Inside the office of the Dolphin owner, Kotegawa Sayaka sat in her executive chair, meticulously settling the accounts.
This was a mandatory task at the end of every day. By tallying the fluctuations in revenue, she could determine if the shop's operational direction was flawed or if there was abnormal inventory loss.
As a high-powered businesswoman who had once established the Grand Blue diving shop—even if it was eventually led astray—she never ignored even the slightest ripple in the shop's earnings.
But today was different...
The tip of her pen rose and fell incessantly on the paper, making a rhythmic tap-tap sound like a punching timer.
Excessive ink blackened large sections of the revenue report; it had even bled through two or three layers of paper, soaking into the desk surface beneath and forming a stubborn, filthy stain.
But Kotegawa Sayaka didn't care. Her gaze was fixed on the clock ticking in the room, watching the hands spin circle after circle.
Just over twenty minutes ago, she had criticized Chisa for her lack of basic physiological health knowledge, but she hadn't expected her to "study" and correct her mistakes immediately! However...
"Um... Mom? Can I come in for a second?"
"You may. Is something the matter, Chisa?"
Fifteen minutes ago, Kotegawa Chisa had finally mustered the courage after a long hesitation to knock on her mother's door. She walked to the desk cautiously, like a child who had done something wrong.
With her head down, Sayaka was buried in the account numbers. She didn't have time to dote on her daughter, so without looking up, she asked casually, "What is it? Do you think my lecture was wrong?"
"No, not at all!"
Like a startled deer, Chisa instantly straightened her back and widened her eyes, waving her hands frantically to show she had zero objections to her mother's earlier lesson.
She glanced back briefly at Aina, who was hiding by the door giving her a thumbs-up. Only then did she manage to steady her nerves. Awkwardly scratching her cheek and turning her body slightly, she explained in a small voice, "Actually, there's some physiological health knowledge I didn't quite understand. I wanted to ask for advice."
"Physiological health knowledge? No problem. Ask away."
"Um... it's just, in general, what tools do boys need to solve their... physiological needs? Like, 'books' and stuff?"
"Huh?"
Stunned by the question, Sayaka immediately looked up, removed her sunglasses, and stared at her visibly embarrassed second daughter. Her eyes were filled with 100% confusion and bafflement.
But then, pressing her hand to her forehead, she had a second thought: a daughter asking her mother about male physiology—this seemed perfectly reasonable and logical!
Was it because she had provided too little education to Chisa when she was younger that the girl was making a fuss over nothing now?
"Chisa, why are you asking this?"
"I just felt that I was indeed lacking in knowledge, so I wanted to take some time to learn. That's all!"
"Ugh..."
Startled into popping a piece of candy to calm her nerves, Sayaka stared at Chisa, whose toes were practically curling into the floor out of embarrassment. For a moment, she couldn't tell if the girl was hiding something or just genuinely flustered by the absurd question.
But as a mother, since the child had asked humbly, she couldn't find a reason to refuse an answer.
"Generally speaking... they might need something to set the mood, but if they're in a pinch, just using their hands is also fine."
"Just using hands is enough?!"
Chisa's wide eyes were full of shock. She bit her lip, digesting this taboo knowledge, then bowed deeply and thanked her mother in a voice so small it was barely audible to the naked ear.
"I understand... thank you very much!!!"
Click.
Maintaining her bowing posture, she backed out of the room and gently closed the door, acting as if she had never been there at all.
...
"..."
End of flashback! Kotegawa Sayaka had been uneasy ever since Chisa left!
Even as she tried to force her focus back onto the accounts, the nagging thoughts popping up made her admit that she was extremely concerned about what Chisa was planning!
At this thought, she slammed her fountain pen onto the desk, stood up, and marched out of the office toward the boys' lounge.
As long as Iori was there, Chisa couldn't possibly pull any stunts, and she wouldn't be branded a "nosey bad mom" for checking in too frequently!
However, when she pushed open the door to the boys' lounge, she found the lights were off. There were unfinished beer cans in the room—clearly, the last occupants had left in a hurry!
[Yuu, I have something to take care of and will be home a bit late. If you're in a hurry, you can take a taxi back! The shop will reimburse the fare!]
Her ominous premonition grew stronger. This time, Sayaka didn't care about being "annoying." She rushed to the counter, grabbed her car keys, and headed straight for her van.
As the engine roared to life, the headlights instantly illuminated the window of the girls' lounge.
Glancing at the light outside the curtain, Miyazawa Yuu shrugged as if to say "none of my business" and continued his high-performance "onslaught" mode!
Meanwhile, on the other side, Kitahara Iori was deep in thought. Although he had admitted a few days ago at the water park that he did look at Chisa with "erotic eyes," still...
"Finished! I'm sorry, Iori, this is the limit of what I can do!"
In the dim room, Kotegawa Chisa's face was flushed red. Suppressing her intense bashfulness, she used scissors to cut out the largest headshot from an "adult book" she'd found in the souvenir shop.
She took some cotton thread, poked holes through the sides of the paper, and tied it over her face... Mission accomplished!
"Um... Chisa, if I've done something wrong, please let the law punish me. What is this even for?!"
"Don't talk!"
She lunged at Iori. Chisa couldn't see his expression through the mask, but looking down, she could see his lips.
For some reason, even though this wasn't part of the plan, she felt compelled to lower her body and press her lips against his!
"???"
The moment he felt the soft contact, Kitahara Iori's brain completely short-circuited. Chisa had gone through all the trouble of tricking him into the room and handcuffing his hands just for a kiss?
She could have just said so! He wouldn't have said no. Was all this effort really necessary...
"Mmm!"
As he thought this, his pupils dilated to the maximum as his teeth were pried open—something unknown was invading his mouth!
Wait, this isn't right!
As a "scumbag" who was slightly more grounded in reality than the blonde guy, he knew that impatient boys sometimes made "moves" during a kiss.
But going for advanced maneuvers during a first kiss? That was usually something girls despised! And under normal circumstances, the genders should be reversed, right?!
"Puh-ha!"
Inexperienced as she was, even though Chisa was a long-time diver, her breath-holding capacity was actually slightly inferior to an average person's. After a few seconds, she raised her head, gasping for air to fill her lungs.
Iori, on the other hand, was like a dead man. Compared to Chisa, his CPU was so overloaded he couldn't react at all.
Right now, a single sentence was looping in his head: "Damn! I think I was just force-kissed by Chisa! And it was the super-lewd kind!"
"This... should be enough, right?"
Running a finger over her lips, Chisa's eyes were swirling. She didn't know if she should wipe her mouth after a kiss—it felt a bit unhygienic.
But seeing that Iori still wasn't moving, in order to maintain her momentum, she steeled herself and narrowed her eyes. Her small hands grabbed Iori's clothes and pulled!
For convenience, the Dolphin work uniforms had pants with a simple elastic waistband. They were the type that would fall off with one tug.
Just as Chisa was finishing her "siege" and was only one step away—her hands already gripping the waistband—
Kitahara Iori finally sucked his escaping soul back into his body. Terrified, he threw himself into a wide split, desperately trying to hold the final line of defense!
"Wait, wait, wait! Chisa, listen to me! This kind of thing can't be done casually! At the very least, we have to discuss it and prepare protection first!"
"It's fine. If I only use my hands, nothing will happen!"
"Huh? What kind of 'wolf-and-tiger' words are you saying? I mean no! And where are your manners? Hands aren't okay either!!!"
The "Great Split Technique" was effective. At the very least, Chisa fumbled around for a while but couldn't quite pull the annoying pants all the way down.
Seeing as she was clearly the one "losing out" here and Iori still had the nerve to be difficult and uncooperative, she frowned, and her grip naturally became a bit less controlled...
"Eek!"
"Hold on! What are you two doing?!"
The moment she entered the villa, Kotegawa Sayaka heard Iori's cry of agony-turned-relief. Fearing her daughter had done something drastic, she burst through the door without hesitation!
In the dim room, she saw Kitahara Iori with his hands handcuffed to the bedframe, clothes dishevelled, and foaming at the mouth—he looked as if he had literally passed away.
Meanwhile, Kotegawa Chisa was squeezing something soft in her hand, turning back to her mother in total bewilderment!
"Mom? Why are you here?"
"I should be asking you—what the hell did you just do?!"
Chapter 328: The Mother-in-Law's Punishment?
"Well~ because some very bad, bad things happened yesterday, we might be a little bit shorthanded today."
"Mm-hmm!"
During the routine inspection before Dolphin opened, Kujo Maki held her chin in deep thought. Then, she opened her bright eyes and looked at her boss's "future son-in-law" in confusion.
"Yuu, are you saying that due to 'accidents,' half of the staff can't make it to work today?!"
"Deeply sorry. But it was all due to irresistible force..."
Miyazawa Yuu nodded seriously, letting out a heavy sigh with a solemn expression. To be honest, he didn't want this to happen either!
But Aina couldn't even get out of bed right now; Iori had suffered a "fatal strike" and was still foaming at the mouth; as for Nanaka...
Perhaps because her mother was right upstairs, he had gone a bit overboard yesterday. He estimated that she wouldn't have much mobility for the rest of the day~
"Alright, Maki. We don't have many guests today anyway~ we'll just work a bit harder!"
"The manager makes a good point! However..."
Maki had her head patted, but she wasn't a girl who was easily fooled!
With her hands on her hips, she stared intensely at Miyazawa Yuu. Slowly, she shifted her gaze downward until it locked onto his underwear!
Rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things, her cheeks instantly puffed up with air. "Pffft! Is wearing your underwear inside-out some kind of new trend now?"
"Regrettably, Japan hasn't reached that level of insanity yet!"
He knew it would be discovered. Wearing underwear inside-out was just too obvious. Yuu accepted his friend's mockery with his signature "dead-fish" eyes.
He only hoped the day would go smoothly. He didn't want to leave the shop on the final day with a legend that said: "He had great skills, but was a pervert who wore his underwear inside-out!"
"Hahaha! Hey! Yuu, what kind of mental state were you in when you did that? Is your head broken?!"
"Hey, hey! That laughter is a bit rude!"
His expression shifted from calm to disdain. Yuu lowered his head in mock distress, then pointed a finger and said seriously, "If you really want to know, this should be... the mother-in-law's punishment?"
After all, the bet with Iori and the others was only about wearing it backward. This "inside-out" business was Sayaka's punishment for him misleading Aina to the point where the situation almost became irreversible!
To be honest, when the Manager stopped Chisa and saved Iori yesterday, and then realized he and Nanaka were still at the shop, she had practically exploded~
If Chisa hadn't held her back, Yuu might have been chopped into three pieces with a fire axe. Compared to that, this level of punishment was very merciful!
"Eh? Why is it that when those words come out of Yuu's mouth, I get an indescribable feeling?"
"Who knows. Maybe that's just personal charm~"
"The 'personal charm' of wearing underwear backward? Well~ anyway, what on earth did you do to upset the Manager? I keep telling you, life is better if you're a good boy~"
Maki shook her head in disappointment. In her opinion, Yuu and Iori were just too rambunctious; they never learned how to act according to the person they were dealing with!
Knowing the Manager had a short temper and still provoking her... unlike Maki herself! Although she always cracked dirty jokes in front of colleagues, she was incredibly well-behaved in front of the boss!
"Eh?"
Continuing to stare at Maki with dead-fish eyes, Yuu tilted his head and asked suggestively, "Maki, have you really never made the Manager angry?"
"Of course!"
Maki puffed out her chest with pride. She closed her eyes triumphantly, absolutely certain! Constant! And positive! She would never upset the boss. She was a "good baby"!
"I see~ In that case, Maki, why don't you take a look behind you?"
"Behind me?"
Stunned for a second, Maki confusedly turned half her body around. When she saw the Manager standing there radiating dark energy, cold sweat began to slide down her forehead. "Ah-ra~"
"Maki? Was it you who told Aina that boys would 'explode down there' if they didn't have sex for two weeks?"
Kotegawa Sayaka took the lollipop out of her mouth and shoved it into Maki's. She tilted her sunglasses up slightly so that her furious gaze could be seen by Maki, who was a head shorter.
Gulp!
Her Adam's apple bobbed. Under the Manager's murderous glare, Maki's cold sweat poured down her face. Her expression turned into a cartoonish look of guilt!
Five minutes later...
"Uuuu..."
Protecting her chest with her hands, Kujo Maki had three large lumps on her head, and her Dolphin T-shirt had been unceremoniously turned around.
The most direct result was that she felt like the Manager's invisible hand was constantly strangling her, and her chest was so squeezed she could barely breathe!
As for her back, it was wide open. The autumn sea breeze could slip right into her collar, slide down the hollow of her spine, and lick all the way down!
"Ah-ra~ what happened here? Maki-chan, I just wanted to see that face! That face of resentment! Gye-he-he-he!"
"Ah, even if Maki started it, that's a bit cruel..."
"Don't worry about it. these people spend half their time trying to prank each other to death. This is perfectly normal behavior."
Chisa couldn't bear to look at Yuu's smug face. She sighed and pressed a hand to her face, her eyes peeking through her fingers at her mother.
Since last night, her mother's mood had been terrible, and she hadn't said a word to her. This made the girl feel a rare sense of panic, like back when she first arrived at Dolphin...
"Mom! I..."
"Alright! Stop messing around. Get ready to open for business!"
Sitting sideways behind the counter, Sayaka cut Chisa off. Chisa wanted to say something to ease the tension between them, but Sayaka just waved her order board for the "surviving" staff to get to work!
Hearing this, Yuu stretched. He stopped teasing the near-tears Maki and turned toward the shop's sofa.
"Wake up, Kohei. You don't have a day off. Don't think you can escape work just by staying quiet!"
"Dammit... let me lie down for a bit longer! My back hurts!"
"Huh? You need to work on your conditioning. I'm worried Aina's going to snap that puny body of yours one of these days! Get to work!"
Yuu gave a disdainful look at Kohei's "useless" lower half. Ignoring his complaints, he hauled the bastard up and headed for the front line!
Mr. John had been drunk under the table by Iori and Kohei yesterday. Now, Yuu and Kohei were the only two men left at Dolphin! Did the guy really expect Yuu to do all the work himself?
"..."
"What is it, Chisa? Do you need a rest too?"
Sayaka felt a headache coming on just looking at Yuu. She stood up, intending to go upstairs for a nap; the impact of last night's events had been so great she hadn't fallen asleep until 2 or 3 AM.
However, as she turned, she noticed that amidst the frantic activity, Chisa was standing still. Her expression looked like she had something she desperately needed to get off her chest.
"No, I don't..."
Her voice earlier definitely wasn't quiet. Chisa stared at her expressionless mother and bit her lower lip. It made sense—after such a massive blunder, it was only natural for her mother to be upset with her.
"Ah, Chisa did seem to be calling for you just now, Mother-in-law."
"Yuu!?"
Chisa stared in bewilderment at the guy who had suddenly reappeared. She thought he had already lost himself in the world of tormenting Kohei!
"Is that so, Chisa? If you have something to say, just say it! My ears aren't just for decoration."
"Sigh... What Mother-in-law means is, you can come to her with problems anytime. Also, she doesn't mind what happened last night anymore."
Yuu knew this mother-daughter duo was going to make things difficult, which was why he chose to return the moment he realized Chisa hadn't followed.
Standing between Chisa and Sayaka with his arms crossed, he braved his mother-in-law's murderous gaze to act as a translator, interpreting Sayaka's harsh tone according to his own understanding.
"Eh? But I clearly did something wrong, and I almost hurt Iori..."
Based on her trust in Yuu, Chisa seamlessly accepted his colloquial explanation. She widened her orange eyes and looked at Sayaka with a touch of surprise!
She had thought her mother resented her, but she had already been forgiven?
"..."
Burned by her daughter's glowing gaze, Sayaka's brow twitched in embarrassment. The "Iceberg" base code in her brain began to battle with her desire to be close to her daughter.
"It's only natural to be clumsy sometimes. Besides, Iori isn't complaining, so why should I interfere!"
"Chisa is clumsy but I don't hate it. And Iori has no complaints. Since that's the case, you two 'lovebirds' can solve your own problems!"
"Lovebirds?! Iori and I aren't..."
"Telling me is useless. It seems Mother-in-law has already decided!"
Yuu's eye twitched. Although the little brat was indeed speaking her true feelings, the intense shame of having her "inner thoughts" exposed made the veins on Sayaka's temple throb.
Walking slowly behind Yuu, she raised her registration board high with an expressionless face!