My Stepsister is My Ex-Girlfriend - Volume 2 - Chapter 1

A Day in the Life of the Ex-Couple

“How should I spend Golden Week?”

What a masterpiece. I closed the paperback book that I’d just finished reading and took a little time to admire the cover illustration before squeezing it against my chest.

I let out a sigh and gazed at the ceiling above my bed, daydreaming about countless scenes. As each one formed and subsequently faded, I stored them all inside me as priceless treasures. What a blissful process it was!

It was currently the afternoon on the second day of Golden Week. My social status had done a one-eighty in just a year, and suddenly I found that my reading time had been shaved away by the time I spent with friends. That’s why, for this holiday week, I planned to do nothing but pore through all the books that had piled up.

Little had I known that I’d be met with an extremely beautiful tale when I picked up the second book on my list.

I want to talk with someone about it. I want to share my feelings with someone and, if I can be so greedy, I want them to feel the same about it too!

To my great chagrin though, none of the friends I’d made were readers like me. I did have the option to fish for reviews online, but I didn’t really want to since the last time I’d done that, reading the comments hadn’t left me in the best of moods. No, discussing a book face-to-face was by far the best.

I tried thinking about what I used to do in these kinds of situations, and as I fell into my thoughts, a certain guy’s face popped up. Oh right, back then, I didn’t have this problem. How nice— This thought was interrupted by the realization that the guy I used to talk about books with lived under the same roof as me.

“I-I guess I have to...”

I really had no other choice. By process of elimination, I was simply left with no other option than him. Yes, it was inevitable due to process of elimination.

I glanced at his room, which was next to mine, but he wasn’t there. I walked down the stairs to the living room and found the guy I was looking for—Mizuto Irido, my little stepbrother and...my ex-boyfriend. He was slouched over, vacantly gazing at the TV. He seemed extremely bored.

“What are you doing...?” I asked while hiding the book I’d brought down behind my back.

“I read all the books I have at home. I wanted to go buy more, but it’s too windy out, so I gave up on that.”

Even now, the living room windows were rattling loudly against the wind. It may not have been as bad as it’d get during typhoons, but it was strong enough that its whooshing about was clearly audible.

This wind isn’t that bad. What are you, the little engine that couldn’t? But then again, it wasn’t as if I’d like to go out in this wind either. I’d stayed holed up inside because I didn’t want to deal with my hair getting messed up.

Wait, is this my chance? How often did he get so lethargic after running out of books to read? It happened maybe once a month. If I let this chance slip me by, I may never have another chance to get him to even look at any of my book recommendations. I-It’s now or never!

“O-Oh, is that right?”

I tried to play it cool and sat a little bit of a distance away from Mizuto. He watched me as I did, skeptically furrowing his brow. I continued to act naturally, nonchalantly twirling my hair with the hand that wasn’t holding the book. Stay calm. Stay calm and just casually...

“Well, if you’re so bored,” I muttered, “I guess I wouldn’t mind lending you a book.”

Perfect! That was so natural! There was nothing off about it—not a single thing! I deserve an Oscar for that performance!

“What are you up to?” Mizuto asked, the creases in his brow increasing.

“H-Huh? N-Nothing!” I turned away so that he couldn’t see my face. There’s no need to interrogate me!

Mizuto was certainly suspicious of my behavior, but regardless, he said, “Well, I guess anything is better than being bookless.”

“E-Exactly! We don’t get to relax like this very often!”

“Then I guess I’ll go pick out a random boo—”

“Here!” I pulled out the book that I’d concealed until now and thrust it in front of him. “Take this! It’s really good!”

“O-Okay...” Mizuto reflexively accepted the book.

It might have been a little aggressive on my end, but he did take it, so no harm, no foul.

Mizuto adjusted his sitting posture and looked at the front cover while playing with his bangs. He then flipped the book over to give the summary a quick read.

“Skimming it, it looks like a pretty generic mystery novel.”

“Oh yeah, so—” I was about to enter an enthusiastic explanation of the book before I quickly stopped myself.

I-I want to tell him! I want to tell him why it’s so good, but I also want him to experience it blind! It’s definitely more interesting that way! Then again, he might not read it if he doesn’t know how good it gets...

“Wh-Whatever! Just read it!” What I’d ended up with after mulling over the various solutions to this dilemma was yelling at him while hanging my head. Ugh, how have humans not developed a coping method for this sort of situation?!

“I’m not really following what’s going on here, but...okay, I’ll read it.” The confusion on Mizuto’s face had yet to leave, but he still opened the book and began moving his eyes across the pages, turning them one by one with his slender fingers.

He flipped past the introduction of the main characters in the novel and turned to the prologue. I closely observed my little stepbrother’s face from the side as he began reading.

“Do you mind? I can’t read like this.”

“O-Oh, s-sorry. I’ll give you space!” I shot to the edge of the couch in a panic—I really didn’t want to interrupt him—and continued staring at him.

“All right then...” he said through a grimace.

I continued watching his face. Right in front of me, he was slowly going deeper and deeper into the story with each turn of a page. I held my breath, feeling myself being pulled in too. I remembered when I’d read what he was reading now and tried to picture what he was imagining. And in the blink of an eye, he’d flipped through a third of the book.

It was faint, but I heard Mizuto gasp as he read the first twist. He was getting more and more hooked.

Just as my lips curled into a smile, Mizuto’s eyes flew in my direction. I quickly covered my mouth with my hand and shook my head in silence.

Mizuto’s gaze dropped back to the book as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. Behind him, the sun had begun to set, tinging the room orange.

He turned page after page, his pace getting faster and faster with each turn. Meanwhile, Mizuto’s posture hadn’t changed one bit. He’d completely lost himself in the book and forgotten about his physical body.

Before I’d even realized it, he’d gotten through over half of the book. There must’ve only been a third or so left at this point.

“Ah.” Just then, a sound that wasn’t pages being turned rang through the living room for the first time since he’d opened the book. It was Mizuto. His eyes widened and sparkled with a glow of understanding. Out of the corner of his eye, I nodded in approval. He’d reached the part where the author laid his intentions bare.

Suddenly, Mizuto was a man on a mission with how he continuously turned the pages. With only about a quarter of the book left, he’d finally entered the solution arc where the truth behind everything would be revealed, but then he froze in the middle of turning a page.

“Huh?” I let out a sound of confusion as Mizuto began flipping back to a previous page. What are you doing?

He reread a scene then closed the book around his index finger, using it as a bookmark. Then he leaned back against the couch and looked up at the ceiling while muttering something.

H-He’s making his own deductions before the solution arc!

I’d never met anyone who read mystery novels like this before. Even when we’d been together, I’d never ever seen him do this even once. I’d always thought that I was the faster reader, but was it possible that he’d just get hung up on stuff like this? Was that the only reason he was slower?

“So that happened, and because of that... Ah!” After about ten minutes, Mizuto’s eyes flung wide open, and he dove back into the book, flipping to the previous page, and then furiously nodded his head. It seemed like he’d figured it out. That was fast.

With that out of the way, he finally continued to read the conclusion of the book. I did my best to keep myself from grinning. Just a little. Just a liiittle more.

“Huh?” His eyes widened in complete and utter surprise. “H-Huh? Huh?! Huh! Huuuh!!!”

It was hard to tell whether he was screaming and clutching his head in actual confusion or because he understood what was going on.

He’d probably fallen for the huge misdirection that the author had perfectly set up. People who theorized wildly might feel betrayed, but if they were to go back through the book with all the answers, they’d see just how clever the author had been.

Right now, it was written across Mizuto’s face that the author had gotten him. It almost made me jealous. After reading a little more, Mizuto fell into complete silence. I’m not even sure if he breathed until the last few pages.

He very reluctantly and slowly turned the last page of the chapter and reached the afterword. At long last, he’d finished the book. He leaned back against the couch, sinking into it as if all the strength had left his body. He gazed at the ceiling, staring at it as if he was getting lost in its expanse. Finally, a sigh escaped from his mouth.

“So...how was it?” I could already tell how he felt about it, but I figured I should still proceed with caution.

Mizuto turned his gaze to the cover of the book. “It’s a masterpiece.”

Ah. Music to my ears.

“What is this?” he said, getting worked up. “I’ve never seen this even mentioned on the internet. How have more people not talked about it?! What’s the matter with people?!”

“Yeah, I know, right?!”

“The story, the characters, the tricks, the logic—all of it was so carefully laid for the conclusion. The writing never dragged on either. It just flowed so well; it was so easy to read! But then the latter half was so intense that I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”

“Yes! Exactly!” I excitedly jumped up, moving closer to Mizuto. “The entire tone of the book seamlessly transitioned between the first and second half! After you finish reading it, you look back and realize how witty the beginning was and how even the super generic-sounding summary is actually deeper than you thought!”

“Precisely! When I first read it, I was all like, ‘what’s this generic-sounding summary doing in a place like this?’”

“Right?!” I nodded excitedly. “I had absolutely zero expectations going into it.”

“Yeah, and there was that foreshadowing at the beginning, remember? In the prologue.”

“Oh yeah, that!”

Mizuto opened the book back up. I moved closer to him until our shoulders touched so I could see too.

“Uh...this, right?” He pointed to the page. “The part that depicts the psyche of the perpetrator.”

“Yeah, there’s that, but there’s also something on the next line. This part.”

“Huh? Oh, wha— That’s what this meant?!”

The sky outside had gone dark, but we hadn’t noticed at all. After our parents came back, we had dinner, took our baths, and then we just kept poring over the book. We ended up reading it a second time; we didn’t end up going to bed until after two in the morning.

When I woke up at my usual late time, I messaged Akatsuki-san and the others on LINE and made plans to hang out. As we chatted, all I could think about was yesterday. It was the most fun I’d had in a while. Time had completely disappeared as I gushed about a book I liked as much as I wanted to, and I’d never forget it. The warmth from that memory was almost like small fireworks going off all across my body.

In the past, this had been how every day was. It had only stopped after I had made a certain decision.

“All right, see you at the station at noon,” I replied to Akatsuki-san’s message, then looked at the outfit I was wearing.

Yep, not bad. Even I thought it was a little weird for me to always be wearing long skirts, but short skirts were too embarrassing. Pants would be too drastic a change; people might think I was trying to change my image. Well, Akatsuki-san has told me I’d look good in pants...on more than one occasion too.

I grabbed my purse and went downstairs. Just as I did, Mizuto came down behind me as if he was following me, his bedhead in full effect. My little stepbrother, donning a gray sweatshirt, then lay his sleepy eyes on me.

“Going out?” he asked.

“Yeah, I have friends, unlike you.”

“Uh-huh.”

As soon as I felt like something was off by his short questioning, I noticed a book in his hand. For as hard as he is to understand, he’s very easy to see through.

I pretended to not notice the book he was carrying and instead said, “How about you hang out with someone too? What about Kawanami-kun?”

“Nope. I’m good,” he said like he was uninterested, opening the door to the living room.

“Oh, okay,” I said, walking to the entrance. “When I get back...”

“Huh?”

“Lend me a book too. It’s not fair otherwise.” Maybe that book you’re holding right now.

There was a pause. I didn’t turn around to look, so I wasn’t sure how he was reacting, but after a little, he quietly responded, “I’ll think about it.”

I slightly—very, very slightly—smiled and then walked towards the front door while saying something that I’d never said when we were dating: “I’ll be back home later.”

“I’ll be here.”