Episode 15 – Because it’s Family

I spent another relaxing holiday after that, hanging out by myself.

And the time was 7 p.m..
I was reading a comic book in my room, rubbing my bloated stomach after finishing eating gingerbread and white rice that I had prepared at random.

Knock knock

There was a knock at the door.

As I ignore it, I suddenly hear a clunk and flopping footsteps approaching. I put down my manga and look up to see the faces of my older and younger sister.

“…What is it?”

I can see what theyre getting at, but I tell them coldly.

“Um…Sorry…”
“Sorry….”

As soon as they came, the two tearfully apologized.
…… finally apologized?

I sigh. I sit up and face them.

“Sorry for what?”
“I’ve treated Towa badly until now……”
“Doing Terrible Things to Oni chan……”
“What kind”
“I was, you know, rubbing Towa the wrong way …… for my own personal gratification.”
“I cursed …… oni chan down and always said things from above.”

The past flows through my brain.　

[Hurry up. Can’t you listen to me?]
[I wanted someone cooler than oni chan]
[Do you know what will happen if you make me angry?]
[Hurry up~ You can’t even do that!~]

Each one may be light, but when they pile up, they are heavy. I was cold-shouldered and hurt by two people for a long period of time.

When they finish, they look up discreetly, as if they are glancing at me.

I’ll tell you what–　　

“Yeah, no problem.”
“”….Eh””

I guess they didn’t expect words of forgiveness from me.

My older sister and younger sister look at me with surprised faces.

“When you get to the bottom of it, the only thing that comes out is an apology. Then I have no choice but to forgive you.”

Silence falls as it does.
Then, let’s hear it from me this time.

“Why did you just now decide to apologize?”

It takes more than a little courage to apologize. If it is awkward, why not just ignore them? But they still came to apologize.

My older sister opens her mouth.

“The basic premise is that I did something bad to Towa. But I knew that I still had a part of Towa in me.”
“I was in the rain and onee chan collapsed with a fever, and oni chan didn’t abandon us, he saved us, right? We didn’t come to apologize, and he himself approached us sisters whom he should have hated.”

I think I was in over my head at the when I saw the two of them, somewhere in the back of my mind I thought to myself, “I’m not going to let them get away with that.”

—Because we are Family.

Why did I think this despite being treated coldly?

Maybe that day was the beginning.

When I was in my second year of high school, my older sister and younger sister attended school together and were popular as beautiful sisters.
That made me, an ordinary person, stand out more.
If I had higher specs like them, I would have been compared to them as siblings

When I was feeling a lot of things being said around me and becoming uncomfortable at school, I happened to see the two of them in separate places during recess.

First of all, Arika nee

I bought a drink from a vending machine and was about to return to the classroom when I heard a voice from somewhere.

The man’s shoulders slumped dejectedly. He had probably been dumped.

“…… Well, he’s better looking than his failed brother.”

The words were said to drown out my frustration. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t miss it.

“What did you just say?”

Suddenly Arika stopped and muttered something that made the man gulp.
It was the same for me.
Because her voice was as emotionless as ice.

“Don’t tell my precious brother he’s a failure.”

I thought the word was an illusion.

And then Sumika.

I pass Sumika in the hallway, who had many friends, or rather cronies, in tow.

It was in the middle of this that I heard the girls around me talking in whispers.

“Hey, is that Sumika’s brother? He doesn’t look like him at all!”
“It’s so sad that she’s with that ugly guy.”
“It’s tough, isn’t it, Sumika chan?”

I froze when I saw the girls who were speaking accusations against me and murmuring sympathies for me as if it were a matter of course.

I don’t know what Sumika looked like because she was facing forward. But I heard it clearly.

“–Don’t mock oni chan”

Truth, a low, angry voice.
I looked at Sumika’s face for a moment as I turned the corner.
It was a grim face that did not match her good looks.

I thought those words were an illusion too.

In the first place, did they really hate me from the bottom of their hearts?
Strangely, after this one incident, my envy and hatred toward Arika and Sumika had diminished.

I was expecting something on the edge of my head.
That’s why I was able to endure.
I have not complained and endured until now.

But – since that day, they have never been kind to me.

Somehow I had forgotten about it.　
But then I thought back on it.

“I was hurt by the two of you being cold to me all the time. I don’t know why, but you suddenly shunned me. ……”

I expressed my feelings in a series

What I wanted most was a normal sibling relationship. A relationship that is sometimes sweet and sometimes quarrelsome.

“What caused you to get cold feet in the first place?”

The two looked awkward.
My older sister says fearfully.

“Because I loved Towa.”

……excuse me?

(TL/N : Is this finally the reconciliation arc? )