Chiba City, Municipal Sports Park.
"Go, go, go!"
"Senpai, under the basket! Under the basket! We left the paint open!"
"Miyahito, mark number 12!"
"Run!"
"Hey! (Raises hand and slaps hard)"
"....."
"Ah! I can't take it anymore." After shooting the last three-pointer, Miyahito practically crawled off the court and plopped his butt onto the rubber floor, looking completely burned out.
"We're just getting started." Also drenched in sweat, but unlike Miyahito, Jiro looked perfectly relaxed, as if he had just finished warming up. He laughed and scolded Miyahito, "When did you get so weak, Miyahito? Did you completely stop working out once you got to high school?"
"It's a bit embarrassing to say." Miyahito helplessly pulled out the blue sports towel Utaha bought him from his bag, draped it over his face, and panted. "I do play basketball often."
"It's just that when I was in Chiba, I had to report to the dojo every week. I don't do that now."
...Besides, isn't it better to spend time with Utaha? Why hang out with a bunch of rough guys every day like before?
"That mindset of yours is no good, Miyahito." Shinji, sitting next to Miyahito, slapped his shoulder and said seriously, "A healthy body is a person's greatest asset."
"You can't be so careless about it."
"I was wrong, Shinji-senpai." Having been lectured, Miyahito apologized with a full face of remorse.
Indeed, even though Miyahito was into music, strictly speaking, he was an outdoorsy guy.
Before going to Toyogasaki, whenever he had free time, Miyahito would go out to participate in various sports and outdoor activities.
Come to think of it, back then, whenever Miyahito went out to exercise and play, Ayase would always turn into a little tail for her brother, trotting along right behind him.
For example, right now, when Miyahito played basketball, Ayase would obediently sit on the sidelines, cheering for him, wiping his sweat, and handing him drinks.
However, ever since he got together with Utaha, he had become lazier and more of a homebody.
It was estimated that this change in Miyahito was largely due to the fact that "Utaha is a homebody."
Although Utaha never said anything, and just like Ayase, whenever Miyahito went out to exercise, she would follow him, wiping his sweat and handing him water.
But how to put it... Miyahito himself didn't really want Utaha to accompany him outdoors in this nearly 40°C weather.
Besides, in Miyahito's heart, Utaha was ultimately different from his sister Ayase.
With Ayase, Miyahito could directly use his status as an older brother to tell his sister to stay at home and not follow him out to get sunburned.
But if it were Utaha... well, being a bit whipped, he didn't quite dare to order her around like that.
'Speaking of which, what is Utaha doing right now?'
Chatting and laughing with his two seniors, Miyahito quietly asked himself in his heart.
At this time, when she's at the apartment, it's her afternoon tea time. Now that she's at home, she should be eating the afternoon tea snacks Auntie prepared for her, right?
I wonder what snacks Auntie prepared for Utaha. Tuesday... today is Utaha's 'Cheesecake Day'.
...
Wakō City, Kasumigaoka House.
"Hurry up!"
"I! Don't! Want! To!"
"Seriously, can you stop throwing a tantrum?" Kao, resting her right hand against her cheek and leaning against the doorframe, looked at her daughter, who was sitting on the bed with an expressionless face, with an exasperated expression. Her tone was very helpless and troubled.
"It's just weighing yourself. It's not a hard task."
"Why are you so unwilling to do it, my dear daughter?"
"...." Glaring at her mom with an extremely complex gaze, Utaha's voice couldn't help but become somewhat frantic. "Ahhh! Are you really my mother?!"
"Why do you insist on making me weigh myself? What do you care how much I weigh?!"
"How do I not?" Kao put down her right hand, which had been resting against her cheek, with a straight face. For a moment, her tone was very serious and solemn as she spoke to her frantic daughter. "As a doctor, I must ensure my daughter's health."
"So, what does my health have to do with my weight?" Utaha glared at her mother, her resentment growing heavier by the second.
"Of course... it has a lot to do with it." Kao smiled with pursed lips. "My dear daughter, a person's weight is an indirect reflection of their health level."
"Although, for a small percentage of people, weight and health aren't directly linked... but um, my daughter doesn't look like an athlete no matter how you look at it. So, your weight can't be judged by the standards of that small minority, okay?"
"Can you stop obsessing over how much I weigh?! Are you a pervert? Are you a pervert? You must be a pervert! What kind of mother obsesses so much over her daughter's weight?!"
She was going crazy. Utaha was about to lose her mind right now.
What did she regret? She regretted agreeing to come back home to Wakō City from Tokyo!
At this moment, Utaha desperately wished her boyfriend would appear right in front of her, like a prince from a fairy tale, to save her, the princess being tortured by the heartless, wicked queen.
'I'm such an idiot! Why did I come home...'
Thinking about the warm, sweet daily life of being affectionate with Miyahito in Tokyo, Utaha felt like crying.
If she were still in Tokyo right now, she would be happily enjoying the English black tea and blueberry cheesecake afternoon tea Miyahito had prepared for her.
Instead of being here, with no afternoon tea in sight, and being constantly harassed by her own biological mother, who insisted on dragging her to weigh herself.
Subconsciously lowering her head to look at her stomach, Utaha was just about to give in and let her mom weigh her when she faintly felt the... ahem, flesh on her lower belly! Right, just ordinary flesh.
It was by no means ugly, unsightly blubber made of accumulated fat...
"Get out!" Unable to endure it any longer, Miss Utaha stood up from the bed in a fit of embarrassment and anger. Placing her hands on her mother's shoulders, she spun the reluctant Kao around to face away from her, then gave her a hard push.
"I'm going to write my novel! Don't disturb me!"
"Eh, Utaha-chan?"
Bam—!
Staring blankly at the tightly closed door in front of her, and the 'Utaha's Room' nameplate on the door that was still wobbling from being slammed too hard, Kao puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction and angrily shouted at the door.
"Running away is useless! Kasu-Fatty!"
"Stop calling me Kasu-Fatty, you perverted doctor!!!"