Cheek Clapping~

I woke up thanks to the unbearable heat and unexplained thirst, that made me feel like a fish out of the sea. I strode over to the kitchen to drink some fresh cold water, that stood in the fridge. It must have been too early to be walking around since neither mom nor grandma were on their feet. Looking at the clock I could tell it was sometime before 5 o'clock. When returning back to the room I spotted how neither of the guys were under their futons, I guess these two would be even more delighted to be back in civilization, where an air conditioner was a thing. I spotted how Keisuke was sleeping on his belly, I laid down but glancing at him caused an unexplained urge to emerge.

'Just do it Michi, don't let your dreams be dreams just do it!' Something like a pesky demon inside of me was giving me an inspirational speech to wreak havoc.

"Actually I just might," I whispered to myself and after realizing Cupid was nowhere in sight to catch me in the act I clapped those ass cheeks. Okay, it was more like patting since I was afraid of what would happen if I would get caught in the act, by the victim of my prank. Once I was satisfied I laid back down but shortly heard Keisuke's sleepy and raspy voice.

"What was that?" With quick thinking, I managed to shift the blame to someone else.

"It was the cat." He hummed a simple.

"I see." And that was the whole interaction because he went back to the dreamland. I had to hold my laugh back since this was so funny, I couldn't believe I got away with this so easily.

I too went back to sleep, and woke up approximately an hour later, only to sit there at the kitchen table and wait for breakfast because my help in breakfast preparation was also strongly denied. You couldn't win with grandma so easily it seemed.

After breakfast I was once again helping the most I could in the garden, it was rather fun. Keisuke and Kazutora that couldn't stay still came up with a game of chasing chickens, but it later ended up with chickens getting pissed and they were the ones chased in return.

Meanwhile, I was showing off my awesome art projects to grandma, which she was complimenting every chance she got. I also caught dad drinking with grandpa, was mom gonna be our driver? I have never seen her do that, but then again she hardly ever took the car by herself. I believed my parents were responsible people, so dad must have had a reason to be this relaxed while chugging some sake in the middle of the day.

Actually, I never saw him drink that much unless he had a company meeting, I assume since he was such an important character in the company no one could really pressure him to drink a lot which was good. Drunk people were difficult to deal with sometimes.

By the time we ate lunch and gathered our things and left, dad was so tipsy he fell asleep in the passenger seat, thanks to the unfairness in the system I once again had to sit in the middle. As I predicted mom was our designated driver for today. I wanted to comment on it but knew it would sound weird to the two other boys that were sitting beside me, because why wouldn't I know my mom had a driver's license?

The drive went on but 20 minutes in when Kazutora decided to nap on my shoulder Keisuke appeared like he realized something important.

"Michi." he began as I turned my head towards him.

"What?" I asked not really sure what to expect.

"That wasn't a cat." Wait did he really just remember what happened during the morning and realized there was no way that was a cat's paws touching his butt? But how was that possible? I just tilted my head to the side, wondering why he was so perceptive on the wrong occasions.

Maybe I could have played dumb until he dropped the topic altogether?

'Don't be suspicious, don't be suspicious.' Was all I could hear inside my mind playing on repeat.

"You told me it was a cat, but now when I think about it, it couldn't have been the case." Was this really bothering him so much, didn't he have anything better to ponder about? As I was about to avert his direction at another topic, I unexpectedly got a mission.

'Would you rather tell Keisuke Baji the truth or wake up your brother?' Well, it was time to spill the beans, anything for Kazutora I am right? I took a deep breath and wondered how I could phrase it to make it as vague as possible.

"It was a cat, just human-sized, with brown fur and golden eyes." He scanned my face and really quickly responded.

"Why would you do that?" To which my response was.

"Sometimes you get this unexplained urge, to do something you probably shouldn't. And then you regret it down the line." Sike I didn't regret it, would have done it again if given the chance, but he didn't need to be aware of that. There was this awkward silence until he dared to ask.

"Would you do it to someone else as well?" I thought about it deeply, and realized wouldn't it be fun to do it with my female friends? Didn't sometimes girls act like that?

"Yep." Did Keisuke seem disappointed hearing this? Because after this conversation he barely said anything, just looked out the window, all he needed was just a little bit of rain to add to his gloomy aesthetics. He only started to communicate when Kazutora woke up and started to ignite a conversation.

But as soon I walked out of the vehicle, like on command I got a call from Koko.

"Can we meet up I have the letter ready." so he said, but I only arrived.

"Sure we can in like an hour or so, I just like arrived back to Tokyo." Was that just a lucky coincidence or was he somehow having an outlook for my car? No, there was no way it could be the second option, right?

We agreed to meet in a boba shop, so I decided to use the time efficiently with some food before I would meet his ass.

But once we bought some take-out food and ate it, mom came to a realization after taking a quick glance at her lotto ticket and the winning numbers on the internet.

"Oh did we win something?"Even if it wasn't the first prize it must have been something decent right? Mom didn't respond as if she was in a trance, so dad decided to steal a glance himself.

"Wow, we actually won the first prize!" We two cheered, amazed that the potion did indeed do its wonders, but Kazutora seemed confused so was Keisuke.

"Yeah right, thanks to Michi and your Mother Kazutora we won the first winning in lotto!" We all three some dancing moves to celebrate.

"Should we move?" Was the first thing dad wondered.

"I think we should just live as we used too tho, it's a nice and cozy house." And I would probably need this location because it felt like a necessity to live so close to Takemichi. I think dad understood my worries quickly and caught on that there was a specific reason I needed to stay in this exact neighborhood.

"Let's all split everything between each other." So mom wanted to divide the money into all 4 perfect cuts? She gave me a knowing look and I nodded, agreeing that was the best solution.

"Also the best-case scenario would be not telling this to anyone, even extended family." I read about so many cases on the internet of how some families changed just because of the existence of money.

"Tho grandpa and grandma are approved." They were so nice, and something told me the existence of money wouldn't get to their heads. I guess the two boys were confused by our dynamics because it sure felt like I was the adult in this situation.

"Yo since this happened, lemme treat you to food next time around," I told Keisuke shooting him a smile and then I quickly packed some things and ran out to meet Koko.

Once I arrived at the destination he asked me which boba I wanted, after mentioning I wanted the matcha flavor he handed me over the letter in question and went up to buy me what I wanted.

"Let's see." The letter was pretty generic and short, Taiju wrote how he was sorry for taking advantage of the situation, basically admitting to his faults in the vaguest way possible. I stared at the letter long enough that I started questioning whether he even wrote this himself or someone did it for him. I shot a suspicious glance at Koko but he must have quickly realized what I was thinking since he started babbling in the most anxious voice.

"Please it's real, believe me. You have no idea how much I have gone thru to force him to write this thing. I had to basically threaten him with leaving the gang." I nodded my head. I didn't want to cause him even more stress so I decided to let it go.

"Thanks for the bubble tea." He just nodded his head finally sighing with relief.

"You're really gonna forget about it?" I nodded my head, but I could tell something was bothering him.

"Come on spit it out." I then proceeded to stab the straw into the plastic and take a sip.

"Taiju wonders when the third date will take place." I could see the sweat rolling down his forehead as I tried to progress what he just conveyed to me. I slammed my hand onto the table.

"Tell him to piss off!" But then a mission popped up.

'Would you rather slap Hajime Kokonoi or tell him if Taiju Shiba wanted another date he better kneel before you and beg for forgiveness." Yes, there was no way Taiju would ever do that, also why would I let out my anger on this poor guy, like don't hit the messenger.

"You know what, actually tell him that if he really wants another date, he better come and beg for forgiveness on his knees because whatever this is, isn't enough for me to even consider giving him another chance." I could see the dread in his eyes. He probably didn't want to deliver such a message to his boss. Since I felt quite agitated by this conversation I just left after realizing Kokonoi had nothing else to talk about.