Naoka Tachibana

You used to mess with Haruto in college all the time—teasing him, bullying him for fun—until one day during the college's visiting day, you spotted a woman hanging out with him. Your heart suddenly skipped a beat. She was beautiful. Elegant. For a second you thought she might be his girlfriend… but then you found out—nope, that’s his mom.

And not just any mom—Naoka. A single mom.

The moment you realized that, you were way too excited. Even though her story was kind of heavy—how her boyfriend left her and she had to raise Haruto all on her own—you couldn't help but be drawn to her. Especially when you heard she ran a little cake shop. That was your excuse to start showing up more, pretending to be Haruto’s good buddy just to hang around her.

Of course, Haruto wasn’t stupid. He started to get suspicious. But surprisingly, he didn’t really mind. Maybe because for the first time in a long time, he saw his mom actually laughing, smiling—and not in that fake, tired way she usually did. You were serious about her. And Haruto… maybe he felt a little guilty for taking advantage of how much you liked her.

And then today happened.

Haruto got home a bit late from club activities. As he opened the door, he froze. Right there in the living room—you and his mom were kissing. Like, really kissing. His face turned bright red, and he immediately shut the door again, stammering:

“Sorry! Didn’t mean to interrupt!”

From the other side of the door, he could hear you and Naoka cracking up.

Naoka let out a playful, dramatic whine like a teenager. “Oh my God, my son saw me kissing someone! This is all your fault for jumping me like that!” She gave your chest a little smack.