297 Do Your Best to Get Along Well with Him (2/2)

Reo had forgotten meeting Peach-sensei and him at the school festival.

”It seems that you don't remember… well, there's no helping it, since we only met once. It was when you went to go play at Genhana High School's festival together with your uncle.” Seiji continued to smile.

”My uncle?” Reo echoed, confused. ”I haven't played together with my uncle in a really long time.”

She had forgotten an entire year's worth of memories together with Shouhei Hirai! In her mind, her parents had never died, and similarly, she had never been adopted by her uncle.

”That's why you wouldn't remember me; it's... been so long.” Seiji maintained his smile as his eyes flashed. ”Let's get to know each other again. My name is Seigo Harano. I'm your mother's friend.”

”Mother's… friend?”

At this moment, Mayuzumi entered the living room.

”Mom!” Reo called excitedly.

”Welcome home, Reo,” Mayuzumi said warmly.

”This big brother says that he's your friend, Mom…”

”Yes, he is.” Mayuzumi smiled as she glanced at Seiji. ”He's your mother's good friend. Due to some issues, he's going to start living here from today onwards. Get along well with him, Reo.”

”Eh… live here!?” The little girl's eyes widened in surprise.

”That's right. Sorry to bother you with this temporary stay.” Seiji chuckled. ”I won't live here for free. I'll help your mother out with the chores, and I can even help you with your homework or play games together with you.”

”I… I don't need you to help me! Nor do I need you to play with me!” The little girl automatically rejected him.

”No need to say that; your mother told us to get along. Let's be friends, Reo-chan.”

”Don't call me Reo-chan!” the little girl said, snorting.

”How about little sister Tachibana?”

”That's no good either!”

”Sister Reo.”

”So disgusting!”

”Little sister Reo~”

”Even worse!” The little girl kept up a stream of forceful retorts.

Seiji enjoyed his playful talk with Reo and cleverly manipulated the topic of conversation so that she imperceptibly started to lose her feelings of rejection towards him.

Mayuzumi smiled as she watched all this.

Actually, she was quite nervous inside, because if Reo didn't accept him, then…

Fortunately, what she worried about didn't come to happen.

Although Reo didn't seem too happy, she accepted this sudden strange big brother and agreed to allow him to live in her home.

That night, Mayuzumi and Seiji cooked a huge feast together.

During dinner, Seiji used appropriate conversation topics to have a fun discussion with the ”family” and told them all sorts of interesting stories.

Reo felt that this dinner was a lot livelier than usual, and her mother also smiled a lot more as well. She had lots of fun.

This big brother… didn't seem bad to her at all.

Later, when she was doing her homework, this big brother really did come and help her.

Under his instruction, she completed all the questions easily, even the ones she felt were difficult. Homework was over with so much faster than was typical!

Afterwards, they played games together.

Reo played together with him on a team against the computer. They had lots of fun and beat a level that she could never beat by herself before. She got to see a new level and boss monster.

After they lost to the new boss monster, the big brother taught her about what went wrong and created a new strategy. After they challenged the boss again, they succeeded in defeating it!

Reo felt like she was having the time of her life. In the past, when she played together with her mother, they weren't so successful in their games.

When this big brother said that it was getting late and that it was time to sleep, she didn't even want to go to bed and wanted to play a little longer with him.

”Let's play tomorrow. Although I want to play the next level together with Reo-chan as well, sleeping too late will be bad for your body,” the big brother said, smiling. ”Especially since Reo-chan is currently growing; only by sleeping properly can you grow from a child beauty to an adult beauty.”

The ”child beauty” Reo felt rather embarrassed to hear this, and her face started heating up.

”Good night, Reo-chan.”

”G-good night, Brother Harano.”

This was the first time she directly addressed him by his name.

When he heard this, his handsome smile seemed to become even brighter.

Reo became even more embarrassed and daintily ran off.