Uncle Hikigaya is Forever Young [59]

Actually, Mrs. Machida was quite troubled herself.

It wasn’t as though she hadn’t earnestly tried introducing her daughter to promising young men. A few years back, when Sonoko was younger, there had indeed been several good families to pick from.

But now…

Among her circle of friends, any young, accomplished men had either long been taken, or else weren’t yet desperate enough to consider marrying a woman approaching thirty-two.

And Sonoko lacked self-awareness. Whenever those decent men met her once or twice, they immediately backed away politely.

She was still living off her parents!

Of course, she was their only daughter, so allowing her to depend on them wasn’t entirely unacceptable…

But she couldn’t separate her work from her private life!

This was a far more serious issue. Several times, Sonoko had outright rejected—no, ditched—matchmaking dates that Mrs. Machida had painstakingly arranged, all due to some trivial work emergency.

Or as her daughter put it: she “flaked.”

And furthermore!

She was hopeless at housework!

Nearly thirty-two years old, and she still couldn’t even manage to prepare a proper meal by herself.

Fine, perhaps that was partly her own fault for spoiling the girl all these years…

...

Honestly, if Sonoko wasn’t her only child, Mrs. Machida sometimes felt she could strangle her!

As a traditional Japanese woman, she simply couldn’t understand—what was so great about being an editor?

Even if she eventually became editor-in-chief, wouldn’t she still need to marry, bear children, and find a stable home in the end?

For a woman, wasn’t it far more important to settle down with a good family than becoming some big-shot editor?

Moreover, her daughter’s personality had plenty of issues—whimsical, reckless… Ah, forget it! Thinking about this was driving her insane!

She felt like crying!

She herself had married relatively late, and it seemed unlikely now that she'd ever get to hold a grandchild before turning sixty!

This troublesome daughter!

After struggling through half a month of hesitation and hitting a dead end searching for alternative matchmaking prospects, Mrs. Machida ultimately began to feel that Hikigaya Ryōhei might not be so bad after all…

One truly benefits by comparison.

Actually, she was fully aware—if not for Ryōhei being divorced, and burdened with children…

Or even if he’d divorced, but without any kids to look after, someone with his background would certainly be considered a high-quality man.

There was no way it’d ever be her foolish daughter’s turn to be picky.

She was certain that young girls, fresh into society at eighteen or nineteen, would eagerly flock to someone like him.

How could Sonoko possibly compete with those cunning little foxes?

Given the country’s current instability, jobs like doctors, teachers, or civil servants had become especially desirable.

She’d always felt editing wasn’t a proper career anyway—if it could interfere so severely with her daughter’s marriage prospects, how respectable could it be?!

“Sonoko, where are you right now? After you finish work today, let’s go shopping. Mom will buy you a few new outfits.”

On Friday afternoon, Mrs. Machida stood across the street from Undying River Publishers, where her daughter worked, calling her insistently to come outside.

“I still have overti—”

“Get yourself out here right now! Don’t make me come in after you!”

Machida Sonoko jumped from fright. Her mother’s fierce tone made her tremble, her face paling instantly.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming!” With lingering fear, Sonoko hung up and glanced at Shi-chan, sprawled out fast asleep on the meeting-room desk.

She paused briefly. After all, she’d forcefully dragged Shi-chan here two days ago to grind through manuscripts without rest. She’d just finished a draft and likely wouldn’t wake up anytime soon.

These authors really never gave her a moment’s peace.

Shi-chan especially! Her last novel hadn’t sold well at all, yet she still wouldn’t take this one seriously!

Then again, if not for Shi-chan’s rapidly declining sales, Sonoko wouldn't have resorted to tricking her into staying at the office to finish writing.

Her phone vibrated again.

“Mom! It hasn’t even been thirty seconds yet! I said I’m coming already… Huh? A package delivery? For Shi-chan again? Fine, fine, I’ll come out and get it.”

Wait… Wasn’t her mom already standing at the door?

Machida-san suddenly froze awkwardly.

...

“My dear Sonoko, I never knew you now even handle package deliveries? Being an editor really is a wonderful profession. Next time, I’ll have my own packages sent to your office too.”

Sure enough, on their way to the mall, Mrs. Machida couldn’t resist sarcastically mocking her daughter like this.

Poor Sonoko could only helplessly cover her ears.

Fortunately, after a few biting comments, her mother was too emotionally exhausted to say much more.

Their Machida family wasn’t exactly wealthy, but surely they hadn’t fallen so far as to make their daughter fetch other people’s deliveries, had they?

While having dinner together at a restaurant near the shopping mall, Mrs. Machida finally said in a gentle voice, “You’ll be attending a matchmaking date this weekend—I’ve arranged it with the Miura family’s help. Later, we’ll go buy some skirts, sandals, and so on. Understood?”

“Is it really necessary? I already have a skirt—”

“Don’t interrupt!”

Mrs. Machida glared sharply at her daughter, then continued calmly, “It’s not as if I’m forcing you to marry just anyone. But I’ve checked carefully—this Hikigaya-kun truly is a decent man. Even if it doesn’t work out, it’s still a chance to make a new friend, right? He's a teacher, after all. Everyone needs at least three essential friends—a teacher, a doctor, and a civil servant. Got it?”

“Yes, yes, I know!” Sonoko muttered, taking a large sip of juice. Mentally, she was still figuring out how Shi-chan’s plot needed revision, though she doubted Shi-chan would actually listen.

According to the author herself, she’d recently hit a bottleneck, feeling more and more clearly that ordinary romance novels had limitations.

Well, obviously! Considering you’ve never even had a proper romantic relationship yourself, of course you’d reach a limit!

That you’ve been able to bluff your way this far already puts you at the top of the industry!

“You’re not getting any younger—stop drinking all that sugary stuff. Aren’t you afraid you’ll get fat?”

Seeing her daughter stay silent, Mrs. Machida sighed deeply. She was already used to this.

“If you don’t know what to say during the matchmaking, just say less. At least you look presentable enough. And remember, don’t show all your flaws the first time you meet someone. Just leave a good impression. Even if it doesn’t work out… you can always meet other men through Hikigaya-san later. Understand?”

“Yeeees—”

Sonoko stretched her voice lazily.

Mrs. Machida pressed a hand against her forehead, sighing again.

At least, compared to before, now Sonoko wouldn’t argue back immediately during matchmaking discussions.

Well, this was good enough.

...

Later that same afternoon, at the Yuigahama house entrance—

“Hikigaya-san, you certainly have a lot of kids, huh? Ha… haha.”

Yuigahama Asuna smiled wryly, somewhat astonished as she watched Komachi energetically dragging a twin-tailed little girl into their new home, with Hachiman following behind, carrying a rice cooker in one hand and a soy milk maker in the other.

“Yeah, well, nothing I can do about it, having that sort of ex-wife… Oh, that’s my niece. She’ll also be living with me from now on. Honestly, those two were so excited to see the new house, they forgot to greet you properly.”

“Oh, it’s fine, really! Kids will always be kids. Raising children alone… it must be very hard for you, right?”

Yuigahama-san knew exactly how difficult single parenting could be.

---

A/N: Seeing everyone’s reactions in the comments from the last chapter, did Tomoya trigger that much resentment? Actually, I didn’t think about it that deeply—just figured that in my setting, he’d be utterly ruined. After all, I even wrote Akane Kosaka into failure here.

In a Great Depression, who still cares about that stuff? Even construction jobs would be fought over.

T/N: daaaamn everyone be failing

This is a fan translation of 比企谷大叔永远年轻 by Stargazer All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!