͎R͎͎e͎͎u͎͎n͎͎i͎͎o͎͎n͎? (English)

A Tragic Truth

Shinichi's pov. Later at night~ 

Ran and I finished cleaning and she left to get groceries for her dad before she made dinner for both of them.

Now I'm alone and I look at the time. 6:30 pm

According to the time zone difference, it's 7:30 in the morning over there.

I sigh.

I'll just wait another two hours or so, I don't want to wake them up only to ask them about something like this.

I sit down on Tousan's desk and pick a book to read at random.

I blink as I realize I picked an interesting book.

It seems to be scientific and it's titled, "Reasons for premature baby death."

I frown, realizing that Tousan probably bought this.

I open the book and see that the date it was bought is around the same as the last picture in that album.

'Wait a minute... If Tousan bought this after my big sister should've been born then...'

I widen my eyes.

Could it be...

I immediately flip open the book and start to skim through the pages, looking for any signs of bookmarks left by Tousan.

I may mostly ignore the other entries, but I still skim through them enough to remember the information.

Who knows, it might be useful for whenever I have a case including babies in the future...

I stop flipping through pages once I see a passage highlighted.

I read the title, "Reason 13, born weak."

I raise my eyebrow, 'Born weak? What does that mean?'

I decide to read more on the passage since if it's highlighted, this must be what Tousan wanted to read.

So it can be related to my sister.

I read out the line, "Babies born too weak without being born prematurely is a rare case, but not unheard of. Even with healthy mothers."

I pause. I don't like where this is going...

I force myself to continue, "It can happen just because the baby is born weak with no real factor on how. Usually, those cases end up in..."

My breath hitches at the last phrase.

No way...

"... death right after birth."

My sister... died right after she was born.

I look down as I close the book, not feeling like reading more of this.

This... This explains everything.

I remember now, things I forgot when I was little.

The times Kaasan acted sad for apparently no reason.

The way she and Tousan look at Ran or other kids, especially ones with older siblings.

Heck, even when Kaasan watched me with sad eyes when I was playing alone.

The times when Tousan got home drunk seemingly out of nowhere...

It's all because... They should've had a daughter first.

I should've had a sister.

I stand up and mumble, "So... This must be the real reason they left..."

I'm so stupid.