After finis.h.i.+ng the series of pictures with Mika, next up was taking pictures together with Reo.
Seiji was able to calm down and return to a normal state because he wasn"t embarra.s.sed about taking pictures together with an elementary school girl.
He wanted a little to take a look at the pictures of him together with Mika, but also somewhat didn"t dare…
After the pictures with Reo were finished, next up was Chiaki.
She happily requested poses that were rather pretentious, such as them play-acting at fighting, back against back while hooking their arms, acting as if they were two parts of a combination mecha, or pretending to be masked heroes…
Seiji did as she requested!
Compared to earlier, this type of exaggerated pose was far easier for him to do.
"Is it my turn next?"
After he finished with Chiaki, someone spoke up.
When he turned around, he saw that the landlord was smiling while raising her hand.
"I"d like to take pictures together with Harutkun in the same style as with Mika just now," Nozomi said with a big grin.
"What?"
Seiji and Chiaki were both astonished at this, and Mika"s eyes bulged.
"Mom… you…"
"I think that it"ll be quite interesting to take them for a comparison." Nozomi smiled. "Seeing you all doing such a good job with the pictures, I want to revisit my youth as well."
Seiji, Chiaki, and Mika were all rendered speechless.
*Pat.*
Chiaki lightly slapped Seiji on the back.
"The beautiful widow landlord… you have a chance with her," she whispered to him.
"What chance are you talking about!?"
Seiji"s eyebrows kept twitching.
He was unable to refuse the landlord"s request.
While taking the pictures, Nozomi didn"t blush, nor did she have a seductive expression like Mika"s. However, just her gentle smile alone seemed to have its own appeal which displayed the attractiveness of a mature woman.
Making such identical poses to the ones that he used with her daughter, doing them with a beautiful young woman like Nozomi right in front of her own daughter… the embarra.s.sment he felt was indescribable!
Seiji felt like his face was burning up.
Nozomi found it all the more fun to see how embarra.s.sed Seiji was, and couldn"t help but cover her mouth and chuckle.
Chiaki decisively recorded this moment with her cell phone camera, and the resulting picture was… basically a cla.s.sic!
Chiaki even felt like impulsively entering a photography contest with this photo, with the t.i.tle of The Young Woman and the High School Boy . She felt like she would definitely obtain a prize!
Mika had complex emotions as she observed this.
She wasn"t foolish enough to think that her mother was interested in Seiji, but this scene was… she didn"t know what to think of it.
After finis.h.i.+ng the series of poses identical to the ones done with Mika, Chiaki strongly requested several extra photos, that were more intimate, as if they were really mother and son.
"Stop messing around!" Although Seiji wanted to say that, before he got the opportunity, Nozomi was already agreeing.
"I would feel so lucky to have a son like Harutkun," the young woman said softly. "It"ll be nice to take some photos like that."
Seiji was unable to refuse, so his embarra.s.sment continued.
"Let"s have a lap pillow photo first!" Chiaki who was pa.s.sionately enjoying this continued giving instructions.
Nozomi looked towards Seiji and smiled as she patted her thigh.
Seiji did his very best to not let his expression change.
"Is that… really alright?"
Nozomi nodded, and indicated with her eyes to "hurry up and come over."
Seiji could only adjust his position and then slowly lay down on her thighs.
There was a soft feeling and a faint fragrant scent… This was already his second time receiving a lap pillow today. Could it be that today was his lucky day for lap pillows?
The young woman gently caressed his head and brushed her hand through his hair while lightly touching his face with her other hand. She was smiling with a gentle expression in her eyes and gave off such a warm and soft aura.
"Excellent, just like this! It"s so realistic!!" Chiaki kept snapping pictures.
The immense embarra.s.sment caused Seiji to close his eyes.
If he was able to ignore the fact that someone was currently taking pictures while others were watching him, this would indeed be an excellent and relaxing situation for him. However, he was unable to ignore the others.
"Even I haven"t done that for Seiji yet…" Mika thought to herself with even more complex emotions than earlier.
Lap pillows weren"t something that couples could monopolize, and it was fine to do it between mother and child as well. But if it was a "pretend mother and child," then that seemed rather subtle.
"Alright! Next up is a ma.s.sage. Seiji, help auntie here and ma.s.sage her shoulders." Chiaki continued giving instructions.
They did various different poses for the pictures.
Apart from the lap pillow, none of them were as awkward, which suited Seiji just fine.
After that, Mika and Chiaki took pictures together, Reo and s.h.i.+ka took pictures together, Chiaki and Nozomi took pictures together, and Reo and Nozomi took pictures together. Various combinations were made.
Finally, everyone ended things with a big group photo.
Seiji looked over all the final pictures, and felt that just as he expected, the ones with him and Mika or Nozomi were the most embarra.s.sing, especially after seeing the comparisons…
"Just as I thought, it was quite interesting to see the comparisons," said Nozomi while covering her mouth and chuckling as she also perused the pictures. "I"m going to have these pictures printed out and store them in our photo alb.u.m."
"Just what would Mika think of all this?" Seiji suddenly got curious about this as he tugged at the corner of his lips.
The pigtailed girl had gone back to her own home. She returned with several gift boxes.
"Seiji, this is for you… Happy Winter Snow Festival." She gave him a blue gift box.
"Thank you." Seiji accepted it.
Mika also gave s.h.i.+ka and Reo a pink gift box for each of them, and both of them thanked her as well.
Seiji opened up his gift box to find a dark scarf. When he tried putting it on, it felt rather warm.
"Nice, it"s really warm." Seiji smiled.
"It"s fine as long as you like it," Mika said as her eyes lit up when she saw him wearing the scarf.
s.h.i.+ka received a pair of gloves, while Reo received a pair of socks. All the clothing articles were beautiful.
They continued looking through the photos.
Mika blushed when she saw the photos of her together with Seiji, but when she saw the ones of her mother with Seiji, she revealed a strange expression.
When she heard that her mother intended to put all of their pictures with Seiji on the same page of their family photo alb.u.m"s collection, she immediately objected.
"I don"t want to! I want to keep mine! Mom, you can keep yours."
"Why"s that? Isn"t it more interesting to keep them together for comparison?"
"I don"t want to compare myself to you, Mom! It feels weird."
"It"s not weird at all, it"s proof of our mother-daughter bond."
"What bond? I don"t want this type of proof!"
"You don"t cherish your mother-daughter bond… my daughter is in her rebellious stage." Nozomi pretended to sigh.
"I"m not!" Mika retorted.
The mother and daughter kept up their teasing conversation.
"They really have such a good relations.h.i.+p," Seiji said while sipping on some tea and observing them.
"Yep, they really do," Chiaki said as she also sipped on tea and observed them. "The relations.h.i.+p between me and my dad isn"t even one percent as good as theirs."
Seiji looked towards Chiaki. "Did he say why this time that he couldn"t come back home?"
"Nope, not even half a word of explanation."
"That is… indeed what a b.a.s.t.a.r.d would do."
Chiaki chuckled. "I called him that long ago."
Meanwhile, Reo installed and turned on the new video game system that she had received, and began playing her new game.
There was the sound of elegant music, and a handsome hero appeared on the television screen wearing blue clothing and holding on to a sword and s.h.i.+eld. He looked resolutely towards a distant mountain…
Seiji and Chiaki looked over to see that Reo was having great fun playing her new game.
Nozomi began retelling stories from Mika"s childhood, and Mika tried her best to stop her mother from saying any more.
s.h.i.+ka silently sipped on her tea and slowly and imperceptibly kept moving closer to Seiji.
It was now snowing again outside.
The silently falling snowflakes seemed to have a warm light to them when illuminated by the lighting inside Seiji"s apartment.