"Shino, are you finally going to cuckold your husband?"
Hearing this voice, full of both surprise and astonishment, from behind her, Mrs. Yukinoshita shuddered all over. She turned her head mechanically to look behind her.
She then saw a beautiful woman with gorgeous orange hair, tied up at the back of her head.
Although wearing a thick beige sweater, it couldn't conceal her incredibly voluptuous figure. Her beautiful eyes were rolling around as she looked at Mrs. Yukinoshita.
"M... Mei..." Mrs. Yukinoshita's face stiffened as she barely managed to utter the other's name.
Shino. Yukinoshita Shino. That name hadn't been called by anyone in a long time. And there were very few people who dared to call her that.
The orange-haired beauty before her was one of them. Her high school classmate… Yuigahama Mei.
Well, this woman was the single mother of Yuigahama Yui, who was in the same year as Lott back in school, generally called 'Mrs. Yuigahama'… Yuigahama Mei!
After calling out the other's name, cold sweat uncontrollably seeped from Mrs. Yukinoshita's pale cheeks.
'Sh-she couldn't have seen me just chatting with Lott, could she?'
The moment this thought surfaced in her mind, Mrs. Yukinoshita was screaming internally, 'How could I not have seen! If she could say something like that, how could I not have seen?!'
"Ah, sorry, sorry, Shino. I used the wrong words. Your husband has been gone for a few years now, right? Now that I think about it, it's not really cuckolding him. Ehehe ( *▽｀)ノノ" Mrs. Yuigahama playfully tapped her own head and stuck out her tongue.
It made Mrs. Yukinoshita see red.
It was always like this back then. Whenever Yuigahama Mei made Yukinoshita Shino angry, she would try to play dumb and act cute to smooth things over. The key was, Yukinoshita Shino always fell for it!
"By the way, that gentleman seemed to be... Wow, Shino, you're something else! But you better be mentally prepared. I think he's probably just playing around with you at best. After all, he has so many women around him..." Mrs. Yuigahama clearly also recognized Lott. After a brief moment of shock, as if possessed by a certain deceased High-School Detective, she pinched her chin with one hand and began analyzing calmly.
Although she was shocked that Lott was willing to date her forty-year-old friend, she was more worried that Lott would just toss Mrs. Yukinoshita aside after he got bored. Actually... that's a given, right?
"Th-that... Shino, if you're just satisfying a physical need, that's one thing, but please don't invest any real emotions," Mrs. Yuigahama had already started comforting her friend, as if she had already been dumped by the man.
"Will you just stop already?!" Mrs. Yukinoshita couldn't take her eccentric friend's wild talk anymore.
Unable to think of any other solution at the moment, she blurted out her entire plan.
Hearing this, Mrs. Yuigahama was dumbfounded, 'Pretending to be her daughter to date Lott, and then finding an opportunity to switch back with her daughter mid-way when the affection level was high enough to go to a hotel? This operation was just too wild!'
"Shino... do all you rich people play like this?" Mrs. Yuigahama was stunned for a long time before barely managing to squeeze out a sentence.
"The business world is like a battlefield. You have no idea what kind of perilous situation our family is facing right now," Mrs. Yukinoshita said, feeling utterly exhausted.
It was no exaggeration to say that everything the Yukinoshita family possessed now was given by 'Rumii'. However, now that the public believed that Rumii's birth mother was someone else, countless partners were choosing to withdraw their investments.
Mrs. Yukinoshita even felt that it wouldn't be strange if Prime Minister Fujiwara directly stripped her of her Hero Association's status the next time she went to a headquarters meeting.
"I see... So rich people have it tough too." Although she couldn't put herself entirely in Mrs. Yukinoshita's shoes, Mrs. Yuigahama had also heard a lot of gossip recently at her workplace.
She could imagine that her friend's family was truly having a hard time right now.
"Alright! Shino, let the Literature Club bestie duo join forces again after twenty years! I'll help you!" Mrs. Yuigahama clenched her small fists, full of morale.
Mrs. Yukinoshita looked at her as if she'd seen a ghost, 'You? What help can you be? Didn't I always end up solving all the messy problems we encountered back in school? The classic case of 'we go on a rampage together, I handle the rampage, and you handle the quacking'?'
…
"You are... 'Meat Buns'?" Seeing that 'Yukinoshita Yukino' had returned with an orange-haired female college student in tow, Lott thought for a moment before remembering the other's nickname. It was mainly because of the 'Meat Buns' on the side of her head.
"Yahallo~ Long time no see, Lott-kun!" 'Yuigahama Yui' waved excitedly.
Unlike her friend who was stubbornly trying to imitate Yukino Yukinoshita, Mrs. Yuigahama cosplaying her own daughter Yuigahama Yui was completely without difficulty.
The mother and daughter weren't just similar in face, as even their personalities seemed cast from the same mold.
"Mm... Long time no see."
Mrs. Yuigahama's cosplay was indeed perfect. Lott had been suspicious of Mrs. Yukinoshita earlier, but he didn't suspect her at all. The only strange thing was…
'Wasn't this Yuigahama Yui acting a bit too lively? I remembered in the original work, she was only this enthusiastic around the Flat-nee-san and Penguin. I... didn't really know her that well, did I?'
"I never thought I'd run into Lott-kun and Shi... oh no, Yuki-chan here! Can I be a third wheel and have dinner with you guys?" She had already messaged her daughter in the restroom earlier, telling the girl to figure out her own dinner.
"Mm... Let's eat together." Lott didn't overthink it. He didn't have any major issues with the original Service Club trio from the Anime.
When he watched it before, he always thought, are these three mentally okay? Can't they speak normally? Riddlers should just get out of the Anime World!
Later, watching his real-life younger cousins grow up, Lott realized... this was the unique affectation of high schoolers. Maybe he was like that back in school too, but one just can't see it when they're in the middle of it.
"Hehe~ Lott-kun, Yuki-chan's personality isn't as bad as before, right? She's matured a lot since entering university. I heard she plans to join her family's company for training after graduating this year. As for me, I'm in trouble. I still don't know what I want to do after graduation..." The mother pretending to be her daughter lavished praise on her friend's younger daughter.
Don't ask how she knew so much about Yukinoshita Yukino's situation. Her own daughter often talked about topics related to the other girl after school.
Therefore, Mrs. Yuigahama had a certain understanding of Yukinoshita Yukino.