97 You Two Go on a Date!
“I—I?”
Noia nodded.
“Yeah, since everyone’s focused on family feelings, if I want to stand out, I can’t just write about family. I want to write about how Mom and Dad…”
Please don’t say that word.
For the love of all that’s good, don’t say it!
“Love!”
Pff—
It was as if two invisible daggers had been plunged deep into the hearts of the couple.
They exchanged glances.
Clearly, both were a little… scared of the topic their eldest daughter had chosen.
Family feelings were fine and dandy.
With four family members, you could put together at least three segments about familial love:
father-daughter love, mother-daughter love, sisterly love.
Go ahead, write about it. Seriously, even with a brief 800-word essay, you’d easily hit 2400 words—just the right length for some lazy authors who like to stretch things out.
But love…
What love?!
Does Mom and I look like we’re head over heels for each other?
Have we held hands? Have we kissed? Have we hugged? Have we even taken a vacation together?
…
Yikes~ Turns out we kinda have.
So, it’s no wonder Noia is feeling so confident about her love theme.
If anyone should be blamed, it’s Leon and Roswiser for portraying their “couple” relationship so vividly in front of the kids.
This also shows they’ve managed to create a warm and real feeling in this fake family.
So naturally, when Noia thought about taking a different approach to get good grades, the first thing that popped into her mind was them.
The couple exchanged hesitant looks, nudging each other back and forth, both unsure.
Seeing her parents like this, Noia’s expression shifted from anticipation to disappointment. “You don’t want me to get first place?”
In a flash, Leon squatted down. “Alright, Dad and Mom will help you. We will definitely snag that first place in the essay contest!”
Noia’s little face brightened again. “Thanks, Mom and Dad~”
She’s still a kid at heart. While her maturity outshines her peers, that cute little face can’t hide her emotions.
Seeing Leon agree, Roswiser naturally wouldn’t say anything more. “So, Noia, how do you want Dad and me to assist you?”
Noia, on the way home, had already thought it through. “It’s super simple, really!”
Hearing this, the couple secretly sighed in relief.
Simple? Please, let it be simple.
How complicated can a kid’s understanding of love be?
Leon didn’t believe their sweet girl would come up with any outrageous requests.
“You two should go on a date to Sky City tomorrow!”
…
“Date! She just said the word ‘date’ in the afternoon, right? Does she even know what a date is at her age?!”
That night, Leon paced back and forth in Roswiser’s room.
Roswiser shook her head. “Noia understands more than the average child. Since she brought it up, we should at least start thinking about how to handle tomorrow’s date.”
Leon stopped pacing and looked at Roswiser. “Did you ever go on dates before?”
Roswiser shrugged. “The first hundred years were spent on studying, the next hundred on work—when would I have time for love and dates? How about you?”
“Fifteen years studying, five years working…”
And for the past two years, he’d been busy raising kids.
Roswiser buried her face in her hands with a sigh. “Okay, we can’t rely on our past experience.”
Zero experience, indeed—quite the predicament.
After a moment of silence, Roswiser stood up and headed to her study.
A moment later, she returned to the living room with a few novels in her arms.
She placed the novels on the coffee table.
Leon leaned in for a closer look. “‘Me and My Lover’, ‘Dreaming in the Afternoon’, ‘Love Letters to Albatross’… What’s this all about?”
“Novels.” She paused and added, “Romance novels.”
“I thought you spent time in the study researching magic or something. Who knew you were sneaking in some novel reading?”
Roswiser shot him a glare, ignored his teasing, and got straight to her point. “To give Noia some proper material on love, even if we’re not good at dating, we need to cram some knowledge tonight.”
She tapped the covers of the books. “We should learn from these. The efficiency should be really high.”
It reminded them of those nights before entrance exams when they stayed up all night solving problems.
But this time, they only had one night to prepare.
“Pre-exam cramming? If that’s the case, I might just wake up,” Leon said, plopping down next to Roswiser as they began flipping through the novels.
Of course, since Roswiser had already read these romance novels several times before, she only focused on the portions about ‘dating’.
Leon, on the other hand, didn’t waste time reading word for word—it just wouldn’t be enough time.
His method involved first skimming the table of contents to find which chapters dealt with dating and then jumping straight to those.
The couple worked effectively, saving time and effort.
While reading, they jotted down notes, writing down some dating ideas to organize and choose later.
A few hours later, Leon and Roswiser had devoured the dating segments of the novels.
They had quite a stack of notes.
They exchanged looks and simultaneously broke into a nerdy grin.
They collated their notes and began filtering out appropriate ones for themselves.
First on the agenda: “Watch a ballet performance.”
The theater has lots of people, an elegant atmosphere, and they’re just watching a ballet—no weird activities, making it perfect for them.
“Next… a couples’ bar… um, nope, that’s a no-go; let’s scratch that,” Roswiser said.
Leon nodded in agreement, since he really wasn’t great with alcohol.
Plus, since this material was for Noia’s essay, she would probably be sneaking around observing them.
Getting sloshed during her research wouldn’t be ideal.
Next, the couple organized a few more suitable date ideas.
What qualifies as “suitable” for them?
Simply put, no silly couple games, no excessive physical contact, yet still showcasing that “parental love” warm theme.
Honestly, quite a challenge.
But they managed to squeeze out a tentative date list, enough to keep them busy for a whole day.
Leon looked over the list with satisfaction.
“Alright, as long as we stick to this tomorrow, we definitely won’t mess up!”
Roswiser, for once, agreed with Leon’s sentiment.
“Right! We’ll surely give our daughter some fabulous date material!”
The couple uncorked a bottle of champagne.
Little did they know that the last time they popped a bottle together was the night before the entrance ceremony.
And we all know how that turned out.
So this time… could the couple manage to sidestep the ‘pop champagne, definitely mess up’ law?
Presenting, Noia K. Melkway’s heartfelt masterpiece—“Parental Love”!
