I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother Chapter 86

“Isn’t this cheating?”

Dazar muttered in a serious voice, as if he were carrying every anguish in the world upon his shoulders. Deep lines formed between his brows.

“How could you do something this cruel?”

“Anyone who heard you would think I did something terrible to you.”

I casually pushed the delicious-looking soy sauce egg rice toward him. It looked good enough to make even me drool. Dazar flinched.

“Here, eat. And you know what happens if you eat this, right?”

“Wha…… What?”

“If you eat this, you’ll let me…… date you—no, Axion is coming with us too. And Carl!”

I almost blurted out some old-fashioned catchphrase before hurriedly correcting myself. Whew. I almost said something horrifying. The idea of me dating that man was absolutely impossible, even if the world were split in two.

I rubbed my arm, which had broken out in goosebumps, while Dazar raised both hands as if admitting defeat.

“You truly are as ruthless as they come. I already knew you were someone without an ounce of mercy, but……”

Was I really such a merciless person?

I was just about to fall into some serious self-reflection when Dazar reached for the soy sauce egg rice and spoke.

“Since the one who requires the most attention is going anyway, what’s one little brat? Fine. He can come too.”

“…….”

I should have been happy that Axion could come with us too.

Yet somehow, I felt terribly offended.

That “one who requires the most attention” sounded suspiciously like me.

While I stared at him sullenly, Dazar swiftly picked up the spoon and began devouring the soy sauce egg rice. His thick lips opened wide as he happily swallowed the brownish rice.

Good grief, he really eats well.

There was something pleasant about seeing someone enjoy food I had made myself. Especially when that annoying in-law of mine started to look just a little cute.

There’s a grain of rice stuck to his cheek.

His cheeks were puffed up like a hamster with its mouth stuffed full of sunflower seeds. He was eating so hurriedly that he hadn’t even noticed the grain of rice stuck to his cheek.

As he chewed, the grain of rice moved along with his jaw as if it were alive. The movement was so mesmerizing that I didn’t even notice Carl quietly leaving with Axion.

You know how there are moments when you suddenly realize how quiet your surroundings have become?

Well…… this was one of them.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“……I was just thinking how truly unfortunate-looking you are.”

“Huh.”

Perhaps he had noticed the silence around us too, because he suddenly raised his head and looked at me. The bowl was almost completely empty from how he had buried his face in the soy sauce egg rice.

So it wasn’t that he noticed how quiet it had become.

He had simply finished eating.

“Staring so intently at an ugly person must be quite exhausting. Why don’t you stop?”

“How amazing that you already knew such a profound truth.”

“I know because I’ve experienced it myself. How painful it is to keep looking at an ugly person.”

“Oh my. Who is this ugly person? Surely you don’t mean me?”

His expression turned fierce, but I wasn’t frightened at all. A man scowling with a grain of rice stuck to his cheek was simply hilarious.

Pfft.

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

Dazar narrowed his eyes.

“……Why are you suddenly laughing?”

“You’re funny. Do you know you have a grain of rice stuck here?”

“A grain of rice……? What is that?”

Ah. He didn’t even know what a grain of rice was called.

I decided to be generous to the man who had given me such a good laugh. I would remove the grain of rice stuck to his cheek myself.

I slowly reached out.

“Here.”

“…….”

I gently pinched the grain of rice between my thumb and forefinger, then popped it straight into my mouth.

Oops. The habit I have with Axion just came out.

I usually feed Axion, and whenever food gets stuck to his cheek, I pick it off and put it into my mouth. That habit had come out before I even realized it.

I was startled, but I pretended nothing had happened and pulled my upper body back after leaning in slightly……

Whoosh.

Dazar’s face turned bright red in an instant, as if it might burst into flames.

Then, snap, my hand was caught.

“You, you……”

Uncharacteristically, Dazar stammered as he covered part of his face with one hand. He seemed to think he was hiding his expression, but his still-bright-red face remained clearly visible.

But you know how it is.

I had been startled too, but when the other person was even more startled and flustered, somehow your own surprise settled down and you became calmer.

“Why?”

Thanks to that, I could shamelessly ask him that.

“……Ugh.”

Dazar opened and closed his lips as he stared at my shameless face. He seemed completely at a loss for words.

It was the first time I had seen him this red-faced and embarrassed, so I felt somewhat unfamiliar with the sight.

It was almost as if I had poked at some soft part of him without realizing it.

And along with the realization that the softness felt rather nice, there was a mischievous sense of pleasure at seeing the exposed softness flushed from embarrassment.

Am I actually a sadist?

Cilia was originally that kind of character, sure……

But the me who had entered her body wasn’t supposed to be like that.

Pretending not to notice the subtle feeling inside me, I gently freed my hand from his grasp. Where had that forceful grip from a moment ago gone? The moment my hand touched his, he flinched and his grip went limp.

With my now-free hand, I picked up the spoon he had tossed onto the bowl, scraped up the remaining rice, and held it out toward his mouth.

“……?”

“Eat. If you leave it, the God of Agriculture will punish you.”

Correction.

Maybe I really was originally like this.

Why was it so entertaining to see this man flustered? How little virtue must he have accumulated in his life to make even a kind person like me harbor such wicked thoughts?

Rather than shrinking back from his reaction, I held the spoon out even more boldly. Dazar seemed to realize that I was teasing him.

Judging by the way his eyebrow sharply twitched.

“Not going to eat? Then I’ll eat it for you.”

If he wasn’t going to eat it, I would.

I turned the spoon toward myself and slightly opened my mouth. The spoonful of rice was right in front of my lips. Of course, I had no intention of actually putting the spoon Dazar had eaten from into my mouth.

I was only pretending.

But then……

“……!”

In the blink of an eye, Dazar’s face was so close that our noses were almost touching.

Huh……?

Just as I noticed that his golden eyes were glittering strangely, he tilted his head to the side as if he were going to kiss me and swallowed the spoonful that had been right in front of my lips in one bite.

This time, even I couldn’t help but be flustered.

The strength drained from the hand holding the spoon, but because he was still holding my hand, the spoon didn’t fall to the floor.

“Um, excuse me……”

“It’s good. This thing you made is really delicious. I ate it all, so I won’t be punished by the God of Agriculture, right?”

With that, he grinned.

That smile unmistakably contained a teasing edge. He had clearly been provoked by my actions and had no idea what he himself had just done.

That was why his golden eyes were burning with competitiveness.

I only opened and closed my lips dumbly before slowly pressing them shut.

If I opened my mouth here, only a flustered voice would come out. Instead, I could only alternate between looking at the hand wrapped around the back of my neck and the other hand holding mine.

Only then did he seem to notice the position we were in, because he hurriedly pulled away from me.

“…….”

“…….”

Silence fell between us.

What kind of situation was this?

A disastrous ending brought about by a battle of pride between the two of us?

The price of my mischievous sense of pleasure?

Both my cheeks felt slightly hot. There was no doubt they had turned red. It couldn’t be helped. Anyone would have reacted this way after what had just happened.

Even if the other person was that annoying in-law of mine!

We both slightly averted our gazes and stared off into the distance when a sound like that of a savior rang through the room.

Flap!

“Jjorong, jjorong.”

The red bird Dazar kept had suddenly appeared.

The windows had definitely been closed, so I had no idea where it had come from.

“Oh! Look at the time already! I should get going. I need to prepare for the island. We’re leaving tomorrow, right? Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Thanks to the red bird breaking the tension, I hurriedly stood up and fled the room.

Click.

The door closed.

“Ugh. Have I gone crazy……?”

I slapped both of my still-red cheeks with my hands and walked quickly down the corridor.

I was crazy.

I definitely had to be crazy.

 

***

 

“…….”

“Jjorong, jjorong.”

“……Could you stop making those strange noises on purpose? You’re making me restless.”

“Jjorong, jjorong. What’s wrong with the sound? Cilia seemed to fall for it just fine. I thought she was in a difficult situation, so I saved her. You’re quite talkative.”

Dazar rubbed his dry face with both hands.

The red bird, which had been flying around the room, lightly landed on his shoulder and began grooming its wings.

Dazar sighed.

“Damn it.”

“Hmmm. To think you’d be shaken this badly. How amusing. Perhaps I should have left you alone.”

“…….”

The red bird chuckled, clearly entertained. Normally, Dazar would have immediately snapped back at it, but this time, he remained silent.

That fellow really was surprised, wasn’t he?

After all, from his perspective, this was the first time he had shown such a side of himself to someone other than her.

“Heh heh. What an idiot.”

The bird probably didn’t realize that rather than saving him, it had essentially interrupted him.

The red bird, a being that lived by feeding on misfortune, smacked its beak in amusement and laughed.