Here is the translation of the provided text:

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"I'm back."

"Welcome home~ It's really cold outside, isn't it?"

"Cold enough that I wouldn't be surprised if it starts snowing any second."

"Perfect, I just bought a few pairs of fuzzy slippers and put them in the shoe cabinet. Pick a pair you like and wear them."

"Oh."

Kiryu Hina opened the shoe cabinet. Sure enough, there were two pairs of fuzzy slippers inside, both in a cute style, one pink and one blue—like something a child would wear.

She actually didn't like fuzzy slippers because they couldn't get wet, which meant having to switch them out when she took a shower—a hassle.

But she still put them on, choosing the pink pair.

Carrying her single-shoulder backpack, she walked into the living room and saw her stepmother, Risa Xiaosong, sitting cross-legged on the sofa in a rather undignified posture. She was wearing warm pajamas, her hair messy and loose, intensely typing away at a laptop.

She looked exactly like a pitiful novelist nearing a deadline but hadn't written a single word yet.

Wait, was that spot-on?

Hina thought heartlessly to herself.

"Where's Dad?" she asked.

"Still at the office. He said he wouldn't be back for dinner tonight. Just the two of us, we'll make do. How about ordering takeout, maybe pizza?"

"Aren't you worried about getting fat?"

That seemed to hit a nerve. Risa Xiaosong stopped what she was doing and waved her hands wildly. "So what? Winter is the time to stock up on fat! Look at polar bears—they're all chubby and adorable!"

"... This isn't surviving in the wild. You come home, turn on the heater, wear clothes this thick—how are you going to burn off that fat?"

"Noooo, I want pizza! Let's order pizza, pizza, pizza!!"

Hina squinted, staring at her stepmother, who was more than twenty years older than her, rolling around on the sofa and acting cute. Her eye twitched.

This is the woman my dad likes? I really can't see the appeal. Even harder to imagine that this person is somehow the birth mother of that stoic Kagura Hikaru. Are these two *really* biologically related? Maybe there was a mix-up at the hospital back then...

Hina, who wasn't usually the sarcastic type, found herself breaking character in the face of her overly lively stepmother.

"Fine, fine, pizza. We'll have pizza."

"Yay~!" Risa Xiaosong raised both hands in triumph, shaking her body. "I want yogurt flavor~"

"Then let's get a half-and-half pizza. One side yogurt, the other side Italian meat sauce."

"Hina-chan likes the classics, huh?"

Hina had just taken out her phone and opened the food delivery app when she heard her stepmother say, "By the way, Hina-chan, has Mister Hikaru been acting strange lately? He hasn't been reaching out, and sometimes he doesn't even reply when I message him."

Hina's hand paused for a moment. After a brief contemplation, she said, "He's the same as always, no change."

"Really?"

Risa scratched her head, muttering something about "ungrateful child."

It seemed she had no idea about what had been happening with Kagura Hikaru lately.

The Kagura Family really treated Risa Xiaosong as an outsider. The adults wouldn't say anything, and Kagura Hikaru himself was even less likely to mention it to his mother.

Thinking about that day and the surveillance footage she had tricked out of the station, Hina let out a sigh.

This brief moment of dejection didn't escape Risa Xiaosong's sharp eyes. She squinted suspiciously. "Hina-chan, you're hiding something from me, aren't you?"

"Huh?"

"Auntie knows these things. I can tell from your expression."

"Kn-know what, exactly..."

Risa Xiaosong struck a "there's only one truth" pose. "Mister Hikaru... he's got a girlfriend, hasn't he?!"

"..."

"I knew it! I knew it! So that's why he's been less communicative lately. Hmph, got himself a little girlfriend and forgot about his mom!"

Risa Xiaosong seemed indignant at first but quickly got curious. "So, who's Hikaru dating? Is it Chiyoko?"

Hina's face soured. "Definitely not her. That gorilla? Who could possibly like her?"

"Hey~ You two are at least blood-related sisters. Don't badmouth her like that. Chiyoko's just a bit tall. She's really pretty! ... Anyway, back to the point. Who's Hikaru dating?"

"It's someone you don't know."

"Well, at least tell me her name." Risa leaned forward, closing the distance between their faces.

Hina begrudgingly spat out the woman's name: "Kohinata Motoyo. Her name is Kohinata Motoyo." First published on *.

A perfect but infuriating piece of work.

"Is she pretty?"

"Very."

"Does she have a good personality?"

"Terrible!"

Looking at Hina's face full of discontent, Risa's gaze softened as she gently reassured her, "Alright, even if Hikaru has a girlfriend, doesn't mean you two can't still be good friends, just like before."

"Who wants to be friends with that woman?!"

Images of Kohinata Motoyo's outrageous proposal flashed through Hina's mind. She almost laughed out of exasperation but instead snorted and stormed off to her room.

Just like how a silver medal is the biggest loser in sports, for her, being forced to accept that she could only be "just friends" with Kagura Hikaru was the ultimate insult.

Kohinata Motoyo, just you wait. I absolutely won't let you have Kagura. Never!

............

"Motoyo, aren't you done yet? I need to brush my teeth."

"Just a bit longer. Don't come in, okay?"

"Got it. Hurry up."

"Mm!"

Motoyo responded perfunctorily to Hikaru outside the door, sitting on the toilet, her head down, staring at a pregnancy test stick. Her soft, pink thumb pressed against the result window.

Please, please, heavens, gods, Buddha, let it be positive!

The typically atheist Motoyo found herself silently praying to any deity she could think of as she closed her eyes. When she opened them, she braced herself and checked the result—it was negative.

Sighing dejectedly, she tossed the test stick into the trash, resting her forehead on the back of her hand, utterly deflated.

Why? Why is it still negative?

They'd done it so many times, every single one unprotected. How was she still not pregnant?

In TV dramas, it always happened on the first try!

Could it be that one of them had fertility issues?

…Forget it. Maybe it's just bad luck.

Motoyo shook her head helplessly.

She didn't really need Hina to put pressure on her. Motoyo already felt an internal urgency. She understood very well that her relationship with Kagura Hikaru was far from solid.

But if there was a child, things would change. The sense of responsibility and obligation that came with parenthood would push them forward.

A child would become the strongest bond, completely eliminating the possibility of Hikaru leaving her.

At this moment, she candidly saw the potential child as a means of tying him down, rather than a symbol of love. Maybe her mindset would change once it was born.

As for the ethical and legal issues surrounding a high school pregnancy, they clearly wouldn't be a problem for the Kohinata Family. As long as she declared there was no coercion involved, and Hikaru proposed marriage, everything could proceed in the direction Motoyo wanted.

If everything went smoothly, they could get married by the time they were in college and live happily ever after.

It was a solid plan—except for the unexpected obstacle of failing right at step one, something she hadn't anticipated at all.

Motoyo stood, closed the toilet lid, flushed, washed her hands, and opened the door.

Hikaru was sitting on the bed playing on his phone. He looked up when he heard the door.

"Why are you taking your clothes off?"

"We're going again tonight. No—three more times!"

"Didn't you just shower? It'll make a mess."

"Shut up. A man can't say no!"

Motoyo threw her used panties at Hikaru's face and pounced on him.

In no time, the bed began creaking noisily.

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