“Akari wants to give this chocolate to Ijichi-kun,” she said. “But she absolutely doesn’t want him to know it’s from her. It’s too big to fit into his shoe cubby, so she asked me to give it to him. I’ve never spoken to him, though, so would you mind giving it to him for me?”
“Huh? Oh...”
So that’s what this is about.
“Okay. I’ll give it to him,” I replied.
Icchi sure is going to be surprised. There’s no way he’ll think it’s from Tanikita-san.
It was fun to imagine his reaction, and I was about to accept the paper bag, but suddenly, the door of the classroom slammed open. Appearing in the doorway was...
“Runa!” Kurose-san and I both called out in surprise.
“I asked Nishina-kun if he saw Ryuto and he said you were in here...” Runa said, knitting her brows. “What are you up to?”
“Huh? W-Well...”
I wondered if it was okay to tell Runa that this chocolate was from Tanikita-san for Icchi, and Kurose-san was probably thinking the same. We exchanged glances in silence.
“That’s chocolate, right?” asked Runa. And when she saw the way we were acting, her expression grew even more stern.
At that point, I realized she was misunderstanding the situation.
“Oh, uh, this is...” began Kurose-san.
Which was when...
SLAP!
A sharp sound rang out in the classroom where we were the only people present.
For a moment, I couldn’t tell what had happened.
Runa’s shoulders moved up and down as she breathed, standing in a pose that indicated she’d just swung her right hand down.
Kurose-san stood there in a daze, looking down and to the side. Her left cheek had turned red.
I put the pieces together: Runa had slapped Kurose-san’s cheek.
This had also made Kurose-san drop the paper bag onto the floor.
“Why do you do things like this? Stop trying to seduce Ryuto any more than you already have,” said Runa, her eyes on the paper bag. Her face looked angrier than I’d ever seen it before.
I recalled what Kurose-san had said previously.
“It’s not often Runa gets mad at friends or the like, but at times when she did and I saw it, she was really scary.”
Standing in front of me now, Runa had laid her anger bare as she confronted Kurose-san.
“Ryuto is my boyfriend! I’m not gonna give him to you!” Runa shouted, tears welling up in her eyes. “You’re always like this, Maria. It was the same with Chi-chan.” Biting her lip in frustration, she stared at Kurose-san. “Why? You already have so much. Stop taking even more things from me.”
Kurose-san frowned as though Runa’s words had hit a nerve. “Huh? What’re you talking about? You’re the one who has many things.” Words began to pour from her lips as though a dam inside her had burst. It was like she was giving tit for tat. “You’re popular, and you have a lot of friends. Our dad too... Everyone loves you, and that’s why Dad chose you. If I’d been born like you, he might’ve loved me too. But you go through life acting like it’s only natural to have all the things you have—it really pisses me off! Do you have any idea how badly I wanted to be like you?”
“What...?”
“You’ve always been like this,” Kurose-san continued. “Just because people love you the way you are, you don’t bother to think about the feelings of those you can’t deal with unless you force yourself, do you? At a glance, you look innocent and openhearted, but in reality, you’re pushy. Even the moon-and-star earring you gave me has a theme that’s completely you. You really love yourself, don’t you?”
Runa didn’t reply right away. Knitting her brows a little, she seemed hurt as she looked at Kurose-san. It was no wonder—the sister she’d been apart from for years had just told her so much about how she truly felt.
After some time, Runa spoke up again. “Did you ever ask Mom why we ended up living like this? Meaning you with Mom and me with Dad.” Her face said she had mixed feelings.
“Of course I have. She said it was something they decided on after taking everything into consideration. It’s what adults always say when they can’t tell you the truth,” Kurose-san replied, as though spitting that out.
Runa gazed at her with the eyes of someone who had something to say. “Dad told me why we ended up this way,” she calmly began. “Apparently, Mom wanted to take both of us. But she didn’t work at the time, and Grandma was busy looking after Grandpa at their home. She didn’t think she could raise both of us just on child support from Dad, so she decided to choose just one.”
Kurose-san stared at the floor as she listened.
“It wasn’t that Dad chose me. It was that Mom chose you,” finished Runa.
“Huh...?” Kurose-san’s eyelashes trembled as she looked at her sister.
“‘She’s easily hurt and often can’t be honest with how she feels, so as her mother, I should be by her side and pick up on her feelings.’ That was what she said to Dad. That’s how they decided.”
Kurose-san covered her mouth with both hands. “No way...”
Runa continued in a clear tone. “Did you always think Dad didn’t pick you...? Even if you did, you should’ve been happy you could be with Mom. People have to make choices. You can’t have it all. Even I had to give up on some things. But I got other things in return.”
She must’ve had her mother in mind, as well as her dream to live together with the whole family again. I was happy to think that, just maybe, I was included in those “other things in return.”
“You know how back when we lived together, we both loved Mom and Dad equally?” Runa’s eyes were directed at Kurose-san and had grown more gentle. “Mom disappeared from my side and Dad disappeared from yours. Don’t you think that’s why we feel the one we lost is so important, and why we love them so much? At the very least, there was a time like that for me.”
Kurose-san remained silent.
“Do you still hate Mom?” Runa asked, her expression suddenly turning serious. “If you do, can you give her to me?”
Kurose-san looked startled by her question. “No,” she replied, shaking her head. “You have Dad. That’s why I can’t give you Mom.”
For a brief while, Runa gazed at Kurose-san with a serious look. “Okay. Then let’s keep on living as we are—me with Dad, and you with Mom.” Then, she smiled.
“Even I want to treasure what I’ve been given,” replied Kurose-san, looking down. She was speaking haltingly and awkwardly. “I’ve finally started to think that way recently... So I wasn’t trying to take Kashima-kun from you either.”
“Huh? But...”
Kurose-san pointed at the paper bag on the floor. “Does this look like chocolate from me to Kashima-kun?”
“What...?”
At that point, I looked more closely at the paper bag and noticed something.
The cover of the box inside had opened from the impact of the fall. Inside the box was a massive heart-shaped chocolate. “Yusuke’s the best ♡” was written on it in white and pink chocolate ink.
It was unquestionably the kind of embarrassing chocolate that strongly reminded you of the handheld fans used by idol admirers. It was easy to sense Tanikita-san’s feelings from it.
Runa looked astonished once she saw it too. “No way...!” she exclaimed.
“I was only asking him to give Ijichi-kun this chocolate that my friend gave to me to pass along.”
As Kurose-san explained things in a matter-of-fact tone, Runa quickly grew pale.
“Um... S-Sorry, Maria...”
Then suddenly...
SLAP!
Kurose-san slapped Runa’s cheek.
“You idiot! Stop jumping to conclusions!” she shouted, glaring at Runa.
But as I got startled by the touch-and-go situation...
Kurose-san dived into Runa, clinging to her.
As Runa caught her sister, her eyes opened wide in surprise.
I recalled what Runa had said to me on Christmas.
“It’s just...I feel like we might not be completely back to how we used to be after all. It’s like there’s a barrier between us... We barely kept in touch for a whopping six years, so it’s no wonder. I think there’s a lot of things she felt and went through in that time that I don’t know about. And the same goes for her.”
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