How could our friendship ever have gone sour?

Thinking of this, cold sweat broke out on Fujitani Chitsubaki's forehead. A terrible conjecture formed deep in her heart, making even the soles of her feet turn cold.

Yet she dared not believe such a thing could happen.

After all, that was a friend she had known and walked with for over twenty years. How could friendship warp to such an extent?

It was a relationship spanning more than twenty years!

Back then, when they used to take baths together, they had laughed and said that whoever gave birth to a daughter would marry her off to the other's son.

What now?

Since there was no daughter, did she really have to step up and take the place herself?!

Clutching at straws, Fujitani Chitsubaki prayed over and over in her heart that the situation was not as terrible as she imagined, and she raised her head to scan the surroundings, searching for the figures of Haruno Tsukasa and Shimizu Yuko.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Enoshima.

Haruno Tsukasa had arrived a step ahead to find Shimizu Yuko sitting by the lakeside, letting the damp wind mess her hair.

Yesterday, after picking up his mother, aside from the unexpected factor of Aunt Shimizu also coming to the station, Haruno Tsukasa had initially thought his mother would stay in Tokyo for a few days, during which he would arrange a tour before deciding whether she would return. He had not expected that she had already planned the entire itinerary in advance.

She had even contacted two other aunts, Kaneda Yuki and Ando Mika, preparing for a trip around Tokyo, starting from Tokyo to Kamakura, and then to Hakone, before heading back.

Plans could never keep up with changes.

Haruno Tsukasa had thus been forced to join this journey.

Yet before the trip had even truly begun, an accident had occurred, and it had reached a point where it urgently needed to be resolved.

Enoshima is located within Kanagawa Prefecture.

Roughly twenty thousand years ago, due to rising sea levels, this higher patch of land was forcibly isolated from the mainland, gradually becoming an island. Originally, it would reconnect with the shore during low tide, but following the Great Kanto Earthquake of the last century, tectonic plates shifted and compressed, causing the entire island to rise and reconnect with the mainland, though most of the island's perimeter still faces the sea.

One must admit that as a tourist destination in Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture, the scenery of Enoshima was truly breathtaking.

The seawater surrounding the island presented a mesmerizing deep blue, and looking out towards the west in the distance, one could even catch sight of the snow-capped Mount Fuji, giving off a strong romantic atmosphere.

However, this was clearly not the time for romance.

Watching the slightly absent-minded Shimizu Yuko, Haruno Tsukasa pondered for a moment and felt it necessary to give a heads-up beforehand. He walked over to her lightly and spoke in a soft voice:

"Aunt Shimizu."

Hearing Haruno Tsukasa's sudden voice, Shimizu Yuko turned her head reflexively, and panic instantly surfaced in the depths of her eyes.

Sitting on the lakeside bench, she felt completely at a loss. With darting eyes, she wanted to turn away, not daring to meet Haruno Tsukasa's gaze, but feeling his fixed stare lingering on her face, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and say:

"Oh, it's Tsukasa. What... what is it?"

Although every single day since that night she had dreamed of Haruno Tsukasa—and the longing to see him had made it nearly impossible for her to live a normal life—she had still managed to endure it.

Right up until this trip when Fujitani Chitsubaki came to Tokyo.

Even though she knew she had wronged Sister Tsubaki and would feel overwhelmingly guilty upon seeing her, a voice inside her mind kept repeatedly reminding her that she had to go see Haruno Tsukasa this time, and she also wanted to pour out all the words she had bottled up for days.

Yet now that she truly saw Haruno Tsukasa, she felt like a duck whose throat had been pinched, unable to utter a single word.

Seeing Shimizu Yuko like this, Haruno Tsukasa could roughly guess that her mind was in total chaos, but without wasting time, he organized his words and got straight to the point: "My mom might have guessed something."

"What?! Th-This, what should we do?!" Shimizu Yuko's lovely face froze, panic washing over her features.

"I can take responsibility."

Haruno Tsukasa said with a serious expression.

"Take responsibility... You... you foolish child! It's clearly Auntie's fault, what are you taking responsibility for!" Hearing this, Shimizu Yuko was stunned. Her lips moved silently a couple of times, making it difficult for her to even speak coherently, while her earlobes rapidly flushed red.

"But this kind of matter cannot be hidden forever."

"Even if it can't be hidden... it must be hidden."

"But Mom has already noticed something. Yesterday, she tested me several times about what happened the night you and she drank together at the bar, including the bedsheets you left behind at the house yesterday. If you string all of this together..."

Haruno Tsukasa explained with a solemn expression.

Ever since his mother discovered the hickey left by Hoshino Ruka on his neck yesterday, and Shimizu Yuko's reaction had been like a thunderclap on flat ground, that incident had acted like a fuse, infinitely magnifying suspicions that his mother hadn't paid much attention to initially. She had begun testing him intentionally or unintentionally, and her mouth had hardly stopped moving the entire day yesterday.

In truth, the flaws were simply too glaring.

Half a month ago, the two of them had simultaneously ignored phone calls.

When they finally answered, they had stammered and stuttered.

After that, they had cut off contact unilaterally, until hearing that Fujitani Chitsubaki was coming to Tokyo, they suddenly reappeared, only for blood-stained bedsheets to be discovered at home.

This was only because of the deep trust between friends, coupled with the natural relationship of aunt and nephew between Haruno Tsukasa and Shimizu Yuko, which prevented people from being overly suspicious. If it were Saikou Saaya instead, she probably would have sniffed out that something was wrong with her jealous-queen hound nose the very moment Haruno Tsukasa missed her call that night, and then grabbed him by the collar with boundless fury.

"It's fine, Auntie will never let you suffer this kind of grievance. I'll just say that I... did that... with someone else..."

"In short, absolutely do not admit it!"

"Otherwise, Auntie will feel even more sorry for you."

Shimizu Yuko clearly knew that this was caused by her own overreaction yesterday. For a moment, her heart was in total turmoil. After a long silence, she gritted her pearly white teeth and hardened her resolve.

"This..."

Hearing this, Haruno Tsukasa felt an even stronger surge of guilt. Looking at Shimizu Yuko, who was now too embarrassed to look at him, his conscience suffered a severe condemnation. He thought to himself that he had clearly established a principle of never touching good girls, only to break it shortly after starting out.

As for whether she counted as a girl...

Who said a woman in her forties couldn't still be a girl?

Originally intending to use Saikou Saaya as a shield, Haruno Tsukasa hesitated for a moment. He actually harbored the thought of just admitting to it, since he wasn't scummy enough to do something and then refuse to own up to it by shifting the blame.

However, after a brief hesitation, he decided to take a look at Shimizu Yuko's malicious thoughts to understand her true intentions.

Admitting to it outright was naturally not a good idea.

After all, in Haruno Tsukasa's memory, his mother was an extremely conservative person. The original body owner had even started intentionally avoiding suspicion during baths back in high school, let alone having an affair with her friend. She would probably pass out on the spot from pure anger.

If Shimizu Yuko loathed this experience, then Haruno Tsukasa would simply have to prepare some compensation.

Although he was a person who believed in transactions, Haruno Tsukasa, who had always drawn a clear line between good women and wicked women, would never confuse the two concepts, nor would he casually brush the matter off with money. After all, the very reason he didn't dare to touch good girls in the first place was his fear of moral condemnation—something that money simply could not measure at times.

Yet when he looked at Shimizu Yuko's face, moved his mind to pull up her malicious thought list, and read the information displayed on the light-red translucent screen, his entire body went numb.

[Target of Malicious Thoughts: Shimizu Yuko]

[The malicious thought list is as follows:]

[1. Might as well just tell Sister Tsubaki straight out. I'll take a little loss and go from being her younger sister to her daughter-in-law (Purple)]

[2. Hope Tsukasa's girlfriend doesn't find out (Blue)]

[3. Actually, I also wanted a child. I wonder if the medicine took effect yet. If I get pregnant, I'm scared it'll be a child without a father to acknowledge it, but if I don't, it's such a pity. Is it too late to get my stomach pumped now? (Blue)]

Haruno Tsukasa looked at Shimizu Yuko's resolute expression of self-sacrifice, then glanced back at the malicious thought list, feeling a stampede of ten thousand alpacas gallop through his heart.

Aunt Shimizu...

Why do you also love telling little white lies?