Chapter 5: When the Hiyoku no Tori Flies
Determination
Mizuto Irido
“Are you ready?” It was now December 29th, and Keikoin-san was asking me this question after my third day of work.
The job he’d introduced me to was helping with miscellaneous tasks at his company. I compiled documents, managed the snacks that’d been bought, wrote addresses on packages to be sent out—pretty much everything at the company that had nothing to do with being creative. They were a small company, so apparently, having someone to take care of these things was really helpful.
This was my first job, but having experience with chores at home and assisting with the cultural festival under my belt helped a lot. Also, being able to work inside of a game company was a lot more informative than I’d initially anticipated, especially with things like learning how to make people who were too absorbed in their work actually take a break.
But those three days of new experiences were coming to an end, and Keikoin-san left me with some parting words.
“They say that three days is enough for a guy to change, but it’s almost like you’re a completely different person than when I met you half a month ago. Can I take that as you successfully clearing all the doubts from your mind?”
“No, not yet...” I shook my head. “I don’t think there’s anyone without doubts, regardless of how gifted they are. I’m sure you’ve come to realize that.”
He gave me a cryptic grin. He might’ve seen through everything. He might’ve already known what I was going to say. I might’ve been acting exactly according to his predictions, but still, I decided to keep talking. That was my way of answering his question.
“I don’t think doubts are things to be cleared out of your head. I think you need to coexist with them,” I continued.
Keikoin-san looked slightly surprised and paused before replying. “‘Coexist’? Not overcome?”
“Yeah. Clearing your doubts or overcoming them would make you a Buddha.”
He paused for a bit before snorting quietly. “You really are an avid reader. That’s a very refined answer. Now that I think about it, ‘determination’ was originally a Buddhist word, wasn’t it?”
Clearing the doubts and discovering reason was something that was far away for people like us living in this world of suffering.
“Keikoin-san, I heard from Yume that her love for mysteries was influenced by you.”
“Hm? Oh, right. I was pretty into that genre as a kid too.”
“What’s your favorite mystery book?”
Though we both liked to read, this was the first time we’d talked about books during these three days. Keikoin-san made a difficult face and groaned.
“That’s a hard one. At the very least, endingwise, I liked Mathematical Goodbye the most.”
That was the same book that I’d been reading during the outdoor education trip when I had first interacted with Yume Ayai.
“That’s a pretty chic choice,” I said. “I expected you to choose a series like The Perfect Insider.”
“I enjoy twists. Especially twists that show what scientific thinking is all about. Hm...” Keikoin-san trailed off. He might’ve realized that what he’d just said had the same meaning as my answer. “You got me.”
“Just a coincidence.”
“Let me ask you, then, Mizuto-kun. What’s your favorite mystery?”
“Cosmic.”
“Ha ha! An unsolvable mystery?” He and I really might be similar. Keikoin-san took a short breath and then gazed off into the distance. “I wish I could’ve reached the same answer as you a little sooner. Getting older sucks. You start regretting everything.” Then, he stuck his hand out towards me. “Do your best. This is the only thing a boring adult like me can say at this point.”
“Thank you. I was already planning on doing so.”
We shook hands so that I could settle things between the nightmare I saw and the dream I was going to see.
The Final Day: Part 1
Yume Irido
I started the last morning of the year, for better or worse, normally. My eyes opened as I lay in bed, and I stared off for a bit as if in a daze. After starting on the student council, I’d been much more alert and busy, but now that we weren’t in session, I was kind of slacking off.
But that was okay, especially today. With that in mind, I curled up in my bed. Strangely, as I did, I felt as if I’d become more awake. Lying around in bed got boring, though, so I slowly dragged myself out of it. As soon as I did, cold air pierced my body. I already wanted to retreat into the warmth of my comforter. But I fought that desire and turned on the heater.
I’ll go wash my face while I wait for my room to warm up. I adjusted my messy hair and then the room in my pajamas, then headed down the stairs and into the changing room. I turned on the hot water faucet and waited a bit until it got warm enough before splashing water onto my face. After that, I used a cotton ball to dab my face with lotion, and spread it across my face. I also took the opportunity to check my eyebrows, but it didn’t seem like there was anything out of place.
After letting the lotion sink into my skin, I brushed my teeth. I scrubbed hard, making sure that I got even the back of my molars. While I did, the door opened, and standing there was Mizuto with a bedhead.
I turned around and called out to him, the toothbrush still in my mouth. “Mowrming.”
“Morning.”
I poured water into my cup and swished it around in my mouth before spitting it into the sink. I wiped my mouth while trading spots with Mizuto. Then, I left the room without another word.
With my room now warmed up, I decided to pick out my outfit for the day. I didn’t have to put too much thought into it. In the end, I went with a versatile look of a blouse paired with a comfortable long skirt. I laid them out on my bed and then began taking off my pajamas.
Oh, right. I need to change my bra. I walked to my drawer to pick out a bra wearing nothing but my night bra on my top half. I’m not planning on showing my bra to anyone, but...
“This is the last day, so...”
It was the last day of the year, aka the deadline I’d set for myself. Today was precisely a day that I needed to go all out on—it was a battle. With that in mind, I took out a cute bra with an intricate pattern along its edges and the panties that went with it that I’d bought without mom knowing.
I took off my night bra and then decisively stuffed each of my boobs into the cups before straightening their shape. Just doing that was enough to make me feel tense. And that was how I started my day—the day of my battle.
The Final Day: Part 2
Mizuto Irido
I spent the morning lazing away rereading The Tragedy of Y. It was the second book in the Drury Lane series—a really popular series in Japan about a deaf former actor named Drury Lane who at times displayed his attention to detail and sharp logic.
Rereading the truth revealed in the finale left me with the same thoughts as usual. If something’s on your mind, you need to speak up. I remember having a conversation with Isana about this very same thing.
“Is this similar to the OVA of Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still?”
“The OVA of what?”
“I’m speaking about how if you don’t leave a proper dying message, the world you leave behind will be in much peril!”
After I looked it up, I saw she was talking about an old anime—like so long ago that only old guys would know about. What’s she doing watching this? At any rate, poor communication led to tragedy in all eras. If half of the murders in mysteries were committed by the victim’s significant other, the other half were caused by poor communication. Actually, I might be exaggerating a bit.
I returned The Tragedy of Y to my bookshelf, then moved to my desk and opened the top drawer. There were two gift boxes about the size of my palm in there. After firmly closing my drawer, I left my room and went downstairs. I casually poked my head into the living room and saw Yume sitting in the kotatsu and watching TV, dad reading a book at the dining table, and Yuni-san boiling something in the kitchen.
“Oh, Mizuto-kun. I’m boiling udon. Would you like any?” she asked.
I tilted my head. “Do you not eat soba at the end of the year?”
“It doesn’t matter if you eat udon now and soba later. If you can eat rice for three meals a day, you can eat noodles twice.”
I guess rice and noodles are both staples in our diet, so it’s a fair comparison. “I’ll have some,” I said, taking a seat at the kotatsu.
Yume, who had been there first, struck up a conversation. “Hey, when do you usually do the first shrine visit of the year?”
“Like, what specific time?”
“I’m just wondering if you go right when the year changes, or if you stay up all night and then go first thing in the morning, or take a nap and go in the afternoon.”
“I guess I’m the type who doesn’t usually go at all.”
“O ye of little faith.”
“What, are you religious?”
“Hm. I guess not really.”
There was no value in believing. A higher power was the exact reason that we’d been led around by the nose and had fallen into our unique circumstances. I grabbed a tangerine from the middle of the table before remembering that I’d be eating lunch soon and setting it back down.
“So what do you guys usually do on New Year’s?” I asked.
“Well, we’ve pretty much always gone to the shrine a little bit before noon.”
“I bet there’ll be a lot of people...”
“True, but there’s gonna be a crowd regardless, so might as well go when the year changes. That sounds more fun anyway.”
“Aren’t you going with friends this year?”
“Yeah, but it’d be nice to go as a family too.”
“Uh-huh.”
Two years... No, it had only been one year since I went to the shrine on the third day of the year with Ayai. She hadn’t had any friends, so it would’ve been suspicious if she went out to the shrine on the first day of the new year. What kind of wish did I make for that to happen?
“Do you have any plans with Higashira-san or Kawanami-kun?” Yume asked.
“Isana’s just like me, so she’s not going. Kawanami knows me too well to invite me.”
“Oh. Well, Kawanami-kun seems like he’d have other people to go with anyway.”
“Just like Minami-san.”
“We’re planning on meeting up at two in the morning. Wanna come?”
“That sounds about as fun as sleeping on a bed of nails.”
“Heh heh.”
“Hey, you two, the udon’s ready!” Yuni-san called out to us.
“Okay!” we both said, getting out of the kotatsu.
Regardless of whether I went to the shrine or not, there was something that the two of us had to take care of before the year ended. I wanted to clear this mess up. It was our once-in-a-lifetime big cleaning.
The Final Day: Part 3
Yume Irido
After lunch, I got a call from Akatsuki-san.
“Hello?” I asked as I picked up.
“Yume-chan! Now a good time?”
“Yeah.”
I walked away from the table and entered the kotatsu again, my phone against my ear. I listened to Akatsuki-san as I lazed against the couch.
“Whatcha doin’?” she asked.
“Just ate lunch.”
“Oh! What’d you have?”
“Udon.”
“Instead of New Year’s soba?”
“No, it’s more like the appetizer to that.”
“Oh? Interesting.”
“What about you, Akatsuki-san?”
“I’m just havin’ some fried food.”
“Did you make it?”
“Nope. My mom did! She offered to at least make food on New Year’s Eve.” I guess Akatsuki-san’s parents are home today even though they’re usually never around. “Whatcha watchin’ to pass the new year by?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like on TV or streaming.”
“Hm...nothing in particular.”
“You don’t even watch Kohaku?”
“I don’t really know the people who participate in it.”
“Oh, right, you don’t really listen to music.”
“Yeah, it’s hard to believe I’m a high school girl.”
“True. You rely on me to pick out songs at karaoke.”
“Thanks again for that...”
“Ha ha ha!”
“But I guess at the very least I watch a countdown.”
“So that’s important to you?”
“Yeah, doesn’t it really make you feel like the new year’s finally begun?”
“I get what you mean!”
“If the year changes without you even noticing, it feels like you missed out.”
“Hard agree.”
Mizuto left the living room and I heard him head upstairs. “Last year, I only realized it was a new year because of the LINE messages I received,” I said.
“Are you the type to try and say it as fast as possible?”
“Isn’t everyone?”
“It’s hard because of all the messages!”
“Yeah... I might just keep it to in-person greetings this year.”
“True! We’ll see each other soon anyway.”
“At two, right?”
“Yep! Oh!”
“What?”
“That’s why I called you!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah! So, apparently Nasuka-chan’s mom is gonna drive us, so we’re thinkin’ about goin’ all the way up to Kitano Tenmangu. What do you think?”
“That sounds great!”
“Oh, sounds like somebody’s hyped,” Akatsuki-san said.
“I’ve always wanted to go there, but it’s kinda far.”
“True, it takes an hour if you’re walking. So, you in?”
“Yeah!”
“Okay! We’re gonna meet up at the crossing at Karasuma Oike.”
Mizuto returned to the living room with a book in his hand. He slowly walked over to the kotatsu before entering it. I could feel his toenails around my lower leg.
“By the way, is it okay that Kawanami-kun’s not coming?”
Mizuto opened the book he was reading. It was Sora Tobu Tori: The Bird Who Flew.
“Hm? Why do you ask?”
“I was just wondering if you weren’t gonna use the first shrine visit of the year as a date opportunity.”
“Oh, no! Definitely not!”
“Why not?”
“He’d definitely run into someone he knows. Well, me too.”
“Ah...”
“What’s that ‘ah’ for?”
“Just impressed by socialites like you two.”
“This is normal!”
“But with all the people at Kitano Tenmangu, wouldn’t it be hard to tell who’s there?” I asked.
“Well, I guess...”
I slowly leaned forward and looked at the book Mizuto was reading. “What about you?”
“Hm?”
“I hear that Irido-kun spent the night at Kawanami’s on Christmas.”
“Oh, so I guessed right.”
“You didn’t know?”
“I knew he wasn’t home at least.”
“Irido-kun really just doesn’t get it! How could he have left you all by yourself on Christmas?!”
“I wasn’t alone. Remember? We were at President Kurenai’s party.”
“Yeah, but still...”
It felt like Akatsuki-san was being strangely roundabout. It was as if there was something she was worried about but was finding it hard to bring up.
“Is there something you’re dissatisfied about, Akatsuki-san?”
“Mm... I wouldn’t say I’m dissatisfied...”
“Is it because you couldn’t spend time with Kawanami-kun?”
“No! It’s more like...” And then, she spilled. “It just seems like you and Irido-kun are worryin’ about somethin’, so I was just...concerned.”
Akatsuki-san’s so nice. Even though the Christmas she wanted to spend with the person she liked was interrupted, she still worried about us. “It’s okay.” I made sure to say this in a clear tone to make sure that my best friend didn’t worry about me. “I’m sure things’ll be okay.”
I didn’t know what the future held, but for Mizuto and me right now, I was pretty sure nothing bad would happen, though I didn’t have any basis for that confidence.
“Okay. All good, then...” Akatsuki-san said, not pressing any further. “So I’ll see you at two! Karasuma Oike, okay?”
“Yep. Got it.”
“Careful of the streets at night! You should have Irido-kun walk you there!”
“Yeah...” That’d be nice.
“Later! Bye-bye!”
“Bye-bye.”
I waited for her to hang up before lowering the phone from my ear. Just as I felt a little exhausted from the phone call and leaned back against the couch, I heard him call out to me in a low voice.
“Hey...”
“Yeah?” I looked over at Mizuto while relaxing against the couch. He’d closed his book and was silently staring right at me.
“Hey, Mine-kun? It’s okay to put white miso in our ozoni, right?”
Mizuto remained silent as our parents spoke.
“Hm? We don’t have any strict traditions, but my mom used white miso.”
Our silence was overridden by the conversation between our parents in the dining room. Mizuto glanced at them. Is this something that he can’t talk about in front of them? He looked back at me, opened his mouth but then immediately shut it and then looked down. Then he looked at me again and finally spoke.
“If you’re going out for the first shrine visit of the year, you should take a nap while you can.”
“I...should?”
“You usually sleep early, don’t you, Yume-san?”
“Yume-san”? That was what he called me in a family setting. Suddenly, the nervousness I’d felt dispersed and my head felt light. Maybe it was because my stomach was full or because of the warmth from the kotatsu, but I could feel my eyelids getting heavy.
“Don’t sleep here.”
“Yeah...”
“When you’re done with your nap...” I woke up a little. “Lend me some of your time.”
Yeah... I replied in my head, but it seemed like it had gotten through. I got out of the kotatsu. “There’s...something I want to talk with you about too.”
I also want to apologize. We made sure to speak in low voices, but I still glanced over to look at our parents. It didn’t seem like they were listening to us.
“Could you lend me a book from this author if you have any, Yume-san?” he suddenly asked, holding up Sora Tobu Tori.
“Yeah, I’ll bring it to your room later.”
This was a camouflage, just in case. So that it wouldn’t be weird for us to be in the same room by ourselves. I left the living room, climbed the stairs and went to my room. Since it would be annoying if my hair got messed up while I napped, I tied it up. I’m...gonna change my clothes later anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter if they get wrinkled while I sleep.
I lay down on my bed and looked up at the ceiling, sighing. Then, I thought about what was to come, and about us.
Hiyoku no Tori: Part 1
Mizuto Irido
In the Japan of old, marriage was a union of two houses. Traditional Japanese households had essentially the same structure as companies, with the father taking the role as the president. When two families married, it was like a merger of two companies—a strategy to increase the economic power of your family. The fathers would always decide who their children married. Back in the day, there were even schools for women that taught things such as flower arrangement and how to play the koto—essentially, women learned how to act as wives.
From the perspective of someone who lives in an age where you’re free to marry whomever you’re in love with, it was really an unfair system. But to a person of old, the system was logical.
Divorce wasn’t simple. Even if there was something that you didn’t like about the other person, you had to suck it up and endure. The mere act of living together was supposed to bond you with your spouse.
Could I really say that the past way of doing things was better? In the present day, romance was already extremely annoying, and on top of that, you had to choose someone using your own judgment and then build up a relationship from scratch. Could I really say that the present way of doing things was better than the past, when your family decided who was a good partner, and you didn’t have to think about any of those things?
I wasn’t sure. It was hard to say without experiencing any of this for myself. At the very least, in that case, I knew I wouldn’t have any freedom with my life. After all, I’d be entrusting the huge decision of my marriage partner to somebody else. It’d be easy, but I would be trapped.
Being free, on the other hand, was not easy. Isana Higashira was proof of that. Despite being the most free out of everyone I knew, she had to shoulder a lot of problems that most high schoolers didn’t.
For example, she couldn’t find a partner in phys ed, she didn’t have anyone to discuss homework with, and she struggled to find anyone to lend her their textbook. It was simple to write her off as a loner, but by removing relationships with others from her life, she was able to grow her talent, which was obviously something that nobody else had.
Not all loners were like that, but if you didn’t allot all your resources to being personable with other people, there would be space to pour those resources into other things. That was the cold hard truth. Everything was a trade-off—the law of equivalent exchange.
To be free like she was required a lot of effort. Not being bound by common sense or convention was easier said than done. So could one start building all that up from scratch by their own power?
Nobody knew the answer to that. Pioneers were only revered when they succeeded. It’s impossible to even tell if what was perceived as a success would still be perceived as such many generations later. For example, there was the famous explorer Christopher Columbus...who was also a genocidal monster.
You won’t know until you try. You need determination to try. And determination involves pushing doubts away and rationalizing your decision, but it has to be based on more than just lip service.
Who could guarantee that Yume and I would stay together forever? We’d already broken up once. If we were going to date for the first time now, we might’ve been able to make promises towards a reckless future. After all, we wouldn’t know any better. We wouldn’t have the experience. But that was not our reality. We knew that love eventually ended. We knew that love eventually cooled off. Eternal love wasn’t possible. There probably weren’t any exceptions. No matter how I thought about it, it was impossible for two strangers to get together and not come to hate each other at least once during the decades that they’re together.
But even so, could I, Mizuto Irido, say that I could assure that wouldn’t happen? In sickness and in health, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, could I promise to love and honor her for all the days of my life? Could I promise that as a mere high schooler? Could I promise that with true sincerity?
What a stupid question. I’d asked myself this question over and over again and I’d come up with the same answer each time. That’s why I could be so sure that it was a stupid question. Of course it was. There was absolutely no way that I could.
Hiyoku no Tori: Part 2
Yume Irido
Sixteen years. It had been a mere sixteen years since I was born into this world—since Mizuto was born into this world. Only sixteen years. Counting from the day we met, we’d known each other for three years, and that was being generous. There were couples who didn’t get married after dating for even longer, so how could we promise to be with each other forever after a mere three years?
It’d just be lip service, just a temporary lapse of judgment. I knew for a fact that our adolescent brains would just be toying with us. That kind of ending is wonderful in romance novels. The characters’ love for one another is in sync, they pledge their eternal love to each other, and on the next page, you jump to the wedding scene, after which they live happily ever after.
But reality is different. If anything, the fact that romance stories end at the marriage scene makes that fact even clearer. There wasn’t any drama after getting married. The kind of love that makes your heart skip a beat, the kind of love that makes your chest hot—after the book ends, it doesn’t exist. After you reach the peak of the mountain, all that’s left is the descent. But nobody would want to watch a previously dramatic tale of romance go stale while slowly declining. That’s why romance stories end at the marriage scene.
The last page of a romance story was almost like a picture in an album. It was a preservation of the relationship while it was still beautiful—frozen in time, and left behind by the flow of it. There was no such thing as “forever.” The only thing that existed was endless change.
Only the people who could overcome all that change could end their lives happily. The more I thought about it, the steeper the path seemed. A lot of thought and preparation would be required to overcome the tightrope of life.
Sixteen years wasn’t nearly enough time. And it goes without saying that three years wasn’t either. Most likely, a lot of adults would say the same thing. We needed to think more. We were still just kids. It wouldn’t be too late to think about it after becoming adults. Everyone would warn me about being too hasty if I made a move now.
It would’ve been easier if I could just ignore that logic. I could just let myself get drunk off of the feelings I had in the moment and let myself be immersed in my own fantasy. That night on Christmas Eve, one week ago—if we’d kept those hot emotions going, I’m sure that it would’ve felt incredibly good. But that wasn’t real. Christmas, night views from restaurants, those kinds of special atmospheres weren’t the kind you should make promises in because there was no way they would last.
What was necessary for us was being in an everyday setting, just living our normal lives as we usually did—but with determination.
That’s why I didn’t make plans for a date with him on the day of our showdown. I didn’t want some kind of special atmosphere that’d make a special memory. I wanted someone who could be the other wing I needed to fly past the final page of our story.
Hiyoku no Tori: Part 3
Mizuto Irido
The Hiyoku no Tori was a bird that originally only possessed one wing, but once it became one with its lover, it flew for the first time. Was I a Hiyoku no Tori? I never thought I was. I thought I’d continue living life alone until my dying breath. But in that case, why did I cry when I was watching fireworks with Yume that time?
I still didn’t really understand what I’d been feeling back then. Had I been happy? Relieved? At the very least, I knew I hadn’t felt negatively, but it was impossible for me to accurately analyze my emotions.
Would Yume know? Would the girl that kissed me when I was crying know? People didn’t know as much about themselves as they thought. Even Keikoin-san didn’t know what kind of person he was until his own daughter was born.
I already knew what path I wanted to walk, but I couldn’t pay attention unless I had someone else look at me. Was I being soft? Was I trying to be like those old households, trying to construct a family around myself? No. I knew who I was and who she was.
I knew her as a person who used to have difficulty talking to people, and now she’d become a person who did exemplary work on the student council. She couldn’t be just boxed into the category of a good wife and smart mother. Not for my sake or her sake, but for our sake. She needed both wings.
Okay, My Mind Is Made Up
Yume Irido
I opened my eyes.
It’s Time to Talk
Mizuto Irido
I closed my book.
Sibling Meeting: Introduction
Yume Irido
It was about five in the afternoon. After waking up from my nap, I untied my hair and ran a brush through it. I did it carefully, over and over again until not a single strand was out of place. After a while, I heard a knock on my door.
“Yeah?” I put my hairbrush down and opened my door. Standing there was Mizuto, as expected.
He looked at my face as if he was checking me. “Now a good time?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m awake now,” I said as I fixed my bangs.
Afterwards, I checked the hallway behind Mizuto and confirmed that our parents weren’t around.
“Come in,” I said, moving aside and letting him in, shutting the door behind me.
He walked deeper into my room and sat by the table on top of the rug. At first, I thought about sitting at the table too, but...
“Ah.”
“Hm?” Mizuto turned around to face me.
“Is it okay if I get some tea first? I’m kinda thirsty after just waking up.”
“Right...go ahead. Could you get me a glass too?”
After that, I left the room and went downstairs. Mom and Mineaki-ojisan were relaxing under the kotatsu in the living room and didn’t really pay me any attention as I entered. I took this chance to swiftly grab two cups and take out the premade roasted green tea. Then I brought everything back up the stairs.
I grunted as I put the tea and the cups on the table. I sat across from him and poured myself a cup of tea. After I put the bottle of tea down, Mizuto poured himself a cup as well.
I downed about half of it instantly, but Mizuto didn’t touch his at all. This might be a long conversation. Though he hadn’t taken a sip yet, I figured it might end up empty by the time we were finished talking.
We sat in silence for a bit, the ticking of my clock the only sound in our ears. I was looking for the right time to begin. I was waiting for my breath to steady, because it was my job to start the conversation.
I took my hand off my cup on the table and gripped my skirt. Then I looked right at Mizuto and spoke.
“I’m really sorry about Christmas Eve,” I said, lowering my head. “It was really rash of me. I didn’t know how hard you were thinking about all that...”
Thinking back to how I’d behaved, I could only think that I’d been rash and blind. I’d misinterpreted the advice that I’d gotten from Madoka-san four months ago when she told me that I needed to evaluate my feelings. She’d told me that I didn’t need to think about my family and friends, so in the end, I really only thought about myself. As a result, I’d pretended not to see all the glaring problems staring me in the face, which led me to acting hasty. What would I have done if I’d actually succeeded in seducing him? The thing tying our relationship together would’ve just been lust, which neither of us wanted to be the thing tying us together.
“I’m sorry too...” Mizuto said abashedly as my head still hung over the table. “I pushed you into a corner with the ambiguous way I was acting. I should’ve expressed my opinion sooner.”
“I’m the one who didn’t even try to ask,” I said, raising my head and leaning over the table. “You tried to tell me with your actions, but I just said ‘no’ and pretended like I couldn’t tell what you were doing.”
“But there was still an opportunity to reason with you, if I’d just stayed calm. I know how you can go crazy when you’re at your wit’s end.”
“Then it’s my fault for going crazy!”
“It’s not that easy to change your personality!”
“Of course it is! If I tried enough, I could’ve!”
“All that’d accomplish is destroying who you are!”
We both suddenly fell silent and stared at each other. Mizuto looked like he’d been caught in a lie. Most likely, I had the same kind of expression.
“What the heck? Here I thought this conversation would be more serious,” I said.
“That’s my line. How’s this different from usual? Actually...” He paused, smiling slightly. “This feels kinda nostalgic.”
He’s right... It’d been a while since we’d argued like this. This past month I’d been so focused on making him fall for me that I was always putting on appearances for him. I hadn’t tried facing Mizuto with who I really was.
I leaned back and lightly exhaled. “Then...how about we start this discussion for real?” This time, I wouldn’t put on airs or be wishy-washy. “What do you think will happen if we date?”
Sibling Meeting: Regarding after We Date
Mizuto Irido
“I don’t think anything would really change,” I said. Yume listened to my words, straightening her back. “The frequency with which we’d see each other wouldn’t change. Neither the way we refer to each other nor the way we talk to each other would change. At the very least, on the surface, everything would more or less be the same. That’s my prediction.”
“So what would be so bad about us dating?”
“The thing that’ll change isn’t something that’ll happen when we’re dating, but when we break up. Try thinking back to when we dated. Those love-addled idiots turned into people with a thorny relationship.”
“‘When’ we break up?”
“You can’t deny the possibility, can you? We’ve already broken up once.”
“So, what? History’s bound to repeat itself?”
“Who knows? I don’t, but it’s too risky to just toss the dice and hope for the best.”
“That’s true. It’ll be bad for our parents if we aren’t on good terms.” Yume tilted her head, shaking her long hair. “But I’ve been thinking...”
“About what?”
“About how we’ve fought in front of our parents before.”
“Oh yeah...that was back during the first semester midterms, right?”
“Yeah, but when that happened, neither of our parents said anything about getting divorced, right?”
“That was just one fight we had,” I said.
“Thinking back, that was a display of one of your bad sides. You just assumed what I felt and tried to resolve things without even talking to me. Objectively, anybody would say you’re crazy for that.”
“Shut up. Would it have been better if I’d been direct? Did you want me to just come out and say, ‘Hey, just because you’re not the top student in our grade doesn’t mean your friends’ll like you any less, so there’s no need to study yourself to death’?”
“Yeah...that would’ve been pretty uncool.”
“Exactly.”
“But in the end, you just wanted to show off, didn’t you?” I fell silent. “I’m the same. That little speech I gave right after starting school, defending you, was something I did by my own decision. Same as when I went after you during the fireworks.”
“Both of us really like showing off to each other too much.”
“Yeah,” Yume agreed.
“We can’t keep doing that forever.”
“Yeah.”
“Fine... Sorry for not communicating enough. What else?” I asked.
“Well, going back to the topic at hand, I was thinking that fighting as siblings every now and then is a part of the family that our parents envision.”
“The kind of emotionally fueled arguments and awkwardness broken-up couples have aren’t even remotely the same as the fights that siblings have. Don’t even try to equate them. It’s like how on social media you’re always shown all these accounts with black profile pictures that announce they broke up with someone.”
“Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I searched “breakup” on Twitter and showed her the accounts of broken-up couples in the suggestions. “Whoa...”
“Do you really wanna pretty much keep showing this fake act to Yuni-san for the rest of her life?”
“B-But...that’s exactly how we were when we first started living together.”
“Back then, we kept quiet about our past relationship because it had nothing to do with our family.”
“But you’re saying if we date, it won’t be the same?”
“Regardless of the timing, we’d have to tell them eventually. If we kept secretly dating, what would we do if they discovered us at a bad time? That’d be the worst.”
“What kind of bad time?”
“Well...”
It was hard to come out and say I was referring to what she’d tried to do with me on Christmas Eve. Yume looked away from me with embarrassment as she thought of the answer. But I mean, with a topic like this, it was unavoidable.
“Or what? Are you planning to date and not do anything?”
“W-Well, uh...” Yume began fidgeting and clutching her body. I looked at her with a serious expression. “No...that wasn’t my intention.” She kept looking away but managed to squeeze out the following words. “But yeah...I would do...something.”
“You’ve got quite the dirty mind, Ms. Honor Student.”
“Shut up! Just because you’re good at hiding your thoughts doesn’t mean you can talk down to me!”
“Let’s ease up on the unjustified slander.”
“You really think that you can pretend otherwise?! You had a huge, hard reaction to me in the bath!”
“Urk!” I really slipped up back then.
“If we end up dating again, you’ll probably be the one who has difficulty holding back. Akatsuki-san told me that it’s impossible for guys to hold back from doing dirty things.”
“She really loves filling your head with the most useless thoughts.”
“But thinking about it like that, it’d be hard to keep that kind of physical relationship secret from our family forever.”
“It’s gonna be hard no matter what we do. Keeping a secret from your family’s hard.”
“So, what are you saying? It’s better to tell them and get their permission?”
“Well, we’d wait a bit to see how things are going between us. If things seem stable, then we can talk about maybe telling them, but this is just a hypothetical, okay?”
“I know. Do you...think they’d be okay with us dating?”
“No clue. I don’t have any experience with having a kid and seeing that kid date my stepkid.”
“True... It’s hard to know how they’ll react...”
“It’s beyond what we can imagine. We’re getting into unknown territory.”
“So what if, hypothetically, we get their permission...”
“You’re adding a hypothetical to a hypothetical?” I asked.
“What else am I supposed to do? Anyway, what would happen next?”
“You mean what’d happen if we could date without having to hide?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s for you to say. What do you want?”
“Well...you know, don’t you?”
“You wanna repeat our middle school relationship?”
“Wh-What are you trying to make me say?!”
“What I’m trying to say is that nothing’ll change just by us dating. I’m borrowing Isana’s words here, but the only thing that’ll change is whether or not we can do dirty things.”
“That’s not true...”
I decided to challenge her on that. “Then why don’t you tell me what’ll change?”
“You’ll be my boyfriend, and I’ll be your girlfriend.”
“Huh? Tautology?”
Yume shook her head. “Those labels are important. I want to be the one filling the single seat in your heart.” I remembered those words. They were the ones I’d used when Isana had asked me out. “Both you and Higashira-san might think that nothing really changes when you start dating someone, but I don’t. Dating someone is special. You become irreplaceable. You become special.”
“In what way? How?”
“It’s not quantifiable.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Why not? It’s almost sickening how perceptive you usually are, but you can’t get this?”
Her tone seemed accusatory, annoying me a bit. “How am I supposed to understand when your explanation sucks so much? Why don’t you try being a little clearer with your words?”
“I’m telling you—it’s not something that you can be specific about! Just get it! You had a girlfriend, didn’t you?!”
“I can’t understand something I fundamentally don’t get! Don’t try to push your feelings on me and think I can! You’re seriously such a girl!”
“This has nothing to do with gender!”
Realizing she’d raised her voice too much, she gasped and covered her mouth. I lowered my breathing and listened to see if there was anyone outside the room. If we got too heated, our parents would hear us. After staying silent and still, I was fairly confident that they hadn’t come to check on us or anything. We exhaled and looked at each other.
“Let’s calm down,” she said.
“You’re the one who exploded.”
“Thanks to who? Urgh! This is pointless!” It seemed that the amount that she could hold her ground also showed how much she’d grown up. “At any rate, it’s special to me. But more importantly...” She paused before continuing. “I want it to be special...” she clearly declared. “Because I want seriousness to be returned with seriousness.”
Seriousness with seriousness, huh? I’m still not completely clear on what she’s trying to say, but I think I’m starting to get it.
“Then I’ll take this opportunity to come clean about something.” In order to return her seriousness with seriousness, I decided to be direct with my words. “I’m probably the type of person who doesn’t like to be tied down.” Yume silently gasped, but I continued. “Regarding that: judging from my experience in middle school, you’re the type of person who gets clingy when you get emotional. Thoughts?”
That’s how we had gotten on bad terms in the first place. Though my actions had been the cause of her reaction, for half a year, she held it against me that I talked to another girl, even a little. Right now, I already had an objective. Could she really say that she wasn’t going to get in the way of it? She couldn’t. Especially not considering that it’d already happened once.
“It’ll be fine...as long as you don’t cheat,” she said, as if she was sulking. See? This is what I’m talking about.
“What’s classified as ‘cheating’ in Yume’s world? Talking to other girls?”
“I don’t think like that anymore!”
“So then, what?”
“Urgh... Mm... You can’t hold other girls’ hands.”
“What about being in a room with them?”
“A-As long as you don’t lay even a single finger on them.”
“How would you even confirm that? Would you examine them for my fingerprints?”
“Argh! You’re talking about Higashira-san, right?” She downed the rest of her tea as if she’d become impatient and then slammed it on the table before staring at me. “I’ve finished my investigation, so let’s have a thorough discussion regarding her.”
Sibling Meeting: Regarding Isana Higashira
Yume Irido
“Recently you’ve been spending a lot of time in Higashira-san’s room, haven’t you?” I was fully aware that I sounded like a girlfriend accusing her boyfriend of cheating. “At first, you said you were her tutor, but it seems like you’re taking care of her too?”
“How do you know about that?”
“She told me.”
“You went to her place?”
“Yeah. She showed me her art too.”
“And...?”
“There’s just one thing I wanna ask.” I thrust my finger towards his nose. “Do you really have confidence that you’ll never lay a hand on Higashira-san?” He clammed up. “Cat got your tongue?”
“Just let me think a bit.”
“So there’s a need for you to think?”
“Yeah. There is...”
“Wow, that was honest.”
“I’m just not trying to hide anymore, not at this point. I’ll come clean. There was a time that I lusted after Isana. I mean, of course I did.”
“Don’t try to make it seem matter-of-fact.”
“But you know how defenseless she can be, right? It’s impossible not to think about that kinda stuff. Even I don’t have my lust completely under control.”
“Higashira-san trusts you as her friend. Isn’t it rude of you to look at her like that?”
“I know... That’s why I never let it show. Do you know how much worse she is in her house?”
“Worse? In what way?”
“Last time I went over, I saw her butt in the mirror, and she didn’t even notice...”
“Huh? What?!”
“I told her to take a shower because she hadn’t taken a bath in a hot second, but she forgot a change of clothes, so she called me over to ask me to help her get some. When she asked me through the door, she cracked it open, and I could see her in the changing room mirror.”
I thought back to when I saw Higashira-san naked at Arima hot springs. My eyes had been automatically drawn to her boobs, but her entire body was fleshy and soft. Her butt was also probably...
“So hot...” I said.
“Why are you getting turned on?”
I gasped and quickly covered my mouth. No. No. No. I’m nothing like Akatsuki-san or Aso-senpai! “Anyway...” I got back on track. “You’re in the same room with her almost every day. Do you really think you can keep your hands off of her?”
If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be able to hold back for even a full week. Heck, I’d probably have touched her by the third day. Akatsuki-san and Aso-senpai probably wouldn’t have lasted a full twenty-four hours.
Mizuto rubbed his neck in thought. “I don’t think I’d touch her. That’s all I can say, based on my intentions.”
“Your intentions?”
“I mean that I might touch her by accident. Like, for example, if in the future she starts drinking, and is a bad drunk, I’d have to be the responsible one and take care of her, right? I wouldn’t be able to avoid touching her then. I might even need to help her change...”
“That essentially boils down to you just happening upon a lucky, perverted situation, right?”
“There’s nothing lucky about that.”
“Really?” I stared at him, narrowing my eyes. “Can you really, truly say that?”
Mizuto let out a sigh and looked down. “You really want to be thorough with this, huh?”
“Yeah. I told you, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t see it as lucky. If anything, I’d feel incredibly guilty. I might feel just a twinge of happiness, but still...”
“See?”
“See what?”
“If you feel like that, you might end up touching Higashira-san by your own will.”
Right now, Mizuto had a huge obstacle before him—touching a girl’s body. When we dated, I didn’t let him do that even once, but what would happen after he cleared that obstacle? What if he got used to it and then went after his closest friend, Higashira-san? It wasn’t completely impossible.
“I’m not a fortune teller...” Mizuto said in a tired voice. “But anyway, you and me getting back together is just a hypothetical situation in the first place.”
“Yep. Just hypothetical.”
“I don’t think I can completely deny the possibility of a world where I accidentally cheat on you with Isana. Neither of us would mean to, but there are times when people lose themselves to temptation.”
“Okay...”
“If that happened, there would only be two things I could do. One: keep saying that I wouldn’t do anything with Isana. Or two: completely cut things off with Isana, friendship and all.” I fell silent. “But I have no intention of ever taking the latter option. If it came to that, I’d rather...”
“Not date me, right? I know.”
“Just hypothetically.”
“Yeah. Hypothetically...”
I didn’t want to steal Higashira-san’s best friend from her. If it came to that, I wouldn’t want to date Mizuto either. I didn’t want to think that I was so selfish.
“Ultimately, the only thing I could do would be to keep saying that I wouldn’t do anything to her and get you to believe me. If some kind of technology’s invented in the near future that measures interaction with the opposite sex, you can feel free to use it on me. But without that, it’s impossible to completely deny the possibility of something. You get what I’m trying to say, right?”
“Probatio diabolica, right?”
“Yeah. Even detectives who investigate infidelity can’t investigate fidelity.”
He was so right that it kind of irritated me. Doesn’t he know that girls don’t want fixes, they want to be on the same wavelength? Shouldn’t he know? We dated.
“So then, hypothetically...” I continued.
“Yeah, hypothetically.”
“If you did lay hands on Higashira-san, not by your own will, but by complete accident, what would you do?”
“Hypothetically, right?”
“Yeah. Hypothetically.”
“Hypothetically, I’d...” Mizuto sipped his tea. “Actually, what would you want me to do?”
“I’m asking you...”
“But ultimately, this is a question of what would satisfy you, right? Then that would mean you get to decide the penalty.”
“You really only talk in solid arguments...”
“This is just a hypothetical. Don’t let it bother you.”
“Well, I guess in that case...”
“Yeah?”
“I’d want you to maybe...touch me the same amount?”
Mizuto blinked and then his lips curled into a teasing smile. “You dirty girl.”
“I-It’s just an eye for an eye!”
“Did your idea for punishments start and end in Mesopotamia?” he sighed heavily and then looked at his hand. “You know, when I went with Isana to the manga café...”
“Huh?”
“I accidentally touched her boob. So in that case, would I need to touch yours?”
“Well...I guess...yeah...” I slowly lost steam, and as I did I realized something and tilted my head. “Wait...in these situations, aren’t you the only one being rewarded?”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”
“Forget it! Never mind!”
“We’re just talking hypothetically here. No need to get so flustered.” Mizuto put his elbow on the table and rested his head in his hand. “Anyway, I’d just show you my sincerity with time and money in that situation. Makes sense, right?”
“If you have an answer, just say it from the start...” I grumbled.
Money and time? Money aside, I’d be happy with time. I’d want him to spend even more time than he spent on Higashira-san...hypothetically.
“There’s no telling what the future holds,” Mizuto said, looking at the remaining tea in his cup. “It just ends up being hypothetical after hypothetical guesses. But even so...there’s something that I’m sure about.” I looked right into Mizuto’s eyes. “Let’s stop talking about hypotheticals and talk about reality.”
Sibling Meeting: Regarding Our Lives from Now On
Mizuto Irido
“You saw Isana’s art, right?” I idly touched the top of the cup while asking Yume. “Do you understand what I’m aiming for now?”
“First...let me apologize,” she said, shifting uncomfortably as she looked down at the middle of the table. “I...heard your conversation with my dad. I know what you’ve been worried about.”
“Oh...”
I’d had a feeling that’d been the case. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been a reason for her to have gotten so desperate to the point of coming on to me like that.
“I think I was trying to pretend it wasn’t real, honestly. I just hated the thought of not being more important than whatever you were single-mindedly pursuing.” I stayed quiet and continued to listen. “But in the end...I should’ve known that even if your feelings didn’t change, it wasn’t me or Higashira-san that you were trying to give a seat to in your heart—it was something.”
Not a person, but “something,” huh? I wanted the seat in my heart that I mentioned to Isana to be occupied not by someone, but something. I wanted Isana’s talent, her growth—her story.
“Seeing her art in person, I thought there was no way I could win, but...” Yume paused to prepare herself before continuing. “There was value in trying. Despite knowing I’d lose, I knew there was value in trying to win anyway. After all, you were seriously thinking about me.” Yume smiled, but it was without joy, resignation, or relief. Rather, her smile seemed... “That’s why I trust you.” ...Trusting. “I’m not immature, anxious, or paranoid anymore. I will always believe in you...or at least, I think I will.”
I snorted at the last few words she’d tacked on. “You okay being so unconfident? Aren’t you gonna be the next student council president?”
“M-Me?! Why?”
“What do you mean? It’s so obvious that President Kurenai wants that to happen. We talked a little about what you’re like when you’re at the student council not too long ago.”
“Huh?” Yume had a look on her face as if a dirty secret had been uncovered. It seemed that their gossip about romance had indeed been Pandora’s box. Good thing I didn’t open it.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I didn’t pry too much. She said that you’re a kind girl at your core. It was as if she envied you.”
“President Kurenai envies...me?” Yume asked.
President Kurenai and I were rather similar. Being considerate of other people was a special skill in and of itself. That was especially true from the standpoint of egoists like President Kurenai and I who had little to no interest in others. People like Yume were so bright to us, we had to squint.
“I don’t know how you see yourself, but if a ball of talent like her said that about you, then she scouted you for a reason. You should take that fact into consideration and reevaluate your own worth.”
“That’s easier said than done! I don’t have any talent like Higashira-san, and I’m not nearly as smart as President Kurenai!”
“I’m saying that there are things you can do that the two of them could never do.” I rested my hands behind me, taking a more comfortable position. Then, I remembered the first time we interacted with each other on that night during outdoor ed. “I’m sure you understand the bitterness of not being able to do things that other people can.” I was sure she’d understand, as someone who’d found it so difficult to even do something as simple as asking others for curry ingredients. “You’ve overcome those difficulties. Because you knew the bitterness of not being able to do something, you worked so that you could do those things. That’s the sign of people who are able to do things from the start as if it’s natural.”
“Huh? H-Huh? Argh! Don’t try to confuse me with sophistry!”
“I wasn’t trying to.” Maybe I should’ve phrased it differently. “I’ve never envied you once. I’m sure that President Kurenai doesn’t want to be exactly like you either. But even so, I think the way you live is something difficult to do. In other words...” Oh, I get it now. “I respect you.” Finally, it makes sense. The biggest requirement for the Hiyoku no Tori to fly wasn’t being blindly in love or having eternal love. It was respect—not neglecting the other person. Wow. I can’t believe how simple it is.
A lot of people had made it sound so easy, and it was. This was a sturdier foundation of trust than anything. I’d been tunneling on the wrong thing this entire time. Kawanami had said something similar before about the answer being in me the entire time. Like this, we wouldn’t be the Hiyoku no Tori, but the happy blue bird that flew to freedom.
“Respect...” Yume mumbled, reflecting on what I’d said. “I...respect you too.”
“Thanks.”
“I really respect Higashira-san too...”
“So?”
“Oh.” It was as if she’d found the answer to a puzzle she couldn’t solve this entire time. Her face brightened. “Ohhh.” Her face relaxed as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
This was how she came up with the answer. A temporary answer. We’d probably spend our entire lives thinking and updating our answers.
“Yume,” I said.
“Yeah?”
“I’m probably gonna go to Kyoto University.”
“Huh?”
“Keikoin-san gave me advice. He told me that I can reach for the highest academic heights as I can, and as a result, I’ll find the people with the highest talents. That way, I’ll get closest to what I want.”
“Oh. Then, I—”
“Will you come with me?” I asked.
“No... I’m going to think about it after I become student council president. My point of view will probably have changed by then.”
“That’s a pretty big goal. But...I think it’s a good one.”
The two of us would walk our own paths. We had our own wings that would take us through the sky of life. But it’d probably be much more efficient to go through it as two instead of one. That’s all there was to this. That’s it.
“Well then, here,” I said, pulling a gift box out of my pocket.
“Huh?” Yume’s eyes widened. “Isn’t that the one I— Wait, the color’s different.”
“This is something I bought yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” I placed the box in front of Yume. She gently touched it. “Is this...?” she mumbled. Then she looked up at me, working up the courage to ask me something. “Can I...open it?”
“Of course.” There shouldn’t have been any need to explain what was inside the box. It went without saying that there was a ring with a wing in it.
“Wh-What?! Th-This—”
“It was a lot more expensive than I thought. I was running low on money after buying books for Isana, so I had to rely on my connections and get a part-time job.”
Yume stared at the ring in the box, her shoulders trembling. I grinned at her while resting my face in my hand, getting ready to get my revenge for what she did on Christmas Eve.
“Want me to put it on for you?” I asked.
“Huh?!” Yume’s head snapped up and she looked at me excitedly, but she gradually calmed down and her eyes slowly fell before she closed the box that she’d been handling so preciously. “Not yet...” I could hear the determination in her voice. “I’m...going to wait until we talk to our parents.”
“Right...” Then I’ll keep my ring sealed in my desk too. I’ll keep it there until I can wear it without shame.
“But...”
“Hm?”
Her passionate eyes burned holes into me. “I...might want this in words.”
Yeah. It’s important to see things through. We’re going to end the relationship we’ve had and start a new one.
“Yume, I—”
“Yume! Mizuto-kun! Dinner!”
The two of us fell silent as Yuni-san’s voice interrupted us. We looked at each other. It couldn’t have been at a worse time, but there was no helping it. Before we were Hiyoku no Tori, we were siblings.
“Let’s go,” she said.
“Yeah.”
And with that, we went down the stairs together to the living room.
My Feelings Are Decided
Yume Irido
There was a special on the TV about advice for the new year. After finishing dinner, I’d taken a bath, and before I knew it, there was only half an hour left before the new year. I was sitting on the couch mindlessly staring at the TV. I would’ve sat in the kotatsu, but I was worried about falling asleep.
Thanks to the nap I took, I wasn’t all that tired, but eating and taking a bath automatically made me feel drowsy. Mizuto was sitting a bit away from me on the couch, and was leaning against the arm of the couch. Mineaki-ojisan and mom were sitting in the kotatsu, watching TV, laughing at the comedians’ jokes.
There was a half hour before the year ended. I’d promised myself that I’d ask Mizuto out if he didn’t ask me first by the end of the year—and he had yet to do so. Though we might have been on the same page and we probably felt the same towards each other, the actual words had yet to be said.
We should’ve learned. There was a limit to how much you could sense from others. That’s why words were necessary. We needed clear, precise words. But we were slowly drifting towards the new year without our feelings being put into words.
My Words Are Decided
Mizuto Irido
One day, I received a love letter from Yume Ayai. There hadn’t been any string of words I’d been more nervous reading than those. But even so, she must’ve been even more nervous, watching me read them. She looked stiff as a board, like she could’ve keeled over at any moment. That exact image never left my mind.
The nervousness I sensed from her right now was probably different. The nervousness that had filled Ayai back then had most likely stemmed from her unease. Currently, I was anxious from the sense of duty burdening me regarding the decision I was about to make that would stay with us for the rest of not just my life, but Yume’s, dad’s, and Yuni-san’s. This decision would affect all of our lives. It felt like the weight increased with each passing minute.
I could faintly hear the New Year’s bell in the distance. When it rang a hundred and eight times, would my worldly desires be cleansed? Would I be rid of my doubt and be left with just logic? It was a stupid image. After the 108th worldly desire, I’d just have 109.
Are you prepared? I asked myself, but it was a stupid question. My answer was clear. I knew exactly what my answer was going to be.
I Steadied My Breathing
Yume Irido
“Hey everyone, there’s just one minute until the new year!” the announcer on the TV said.
I Sat Up Straight
Mizuto Irido
“Just ten seconds left!” the announcer said. “Nine!”
I put my hand over Yume’s.
“Eight.”
Our parents’s eyes were on the TV.
“Seven! Six!”
I leaned towards Yume’s ear.
“Five! Four!”
“I love you,” I said.
“Three!”
Yume’s hand trembled.
“Two!”
Our parents’s eyes were on the TV.
“One!”
Yume’s head slowly moved back.
“Happy New Year!” the announcer said.
I looked at Mizuto’s face from a close distance.
“Happy New Year!” mom said to Mineaki-ojisan.
“Whoa! My phone’s notification sounds are going crazy!” I said before moving my mouth near Mizuto’s ear. “I love you too.”
Then I quickly pulled away from him.
“Happy New Year to you two too!” mom said, turning back towards us.
“Happy New Year, mom.”
My phone continued beeping.
“Happy New Year, Yuni-san,” Mizuto said.
Then, the two of us slowly let go of each other’s hands.
“Oh, right. It’s okay to eat soba when the new year starts, right?” mom asked.
“Yeah, sure. You prepared it, so it’d be a waste not to,” Mineaki-ojisan said.
Mom got out of the kotatsu and quickly shuffled over to the kitchen.
They were celebrating the new year on the TV while getting ready to go to the next segment. I looked down and smiled at all the notifications I’d gotten. This was how the new year—our new year—started.
How’s that, Yume Ayai? I won.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login