On the following afternoon,
Having ended the study group at Kirishima-san’s house, I went home.
“Oh yeah. I think I have to eat dinner with nee-san tonight.”
Nee-san said that she’ll be done with work before noon, so she should be on the way home now. If she stays at home, I can’t just drink water for dinner tonight.
“Even though she said so, I guess I should cook Japanese food for her, I suppose?”
It seemed that nee-san didn’t have any other arrangements and deliberately said such words because she didn’t want to bother me. If that was the case, I would be really happy. But while both siblings could have a rare chance of having dinner together, I still want to prepare a piping hot dish to make nee-san happy. Thanks to the study group, I more or less grasped the concepts tested for the end-of-term tests, so there wouldn’t be much problem if I spend some time cooking.
If I want to cook, what should I cook to make nee-san happy? Speaking of Japanese food, I suppose it should be potato and meat curry, right? I suppose cooking some chowder rice would be good. But that doesn’t seem special in some way.
“Hotpot…it’s not the season now…and it’s too hot to eat tempura now…”
I continue to think about tonight’s dinner as I walked home. But no matter how much I think, it doesn’t seem to work…oh well. If I go to the supermarket to see what they’re selling, I should be able to think of something good.
I walked into the lobby on the first level, and took the lift up.
I was worried that I had to carry lots of ingredients then, so I decided to put my books and stationery at home first before going out shopping.
“I’m back~”
“Welcome back, Aki-kun.”
The moment I opened the door, nee-san came to the corridor to invite me in. It seemed that she was doing well with her work, and didn’t end up with some unexpected situation where she had to change her schedule and is unable to go home. In that case, we can have dinner according to what I planned.
“Sorry, nee-san. Can you help me put my bag inside.”
I didn’t step into the house, but handed my bag over to nee-san as I was going to go out shopping. Nee-san looked like she had something she wanted to say, but grabbed my bag.
“I’m fine with that…but Aki-kun, you’re still going out now?”
“Un, I have to buy ingredients for dinner.”
Oh yea, every Sunday, the sashimi at that fish shop near the station seemed to be cheaper. I wonder how much the hand-made sushi would cost? It won’t be cheap, and I have to give up on some games that will be coming up in the market recently…but I can only spend it for nee-san’s sake. I’ll then boil some soup—un, nee-san should be happy in that case.
That’s what I planned, but—
“Aki-kun, do you have the time to even worry about that now?”
Unexpectedly, this was my sister’s answer.
‘Ahh, no, I’m not really that free. It’s just that it’s rare for nee-san to come back…”
“You’re mistaking your priorities here.”
Nee-san mercilessly interrupted me before I could even finish.
“Listen, nee-san doesn’t know what you’re mistaken about, but your sister here specially came back here just to check on your living lifestyle and studies, Aki-kun. And you’re always thinking of such useless things. What is that about? If you can’t improve your grades, it would be meaningless, wouldn’t it? Let me ask you again, Aki-kun; do you still have the spare time to prepare dinner?”
“Tha, that’s true…”
But nee-san’s explanation really infuriated me.
Why is it that she’s so by the book and wouldn’t change a bit? It’s rare that I would want to cook for this sister of mine that I never met for a long time, but to her, it’s just a ‘that kind of thing’. She said that it was ‘something unnecessary yesterday’, but is my intention to make something for nee-san something worthless and trivial? Is a reunion with her brother something minor?
Thinking about this, I couldn’t control the restlessness inside me.
Talking about deducting points time and time again, and even pulling pranks on me that made me unhappy right in front of my friends…she never even did anything for me.
Ever since she came back, everything she did just infuriate me. What nee-san said just now is the final fuse that blew me up emotionally.
“You have tests tomorrow, and yet you have the mood to cook. Nee-san will be bothered when you get bad results and say ‘I was busy with cooking and didn’t have time to study’. You—”
“YOU’RE TOO NOISY! YOU’RE ONE BIG IDIOT, NEE-SAN!”
I yelled out and interrupted nee-san’s words.
WHAT THE HECK! DOESN’T THIS MEAN ‘NEE-SAN WILL BE BOTHERED IF YOU CAN FIND AN EXCUSE BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T DO WELL FOR THE TESTS’? I WANTED TO DO SOMETHING FOR HER, AND SHE FEELS THAT IT’S JUST AN EXCUSE TO SLACK? IS IT THAT I CAN HAVE A PLATFORM TO STAND ON WHEN MY EXAMS RESULTS COME BACK DISASTROUS!? SHE’S LOOKING DOWN ON ME LIKE THAT! IT’S RARE THAT I WANTED TO MAKE HER HAPPY AND EVEN WONDERED WHAT TO COOK FOR DINNER…
“SO NEE-SAN FEELS THAT TEST RESULTS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN TALKING WITH ME, RIGHT!? I GOT IT! I’LL DO WHAT YOU WANT TO STUDY HARD, FINE!? I’LL GET GOOD GRADES AND SEND YOU OVERSEAS!!”
I’M REALLY STUPID TO RELAX OVER SUCH A SISTER HERE! I DON’T WANT TO BOTHER MYSELF WITH SUCH A PERSON!
“…Is that so. It’s great that you can focus on your studies like that.”
“YEAH, YOU’RE RIGHT! I’LL FOCUS ALL MY EFFORTS ON STUDYING! SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO BOTHER ME! BYE!”
I left these words and rushed into my room without looking back, slamming my room’s door shut.
At this point, there’s no need to play along with her. No matter what, I must work hard to make up for those deducted points and live my happy lone life and not stay with such a sister under the same roof!
I took out my textbooks and notes from my bag, sacrificed my school and spent all night studying.
Current score [-390 points]
