Episode 11 – The Tale of My Friend’s Little Sister’s Rivalry with a Smartphone

“Um… have you calmed down?”

“…yes.”

Akari-chan buried her face in her lap while sitting on a cushion.

Apparently, she had been propped up for an hour in the end, and the window was beginning to let in evening orange light.

…It still felt awkward as the feeling of her body still lingered on me.

–Kyururu~

“Ah…”

Suddenly I heard such a sound and I quickly held my stomach.

Thinking back, I remembered that I hadn’t eaten much since I woke up.

My part-time job is at an izakaya, but I rarely get offered food.

It’s a very busy place, and I don’t have time to relax and eat, so instead of getting meals, I get a meal allowance that is separate from my salary, so I’m not complaining at all.

However, it seems that just getting paid doesn’t necessarily make me full… and my body was screaming at me since the only thing I ate when I woke up this morning was a calorie bar that was left in my bag.

I felt somewhat awkward or embarrassed, and when I timidly looked at Akari-chan, she was holding her stomach for some reason and looking at me with her eyes wide open.

“U-um, this is..!”

When her eyes met mine, Akari-chan turned bright red up to her ears.

But she soon noticed that I had my hand on my stomach, too.

“O-oh…? Senpai also…?”

“Haha… we seem to match.”

“–!”

I was surprised too and tried to say something witty as soon as I could… But judging from Akari-chan’s reaction, it didn’t seem to distract her too much.

“For now, let’s eat something.”

“…yes.”

Well, just talking about it won’t help hunger, will it?

So we decided to eat the leftover curry from yesterday. The curry, which was only one portion each, tasted better after a night’s rest, based on the “tastes better after a night’s rest” theory.

It seemed that Akari-chan hadn’t eaten anything since she woke up. Although she looked a little embarrassed, she was still bringing the spoon to her mouth at a faster tempo than yesterday.

After the meal, she gulped down a cup of barley tea with sugar poured into it, as if to cover up her embarrassment.

“Jeez, Senpai is terrible. If you had woken me up, I would have prepared breakfast, you know? I had even bought the ingredients for it.”

“But you were sleeping so comfortably.”

“Ugh… Still, you didn’t have to worry about that. I belong to you now.”

“No, it doesn’t work like that, in more ways than one.”

It is uncomfortable to wake her up when she is sleeping, as well as to treat her like an object.

Akari-chan, who was somewhat stiff at first, has softened considerably in one day, but she is quite consistent here.

“Yes, I belong to senpai. You must always keep me by your side always.”

“Always by my side?”

“Yes, it is. For example, you always carry your phone with you, don’t you?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“It’s not fair that you carry your phone around with you and leave me at home.”

Although it is a joking remark, Akari-chan’s eyes are serious. She is making a serious protest.

“Calling it unfair is… no, Akari-chan and smart-phones are different, right…”

“There is no difference. We both belong to senpai, and at the same time, we are rivals who are constantly competing with each other to see who can be more useful to senpai!”

“That’s the kind of relationship you have?!”

“I can’t make calls or chat, sure, and I’m not as knowledgeable, but you can’t cook or clean with my phone. I can be a necessary person for senpai!”

I could do nothing but laugh at Akari-chan, as her eyes glowed with a mysterious rivalry.

It is absolutely wrong to judge whether she is useful or not, and if I had to decide which is more important, it would probably be her. The phone is just a thing.

But even if I told her that I prefer Akari-chan, it would be impossible for me to carry her around everywhere like a smartphone.

What should I say to convince her? I racked my brain frantically and came up with a brilliant idea.

“That’s right, let’s exchange contact information.”

“Eh?　Contact information?”

“Yes, I don’t know if something like today will happen again and make you feel uneasy. I thought it would be better if we could always be in touch.”

“I see. That’s a good idea.”

Akari-chan nodded and pulled out her phone at the same time. Her fingertips seemed to tremble a little as she touched the screen.

However, apparently, the topic of conversation was diverted. The way her mouth was twitching, she seemed to be in a better mood.

“Please give me the scanner code, senpai. I’d like to read yours.”

“Eh? Yeah, okay.”

With a slight catch in the phrasing, I put my hands in my pockets—

“Huh?”

It’s gone. I don’t have my phone.

I always have it in my pocket.

“Senpai?　What happened?”

“No… Huh? I don’t think I took it out at work.”

Looking around the room, I peeked at the bed. And then…

“Ah.”

The phone was left under the pillow.

Apparently, before my part-time job, after checking the time in my bed, I had somehow unconsciously shoved my phone under my pillow.

That behavior makes no sense, but more importantly, why didn’t I notice that I didn’t have my phone with me until just now?

“Um, senpai. I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but…”

Akari-chan noticed that I had left my phone behind and interrupted me in dismay.

I turned around and she gave me a flat-eyed look.

“Smartphones are also called mobile phones, and I think they should be carried properly.”

“I-it is as you say…”

The conversation we had just had was something else – a point so completely obvious that I just couldn’t help feeling a little small.