"There isn't enough happiness in the world. I'm glad that, if only for a few seconds, I was able to bright this young girl's day. All it took was a few words. Man... I wish I was a kid again."
- Mitsuki
23-year-old Mitsuki is alone, aimless and hopeless after moving from the countryside to Tokyo to prepare for his university entrance exams, the only adult in a cram school full of teenagers, until he happens upon a child called Tama desperately searching for her apartment key, left home alone by her mother, and allows Tama to stay with him until she returns. A friendship blooms between Mitsuki and Tama's mother, Kyouko, with Mitsuki taking on the role of Tama's babysitter and Kyouko tutoring Mitsuki to help him prepare for his entrance exams. Months pass as Mitsuki becomes increasingly inseparable from the mother and daughter and his feelings for Kyouko deepen beyond their initial friendship. The question lies hanging between them: how far can they (or should they) take their relationship?
A short romance Visual Novel by indie author ebi-hime, creator of visual novels including Sweetest Monster, The Way We All Go, A Winter's Daydream and The End of an Actress.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents:
- Kyouko's parents threw her out and abandoned her when they found out she was pregnant with Tama. Her mother at least provided a small amount of financial support but Kyouko has been isolated for seven years and has become depressed, resentful, pessimistic and filled with no small amount of self-loathing.
- Completely averted with Kyouko herself, however. Tama is her whole world and despite a small part of her blaming Tama's existence for how far she has fallen it doesn't get in the way of how much she loves her daughter. It is most shown when Tama runs off in the night when the three are climbing a hill and Kyouko's sheer terror at Tama's disappearance and utter relief when she finds her is on full display.
- Age-Gap Romance: Kyouko sees her relationship with Mitsuki as this. Even though she is only a year older than him, Mitsuki doesn't have the amount of life experience she does and feels awkward about getting into a relationship with him partly because of it. At least initially; it fades after they have sex, when she reveals her fear that he was only after her for sex and would abandon her like her ex and Mitsuki promptly shoots it down - he's here to stay, for her and Tama.
- Bratty Half-Pint:
- While she doesn't mean anything bad by it Tama, like many small children, can become quite rambunctious when she gets upset or doesn't get her way.
- Tama's classmate Keiichi is easily the worst behaved child at her school, frequently insulting Tama for not having a father and mocking Mitsuki for his accent. Even Kyouko admits difficult dealing with him, mentioning that he's tried to peek up her skirt on occasions she's visiting her daughter at school. He comes from a rather affluent family and it's implied he's acting out due to a combination of being both spoiled and smothered.
- Broken Bird: Kyouko was a teenage girl with top grades, a boyfriend of good standing and good prospects for her life. She became pregnant and suddenly her boyfriend abandoned her, her parents threw her out and she was left a near-penniless single mother who spends all the time she can at her low-paying waitress job to put food on the table for her daughter in their old, rundown apartment building.
- Broken Record: Mitsuki certainly feels like he is this sometimes when trying to get Tama to behave. His inner thoughts complain about her a lot and Tama switches between adoring Mitsuki and 'hating' him (in the way children do), but they don't take it seriously and love each other regardless.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Inverted. While Mitsuki is quite aimless, introspective and self-deprecating, it becomes clear after a while that Kyouko is the brooding one. She is depressed, resentful, pessimistic and self-loathing.
- Brutal Honesty: Tama doesn't think anything of saying the truth, no matter how hurtful or thoughtless. It's not that she is being cruel, she simply doesn't see any reason not to say that the stranger makes good pancakes while her mother makes bad pancakes.
- Country Mouse: Mitsuki was born and raised in the country, and is mentioned to have a bit of an accent in his voice as a result. Upon moving to the city however, he finds it isn't all that its cracked up to be and has basically been drifting aimlessly with his life until he meets Tama and Kyouko.
- Daddy's Girl: By the final act, Tama doesn't think twice about telling her mean classmate Keiichi that Mitsuki is her 'daddy' when he makes fun of Mitsuki taking her to school because she doesn't have a father. From that point on it's clear the Mitsuki is no longer merely 'acting' like a part of the family.
- Disappeared Dad: Tama's unnamed father who was Kyouko's boyfriend in high school. Much like her, he was an honor student with good grades and was well regarded by many in school but ultimately abandoned her when she told him she was pregnant, refusing to publicly admit the child was his out of fear it would ruin his image too.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Mitsuki has a hard time thinking straight when he's around Kyouko. When a well-meaning Tama shoves him into the bathroom to talk to her mother the sight of Kyouko has Mitsuki short-circuit initially, during their trip to the beach Mitsuki is stunned by the sight of Kyouko in a bikini and is terrified at the thought of joining the trip to a hot spring as it means Kyouko will be in a yukata (the mere thought of which is enough to scare him) and the three will be sharing a room, and the two a bed.
- Don't Be Ridiculous: Both Mitsuki and Kyouko consider the other to be acting ridiculously when they become awkward about 'intruding' (either Kyouko on Mitsuki's privacy and time or Mitsuki on Kyouko and Tama's family time).
- Kids Hate Vegetables: Tama isn't fond of vegetables in general, but she especially doesn't like green peppers. It's also a common way for Kyouko to discipline Tama when she's being too rowdy by threatening to cook nothing but green pepper dishes unless she behaves.
- Happily Ever After: Heavily implied in the epilogue. Mitsuki and Kyouko have become an Official Couple and while there's still a little uncertainty in the future, the final scene shows everything is going well for them.
- Height Angst: Mitsuki is noted to be short for his age. It's something that bothers him a fair bit, especially when Kyouko teases him over the fact while they're in bed together.
- Lap Pillow: Kyouko has Mitsuki rest his head on her lap while she cleans his ears and the two talk.
- Living Emotional Crutch: When Tama has a sleepover with a friend for the first time, her absence leaves Kyouko antsy and pensive for the remainder of the night. She eventually realizes that for all the difficulties, pain and even resentment she's undergone in her life, her daughter was truly her whole world and the emotional bedrock that gave her the strength to come as far as she has. Kyouko also admits to Mitsuki that, after his presence gave her some breathing room to think about the future, she's terrified of the day when Tama eventually grows up and becomes an independent adult and leaving her behind.
- Lonely Together: Mitsuki speculates whether this was the, initial, reason him and Kyouko hit it off so easily. Both of them live on their own without any friends or family and are isolated without any support in their community thanks to Kyouko being a single mother from a Teen Pregnancy and Mitsuki being several years older than his fellow students at cram school.
- Men Can't Keep House: Zigzagged with Mitsuki. Due to spending five years supporting his parents after his mother's accident, he's actually a very skilled homemaker and cook but, at the beginning of the series, he isn't particularly tidy with his apartment and mostly eats instant meals rather than cook for himself largely due to how directionless his life has become since moving to the city. Once he becomes acquainted with Kyouko and Tama and begins looking after the latter during the day, he relearns those skills very quickly.
- Named Like My Name: Mitsuki happens to share both his first name and surname with the actress Tanimura Mitsuki
, something he's gotten plenty of grief for during his days at school. - Parental Substitute: Mitsuki slowly becomes this to Tama, and takes to it like a duck to water.
- Parent with New Paramour: Kyouko is mother to six-year-old Tama and by the end of the story she and Mitsuki are together. Type 1 as Mitsuki and Tama get along very well from the beginning.
- Second Love: Mitsuki is this to Kyouko.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Kyouko falls in love with Mitsuki largely because of how much better he has made her life by being in it. He cares for her daughter, encourages her and empathises with her, has a genuine interest in and desire to improve her life and gave up five years of his life to care for his mother and run the family store when he wanted nothing more than to leave his boring hometown and find a more exciting life in the city.
- The First Cut Is the Deepest: Even after confessing their feelings and physically consummating their relationship, Kyouko admits she's terrified that Mitsuki will abandon her just like her high school boyfriend did. Even repeated reassurances don't completely allay her fears, since she's heard those exact same words before.
- Their First Time: After Mitsuki and Kyouko have sex she teases his roughness. Mitsuki fears she means that it was painful and begs forgiveness, explaining that he was a virgin beforehand. Kyouko tells him she could tell that it was his first time and assures him that it was good.
- Through Her Stomach: Mitsuki earns Tama's approval in the beginning by making her, and letting her help make, some tasty meals.
- You Are Not Alone: After spending their first night together and Kyouko tells Mitsuki she's uncertain of what the future holds for them, he firmly makes it clear he's here to stay, for both her and Tama, and she chooses to believe him, in spite of her own fears.
