products she used to look like this, but her mom teasingly refuses to answer.
Over time, Kaede starts to notice her mom's appearance gradually improve. Not only has she started wearing makeup, but she's going shopping and wears more flattering, cute outfits.
Then one day Kaede is running late for school, but seeing her mom using her mirror while admiring herself in one of Kaede's favorite dresses completely distracts her. She asks to borrow it while she goes out, but she reasons that it's fine regardless because she bought it for her, and it looks good on her. As her mom announces she is leaving to go shopping, Kaede happens to realize how tired her own face looks. Her skin doesn't look very nice either, causing her to panic until a text from Akina calms her down.
At school Kaede desperately hopes she will be showered with attention like usual, believing this will make her feel better. But when she arrives to see everyone looks shocked, she discovers her face has become aged with markings and wrinkles. She tries hiding her face from Akina when he spots her, and he mentions that he didn't know she had an "older sister", causing her confusion until he explains that he came yesterday to pick her up and the older girl answered the door. He compliments her beauty, but quickly points out that he isn't trying to say she was prettier than Kaede, but by now she's already left the room.
Kaede yells at her mom for speaking to her Akina-kun when she gets home, but realizing she isn't there she quietly determines she must be out shopping still. Frustrated, she decides to wait for her to get home. After some time passes Kaede happens to spot a box beneath her bed and not recognizing it, she pulls it out to find a jar filled with hair. Before she can access this she overhears her mother's laughter and gets up to look outside, where she finds her -looking even younger- thanking the flustered Akina for helping her out. He offers to take her shopping again some time, leaving Kaede heartbroken and dismayed.
As her mom comes inside Kaede quickly demands an explanation, but she teases her once more rather than give her a straight answer. She reminds Kaede that she was embarrassed to have an ugly mother, so she gave her what she wanted. She's been working so hard to raise Kaede with love and care, she always worried that she wasn't good enough, and finding out how Kaede truly felt made her very sad. So she found a method that would make everything better, picking up the jar of hair and taking a strand out to lick before the disturbed Kaede. As she explains how much youth exists in her hair, Kaede begins to sob after she looks in the nearby mirror to realize she is indeed missing some of it. Her mother smiles and begins comforting her, saying that Kaede will never feel embarrassed of her again, and she will always stay by her side as her loving mother.
Within her hand, she gathers a large amount of Kaede's hair.
Time passes and some school girls make their way down a path as they stop to admire a beautiful young girl walking someone in a wheelchair. They compliment how nice it is for a grandchild to care for her elders like this, unaware that the wrinkled and sickly, short-haired woman was once a beautiful Goddess.
Tropes
- And I Must Scream: The once prideful Kaede eventually loses everything and became sick and frail to the point of needing a wheelchair.
- Asshole Victim: Kaede had everything. Looks, great friends, a boyfriend she adored. But because of this she also has a massive ego and is incredibly vain and self-centered, and she treats her hardworking mother horribly because she doesn't look pretty.
- Beauty Is Bad: Kaede is one of the shining examples from this series! Then there's her mother once she becomes pretty and gains confidence, causing her to start borrowing Kaede's items, do less work around the house, and frequently leave for hours on end to shop or hang out with other people.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Kaede wanted a beautiful mother everyone expected her to have, and she got one eventually. But it cost her happiness and health.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kaede, who has a very delicate and sweet appearance.
- Break the Haughty
- The Cameo: Yomio makes an appearance on the cover image for this chapter. Yomi's mother also gets a speaking one in her closing narration.
- The Dog Bites Back: After being publicly humiliated and told off by Kaede, her mother decides that at all costs she will figure out a way to obtain beauty. Then she begins to neglect Kaede for her own happiness, even flirting with her boyfriend, and taking every last one of Kaede's hairs so that she can maintain her youth.
- Establishing Character Moment: The story's opening line is Kaede calling herself a "miraculous being from heaven", so the readers know right away how full of herself she is.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The end of the story has the aged and sickly Kaede confined to a wheelchair, likely unable to survive on her own without the help of her beautiful, youthful mother.
- Long Hair Is Feminine: It's also the fountain of youth apparently!
