CH 95

Kiriha's Wife Power

Translated by Dawn

Kiriha’s Wife Power

A/N: There are so many characters that I don’t think you can tell whose lines are whose, so here’s a summary.

Okui Ikuo First person: I (俺/Ore) Second person: You (お前/Omae)

Because everyone calls him Honey so often, readers have forgotten his real name.

Harikiri Kiriha First person: I (ボク/Boku) Second person: You (キミ/Kimi)

Naimine Miina First person: I (私/Watashi) Second person: You (貴方/Anata), Gentle older sister tone.

Esashi Shisae First person: Shisae Second person: ~~chan, Ssu (っす) tone. (+)

Maria Arima First person: I (私/Watashi) Second person: You (貴方/Anata), Desumasu tone of voice

Yamami Maya First person: I (私/Watashi) Second person: You (あなた/Anata), Nanodesu tone of voice

Koimai Maiko First person: I (わたし/Watashi) Second person: You (あなた/Anata)

Matsumi Mitsumata First person: I (あたし/Atashi), second person: You (あんたAnta)

Ryuzaki Sayuri First Person: I (私/Watashi) Second Person: You (貴君/Anata)

TLN: Now after finishing translating this. I wonder why I translated all of this even though you guys will read it in English. Whatever I’ll just put it here for knowledge purposes.

It was eight o’clock that night.

Sitting on the couch in the living room, I was watching the news on a rambling MR screen deployed on the wall.

I didn’t want to watch the news.

TV content was left to right.

I didn’t want Kiriha to worry about me worrying about Maria.

But Kiriha could see through my shallow wisdom.

“What’s wrong, Honey?”

When I looked up at the gentle flesh voice, I saw Kiriha, bent over to meet my gaze, waiting for me with a gentle smile.

Neither her usual innocent nor bewitching face, but a receptive softness, like a mother worried about her child, made me feel an excitement similar to that of the moment of first love.

“It’s…”

When I lowered my gaze after a pause in my speech, Kiriha sat down right next to me on the couch.

“It’s about Maria, isn’t it?”

I knew she could see everything.

I felt proud that I was no match for her.

The fact that Kiriha could see through me meant that she understood me that well.

Proud to have such a lover, my future wife, I opened my mouth as if in a pose of surrender.

“Kiriha sees it all, huh?”

“Because I’m your future wife. So, what do you want Honey?”

Kiriha leaned in with a soft voice and our shoulders touched.

It was July, hot even at night, and Kiriha and I were both wearing sleeveless clothes.

Our skin touched each other, and the warmth of her body seemed to loosen my entangled heart.

“I want to help Maria.”

“Then why don’t you help her?”

“I can’t do that.”

With my lips hardening, I let out the pain inside my chest.

“I want to help Maria, but she doesn’t want it. It’s self-righteousness to get involved in a parent-child problem when she doesn’t want help, and it’s arrogance on my part to say that Maria needs to be helped.”

“But you helped me when I needed help. I told you that I didn’t need your help, so why don’t you help Maria? Even when it was Maiko’s case, you helped her.”

Yeah, that was the bottleneck.

“The only problem with parents and children is that you can’t tell unless you’re the one who’s involved.”

I was only a freshman in high school, but I’d seen and been convinced of the complexity of the situation in videos about victims of toxic parenting and professional relationships.

“To a child, even a toxic parent is a parent. There is no substitute. Even if we could argue with Maria’s parents and separate her from Maria, whether Maria would be saved or not is up to Maria.”

Children did not want to be loved just by someone else; they want to be loved by their parents.

If they gave up on their parents and left home, that moment would complete the conclusion that they were children who were not loved by their parents.

That was why children couldn’t leave their toxic parents. They could not help but cling to the sweet illusion that their parents might someday change their minds and love them.

“But you helped Miina when she was like that, didn’t you?”

“Miina chose us over her parents. But not Maria.”

When I slumped down, my head heavy with a sense of helplessness at not being able to protect my precious one, Kiriha’s clear voice rang out.

“Well, then we’ll have to talk to Maria.”

I looked up, and Kiriha’s face broke into a smile.

“You know, Honey, I was happy. I was happy that Honey helped me without me having to ask for help.”

Kiriha’s voice sounded as if she was embracing a memory, and Kiriha’s cheeks were slightly flushed.

“I didn’t ask for help from Honey. But it wasn’t because I didn’t want help, it was because I didn’t think I could get help. It’s not that I didn’t expect Honey to help me, it’s that I didn’t expect it in my life.”

My heart ached as I remembered the Kiriha I once knew, but she looked into my face with a smile that said she was happy now.

“But, Honey, when you are in pain and suffering, you need someone to help you. If Maria says it’s really unnecessary, that’s fine, but you shouldn’t assume that she doesn’t need any help from us.”

Kiriha’s words made me feel as if my vision had suddenly opened up.

My face naturally lifted and my body felt lighter.

“Thank you, Kiriha, and I’m sorry I bothered you.”

“That’s right, Honey. If you don’t want to make your partner worry and have trouble, you’ll only be a lover. It is only when you share your problems and ask for help from the other person that you become more than a lover.”

Kiriha hugged my shoulders with outstretched arms and sweetly nuzzled my ear.

Her warm breath and sweet smell, as well as the words “more than a lover,” give me strength.

I felt like I could save at least three Marias now.

“Somehow, I feel like I could save three Marias if I stayed with Kiriha.”

“Maria is one person, okay?”

Kiriha’s chuckled when she heard my enthusiasm was so cute that I wanted to push her down.