Chapter 40: Family

He rubbed the back of his head, pondering with difficulty what words to use that wouldn't hurt his daughter.

"Um... Hitori, you don't need to deceive your family like this."

Bocchi's mother echoed his sentiment.

"That's right, Mama will be sad like this."

Seeing her parents making fools of themselves and undermining her, Bocchi couldn't help but exclaim.

"Dad, Mom, what are you talking about?!"

At this moment, Ishikawa Hayato put on the slippers, walked over to Bocchi's father, crossed his arms, and, looking completely at ease, joined her parents' camp, lecturing Bocchi.

"That's right, Gotou-san, it's better not to continue with this kind of thing."

Hearing his words, Bocchi blinked twice, then fell into self-doubt.

'Even Hayato is saying that?'

'Hayato... could he really be an accomplice she hired herself?'

'Were those memories somehow written in by her to deceive herself?'

'Yes, it was strange to think that she brought a male home.'

She herself felt something was amiss.

Seeing Bocchi's existential crisis, Ishikawa Hayato patted Bocchi's father's shoulder, sighed, and looking like a long-time drinking buddy, said to him.

"Let's drink, let's just go have a drink, it'll be fine."

Bocchi's father, hearing these familiar words ingrained in every office worker's bones, nodded glumly.

"Yes... let's drink."

The two walked into the living room, arms around each other's shoulders.

While Bocchi's mother also had things she wanted to say to her daughter, with a guest in the house, she had to hold back and focus on their guest first.

She merely said to Bocchi with a sad expression.

"Let's talk later."

Watching her mother walk into the living room after speaking, Bocchi was full of questions.

But she still remembered what she needed to do, so she immediately headed to her room on the second floor to get her guitar.

But after she got her guitar and came back down...

"What?! Is he really Hitori's friend?!"

Her father's astonished cry, like a bolt from the blue, echoed through her house.

...

Hearing the startled cry, Bocchi quickly came down the stairs and walked towards the living room.

As soon as she reached the living room entrance, her first sight was Ishikawa Hayato, looking calm, sitting politely on the small sofa.

On the long sofa next to him were her father, leaning forward in surprise, and her mother, holding him back.

She frantically wondered how to mediate.

"Ah, I really was surprised. Is it true, are you really Hitori's friend?"

Her father sat back on the sofa, seemingly unconcerned, and asked again with a smile.

Ishikawa Hayato, with a smile that felt as warm as a spring breeze, said to the couple as they relaxed.

"Yes, Uncle and Auntie's reaction was really too amusing, I couldn't resist you both a bit. My apologies."

Her mother seemed very happy, but with a hint of apology in her tone, she said.

"No, we’re the ones who should be sorry. We arbitrarily assumed you were Hitori's rented boyfriend."

After the awkwardness subsided, Gotou Naoki sat up straight and casually asked Ishikawa Hayato.

"Ishikawa-kun, how did you and Hitori meet?"

Ishikawa Hayato didn't prolong the joke and answered directly.

"Gotou-san and I are classmates in the same grade, and also friends in the same band."

"A band?"

The Gotou couple exchanged surprised glances.

At this moment, Bocchi quickly walked in, flustered and hurried, trying to stop her parents, saying to them.

"Dad, Mom, don't keep questioning Hayato!"

"Hayato!"

The Gotou couple exclaimed in surprise again.

And then...

"So that's it, so that's it."

Gotou Naoki nodded happily with a smile.

Bocchi, feeling teased, yelled out in embarrassment and anger.

"Dad!"

...

Ishikawa Hayato and Bocchi didn't stay long at Bocchi's house before leaving.

Although there was still plenty of time before the band's meeting time, Bocchi seemed a bit uncomfortable with her family interacting with Ishikawa Hayato.

Seeing them chatting so happily, and occasionally revealing some bits of her embarrassing past, she felt a pang of jealousy and unease.

But she didn't dare to say anything to Ishikawa Hayato, so she just kept looking towards her parents.

However, her parents, seeing their daughter bring a friend home for once, and a male friend at that, completely ignored her increasingly pitiful glances and chatted more and more happily with Ishikawa Hayato.

Finally, Ishikawa Hayato, unable to bear it any longer, stood up and announced that it was time for the band to meet up, then bid farewell to her parents and left.

As they walked to the door, put on their shoes, and prepared to leave...

"You can come by and play anytime!"

The Gotou couple bid farewell to Ishikawa Hayato at the door.

"Yes, I will."

Ishikawa Hayato smiled and nodded.

...

On the way to the station, Bocchi understood what a 'normie' was.

To be able to get along with someone else's parents so quickly, and even chatted with them so enthusiastically.

According to the social skills analysis chart:

The lowest tier is being able to talk to toddlers, then being able to talk to timid young children, then ordinary young children, ordinary peers, arrogant young children... 

Step by step up the ladder—and then being able to chat happily with a friend’s parents? That’s a tenth-tier feat!

That's a tier close to a god.

Incidentally, she could barely reach a lower tier from the bottom of the ladder.

The contrast between their skills was like heaven and earth!

Bocchi glanced at the young man beside her, casually humming a song, and regarded him with immense reverence...

...