The weather in early June began to get muggy. The sky was so clear it was depressing, and the scorching sun began to spread its muggy heat early in the morning.
The Gotō residence.
Naoki Gotō, the head of the family, was enjoying a steaming cup of coffee and opening the newspaper he had just taken from the mailbox, intending to see what news there was recently—although mobile phones now had the ability to replace traditional media like newspapers, reading the newspaper every morning had become a habit for Father Gotō, and the new world brought by smartphones had not carried his boat as an old man.
Well, actually, it did; for example, he would secretly use his phone every day to watch his eldest daughter's YouTube channel, and occasionally, when he was in the mood, he would engage in a three-hundred-round battle with the trolls in the comment section, fully satisfying his heartfelt paternal love for his daughter.
Michiyo Gotō, on the other hand, was diligently preparing breakfast for the family of four and their dog.
At this moment, their younger daughter, Gotō Futari, came running down the stairs with quick, pattering steps.
"Mom and Dad, Hitori seems to be broken!" she said loudly.
"You should call her big sister, you can't be so disrespectful—" Naoki Gotō first said with a stern face, then calmly added, "Get ready for breakfast after you've washed up."
It wasn't that he didn't care about his eldest daughter; it was just that Gotō Hitori always did many strange things, and Naoki Gotō had long been somewhat immune to his eldest daughter's peculiar behavior.
In his opinion, as long as his eldest daughter, Gotō Hitori, grew up healthy and happy (questionable), everything else was fine, and it didn't matter if her personality was a bit strange…
"Is Hitori doing something strange again?" Michiyo Gotō, who was serving miso soup, asked with considerable concern.
It wasn't out of concern for her eldest daughter, but watching her eldest daughter, Gotō Hitori, do strange things in her room with her younger daughter was a way for her, as a housewife, to pass the time…
"Since yesterday, she's been making disgusting 'hehehe' laughter, but after laughing, she inexplicably falls into despair, and occasionally even bangs her head against the wall—" Gotō Futari said seriously.
"Isn't that pretty much the same as usual?" Father Gotō said calmly, closing his newspaper.
"Indeed, it's still the usual Hitori—" Mother Gotō said with a subtly disappointed expression.
"But just now, when Big Sister was washing up, she was muttering about going on a date today!" Little detective Gotō Futari presented a dramatic reversal testimony.
"What?!" Father Gotō nearly knocked over his coffee cup in shock.
"Hitori…—" Mother Gotō wiped the corner of her eye, "Has her mind finally broken? As expected, I should have stopped her when I first saw her bragging on YouTube about having a boyfriend…"
"Why do you two prefer to believe Big Sister's mind is broken, rather than believing she actually got a boyfriend?" Gotō Futari asked curiously.
Father Gotō: "Because it's Hitori…"
Mother Gotō: "Because it's Hitori…"
The couple exchanged a knowing smile, everything unspoken: "Right?"
"Big sister's credibility is really low…"
Gotō Futari mumbled as she climbed into her seat, looking at her full rice bowl and a plate of dashi spinach tamagoyaki with a small frown: "Can't we have toasted bread today?"
"We had a Western-style breakfast yesterday, so today we're having Japanese."
Michiyo Gotō earnestly instructed: "You must finish your green peppers too."
The little girl wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue, looking quite unwilling.
At this moment, Gotō Hitori also hurried down from upstairs.
Naoki Gotō looked at his eldest daughter's attire.
It was still that pink tracksuit that covered her entirely, even making one wonder if she wouldn't be hot wearing it in June, and a short skirt worn symbolically over her long sweatpants, whose purpose was unclear.
It was no different from her usual days.
Michiyo Gotō, on the other hand, looked at her eldest daughter's face and could almost immediately tell that she had applied almost nothing besides basic lotion; it was her usual bare-faced state, no different from when she lazily spent a day at home.
So the couple exchanged another glance, seeing the same meaning in each other's eyes.
As expected, dating was just her eldest daughter's delusion…
Although they felt a bit worried about their eldest daughter's future, considering that her YouTube channel seemed to be thriving, perhaps continuing to live idly like this could also be a way of life, so the couple said nothing.
As for her eldest daughter's fake date, it was probably just material for her to fabricate daily life with a boyfriend in her channel's updates.
In any case, it was already good that she was willing to go out and get some sun; at least it was much better than always staying cooped up at home on holidays… specifically, staying cooped up in her room's closet.
"Hitori, are you going out to play today?"
Thinking of this, Naoki Gotō kindly asked: "Do you have enough pocket money? Do you want Dad to give you an advance?"
Gotō Hitori, who had stayed up late in the closet researching a lot of 'date' related information and was now feeling a bit dizzy, was about to say she had enough, but couldn't help but feel a little worried.
After all, it was her first date, and it would be too embarrassing if she did anything strange.
Although she wasn't sure about the specifics, according to many posts, the final part of a date seemed to be going to a luxury hotel or something… If she didn't have enough money and needed Asakura to cover it, she would probably explode from shame on the spot.
So the girl shyly nodded: "Just a little advance, just a little…"
Gotō's father readily took out his wallet and handed a Fukuzawa Yukichi bill to his eldest daughter.
Gotō Hitori slurped her miso soup, thanking her father indistinctly.
"Don't eat so fast—"
Gotō's mother looked at her eldest daughter's decidedly unladylike eating manners and began to reflect on where her parenting approach had gone wrong to make her eldest daughter turn out this way: "There's still plenty of time anyway…"
"The, the online guide said… that, ahem… when going out with someone, arriving half an hour early is a default rule…"
Gotō Hitori mumbled, stuffing the tamagoyaki haphazardly into her mouth.
"That's usually for boys, isn't it? What kind of guide are you reading online anyway…?"
Naoki Gotō sighed helplessly.
Looking at his eldest daughter, who was this old yet still so naive about many common sense things regarding social interaction, he had already prepared to support her for life.