(Un) Fortunately the Yandere is Not After Me

Resolutions

 After a nice Winter break for the holidays, there was only one thing left to do before classes were to resume.

That would be make new years prayers. Arata arrived to the shrine with his family. As he always did each and every year. Normally, he'd ask for the same thing, which was for people to leave him alone. Which seemed to be working until his fate would cross with Erina.

And just as she changed his life, his own desires had also changed. For he now had very different things surrounding his life compared to one year ago. Things had certainly gotten a lot more complicated for him.

"I wonder if we'll see the others?" He asked his parents as they were walking up to the shrine.

"I'm sure we will." His mother answered. Every year, he never seemed to be that into the spirit of the tradition. So her son usually would disappear to avoid talking with others when he finished up his prayers. She was happy to see that his demeanor had changed, given his excitement of finding those closest to him.

"I have to say, you know a lot of people now." His father commented on the turn around. It seemed a little odd just how many people Arata now called friend. At this point in time, there was well over a dozen, among many age groups at that. A massive change for someone who had zero friends just nine months ago.

"It is nice, isn't it?" Said Ayami. Arata only nervously agreed, the truth was a bit of a mixed bag. Though, he was truly friendly with everyone, so it wasn't that big of a deal to him. "Oh, could we separate so that we might find them?" She offered.

"You are an adult now." Their mother responded. "So go ahead and have some fun while we're out here."

"Awesome, come on Arata. Let's go." She pulled him with her. A little harder than he'd like, since it wasn't as if he'd just not follow his big sister.

"You're pretty excited this year." He commented on her sudden enthusiasm. "What's gotten into you?"

"Well, things are different this year." She replied. "You didn't want to spend time with anyone, but now you're friends with Yogi."

"This isn't some excuse for you to try and get with him, is it?" Don't get him wrong, he was very supportive of his sister. It was just that this didn't seem like the day for that. However, her goal of finding her crush would have to be delayed.

"So, we finally see each other again." A voice cut through their conversation, stopping the pair in their tracks. When he turned to see who it was, he was certain that voice only belong to one person. Ichiri Susaki. "And who are you?"

"Arata, who is this?" Ayami whispered over to him.

"It's just Ichiri, she's a year younger than me. Except she skipped a grade, so we're both second years." He answered his sister first, then turned his attention to the girl in front of them. "And this is my older sister, Ayami."

"It's nice to meet you." Ayami calmly said, a contrast compared to the girl she was meeting for the first time. "Arata's never mentioned you before."

"What, you've never told her about me?" She took offense to this realization.

"Well, I don't think there was ever a time to bring it up?" He weakly defended actions that didn't need defending.

"I can't believe this." Ichiri was more than unhappy with this. "And after I put you in the school play when I was the director. Especially as one of the leading role!"

"You played a leading role in the school play?"

"I prefer to not mention that happened." He crossed his arms and pouted to play it off. "And you didn't cast me in it in the first place. I was just an understudy that had to fill in when Yogi hit his head!"