Love Comes After Simulation

【Under her mother’s questioning, Yumemi Miu hesitated for a long time. She remembered your advice and decided to tell the truth.】

【The girl started with her friend, explaining how she and the other girl had an understanding. She said she was going out to play, but she was actually just wandering around outside.】

【Then, she talked about that morning during summer vacation when she aimlessly walked to the front of the convenience store and was called inside by the shopkeeper, who then threatened her with that incident.】

【Isn’t this coercion? And forcing an elementary school student to do chores for him! Asano Nao was furious. There was something vaguely familiar about the scene. She felt like she had seen it somewhere before, but she didn’t dwell on this sense of familiarity.】

【Yumemi Miu continued her story, mentioning how the shopkeeper would give her tasty treats and even teach her to play the piano.】

【Asano Nao’s anger subsided a bit, thinking that the shopkeeper might not be all that bad. However, she still felt indignant. No matter what, a single man tricking a little girl into taking care of him was too much!】

A memory scene appeared.

Asano Nao clenched her fists, her face serious. “Where is he? I’m going to have a good talk with him!”

“Eh? Are you sure?” Yumemi Miu looked at her in confusion. “Can Mom even walk out to face him?”

Asano Nao wanted to firmly say she could, but she couldn’t do it.

“I can… I think?” She looked at her daughter.

“It’s a question after all,” Yumemi Miu sighed.

Seeing the disappointment on her daughter’s face stirred courage within Asano Nao. “I can do it!”

She got out of bed and rummaged through the bedroom for a while. She put on a knitted hat, a thick coat, and a pair of black sunglasses over a white mask.

“Let’s go.” She pulled the hood of her coat over her head, shoved her hands into her sleeves, fully armed.

“Mom, can you talk properly when you see Uncle?”

“Of course I can… probably. At least I want him to know that the thing he used to threaten you no longer exists!”

“Okay, Uncle gets up at eight every day. We still have more than an hour.”

Outside, the snow that had fallen all day had finally stopped. The snow on the ground reached up to their ankles. Many villagers were shoveling the snow in their yards and on the roads.

Yumemi Miu, wearing a thick red down jacket and a red knitted hat, walked happily in the snow.

It was her first time walking out with her mom. They always took a taxi when going to the hospital.

Grandmother came along too, as her mother had insisted on bringing her. Her mother was too scared to face Uncle alone.

Come to think of it, I forgot to tell Mom Uncle’s name? Anyway, as a shut-in, Mom probably doesn’t know him. I’ll just tell her when we meet.

As they left the yard, Yumemi Miu bent down, made a fist-sized snowball, and threw it at her mother. The snowball hit Asano Nao’s head and slid off her knitted hat.

“Don’t bully Mom. Come hold Mom’s hand.” Asano Nao patted her knitted hat and continued to look around.

Her reaction was too weak, dampening Yumemi Miu’s enthusiasm.

“I don’t want to hold hands. I’m a big kid now.” The girl put her hands behind her back, mimicking an old lady’s walk.

“I know Miu is a big kid now. So come hold Mom’s hand, or Mom might get lost!”

“Eh?”

Yumemi Miu scratched her head.

Could Mom really get lost? Could it be a verbal trap? Intentionally putting herself in a weak position to gain sympathy?

Yumemi Miu studied her mother. Her cowering, anxious appearance didn’t look like she was acting at all.

She had no choice but to walk to her mother’s side, extending her hand clad in a red glove to hold her mother’s white-gloved hand.

In the snow, a big and a small set of footprints were close together.

After leaving the village center and walking a little further, they arrived at a house.

Yumemi Miu led her mother into the backyard. The sliding door to the living room was locked. She took a key from under a flowerpot and unlocked the door.

“Come in.” She pushed open the sliding door and warmly invited her mother and grandmother inside.

Asano Nao was stunned by her daughter’s practiced actions. It wasn’t until the elderly woman behind her nudged her that she snapped out of her daze.

“No, I can’t go in like this,” Asano Nao shook her head. “You bring him out.”

“Okay.” Yumemi Miu lifted her head and shouted upstairs, “Uncle! My mom is here, come down quickly!”

After a while, a lazy male voice came from upstairs, “Wait a moment. Miu, entertain your mom.”

“See, uncle knows. Mom and grandma, come in quickly.” Yumemi Miu reached to pull her mother’s hand.

“No need, I’ll stay right here.”

Asano Nao refused firmly. She was somewhat angry. What did that man’s words mean? “Miu, entertain your mom,” as if this was Miu’s home and she was an outsider!

A great sense of crisis arose in her heart.

Was this shop’s uncle trying to take Miu away from her? And with premeditation?

Miu was her and Yuuki-kun’s child, no one could take her away!

She squeezed her daughter’s hand tightly, and the girl looked up at her in confusion.

“You’re not allowed to come here anymore!” Asano Nao told her daughter.

“Well, grandma said the same thing before, it scared me to death, but she changed her mind right away.” Yumemi Miu believed that her uncle could also make her mom change her mind.

The girl’s words made Asano Nao frown, highlighting a doubt she had overlooked.

Asano Nao thought, grandma indeed knew clearly about this!

Why didn’t grandma tell her the truth, why did she cover for this shop’s uncle?

She turned to look at grandma, only to see the old lady had quietly retreated outside the yard gate. Noticing her gaze, the old lady started to run quickly, disappearing in no time.

Asano Nao was stunned. Grandma, why are you running away?

She was about to chase after her when Yumemi Miu suddenly broke free from her grasp and ran towards the living room.

“Uncle is coming down!”

Her words were joyful, her steps light, like a young cub seeing its parents, darting towards the young man walking out.

The young man had his hands behind his back. When the girl got close, he raised a hand and threw a snowball at her head.

The girl’s joyful mood and her happy run to reunite were all knocked down by the snowball. She never expected to be hit by a snowball at this moment, so she held her head, stunned.

The young man’s hearty laughter woke her from her daze, and she stomped her foot in anger, “Uncle, you’re so childish!”

The girl turned her face away, deciding to ignore him.

“Alright, quickly call your mom in.” Minami Yuuki patted her head.

It was only then that Yumemi Miu remembered her mom.

She looked towards the yard and found her mom standing there rigidly, not speaking or moving, as if she had also been hit by an unexpected snowball.

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