Chapter 4: Connecting With Koji

Two months passed since the school meeting. Many things happened in the last two months. Over 60 days of weird things and syringe usage.

To start off, Hitoshi and Iori went steady, truly a couple meant to be. Iori’s leg injury? She was recovering at a faster rate than expected. While the doctor said that she would be out for several months, only took about three for her to start physiotherapy. This made a huge difference since whenever she wasn’t in pain, she went to school, leaving Toshiro to do his normal regular job. But some days, he had to be her in days that she didn’t have to do Theater or PE classes, as it would give it away her injury, as well the days she was in pain. At home she used a wheelchair whenever the pain was too strong and had her knee bandaged for the most part when it wasn’t. Better safe than sorry after all.

Thankfully, Toshiro had a bit of a support net for the whole ‘pretend to be daughter’ thing, with Miki, Keizo and Hitoshi, surprisingly. Miki was the one holding the fort at the agency, but some days needed Toshiro to go, so Keizo was called in. Keizo, the master actor he was, was having a lot of fun being Miki sometimes for Toshiro, with the wife’s consent, flirting with him and being just a funny guy. Toshiro’s face throughout said it all. To top it all off, he kept sending really thirst pics to the parent. Miki got ahold of that and demanded to be added to this, so now both her and him kept sending thirst pics to Toshiro. Oh joys of joy.

Some days, when Keizo was out of town, Hitoshi was called in as well. While the boy didn’t pretend to be his girlfriend, he did pretend to be the parents after some weird requests. It felt super fun to the boy, he felt he was riding a rollercoaster. Perhaps he could be an actor someday, like Keizo. The boy was back at school full time, so whenever Toshiro was around as Iori, the two hanged out. He learned a lot about the boy, the only one that looked at Iori and saw a person, not just an idol. It felt quite refreshing.

As for Toshiro? He became so skilled at being a woman that it turned out to be second nature to him. Thanks to Miki and Iori, he learned how to apply makeup, put on bras, dress up, and even create a minor sense of fashion, figuring out if something went well with something else! Impressive for a guy that sometimes painted his nails black and essentially nothing else. If Toshiro had to admit it, he liked being a woman sometimes and his daughter in specific. But since they had dozen, hundreds, even thousands of syringes, he swapped back whenever he was home. Since he was still the dad, he had to take care of things, both with his company and at his home. Thankfully, not much happened during these days, other than taking Iori to the physiotherapy sessions, and having Keizo to cover for her.

This unfortunately made Koji a standout. He was smart, patient, calm… Not all the time, but most of the time. He was the first son but didn’t care a single bit about being an idol or dancing, but had a gigantic amount of respect to the business, mostly because his father used to be one and his father’s company was directed to have idol talents, which also paid for his life and school tutelage. No way he was gonna look a gift on a horse’s mouth.

He was a big nerd, loved Math for ages and could make a lot of things happened, winning mechanical projects awards at high school, the same that Iori went to. The big nerd aspect was more and more downplayed as he got older, turning into a fairly mature young man, not jealous of the sister’s success, and learning how to sign his name on things, because some of her fame obviously rubbed off on himself. He found it fascinating that people could be like that.

Unfortunately for Toshiro, it became much harder to connect with own son after he turned 18. He went to University, got his own friends, and since the Campus was very far away from home, in case, it was in another prefecture and city, Aichi, Nagoia and Toshiro was always working on things, it made difficult to connect to him. While the travel a few hours by train, it was still far from home. Toshiro only found out that Koji was getting a degree on Mechanical Engineering after the first time he went back home once the first break happened.

One day, in a rainy Tuesday, Toshiro was working on his office, and got a call from Koji. This call would be enough for him to try to reconnect with his son, after he spoke.

“Dad. Major code red…! You gotta help me…! Maybe get Mom or Miiyabe-san to help me too…!” He said, very distressed on the call. “I kept lying to my buddies that I had a girlfriend and they are insisting to see her! I can’t do stuff myself, I didn’t take any syringes with me! Please help me! I’ll do anything you want, literally anything!”

That was clearly the chance for reconnect with him and for a second there, it felt like the universe was just laughing at him, waiting for the perfect moment for him to let his guard down. Because of course, the one best chance he was getting to reconnect with his son ever since he attended university would not only involve the serum itself, but would also start with him being asked under duress for assistance. He was not gonna complain, since it was his own son, but he couldn’t help but to feel like the stars had conveniently aligned to allow something like this into happening.

Wait, come to think of it, how the hell did he even get himself to this kind of trouble? He thought that by the time he was already halfway through university, Koji would’ve been smart enough not to bullshit himself into a corner! This was the sort of thing only young high school boys would get themselves into! Were his friends just easily taking his words for granted or something?

‘Okay, calm down…’

Toshiro needed to keep himself calm. His son probably didn’t need him panicking right now. What he needed was an actual solution.

“…Okay. First off, I’d have to ask. Just how did you get yourself to this point, Koji?” Toshiro asked, taking a nearby seat before rubbing his eyes. “I thought you already knew not to put yourself into a corner in terms of romantic relationships. That includes lying about them.”

“Well, I kept talking about how I was talking to someone and they were all curious about it. But this is a recent thing. But they think it’s a hot girl or something because I’ve never shown any pictures. In fact, I was using that chatting app ‘Damnation’ and added Miiyabe-san to it, and they thought it was her, since he doesn’t have the same name as his real name.”

Oops, it appeared that Keizo caused this by accident.

“So, like, there’s nothing but now they refuse to let me be part of the engineering projects we have unless I show her face.”

He sounded pretty desperate, from his tone.

“Dad, you gotta help me, please! I’ll do anything you want, I need this project to get good grades and graduate!”

“…Oh.” The realization was enough to alleviate Toshiro’s worries. Even if it was just slightly.

At that point, it wasn’t like his son could do anything about it. He was practically a victim of circumstance, so at most, he would either have to rain on his friends’ parade, or commit to the bit even further. And just like he already said, the former wasn’t exactly an option for him.

‘Ahhhh…’

That was what the serum was for anyhow. Might as well just put it to good use here.

“Okay, okay son, slow down a bit. It sounded like you were on the verge of a panic attack.” Toshiro said, making sure his tone was leveled as he talked to the young man. “Just slowly breathe in, and breathe out. In… and out… slowly.”

Koji breathed in and out a few times, during the call. It seemed to help a bit but the situation was still a bit crazy.

“Please, dad… We might have to kiss a few times but I’ll treat you like you’re a real girlfriend, at least in front of them…”

That wasn’t the best thing to have happened with Koji but considering how it was, he had no choice but to help his first son. Thankfully, Toshiro could ask for Keizo to cover him as Iori and go deal with it. Perhaps even his wife could help, at least outfit wise. Good thing he was already gotten used to being a woman through Iori. Hopefully, both his wife and Keizo would be able to cover for him in his absence, in both parts of his daily life, if he were to elaborate.

“You didn’t even need to ask, Koji. You just need to tell me when.” He said, already bringing out a notebook for him to write on. “What sorta girlfriend are we talking here? Not to mention her appearance? You got anything in mind?”

“Shit…”

The son replied over the phone. He didn’t really think on that, just the ‘asking for help part’.

“I get to pick? Okay, like… Maybe someone that is 19, pretty cute, short black hair…”

Koji started to list the things he wanted Toshiro to be, but the gist of it was this: A cute late teens girl, with black hair, but also hot. Black short hair, with a strand of hair flopping on the left side. Busty, nice wide hips. Mole under the mouth, left side to her, so right side to others. Outfit didn’t matter but Toshiro could grab some from either Kasumi or Iori. Personality was a little different, considering that Toshiro could imitate his daughter, but that wouldn’t desirable.

“Uh… How about my sister’s friend? She’s quite nice, and everything. Maybe you could copy that? But also tease me a bit, just to make them know she’s my girl.”

He ended with that, and that was a good 6 minutes of talking from him, listing the things he wanted on the disguise.

Each and every detail was written down like Toshiro was talking to a client or partner about the requirements he needed to fulfill in their impromptu meeting. Other younger folk would’ve probably done this through some sort of notes app they’ve kept on their phone, but with how long he’s been in the position of CEO, just jotting it down on a physical notepad was filling the same purpose for him.

“Almost reaching 20… black hair, with a strand on the left side… Hourglass figure with wide hips… Mole under mouth, left side of her face… Iori’s friend, teases you a lot… There. I think I got the gist of it.” He said, tapping his pen on the notepad itself. “Anything else you’d wanna add, kiddo? If you got some extra details, send ’em over.”

“Oh, uh, white dress shirt, tie, skirt, thighhighs, choker, long nails.” He said, as if he ordered something from an online shop or even a fast food joint.

“That should be enough, dad… You could arrive here as yourself if you like, although people would recognize you… You’re still pretty famous.” That was also something that Toshiro had to keep in mind.

“I think I’d rather not, Koji.” Toshiro forced out a smile, even through the phone call itself. “The last thing I’d want is for people to speculate why I’m heading to Nagoya all of the sudden when I’ve got all of Iori’s scheduling lined up. Unless if you want me to stick around for less than a day at most, then I’m gonna have to get someone to substitute as me here.”

Which reminds him, it might be time for him to ask Keizo for help, unsure of how soon his son was going to need his fabled girlfriend’s attendance.

Toshiro

Hey. Keizo. Gonna need you to do a favor for me, just for a bit.

You got some free time? If so, we’re gonna need your help.I’m gonna head over to Nagoya to help out my son, so in the meantime, I’ll need you to take my place. That includes living out Iori’s life, along with whatever meetings I’d have with my business partners in a few days time. You think you can do that?

Keizo’s reply came quickly, as he was probably using his phone.

Keizo

Yoo, big man.

Sure thing! I bet no one will notice there was a change! I’ll be there in a bit.

With that covered, it was time to morph and go to Nagoya, to help Koji out. All he needed to do was to take a peek at his own notes and… Yeah, that’s quite a lot to go through in terms of a list. Long enough that he might need some trial and error to make his requested girlfriend perfect.

Short black hair, hourglass figure, white dress shirt, tie, skirt, etcetera, etcetera… It took him a while to fine tune the details, making sure the sort of appearance Koji was asking actually looked good in the first place. Took a few tries to do so, but soon enough…

“…wow…” She said, almost speechless and blushing as she stared at her own figure. Her son certainly had great taste for requesting this.

“… wow…” Those were also the words from Iori, in a wheelchair, rolling around the upstairs. For a moment there, Toshiro had initially thought he was alone in the room. No one seemed like they gonna give him the time of day. Not unless he happened to find a pervert getting handsy with him on some train. He could almost hear some of those wheels of Iori squeaking as she approached, supporting Toshiro’s decision to look as this sort of girl specifically.

“Is that you Dad?” She asked, incredibly surprised. “That is so hot…! You should definitely get a photoshoot with this look, it would blow up on the internet!”

And from the looks of it, and from what Toshiro knew about online engagement, she was completely right.

“Ah…! S… Sweetie, if I’d wanna do that, I’d have to make the account first. Which means asking Koji first if he liked the idea.” Toshiro said, tracing a section of her lips with just her pinkie finger.

“Mnn… Definitely feels good. I think I might be ready to go!” She exclaimed.

“C’mon…” Iori had her phone, because of course she did, and quickly set up an account for this look that Toshiro had.

“Pose for me a few times…” She asked and before Toshiro could, photos were already taken. A bit of a thinking later from Iori and some typing, she showed the other girl an account on PicFollow, with the screen name ‘YoshikoFancy’.

“I named you ‘Yoshiko’, because it’s a cute name~” Iori said, and turned out to be a good name for this look.

By the time Iori had already given her a name (which granted, did actually sound cute to her ears), ‘Yoshiko’ could only flatly stare at her, only giving her newly created social media page a glance.

“You’re not even gonna ask your brother on whether or not this was a good idea? You sure about this?” She asked with a visible frown. “At least the page itself looks convincing. Some people are gonna wonder why the pics were made recently, though…”

“Trust me, with a look like this, it’s gonna look more plausible that you had a PicFollow account than that you didn’t.” Iori said, trying to lecture her dad over girl things.

It turned out that Toshiro still had a lot of learn about girls. Oh well, this was a good opportunity to learn.

Either that, or maybe he’s getting a little out of touch as to what is expected of a young woman these days. Especially one that’s around Koji’s age.

Can anyone even blame her, though? Social media wasn’t even a thing while he was at that age! At most, there were only discussion forums and anonymous image boards for people to talk about various topics. And people were even discouraged to reveal personal information on the internet!

Agh… whatever. At least people should be convinced that ‘Yoshiko’ technically exists as a person.

“Well, as long as it sells the look…” She trailed off, already pulling out her personal. “But since you can probably guess, I’ll be away from home for a while. In the meantime, Keizo’ll be here to act out as me. You okay with that?”

“I’m fine, he has been around here anyway.” Iori said, smiling. “Have fun with Koji, dad. You’ll gonna need it.”

That sounded ominous. Did she know more than she let on?

—

After using her personal credit card to buy the tickets to head to Nagoia, ‘Yoshiko’ made her way to the Koji’s college, in the middle of the city.

The Nagochi University was an academy with enough prestige that people from several different regions wanted to be there, and their Engineering studies were almost at the very top of the national rankings. Toshiro never knew exactly the reason why Koji didn’t want to follow the idol footsteps, and also not really the reason why Koji decided to go that way either.

His son was more or less a mystery but that happened to be because he had to take care of his company’s business and Iori as the star of the company, so much so that he could pretend to be his own daughter and almost no one was able to notice the difference.

Whatever the case with him going for an engineering degree instead of being an idol, at least it was something that Koji wanted to do. Granted, he probably could’ve done so without bullshitting about his romantic life in the first place, but he hasn’t even reached 21 years old. He’ll be able to learn eventually.

Toshiro arrived a couple of hours later, at night. Koji gave him a message saying that he was in the campus 3, second floor, room 203. And there was a message from Iori once he checked the MINE message app.

Iori

Here’s the account details for the PicFollow I made.

She gave him the user and password for it.

Iori

Take some pics with him, to make sure that Yoshiko is really real, dad. <3

Iori was being super helpful, it helped that she was already used to it as well.

Toshiro

Considering the sort of friends he’s talking to, I got a feeling it wouldn’t take much convincing for them.

They’ll sooner get distracted than to wonder where I came from.

But regardless, I’ll make sure to keep that in mind.

Knowing Koji himself, he probably wouldn’t complain in taking a pic with a girl as sexy as this anyway. It’d be the perfect attention grabber for him and his friends.

Now, where’s this Room 203 on campus? The buildings here looked gigantic, so she wasn’t really sure if he might be looking into the wrong wing of a particular building.

It was night time, not many people around and worse, there was no map available. Even though Koji did say it was ‘Campus 3’, where was Campus 3? Was the place she was located in the right Campus?

An entire hour passed by and it was no better than before. Toshiro was truly lost in this University. The poor visibility didn’t help, since many places didn’t have street lights, making them difficult to walk around. Even worse with the outfit she was using.

20 minutes later, Koji send her a message.

Koji

Where you at? I’m outside the dorm building but I don’t see you

And she couldn’t see anyone at any place, it was quite distressing.

Koji

Stay put, I’ll come find you. What is the landmark you see rn?

Toshiro could see the statue of a dragon from a distance, maybe 500 meters away, in a very well lit area, like it was part of a park inside the University complex. This just showed how long it’s been since she was in college, almost two decades ago, she would’ve been able to figure out the layout without any problems, even with the lack of a map for her to see. But now, she felt like she had been walking around with her eyes crossed and her legs being out of sync. Best for her to hope that Koji wouldn’t give her too much shit about this.

‘Let’s see…’

That dragon statue… Maybe it was used as a gathering ground for students to meet up at? Or to be used as a place for outdoor events? Whatever it was, she walked to it, as it was brightly lit.

Toshiro

I can see a dragon from over here. About half a kilo from where I am.

To be honest, I don’t really know where I actually am. I’ve been wandering around for about an hour.

Koji replied with a few words.

Koji

Ah shit… You’re Campus 5… This place is too big, wait for me, I’ll get you out of there.

After about 10 minutes of looking at nothing, the blonde boy showed up. “Wowie, dad… You look more girlfriend than ever…” He let out a whistle after seeing her. “I’m impressed, that looks fantastic…” And no backhand off-hand comment either. Yeah, he truly impressed.

Thank god Koji had managed to find her. It was almost 9, so they’d only have a few hours left to meet with his friends. She’d also need a moment to sit down once she’s there, since her feet was starting to feel exhausted from all this walking. Guess her original body’s benefits weren’t really carried over to this new one.

“Sorry about that, by the way. This place is like a maze, the first time I was here, I was lost for a couple of hours. So it wasn’t just you.” Koji said, not giving any shit to her about this.

With that, off they went to Campus 2, but slowly. “Sorry to put you on this but like… There was no way I’d be able to do it on my own… Since they wanted to see me with the girl and I can’t just split into two like that, you know?” He spoke as they walked.

Closely following Koji, she would respond with a question of her own. “Even then, why’d you have to get yourself into all this in the first place, anyway? Didn’t I already told you that lying never ends well if you end up doing it too much? You’ve still got quite a lot to learn about relationships, but… Come on.”

“Shit, I dunno, peer pressure? You had it harder when you were my age, like you kept saying but like…” He was about to be confrontational but sighed. “Look, I dunno, ok? Miiyabe-san kept talking with me with emojis and people that were nosey about it thought it was a girl, then I didn’t just admit it was Miiyabe-san, one of the most famous actors of our generation…”

That probably had something to do with it. He would have to lie anyway but chose the least nuclear one, so to speak.

“A-Anyway…” After a bit of walking, they were in Campus 2. “Here we are…”

The middle of the area had a giant eagle statue, probably to signify that they were in a different place.

Koji took her to the dorm, room 203. He turned on the lights.

“Here we are, this is my room.” He said, pretty tidy too. Toshiro could finally sit to rest her legs.

“Ahhh, finally…” ‘Yoshiko’ sighed in sweet relief, taking a seat on the bed itself as she massaged her feet. Already, she could sense the strain on them being alleviated, right from the moment her butt landed on the mattress.

“It’s a good thing I kept up with my cardio, but walking around the place for an hour straight wasn’t exactly fun. Did no one in this uni ever thought of putting in maps in front of buildings? Maybe even bus stops?” She asked, sounding rather annoyed that it took this long to even find his room.

“Yeah, it’s a work in progress, apparently.” He sighed. “Now that I look at you a bit more…” Koji nodded. “Yeah, that can work, definitely…!”

Toshiro was gonna save his son’s bacon with this new look. “Do you have a name I should call you?” He asked, trying to get some notes down.

“I was gonna think that one over myself, buuuut… your sister already did that for me.” She said, pulling out her phone to show her recently made PicFollow page to Toshiro. “From now on, you’re gonna call me ‘Yoshiko’. I didn’t much for a surname, but I feel like your boys aren’t gonna be asking that anytime soon.”

Or asking much for her personal details at all, now that she thought about it. Hopefully they’d be too distracted to do so.

“Whaddaya think? Sounds like a pretty cute name, right~?” ‘Yoshiko’ hummed, leaning a bit forward with her hands on her waist.

“Iori…” Koji closed his eyes and nodded. “Nice one, sis. I owe you, I guess.”

“‘Yoshiko’ fits you, you’re super cute like this…” He nodded again. “Man those syringes are wild. I’ll try to figure out if they have any drawbacks… Hopefully none. Did you bring some with you?”

Koji pulled out his phone and sent a message into the family chat, that was barely used.

Koji

Thanks sis. You know for what reason.

That was the notification that arrived to Toshiro as well. Looked like Iori really did have a good shoulder in figuring out what her brother was asking for. She still would’ve appreciated if Iori asked him first, but hey, as long as it worked out for Koji she supposed.

Right, spare syringes. Now that she thought about it, she probably brought some with her within her purse. Hopefully, Miki wouldn’t mind if Toshiro borrowed one of her purses for a day or two.

“Let’s see… right. I’ve got brought about four doses, just for emergencies.” Yoshiko said, opening the purse a bit wider to show the syringes to him. “I don’t think we’ll end up in super deep enough trouble to need them, but… hey. You never know if we’ll need ’em.”

“Yeah, that works.” He nodded. “Man, finally shit is turning up the right way now…!” Koji looked pretty happy, like a real weight was getting removed from his shoulders.

Bip bip

Iori

Don’t mention it! Don’t forget to take pictures with Yoshiko! <3

Iori messaged the family group, with the same thing she said to Toshiro before.

“Yeah, that makes sense. Let’s take some pictures, together, Yoshiko.” Koji smirked a bit, knowing that the real Toshiro wouldn’t do this, but as Yoshiko, it was a good idea.

“Yep. She already mentioned that, so we might as well get started.” ‘Yoshiko’ said, standing up with a hand on her hip. Almost like she was instinctually showing off her figure to Koji. “What sorta pic do you wanna take, Koji? I know it’s probably gonna be a selfie, but like… what sorta selfie are we gonna do?”

Koji grabbed the phone from her hand. “Here, let me hug you a bit.”

He placed himself next to her and using her phone, he took a selfie. Thankfully, ‘Yoshiko’ was able to strike a pose quickly.

CLICK!

After taking the selfie, he returned her phone. “Here, check it.”

The result was pretty good! Time to post to her PicFollow account. “Don’t forget to tag me as your boyfriend, okay? I have a PicFollow account too.” He said to her.

‘Yoshiko’ would also look at the resulting selfie as well and…

‘Huh.’

She’d have to admit, the final result looked really nice! Although now that she thought about it, with her current appearance… Should she really be smiling that much?

“Mhm. Gimme a sec.” She typed in her caption, telling any passing viewer that she decided to visit her boyfriend all the way in Aichi, and that they’re getting ready to have some fun together the next day. “…hey, wait. Y’think I might be a bit too cheery when I’m dressed like this?” She asked Koji, gently swiping her bangs aside. “I kinda feel like I’m starting to act like a gyaru, but I don’t think the colors I got would match it. At least, that’s what I feel.”

“Gyarus are just a style, dad. Like how Iori’s hair is actually black like what you have right now and Mom’s, but she dyes it to look more ‘gyaru’ like. Personality wise, Iori ain’t a gyaru, she’s not constantly flirty or wanting to jump into anyone’s pants, she’s just a normal teen girl.” Koji replied. Sounded he was speaking from personal experience. “Oh, I said that word. ‘Dad’. Sorry.” He slapped himself lightly a few times. “You’re Yoshiko, my girlfriend… Yoshiko. My girlfriend.” He repeated that a few times to get his mind completely set on it.

After that, he looked at ‘Yoshiko’ again. “But hey, you could be a happy girl, and more happy to see her boyfriend. People wouldn’t question you being happy around me, considering that we are at the present moment… Right?”

Best to hope Koji wouldn’t make the same mistake again when they actually end up meeting his friends. It’s a good thing they’re testing the waters here, but if he ends up calling her ‘dad’ in front of his own buddies… Yikes. No way that’s gonna end well.

Passing off that little bit of ‘oopsie’ he did, ‘Yoshiko’ would pat him on shoulder while giving him an assuring smile. “Well of course I’m happy, silly~ I’m hanging out with my boyfriend! If there’s any other time where I get to let my hair down and relax, it’d be at a time like this. You don’t need to get too tense. Heheh~”

The woman would keep up her distinct feminine smile, before it shifted into something more familial and boyish in terms of feel. It’s a bit subtle, but Koji could certainly feel it.

“Well? How’s that? Y’think your buddies’ll be able to tell?” She asked.

“Holy crap…!” Koji was impressed on how easily Toshiro could go from caring disguised dad to actual real life girlfriend in just a change of words and tone, plus some poses. “Yoshiko…! You’re amazing…!”

That was more than perfect but a small glance at her phone…

BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP

It was adding message notifications from the PicFollow app that she installed together. But she forgot to mute the notifications and because Iori was the one that made it, she was the first friend. “What’s that sound…?”

Koji grabbed the phone and clicked on the screen… It was littered with notifications, mostly because Iori shared the picture that she just took with Koji. “Wait… What the hell?”

Once ‘Yoshiko’ unlocked the phone, she could see that she had already at least one-hundred thousand followers. And counting. “It’s gonna reach two hundred…!” Koji was impressed from it, and smiled. “Thank you lil sis… Your fame was finally useful for something.

Yoshiko had only 2 images posted and had a bunch of followers already, as the platform called it, ‘picfollower’, reaching almost in the quarter million numbers.

“…what in the fuck?”

‘Yoshiko’ could only blankly stare at the increasing number of followers on her new Picfollower account, having already arrived at 280 thousand by the time she blinked twice at it. 280 thousand, for an account that only has like, what, two pics at most? Maybe even a pure text post to stretch things? This definitely felt like overkill in her eyes. Sure, this’ll definitely make his friends believe she exists, but did Iori actually have to go this far?!

“They do know that I already got a boyfriend, right?” She asked Koji, looking at him then back towards her phone. The only reason the account’s exploding in popularity would be due to boys asking to marry her.

“You probably know people don’t really care, Yoshiko.” Koji said. “Many girls in the business have boyfriends but they still post. Wanting is better than having and all that, I guess…” He shrugged.

Still it was very impressive that Iori managed to help out this way, even it was a bit overkill.

“Ohhh…” Koji snapped his fingers. “Iori, you’re genius…! Yoshiko, you can private or delete your account once you’re done helping me. The very unorganic growth can be put to a halt and no one will lose sleep over it.”

It seemed that Iori helped her father in more ways than one in this situation.

“Ehhhh, deleting the account might be a bit much…” ‘Yoshiko’ shrugged, her eyes still locked in towards the follower count on her front page. Goddamnit, it’s already 290 thousand now, even if it’s starting to slow down.

“I think once we’re done, we could just private the account. It does the same thing, and it at least believably keeps up the story of me existing.” She said, smiling as she nudged one of Koji’s arms. “‘Sides, you can even tell ’em why I privated my account as well. Just tell ’em I got uncomfortable with the amount of followers or something like that.”

“You could make a post saying that you don’t like the fame and just private it.” Koji said, before moving his other arm to hug her sideways. “In case you don’t want to delete it.”

After staring at her face for a bit, he frowned a bit. “Is mom okay with this? I know she’s kinda wild but… She might not actually like if anything happens. Again, wanting is better than having and all that…”

Was that really much of a concern? Especially since Miki herself was likely having fun somewhere, using these transformation syringes to become who-knows-what? Well, Koji did have a point. But at the same time, he shouldn’t have to worry too much.

‘Yoshiko’ would roll her eyes and let out an amused giggle, knowing he was just being overtly paranoid. “Heheheh, Oh come on Koji… you and I both know she’s probably having fun with her transformation syringes. So it’s not like she’s any different. Plus, she’s also an adult. She already knows what we’re doing here is just an act, anyway. It’s the same as when either of us would have to pose as your little sister, but this time, I’d get to act as someone else entirely. So it’s no problem!”

That made Koji slightly less sad to hear, he was still concerned but clearly understood what was going on. “I suppose… I guess we’re all adults here…”

With that being said, he disengaged from her. “Well, the bed here has enough space for both of us if you feel like sharing. I still have some stuff to do so you can sleep earlier if you want.” He said, before sitting on the chair to type on the laptop.

“I hope you brought some clothes to sleep too, Yoshiko. Otherwise, you’ll wrinkle your current outfit…” He said with a wink before turning the chair to work on remaining things.

Wait, shit, right. Did she actually brought some extra clothes for tonight? She was pretty sure her chest and rear would be a bit bigger than Iori’s, so borrowing some from her isn’t really going to work.

But then again, she was pretty sure she was similar to Miki’s sizes. Hm.

“Ehhh… gimme a sec, gonna need to see if I brought my pyjamas first.” ‘Yoshiko’ said, looking into the backpack she brought and see if any of her neatly folded clothes were her sleepwear. Hopefully, she didn’t end up forgetting to bring one.

‘Yoshiko’ did bring some clothes and it was the bog standard pyjamas that would make her look unappealing to anyone but a boyfriend. The type of cloth that hid everything once used.

As she changed clothes, Koji didn’t even notice, too busy typing on the laptop. “Ha… Told her my girlfriend was here at the campus and my mates are all ‘no way, he’s not lying’ and ‘I can’t wait for his tulpa to show up’. The ignorant fools…” He chuckled in a very cartoony villain. “Right, my girl?”

Seems like his friends are gonna be in for a surprise, then. A very pleasant and cute surprise.

“Heheheheh~ They’re gonna be so disappointed once they find out I’m real.” ‘Yoshiko’ giggled with as much of a cheeky, cartoony cadence as a mischievous villainess would. Like she came out of a magical girl manga.

However, her tone suddenly changed into something a bit more teasing as she rested her arm around Koji’s shoulder, gently whispering into his ears. “But then again, I could be your tulpa for tonight…~ A touchable, caring, and beautiful tulpa~”

This wasn’t exactly the sort of thing Toshiro would do. But in terms of how he would see ‘Yoshiko’ as a girlfriend, this definitely seemed like her sort of behavior.

That immediately sent chills down Koji’s spine. “L-Let’s not…”

But what did end up happening was a story for another time.

---

The next day came in, a mostly dry Wednesday. ‘Yoshiko’ was all dressed up, makeup and all! Toshiro was already an expert on applying it, it was indeed second nature to him. Koji didn’t need much other than his favorite pink bomber jacket to be on, and his other clothes, of course.

The two walked to the meeting that was scheduled for this Wednesday, on the campus 5, where ‘Yoshiko’ was lost in the previous day. With the sunlight, it was much easier to see everything, and much better too. Regardless, Koji walked her to the meeting.

“So the guys here that are on top of things are Kamenashi-kun and Watase-kun. Yes, they insisted on the honorifics.” Koji explained as they walked. “They have the class by the balls, so to speak. If I want to get anything with them, I have to kinda please them. Yes, it sounds wrong, but they are the ones that have more influence and were willing to cast me out if I didn’t prove you existed.”

They entered the classroom on the ground floor, with Koji opening it like he was the star of the show.

“Wha…”

“No… No way!”

A few other students could be seen with them.

“Yoshiko, this is my current college work group, headed by Kamenashi-kun and Watase-kun.”

One of them had a business attire and glasses, looking at the two.

“This is Kamenashi-kun.” Koji said. “His father is big in mechanical engineering, being the owner of a large industrial company.

“This is… This is who I think it is?” The boy said, looking at ‘Yoshiko’. “Kamenashi Torio. Nice to meet you…?” The apparent look on this face was a bit of bewilderment, but he tried hard to not show it.

Another boy in a blue and white jacket approached closer. “Seems like you are the real deal, Miyahara-san.”

“Ah, this is Watase-kun.” Koji presented him to her. “His mom is the Administrator of this college. Only one step down from being the Principal.”

“Shit, man. I didn’t think you had the guts to prove us wrong…” He looked at ‘Yoshiko’. “Watase Kimi.”

And then Koji presented her to the two, and the rest of the students, about 6 or so. “This is my girlfriend, Enokida Yoshiko. The one I mentioned before, multiple times, that kept flirting while at class, despite me telling her to stop.” Clearly a comment to Keizo but Toshiro could try to salvage it as well.

With each and every introduction the boys gave to her, ‘Yoshiko’ would make sure to keep up a smile followed by a polite bow. Although, finding out about the role of these two boys were certainly souring her mood. Enough that even through her smile, the two boys were likely getting the odd suspicion there was no light in her eyes. Even from a glance.

Toshiro had a particular distaste with these types of students. People that think they’re kings of a class just because of who their parents were. And right now, he was going to make those feelings clear in his own Yoshiko-specific way.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you boys~ Especially with how cute at least two of you turned out to be.” She said, keeping up her cute girl persona while keeping her arms behind her back. Chances are, they’re gonna be too distracted by her figure before they’d realize it’s too late. “Now then… Which one of you boys turned out to be the ones that thought I didn’t even exist?” She asked, her tone lowering ever so slightly even in spite of the smile she kept up. “Y’know, calling someone’s girlfriend a tulpa isn’t exactly going to get you any brownie points down the line. But surely you guys know that, right?”

Several of the other boys in the room gulped, visibly and audibly too. And of course several of them raised their hands. Including the two that showed up, Torio and Kimi.

“I’ll admit, I’ve said some nasty things. But I guess you were right all along.” Torio shrugged, admitting defeat.

Kimi wasn’t let Koji win so easily. “It can still be a fluke. Paid actress, rent-a-girlfriend… There’s many ways that he could still be lying and keeping up a facade!”

Koji got a little angry at that, and spit his toothpick. “You think I’d go as far as to hire a paid actress to act as my girlfriend? Are you insane, Watase?”

Kimi shook his head with a shrug. “Just saying, man. Your dad is connected to the acting industry, he could easily have done that for you…”

Koji took a bit more offense to that and lashed out. “Look, I know you hate having me around, but unfortunately, the only reason you are here is because you can pick anything and your mom will put you in. You’ve been nothing but a fucking dead-weight to the entire project, and if it wasn’t for your constant bickering with me and others in this group, as well your delays to finish several goals of the project, we would be well underway to finish this thing, but instead, we’re only fourty percent done, which the rest of us will have to work double time to finish, meaning we have to do your job for you because you are incapable.”

“So, excuse me when I call you insane, because it only adds up to the list of things you are already.” Koji said, and absolutely expected a fight, that thankfully Torio had to deal with. For Toshiro though? It was the first time that he could remember that Koji lashed out, even using expletives to express what he wanted to convey. Clearly he had some backbone but having him as ‘Yoshiko’, probably gave him a bit more courage to speak up.

The other boys all looked at the awkward situation that Koji put them in, it seemed that this thing had been happening for a while.

Toshiro was rendered not just speechless, but utterly confused as to where the conversation ended up going.

“…whuh…?” One could almost see the question marks hovering over her head after Koji had managed to calm down, feeling as though she was lacking some important context. She kinda figured he was busy with some sort of project as a senior engineering student. But somehow he’s apparently had to deal with massive disagreements with his team? She figured she wasn’t going to like these two, but finding out they were the epitome of egotistical academy nepo-babies was like having the cherry on top of a shit sundae to it all.

Just what the fuck was even happening?

“Uhhh… Koji? You good there?” ‘Yoshiko’ gave a concerning glance to her apparent boyfriend, almost internally hoping this wouldn’t escalate into a fight. As Toshiro, he would be able to break up such a fight rather easily. But in an hourglass form like this one? Not so much, she feels.

“I’m… I’m fine…” Koji said, a bit shaken from all the words he managed to get off his chest.

The words deeply affected Kimi and the boy was so ashamed of hearing them that he straight up left the classroom without saying a single word. Not even a ‘whatever’. Everything Koji said was the truth.

Torio wasn’t as happy to see this but he ultimately spoke. “Man… You shouldn’t have done that, Miyahara-san. I know you’re right about it and all, Watabe-san is causing issues to the project but his mom is gonna be on our asses if he talks about this.”

Koji scoffed. “We’re already behind schedule because of him. If she starts to complain, we’ll just point to him and say he is the issue, which isn’t false.” Then he looked at ‘Yoshiko’. “Sorry about that, love, it’s just… That guy was getting on my nerves constantly.”

Torio interrupted to comment. “On our nerves you mean… He’s that guy you don’t want to be with, in a class project. Constant delays, wrong answers, doesn’t do the work… His mom being high up in the ranks here means that he will never fail but that is not the case for us.”

One of the students in the room spoke as well. “He stole my mechanical prototype and claimed as his!”

“Yes, he also steals things.” Torio then looked at ‘Yoshiko’. “I doubt that Miyahara-san wanted to explain this to you because we could handle it. And Watase-san was the one that started picking on him for having an imaginary girlfriend, that it was making him a ‘slacker’. Honestly… If I was with you, I’d afford to be a slacker too.” Torio said with a chuckle. “No offense, Miyahara-san.”

“None taken. No more than you and him gave me…” Koji pouted.

“C’mon, man. I didn’t think it was real either, but… Uh… It’s very real.” Torio chuckled again, while looking at ‘Yoshiko’.

‘Oh. Ohhhhh okay, yeah.’

That was already a special kind of getting away with it in Toshiro’s eyes. The kind that just had to have come from heavily misguided parenting, teaching their kids the wrong lessons and letting them repeat their mistakes over and over again. All with only a small slap on the wrist, treating it as a mere misdemeanor. If Iori had gone the same route as that kid did, Toshiro would’ve given her plenty of private conversations and criticisms about her behavior, making sure she’d understand it’s not the path of life for her to take. Maybe even some tough love if she became a repeat offender. But regardless, he still had a role in terms of becoming the proper parent his kids needed him to be. A lesson that was clearly gone unheard from that kid’s mother, from the looks of it. It’s just disappointing, seeing someone at the start of their 20’s turn out that way.

“If his mother starts shit just because my BF got sick of him, then she could go fuck herself.” ‘Yoshiko’ scoffed, closely hugging one of Koji’s arms like he was someone for her to protect. “My boy here shouldn’t be used like a throwaway tool! Same as you guys too! even if you all need some work with your tact…”

More than some, considering she was sure none of them had any girlfriends just yet. Whose to say that part of themselves wouldn’t end up showing once they finally found the love of their life?

“You said it, Enokida-chan…” Torio said with a nod.

“You sure we should start this without Watase?” One of the members said, and that got an immediate reply from another.

“Yeah, remember the last time he didn’t ditch us midway? Yeah, I can’t either.” That was the reply.

“Good point. Enokida-chan, would you mind joining us for the day? Not to say we’re a man down, but so you don’t have to stay away from your boyfriend. Maybe you could have ideas on how to solve things as well.” Torio said with a nod.

And Koji just looked at her, she could pick what she wanted to do.

Considering the alternative was to not do much with her ‘boyfriend’, the choice itself was obvious. Besides that, maybe their fraternity-oriented behavior could use a little bit of mending when they’ve got an actual girl with them.

“Ehhhh… Sure, fuck it. Why not?” ‘Yoshiko’ shrugged, giving them a smile. “What are we gonna do today? Some fun stuff you guys got in mind?”

“We got a few mechanical parts that need a better home, so to speak.” Torio said.

What followed was one of most insane things that ‘Yoshiko’ had experience. Never in her life she saw so many people that talked the same language, mechanical engineering in this case, and she couldn’t understand it at all.

The moment she could understand something, more related to marketing and the like, things she understood well, ‘Yoshiko’ spoke and gave out some good ideas. But ultimately? These guys were real nerds, people with definitely an IQ higher in math than she had.

However, for Koji, the talk was nothing different than he was used to. In fact, only a few things were discussed actually moved the conversation forward. Even if they tried to explain to ‘Yoshiko’ was going on, and Koji doing a translation of that as well, she didn’t really get it. Too much to comprehend all at once.

Back to Koji’s college dorm, he just flopped into his bed. “Man, today sucked…” Then he looked at ‘Yoshiko’. “Sorry you had to see that… I expect that guy to screw us in the near future.”

BIP BIP

“Ah, group chat. Let’s see.” Koji got his phone out, and showed it to her. “Yup, guy is mad and is gonna request to pull off any funding from the project…”

“What?!”

Immediately, even after only a minute of flopping her back on the mattress, ‘Yoshiko’ immediately sat up and snapped her head towards the phone. Sure enough, by the time night had finally fell, the asshole had already came crying about the incident to his mom.

“W… Wait, you’re fucking kidding me! Chances are, his mom’s probably gonna approve the request like it’s nothing!” ‘Yoshiko’ exclaimed, “How are you and your guys gonna be able to finish your project now?!”

She might not be a technical kind of person, but she could tell when a project would require a LOT of time and investment to actually be brought to the finish line…

“Well, unless we get external funding that is a guaranteed to be a partner, we’ll probably to close it down. The way that it worked is that we’ll do the paper, which is what gets our grade but we need funding to buy the raw parts to build the machine that allows us to get the paper. The school is doing the funding but if he talks to his mom, the school is gonna pull off…”

He sighed, flopping harder on the bed. “I really messed up…”

Yeah, chances are, if her son’s gonna bark, then she’s going to lash out at the ones that caused it. Even if it was rather uncalled for. But was it really Koji’s fault though? He might’ve been the one that was targeted, and sure, he was the one that let his own tongue loose at Kimi. But she was still the catalyst in one way or another. Neither of them were really blameless, but they should blame themselves too much on this one either.

“No, no… I probably shouldn’t have seemed insulted in front of them. If anything, showing the guy living proof ended up exacerbating the issue.” She said, letting out a sigh. “But now, that just makes me ask… what are we gonna do about it?”

Yeah. That is the important question. Because if her ‘boyfriend”s funding does end up getting pulled, they’re either gonna have to find some other source for it or get held back by the administrator’s son. That’s not something she would want to happen, especially with Koji.

“I dunno…” Koji sounded pretty distressed. “Wait… Wait… Could the idol company fund us?” He asked, looking at ‘Yoshiko’. “I did say that we could get external funding, and it’s nothing too big, it’ll be like a minimum wage salary to buy parts.”

In theory, Miya-Mirai could fund the school. “They won’t make a stinker if you as Toshiro is funding, since it’s money. Plus… Considering that his mom is part of the school body, I could get my dad to help me out. Maybe.”

That was a rather decent idea that Koji had managed to bring up. In fact, considering the amount of time Koji probably had left to get the project going, it was probably their only shot. However, it was only a decent idea on paper. That was the main problem related to it.

‘Yoshiko’ would let out a sigh and sympathetically look at Koji. “Haahh… Okay, I’m going to have to tell you this right away. It’s not as simple as you would think, Koji. Even if… your father would be more than willing to lend some cash to help you, that’s still likely going to come out of company funds. He might have kept full control over his company, but even then, there’s probably going to be some people that would wonder where some of that money’s going.”

Especially their accounting people. If any of them found out they were even considering this, he might end up with a very long and extensive meeting with them. But then again, maybe they could somewhat justify it. Maybe.

“Hmm… maybe we could turn it into some kind of business expense for him? Wait, what was your project again?” She asked Koji, all while trying to think of ways that could be made tangentially related to Miya-Mirai.

“Uhh… The project was just a prototype mechanical arm that could be used to grab small and large objects without changing parts. It has some finetuned elements that allow to be used in large scale operations and small scaled ones…” He explained. “I guess we could justify as a way to install studio lights from a tall height? It can certainly do that, we tested it too.”

It could work for the studio lights, as mentioned and Toshiro had many issues with installing those, even he had contractors to do it, they still messed up and he had to fix their work.

“Assuming said mechanical arm has easy to use controls and wouldn’t require that much maintenance? I’d say that’d be a good enough reason for Miya-Mira to fund it.” ‘Yoshiko’ answered, before having realized she may have responded as if she was still Toshiro. “E-Err… that’s what I’m assuming your dad would think, anyway. He’s going to need plenty of reasons to provide the funding himself.”

Wait, now that she thought about it, if this arm was capable of doing fine-tuned movements, then maybe it could work for more than simple studio lights.

“Hey, wait a sec. Do you think those mechanical arms would be able to precisely control stage props and decorations? Maybe you could try to use them and make a live stage into something that could be changed live?” She suggested. “Like, I dunno… maybe being able to change the stage into different themes in the blink of an eye? It could be useful, even if it’s just for spectacle.”

“Yeah, we could change the software a bit to be able to control stage props.” Koji nodded, now sitting on the bed. “If dad’s okay with that… Maybe he could send me a message saying he’ll do the funding in case we lose ours… I’m not actually sure if we’ll lose it for real, but in case we do…”

This time, he started pondering a bit more, thinking on what could work for the new funding, if it happened.

Koji could feel a light, playful smack on one of his shoulders, all thanks to that audible pondering of his. Hell, it was even followed with a bit of giggling from his ‘girlfriend’.

“Hahahah… Hey, come on. Don’t be like that. I can bet that if that admin does pull her funding, he’ll swoop in and help you out without a second thought. Even if it means making use of his industry contacts.” She said, giving him a knowing wink. “Just relax and ask him when it actually happens. Everything will turn out fiiiine~ I promise.”

“F-Fine…” He looked away, blushing. “You really enjoyed this, didn’t you? Being able to get a reaction out of me… Like this…” Koji was certainly liking it too, considering that he wasn’t even mentioning that it was his dad underneath that beautiful girly skin.

Almost as if to incite his reactions even further, ‘Yoshiko’ would let out a few more giggles of the seductive kind as she crawled over to her boyfriend, gently cupping one of his cheeks as she smirked.

“Heheheh~ Ohhh, don’t worry darling… You think what I’ve been doing right now is already intense enough? Because I can do so, so much more than this…”

She was even licking her lips too and almost looked like she was about to eat Koji up.

“Uhhhhh…” That broke Koji for a moment, he was completely red and looking away more so than ever. “F-family gatherings are gonna be so awkward after this… I-I swear… This is like a h-manga…” He didn’t want to look at his own crotch.

In spite of his stammering, ‘Yoshiko’ maintained her lack of distance towards Koji for almost an entire minute. Even to the point of letting him feel each and every warm breath that comes his way. Even letting him stare upon the beautiful orbs of yellow that harbored her gaze, drinking the entirety of their beauty like it was his personal constellation for him to marvel. A most wonderous and breathtaking sight to behold.

“…hahah… heheheh… heheheheh~”

But then, ‘Yoshiko”s eyes began to cheekily narrow, followed by another set of giggles. This time sounding considerably more childish and playful, as if she had pulled off a successful prank rather than trying to invite him for the most fulfilling night of a lifetime.

“Heheheheheheh~ I got youuuu~” She said, poking one of her cheeks. “I was just messing with you, Koji. Don’t worry~ I just wanted to see how cute you tend to get when you’re flustered!”

“Damn it, dad! Knock it off…!” Koji’s flustered meter was off the charts and he could feel himself get red all over. “Fuckin’ syringes… There’s no way you’d be my girlfriend like that… And it would even be the weirdest shit ever…!” He complained, crossing his arms. “At least, you look fuckin’ hot but… You could be anyone…”

A successful prank from ‘Yoshiko’, she definitely knew what made Koji go all red and bothered.

But that was when he breathed in and out, sighing. “Thanks for helping me out though. I really appreciate it…”

“Hahahahah! There’s my little Koji…!” The following cackle that came out of her sounded more boyish than before. Far less deliberately feminine, sounding more like a drinking buddy rather than the opposite gender. Much less of the tomboy kind.

After thoroughly patting and scratching her son’s head (almost as though he was still five years old), her expression softens as she nudged Koji. “Hey, don’t mention it. You’re my son, after all. That’s more than enough of a reason for me to help out.”

“Thanks… No dad would go this far to help his own son, I feel…” But then he checked her out again. “But damn, you got a good look… I didn’t ask ‘cuz I was a bit busy, but how was being Iori? Maybe we could do some weird swaps somedays…”

Oh, he didn’t know how many swaps were already happening, including at the moment with Keizo doing Toshiro’s job.

Considering his previous comment about being weirded out by the syringes, it was a bit strange that her son would take a particular curiosity with the syringes. But maybe it’s nothing she should worry about.

“Ehhh, it’s fine. It’s a bit annoying, since me, your mother and a friend of mine would have to take turns in being Iori, but it’s nothing we could handle. We got to used to it eventually.”

Her smile faltered however, mainly from hearing Koji’s request into joining their weird little swapping plan for Iori.

“Err… you sure about that? I mean, you’re not exactly within walking distance from Tokyo. You’d probably take multiple hours just to get home.” She said, sounding rather concerned.

“I guess. Considering you’ll just help us with funding, I guess I’ll have some free time. I’m one of the guys working on the mechanical part of the project, so I’m not required to be here all the time. It’s why I could be there when Iori hurt her leg.” He explained.

“Plus, I’m still weirded out by this, but like… It got me a bit curious too. Maybe I could be mom one day and tease you back.” He laughed at ‘Yoshiko’.

“Heh.” The grin that ‘Yoshiko’ gave was practically taunting at his own words. Almost daring him to even try. “I’d like to see you try, kiddo. Miki already refined me for almost two decades, so you’re gonna need a lot to catch up to her.” She said, “You were already too easy to tease just minutes earlier. What makes you think you can do any better?”

“I honestly don’t know if I can but it’ll be at least fun giving it a shot. It’s the least I can do to repay you for helping me out.” Koji replied.

“In any case, I’m gonna have a looser schedule tomorrow because of that guy, so maybe we could do something different? Still gotta be here so whatever you wanna do, I’m game.” He informed her, says he was up to do more things with her, certainly with the syringe. “Maybe have a drink out? Did you bring your normal dad clothes too?”

“..ah.”

Her smile didn’t fade away, but the light within her eyes immediately faded from the realization. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t really bring anything else other than the girl clothes Iori lent her, right? It’s not like she had a good amount of space to spare for anymore clothes as a normal dad. Nor did he ever consider bringing them over.

“Well… no, not really. I just brought the clothes that your sister gave me.” She said, shaking her head. “Buuuut I can still go out and drink with you. Maybe I can bullshit the bartender into claiming that I’m 21 or something.”

That made Koji ponder a bit. “Maybe if we could go to the coffee shop? They won’t ask any IDs there…” He said, pondering.

“Assuming you don’t mind coffee or tea, of course.” He smiled.

Koji seemed a bit less blushy and more happy, it felt like a really big weight was off his shoulders and it was a good opportunity to be closer to him.

“Oh yeah… If you help us out, I might have more free time so I could help you with the syringes too. I know I was you when Iori got her boyfriend but I could do more. I suppose I could mimic Mom pretty easily…” He pondered, with a chuckle. “Just be flirty when you’re around, right? And serious serious when in public?”

Was Miki that predictable? Probably. At least it was easy to copy her from afar. The predictability was going to make this a breeze, if he’s able to describe what he should do within a single sentence. As long as no one other than everyone in the family would be able to tell the difference, then they should all be fine. Hopefully. Toshiro quietly hoped that Koji wasn’t going to get back at him for the flirty teasing he did.

“Well, pretty much. Flirty and cheeky in private, serious and focused in public. It took me a while to get used to that contrast of her, but these days, it’s not much of a problem at all.” ‘Yoshiko’ nodded, corroborating Koji’s guess. Altough the way Miki tends to tease him tends to have that special part that makes her distinct.

“Alright…”

Koji nodded and after a bit of a teasing moment, the two headed down to the coffee shop.

It was cozy and nice, it was never full, but also never empty, just enough that other conversations were lost in between other conversations.

They had their coffees already and some cookies, really good stuff.

They talked and as they did, Toshiro could feel he was much more aligned with his son’s objectives in life. And of course, there was the matter of being his ‘girlfriend’, which was oddly cute. They definitely looked like they could be together.

The rest of the day was uneventful, and so was the next day. It was just them hanging out together. His time with his son was brief, only two days, but it was better than the last couple of years, he had to admit.