Another Like Me - Part II (CoTE x OC)

𝕊𝕊.𝟘𝟝 - ℍ𝕚𝕤 𝕊𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣 (𝔸𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕦 𝕊𝕒𝕜𝕒𝕪𝕒𝕟𝕒𝕘𝕚)

My cane periodically struck the ground with a soft thud. I turned to look to my right, wherein stood a well-developed girl with red hair in pigtails. She was walking ahead with a skip in her step, singing a tune to herself.

"So Arisu-senpai," Ichika started. "Wait, is it okay for me to call you that? Or would you prefer Sakayanagi-senpai?"

"Arisu is completely fine," I replied warmly. "What is it, Ichika-chan?"

"You see, I'm a little confused here," Ichika replied with a scowl on her face. "I have no idea why you've invited me to the Pallet Cafe when you don't even know me that well."

"You can say that it's been a wish of mine for a very long time to meet you, Ichika-chan," I smiled. "You're Keisuke's little sister, after all. I was naturally quite excited to see you."

Ichika raised an eyebrow, and she scoffed. "Nii-san seems to quite popular with the girls, eh? You know, when we were kids, he wouldn't talk to a single girl other than me? He was single, through and through."

I managed to stifle a chuckle under my breath, but Ichika caught onto it easily.

"Huh? Why're you laughing?"

"No no, please ignore me. I just find it hard to believe that Keisuke wasn't all this charming as a child."

"Nah, he was mean," Ichika sulked. "He was so rude and insolent. He was a super piss-off."

"Is that so? Needless to say, he's very well-mannered and polite here," I replied. "You're telling me he wasn't like this before?"

"Nah, he was mean," Ichika responded. "He used to be buried in these heaps of novels and books, and every time I would go to his room and ask him for something, he'd just brush me off as if I wasn't there!"

Ichika made a mean pouty face.

"Sounds like the two of you are quite close," I said serenely. "Even though I can feel a sense of irritation towards your brother, I've come to realize that the two of you share a very strong bond."

"Is that so?" Ichika twirled her pigtails with her fingers. "I mean, maybe? We grew up kinda lonely, so the two of us would be together most of the time."

Grew up kind of lonely, huh......

Ichika is speaking in half-truths. She hasn't said anything that would reveal information about the White Room, but she hasn't been lying about her childhood either. After all, I can definitely connect the dots. Ichika is just spinning around a fabricated story midair, and she's doing it quite convincingly too. If I hadn't known about the White Room beforehand, then I would not have been able to guess anything concrete about her.

"Where are we going, by the way?" Ichika asked. "The Pallet or Brewster? I've heard both of them are pretty good."

"I personally prefer The Pallet," I said. "Even though I daresay that Keisuke likes the Brewster more. He's a lover of the coffee there."

"Eh? Nii-san drinks coffee?" Ichika made a 'bleh' sound effect. "No way. He hates coffee."

"I guess he acquired the taste here then," I replied. "Not everyone likes coffee in the beginning, but as you continue to have it, you get hopelessly addicted like a romantic."

"Meh," Ichika replied. "I always thought nii-san would steer clear of coffee. At least that was the case when we were kids. He said it messed with his body functions or something like that."

"Coffee isn't that bad," I laughed. Ichika stared at me curiously.

"Of course it isn't," she said stoically. "I personally love coffee. It's just that he hates it. Or used to, apparently."