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The Siblings’ Memories
Remembering events and memories from your childhood is rather difficult, at least in my opinion. Naturally, some memories such as ‘Ahh, where did we go back then~?’ or ‘What did I do during last summer break again~?’ are harder to remember. Normal memories like those are harder to remember than events that hold emotional value. Of course, there’s also the question of how people feel as they live through said events.
In that sense, the things you think about in your early childhood differ greatly from when you’re a second-year high school student, like me right now, and talking about those kinds of memories is indeed difficult. Thus, the memories I am about to retell greatly differ from my current feelings and emotions.
…Huh? Stop prolonging this? No no no, I just wanted to emphasize that part… Ah, I understand already, so stop glaring at me, Suzuka-san!
…Phew, scary… W-Well, to summarize. The memories that follow are all from my personal perspective, and are highly subjective, so I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t complain about anything mid-way.
…Anyway.
If I had to guess, my relation with Suzuka took a turn for the worse around seven years ago? Probably. That’d put me at about nine years old, with Suzuka being eight. How was our relationship back then? Well, if I’m being completely honest—and again, this is just my personal opinion here—I think that we’d have been really close.
Back then, both of us were in early grade school. In obedience to our parents, we went to different schools. I attended a public school, and Suzuka was a student at a private school. That was the reason we never walked to school or back home together, but besides that, I felt like we’d always been together. The biggest reason for that was Suzuka herself.
Thinking back to it now, it’s gotten a bit hazy, but I do remember that she stuck to my side almost all day, every day. She clung to me so much that I don’t even have the words for it. I guess she was just a total Onii-chan addict.
Well, that was the same for me. I was just as clingy with Suzuka. I really cherished Suzuka back then (Well, I still do, but I grew unable to openly show it), and I would always feel happy whenever she came to talk to me. I feel like she told me “Onii-chan, I love you!” almost every day… oh right, I remember something like this happening back then.
*
“Onii-chan, Onii-chan! Welcome back!”
“Ohh, I’m home, Suzuka!”
That day, as usual, I came back from grade school. I had barely entered the door when Suzuka, who had returned earlier, greeted me. Her small body was jumping up energetically, her face brimming with happiness at my return.
“I’ve been waiting this entire time for Onii-chan to come home!”
“Really? You want to continue that card game from yesterday?” I said, as I thought back to what we had done yesterday evening.
At first, we had just played classic games like old maid and such, which she was rather bad at, but after she learned the rules and a few other games, there was a sort of explosion of gaming activity. Of course, I held back at first against Suzuka, but as she grew stronger with time, I started being able to go all out. I’m still better than her, though!
“That’s not it. I want to play cards as well, but let’s do that after dinner, please!” Suzuka said. She suddenly started fidgeting.
Taking a closer look, it seemed like she was hiding something behind her back.
“Hmm? Are you hiding something?”
“Ehehehe~” Suzuka gave a laugh that was both embarrassed and happy at the same time.
“Come on, show me!”
“Don’t want to!”
As I reached out with both hands, Suzuka started laughing heartily and twisted her body to evade me. Of course, I knew that Suzuka wasn’t seriously trying to hide whatever she was holding. She was just enjoying the tension and wanted to increase my anticipation.
“Ehehehe, actually…”
Finally, Suzuka stopped playing around and thrust her hands forwards. She was holding several sheets of paper, which looked like they had text written on them.
“I wrote an essay during Japanese class today.”
“Ohh, an essay, huh? I’m really bad at writing those.”
“I’m not the best at it either. But today, I did a really good job! The teacher even gave me a full 100 points!”
“Wow! That’s amazing, Suzuka! Can I read it?”
“Yes, I want Onii-chan to read it!” With a wide smile, Suzuka handed me the paper.
In the corner of that paper, it had 100 points written there with a flower around it, which made me feel special, myself.
“Umm… The title of the essay is ‘My Onii-chan’, huh?”
“Yes! Ehehehe~”
While Suzuka watched with a tremendously happy smile, I started reading through her essay.
My Onii-chan
2nd year – Class 1, Nagami Suzuka.
I love my Onii-chan. I love him the most in the entire world. Because he is so kind, and really cool. Onii-chan always stays together with me. He always protects me. We went to an amusement park once, and when a big dog howled at me, he protected me from it. Onii-chan always plays with me. Even yesterday, we played cards together until it got really late. He always teaches me new games, so we end up playing almost every evening. Onii-chan is really good at playing cards. I always lose against him. Even yesterday, I always lost against him. It’s really fun, but also frustrating. This is a secret, but Onii-chan always loses the final round on purpose. Onii-chan is always kind, after all. That’s why I love my Onii-chan.
………
I read through Suzuka’s essay. I could tell through it just how much she loved me, and the various reasons for why. Her grammar was really good, and she was using words I didn’t even know. Really, my clever little sister was worth boasting about.
“I don’t lose on purpose. Don’t lie about that.”
“It’s not a lie. I can tell.”
“Stop that. It’s just because you always beat me in the final round.”
“Ehehehe~”
I continued to read through Suzuka’s essay, which basically was 100% full of love towards me. Her final sentence was ‘My dream for the future is to become Onii-chan’s wife.’ Feeling weird emotions inside of me, mostly emotions of happiness, I turned towards Suzuka again.
“But you’re pretty amazing for writing a 100-point essay like this. What was that about you not being good at it?”
“I’m serious about that. I don’t know why, but when I write about Onii-chan I can write so easily.”
“Ohh. I wonder why.”
“Who knows? But if it’s about Onii-chan, I keep wanting to write even more. If only all my homework could be about Onii-chan,” said Suzuka with a pout.
When I saw her cute reaction like, I replied with a joking “As if they’d let you do that,” as I poked her cheek.
“Ah, also.”
“Hm? Is there anything else?”
I was about to go put my backpack in my room, but when I came to the bottom of the stairs, Suzuka was there, fidgeting again.
“Um, I want a reward from Onii-chan.”
“A reward?”
“For getting 100 points for my essay. Mother already gave me some pocket money.”
“What? That sounds really nice~ But I don’t have enough myself to give you some, you know.”
“I don’t want any more pocket money. I want you to come with me to a bookstore, Onii-chan.”
“A bookstore?”
“Yes, I want to buy a book with the money Mother gave me.”
To be honest, the anime I wanted to watch was about to start, but Suzuka’s requests always took priority. Thus, after putting away all my school stuff, I returned to Suzuka, who was waiting at the entrance.
“Ehehe, going out with Onii-chan~”
Thus, I walked to the nearest book store with the beaming Suzuka. Of course, we held hands the entire time. We always did this when we went out.
“Be mindful of cars, okay?”
“No need to worry. Onii-chan will protect me.”
“Idiot. Even I can’t protect you from a car.” Or so I said, but I still looked out for any potential danger.
When we went out like this, I would always pay attention to cars, puddles, or even small stones she could trip over.
“Ah, it’s the kitty.”
Time passed calmly, and we finally made it to the bookstore. It had a round cat on the top of the sign. Suzuka always pointed at it and called the store “kitty kitty,” but even I didn’t know the real name.
“And we’re here! Ahh, so soothing…”
When we entered the store, the cool breeze of the A/C immediately greeted us. It had just started to get really hot in this area, so much that you’d start sweating by just walking outside. Summer is getting close, huh?
“So what kind of book are you going to buy, Suzuka?” I asked Suzuka as I looked around the bookstore.
Only two other customers were there except for us. Two women who looked like housewives were reading things in the miscellaneous corner.
“Um, I wanted to buy a children’s literature book.”
“What’s that?”
“Our Japanese teacher told us to read it. It’s important to fortify our Japanese early.”
“Hmm. So what kind of book is it? Is it interesting at least?”
“I don’t know. Our teacher said it’s like a printed text.”
“Printed text? So it has words and letters like in newspapers?” I gave a rather disheartened “Oho?”
Back then, I hadn’t started reading that intensely yet, so naturally I hated books with lots of difficult words and characters.
“It must be.”
“Reading that must be tough. Not to mention buying it yourself. Are there no books like that in your school library?”
“All of them were already borrowed when I checked. Since I received some money from mother, I thought that I’d buy one myself to save myself the trouble.”
“Huh.”
I definitely would have used the money on something else, though. Well, Suzuka says she wants it, so there’s no use questioning it any more.
“Onii-chan, Onii-chan.”
“Hm? What’s up?”
“Do you not read any books like that, Onii-chan?”
“Me? I really prefer manga, myself~”
Most of the things I read were shounen manga magazines. Actually, a magazine I often read had released yesterday, so I was thinking of buying that right now. I had taken the money for that out of my piggybank when I put my backpack in my room a little while ago.
“Manga? I don’t really understand that.”
“You really have no interest in it at all, do you? That’s odd~”
“Am I weird?”
“Well, you’re fine the way you are, Suzuka. Anyway, let’s look for this literature book.”
“Don’t you want to buy manga, Onii-chan?”
“We can do that later. No worries,” I replied with a smile, prioritizing Suzuka’s search.
The two of us held hands again and walked through the rows of bookshelves as we looked up at them. We were searching for that book she was talking about, but I didn’t know exactly what we were looking for, so I didn’t know where to look.
“So where is this book?”
“Maybe it’s in the children’s corner? I don’t really know, either.”
This seemed to be the first time Suzuka was buying a book like this, as she tilted her head as she thought.
“Well, let’s ask an employee.”
Since we didn’t know where to search, I proposed that to Suzuka.
“Yes, let’s,” she agreed.
“It looks like you two are lost, huh~?”
A rather playful voice called out to us from the back. In response, we turned around in surprise.
“Are you looking for something~? If so, then leave it to this Onee-san right here~”
We were greeted by a girl with hair in twintails. She put both her hands on her hips in an arrogant manner. She looked to be even tinier than Suzuka and I, making me think that she was in kindergarten at the time.
“What? Why is a kid from kindergarten here?”
“Maybe she’s lost? Where’s your mother?”
Both Suzuka and I seemed to have the same thought, and we asked similar questions. The girl opened her eyes wide.
“What are you kids talking about~? I’m not in kindergarten~! I’m a middle schooler! Can’t you tell?”
She started blurting out nonsense.
“Yeah yeah, enough playing around.”
“I’m not playing! I really am in middle school!”
“Onii-chan, she’s a really cute little girl, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, watching her try so hard makes me smile.”
“Grrrr!” The girl started jumping up and down, presumably out of frustration.
I know that she was just trying to play with us, but calling herself a middle schooler was taking it a bit too far. Well, I don’t really care if she likes playing, but I don’t have the time to play along.
“Sorry about this, but right now we’re searching for something. If you’re lost, go talk to an employee about it. Ah, should I tell them for you if it’s too embarrassing?”
“I’m telling you I’m not a lost child! I am the daughter of the owner of this bookstore! I’m an employee!”
“Oh, I see. So you’re pretending to be an employee now. How nice.”
“I’m not pretending! Grrrr!”
A small girl like this is helping people out of pure goodwill. Suzuka already exemplifies diligence, but this girl must be quite a good example as well.
“…Haha, well whatever. I’m a kind Onee-san, so I won’t even bother listening to small kids like you two~”
“Onii-chan, look how she’s acting all grown up. It’s really cute.”
“I know. She’s trying her best to act old.”
“What is a grade school kid like you talking about~?!” The girl puffed out her cheeks. “Well, anyway! What are you searching for? Onee-san is an employee, so she’ll help you. If not, I can ask Papa anytime!”
“Or so she says. What should we do, Suzuka?”
“Maybe we should just play along for a bit. Could you help us, little lady?”
“Grrrrrrr!”
The girl once again puffed out her cheeks, but Suzuka continued without paying any mind to it.
“I’m looking for a children’s literature book. Do you know where I could find it?”
“Children’s literature~? You read that even though you’re that tiny~? How hardworking. I admire that~ Come over here, there’s lots of it at this bookshelf,” said the girl. She pointed over at one area of the children’s corner. “But we have even more interesting books than that, you know? How about I show you?”
“Even more interesting books?”
“Yeah, I can recommend them! Look, over here!”
“Ah, hey!”
The girl took both our hands and led us to the comics corner. This corner wasn’t filled with the shounen comics I would read. Instead, it was full of manga targeted at an older audience. Since I didn’t really understand the charm, I had never set foot in such places.
“Look, I can really recommend this!”
Two girls were shown on the cover of the manga, and you couldn’t guess what kind of content the manga had at first glance.
“The illustrations of this author are the greatest! See how cute they are?!”
“Hmmm. I don’t really get it. What is the manga about?”
“Eh? I don’t know either, but the cover illustration is cute, so what’s it matter, right~?”
“What’s up with that? I don’t really get it.”
“I don’t really understand manga either.”
“What troublesome kids. There’s no way you can reach true moe like this~”
“Onii-chan, what’s moe?”
“I don’t know, either.”
It was a word I hadn’t heard before, but it sure sounded fishy.
“Can’t help it then~ Moe is when you really like cute characters~ Look, every single one of them is so cute!”
With that, the girl pushed even more manga into our hands. All of them had illustrations of cute girls on the cover.
“They don’t really look that interesting. I’m out,” I said.
“Ahh, that’s no good, young man. Come on. Read lots now, and become a proper otaku in the future.”
“Onii-chan, what is an otaku?”
“I don’t really get it ei—Woah?! Hold on, stop, stop!”
The girl suddenly shoved tons of books at me, making me almost lose my balance.
“Read lots and become slave to cute illustrations!”
“I-I don’t need that. I don’t really get it, nor do I have the money to pay for all of this.”
“It’s okay, I’ll take care of the bill~”
“Onii-chan, what’s a bill?”
“I-I know what this is! This feels like a scam!”
I was screaming out loud, trying to survive the avalanche of books, but the girl relentlessly kept going.
“Here! This! And this as well!”
“Hold on…!”
Right when I wasn’t going to be able to take it anymore…
“Hyaaaa?! Ah, I-I’m sorryyyyy~~~!!!”
A middle-aged man suddenly came up behind the girl, grabbed her by the neck with one hand, and saved me from the mountain of books.
“Daaaaad! I was just proselytizing to some customers. I wasn’t planning on troubling them—Waaaaah!”
With that, the man returned the books to the bookshelves, gave us a slight bow, and disappeared into the back of the store, still carrying the girl.
“…W-What was that about?”
“Are you okay, Onii-chan?”
Suzuka called out to me, slightly worried, but I was just as confused as she was.
“…Well, whatever. Let’s get that book of yours and go home, Suzuka.”
“Aren’t you going to buy anything, Onii-chan?”
“I will, but you’re first up.”
A lot had happened, but we decided to pay it no mind. We walked towards the children’s corner the girl had told us about. There, Suzuka quickly found the book she was looking for. I bought the manga magazine I wanted, and we made our way to the cash register.
“Eh…?”
However, when we went to the cash register, Suzuka froze in place holding her cute wallet with a rabbit design on it.
“What’s wrong, Suzuka?”
“U-Um… the money I have isn’t enough… Even though I have my allowance…”
When I looked over at Suzuka, she had taken a 1000 yen bill (which seemed to have been the allowance she got from mom) out of her wallet, but she still needed around 100 yen more for the book.
“I didn’t think it would be that expensive…” Suzuka hung her head in sadness.
When I saw this, I felt something stinging inside my chest.
“Um, I’ll put this back then.”
“Eh…? Onii-chan?”
Before I had even realized it, I put the shounen manga magazine back and handed Suzuka the money she was lacking. At first, Suzuka just stared down at the money in her hands. She looked back up at me in shock and disbelief, her eyes opening wide.
“U-Um, Onii-chan, what…?”
“Now you can buy it, right? There you go.”
“But then Onii-chan can’t…”
“Ah, I’m good. It’s not like I desperately wanted it or anything.”
That was a lie. One of the series I was reading last month had ended in a total cliffhanger, so I was really looking forward to seeing what happened next.
“Onii-chan…”
But if I can make Suzuka stop frowning, this is a small price to pay. If I can see her smile, I’ll give her my entire allowance without batting an eye.
“This, please.”
Since Suzuka was still perplexed, I spoke up to the lady behind the cash register, who flashed me a kind smile as she put the book in a bag. With that, we left the bookstore behind us. Suzuka tightly gripped the bag with the book she had just bought.
“Um…! Onii-chan, I’m sorry. Because of me…” Suzuka turned her face towards me, sounding really apologetic.
I just returned an unfazed “It’s okay, you know?” with a smile.
I knew that I had done the right thing, so I had no regrets.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m glad that you got your book.”
“But yours…”
“Again, it’s all good. I’m your older brother, so of course I’d do something like that. Don’t make that face like you’re about to break out in tears. Just enjoy it.”
“…Yes.”
With that, a smile finally returned to Suzuka’s face. Just by watching her smile like this, I could feel all the frustration of not being able to read the next chapter of my manga wash away.
“Since I bought this book with Onii-chan’s money, it also belongs to you. Please read it whenever you feel like it, Onii-chan.”
“Ehhh… I’m really not good with these sorts of books, though…”
“It should be fine if it’s Onii-chan. Let’s learn more Japanese together.”
“Haha, you’re as diligent as ever… I know, you can just tell me what kind of story it was after you’ve finished it. I’m more than fine with that.”
“Ah, yes! I’ll do just that,” Suzuka flashed a charming smile, and I returned a smile of my own.
“Onii-chan.”
“Hm?”
“I love you, Onii-chan.”
“Really? Thank you.”
“Can I come a bit closer?”
“Hey, don’t cling too much. You’re such a spoiled child, Suzuka.”
“Ehehehe~”
Making idle chat like this, we made our way home, the time passing blissfully. The sun slowly started to set, and you could clearly see our shadows walking down the street, still holding hands.
*
Yeah, it’s a bit hazy, but I think something like this happened. Thinking back to it, this memory was really nothing important. I just happened to remember it out of nowhere. The time back then was nothing special to us. It was just another day in our normal lives. Suzuka hung around me all day long, and we didn’t doubt our relationship in the slightest. Indeed, I feel like I haven’t changed at all from back then. Even now, I still prioritize Suzuka over everything else.
Well, I guess that my image as a reliable older brother has drastically changed, though… Still, that’s just how our relationship back then was. Suzuka would always come talk to me whenever she had any free time.
…Right, there was another time like that.
*
“Onii-chan, Onii-chan.”
One day, while I was playing a game in my room, Suzuka visited me like she always would. She poked her head inside the door, and when she saw that I was present, a bright smile flashed up on her face and she hurriedly entered. Her mannerisms resembled a small, cute animal, and I really liked it when she acted like that.
“Hm? What is it?”
However, I was at an important part in my game, so I responded without looking at her. That seemed to have displeased Suzuka. She puffed out her cheeks, tugging on my sleeve as soon as she was close enough. This was her usual reaction whenever I was playing a game.
“Hold on a second, I’m close to a save point.”
“Hmpf…” Her expression was clouded by even more displeasure.
Normally, we always played games together, but games like these were different. Suzuka had absolutely no interest in my games. She just watched in confusion whenever I was getting into it. I would often just play my own games instead of paying attention to her, which she wasn’t a big fan of. Normally I wouldn’t play very many games for that very reason, but this was a game that I had been looking forward to for a while, so I was getting really into it.
“Onii-chan, are you still not done?” Suzuka gently shook my arm.
“Did something important happen?”
I was hurrying to my next possible savepoint, but I was well aware that it would take me a bit to reach it, so I continued the conversation while playing.
“I want Onii-chan to help teach me.”
“Teach you what?”
“I was doing my homework, but I don’t understand one part.”
“Ahh, that makes sense,” I answered, eyes still fixed on my character in the game.
However, the save point sadly was still too far away. I would have to defeat several enemies on the way to reach it, as well, so it would take a while.
“Alright.”
When I realized as much, I abruptly shut off my game console. Of course, I was far from finishing my save. I’ll have to replay a rather long section of it later.
“Huh? You were done already?”
“Yep, sure was~”
However, I just kept that to myself, knowing that Suzuka wouldn’t be able to tell anyway. Helping Suzuka as best as I could always took priority, so replaying an hour or so of content wasn’t that big of a loss… I had managed to get some rare items during that hour, but oh well.
“So what was that about homework?”
I felt a bit sad, but that feeling immediately vanished upon thinking that I could make myself useful to my little sister.
“Ah, yes… it’s about this.”
With that, Suzuka opened up the math workbooks and notes she had brought along with her. The notes were written with beautiful handwriting, and the formulae were all detailed and easy to read. Every single homework question had answers written down in the answer column. I stared at the page for a bit in confusion.
“Aren’t you doing it perfectly well already?”
“Um… I tried doing it on my own, but I don’t know if the answers are correct…”
“You just have to check the answers in your workbook, then…”
I looked over the workbook and her notes. When I did, I spotted questions that even I would have problems with, even though I was a year ahead of her… I don’t think I learned any of this last year.
“I think they’re correct…” I said, unable to put much confidence into my voice.
Suzuka sure is amazing. She even can learn difficult stuff like this.
“Also, I don’t think I would be able to teach you anything here. You’re already doing fine on your own.”
“Is that so? Ehehe~”
“You’re more clever than me anyway, so me teaching you would just be a waste of time.”
Suzuka back then had excelled at her studies, just like she does now. She was always getting perfect scores on her tests and exams. Our parents also noticed this, and they decided to have Suzuka attend a private school, intending to send her to college later (though I didn’t really understand the importance of college back then). Since I only attended public school, it made sense that I hadn’t been taught anything like this. Unlike how I am now, I wasn’t motivated at all for my studies back then, so I was constantly in the lower end grades-wise, and Suzuka should have known that herself.
“That’s not true. I want Onii-chan to teach me.”
However, Suzuka just gave me a bright smile when she said that. Then I understood what she really wanted.
“You were lying just so that I would pay attention to you, right?”
“I wasn’t lying at all~ I really wanted you to teach me~”
“But there’s nothing I can teach you. You’ve even finished all your homework.”
“Umm, this is practice for teaching me. I want to practice lots with Onii-chan so that you can teach me more and more.”
“What’s up with that?” I couldn’t help but laugh.
It was very obvious that Suzuka was making up excuses, as what she was saying was all over the place.
“So please teach me lots, Onii-chan. It’ll be good practice for you as well.”
“That makes no sense at all. Why would I need practice teaching others?”
“That way you’ll be able to teach me even better.”
“So that’s really what you want, huh?”
“Ah, no. It’s just practice. All practice,” Suzuka twitched, emphasizing the last part.
Suzuka’s reaction looked really cute, and I pat her on the head. “You’re such a doofus, Suzuka.”
“Yes, I am a doofus. So please teach me lots, Onii-chan.”
“Don’t act all happy about basically being called an idiot. I know that you’re the clever one out of the two of us.”
“That’s not true. You’re even more clever than I am.”
“What are you talking about? My grades are average at best.”
“No. Onii-chan knows everything,” Suzuka said, turning a gaze of pure admiration towards me.
Back then, I was still a reliable older brother; someone she looked up to. However, that was just because of our age difference, and that would be lost fairly quickly as well.
“Onii-chan, Onii-chan, I want to talk to you some more. Teach me even more things I don’t know.”
“What sort of ‘more things’? Stuff like games?”
“No, I can pass on that.”
Like all the times I had asked her before this, her answer still didn’t change.
“What do you do when I’m not around, Onii-chan?”
“Like when I’m at school? Why do you want to know about that?”
“I want to know everything about Onii-chan.”
“And in what way is this related to your homework?”
“Ah…”
“Yeah, you wanted me to pay attention to you, right?”
“…See? You really know everything, Onii-chan.”
“That’s not the point here!”
“Ehehehe~”
Yet again, this idle talk with no special meaning behind it caused us to burst out laughing. Suzuka had always been like this, using whatever excuse she could come up with to make me pay attention to her. Since we were both kids back then, most of that didn’t even make sense to me. Her desire to be together with me was made crystal clear, though, so I never sent her away. I always prioritized her every chance I got.
“What kind of place is your school, Onii-chan? Are there any cute girls going there?”
“Why would you ask something like that out of the blue?”
“Just because~”
“Well, there are a lot of cute girls there…”
“Hmph, I request more details.”
“Wait, what’s gotten into you?”
Time passed as I told her about all the various things she wanted to know. In the end, I couldn’t continue playing my game at all, and I ended up behind the boys in my class who were also playing the game…
“Onii-chan, Onii-chan! Ehehehe~”
But since I was prioritizing Suzuka over anything else, I had no regrets about that. This was how it usually was for me, after all…
*
Thinking back to it, I still can’t believe we were such close siblings before our relationship broke in two. But that was our daily life back then. We were always together when we went outside to play, and I think we even slept together from time to time? Ahh, right. Suzuka had a rabbit-shaped pillow back then which was even bigger than her. Really, in all the memories I have of her, she’s always smiling at me. Ah, hold on. It might have not always been smiles and happiness. There were many times when Suzuka actually made my life harder. For example—
*
“Onii-chan, Onii-chan!”
Like every day before it, Suzuka immediately came to greet me at the entrance when I returned from school, but she was acting a bit different from usual. If I had to describe it, she seemed more energetic and hyped than usual.
“What happened?”
“Ehehe, ehehehehe~”
When I asked her about it, Suzuka just returned her usual ‘Ehehe’ laugh and didn’t give me a straight answer. Maybe something good happened? Either way, watching Suzuka this happy made me also feel happy inside, so I didn’t exactly complain.
“What is it? Did you get a good grade on your tests again?”
“Noooo~ That’s not it. Well, I did get a perfect grade on my test today, though.”
“You sure are amazing, huh?! I’ve never gotten a perfect 100 points before.”
“You would be able to if you really wanted to, Onii-chan. It isn’t that difficult.”
“As if…” I gave a wry smile, but I didn’t press the subject any further.
“That aside, ehehe. What do you think it is, Onii-chan?”
“Hmmm… I wonder?”
I acted like I was giving some deep thought as I crossed my arms, but I had already spotted Suzuka hiding something behind her back. She probably has something to show me. If it’s not a test, then maybe a teacher praised her for a drawing she made? Or maybe it was another essay like the one she wrote before? I wasn’t quite sure, but it had to be something along that line. Eventually, I gave up and asked Suzuka to tell me.
“Ehehehe. Well, take a look at this!”
Suzuka finally brought her arms up in front of her, showing me what she was hiding. But—
“…Eh? What is this…?”
When I looked at the object, I really didn’t know what exactly I was looking at. She was holding a plate from the kitchen. That much I understood, but this brownish thing on top of it… No, rather than brown, it almost looks black…?
“Um… What exactly is this, Suzuka?”
“Ehehe. It’s a cookie! I wanted Onii-chan to enjoy it, so I tried my hardest!” Suzuka responded with a radiating smile.
However, I really couldn’t see this… object… as a cookie.
“I-I see. You made this… c-cookie…”
“Yes! Please try it, Onii-chan!”
Suzuka pushed the plate towards me even harder. The flow of this conversation had started to scare me a bit, and I quite frankly was starting to panic, thinking that I would be forced to eat it. It looked pretty unhealthy, and the smell was just… Ugh…
“I wonder if Onii-chan will be happy…!”
Naturally, there was no way for me to decline her offer. Right in front of me was my little sister. She had worked her hardest to make this cookie for me, looking forward to seeing my reaction. I would probably break her heart if I said something like ‘I don’t want it. It looks disgusting.’ On top of that, I’m really happy that she went out of her way to make this for me.
“T-Thanks for the food…”
Thus, I made up my mind and picked up the cookie (?). With Suzuka watching me in anticipation, I very carefully took a bite from what looked to be the burned attempt of a cookie. I was quite honestly scared for my life.
Crunch!
“………!”
When I did, there was a sound like I was biting sand, and an indescribable taste filled my mouth. I really couldn’t make out a detailed taste. Was it bitter, sweet, or spicy? However, just keeping it in my mouth would only make things worse, so I quickly gulped the (so-called) cookie down.
“Ugh… Th-this is…”
“How is it, Onii-chan? Is it delicious?”
I somehow managed to keep a straight face, and I was asked for my opinion right away. Of course, I already knew how to respond.
“I-It’s delicious. Good job, Suzuka.”
“Yay, I’m so happy! This is the first time I tried cooking. I’m happy you like it, Onii-chan!” Suzuka jumped for joy at my response.
When I saw that, I knew that I had done the right thing. My tongue felt like it was dying thanks to all the different flavors assaulting it, but Suzuka’s smile made all of that feel inconsequential.
“W-What made you suddenly decide to start cooking, though?” I asked.
Of course, this question was just a distraction so that in the meantime I wouldn’t be forced to eat another one of the cookies.
“I wanted to make Onii-chan happy!”
“…I see. Thank you, Suzuka.”
“Ehehehe, that is to be expected. I will become Onii-chan’s wife in the future, so I have to be good at cooking.”
I really appreciated her efforts, but it would take a very long time for her to attain the level of cooking she aspired to.
“Now, Onii-chan. Eat some more!”
“Y-Yeah.”
In the end, I wasn’t able to escape my fate. I picked up another cookie and forcefully bit into it, gulping it down with great effort. It’s an older brother’s job to protect the smile of their little sister, even if it’s as tough as this.
“…Ah, I was also wondering how they tasted.”
“Ah, wait…!”
However, the unexpected occurred. Suzuka decided to try a cookie as well.
“…~~~?!”
After a short silence, Suzuka’s eyes opened wide, and she held her mouth shut. It’s commendable of her that she didn’t spit it out immediately, but I wouldn’t have complained if she had done so…
“Cough cough cough!”
“A-Are you okay, Suzuka?”
“I-I’m not okay at all! It tastes really weird! Why did you lie, Onii-chan…?!” Suzuka glared at me with tears in her eyes.
I mean… I didn’t want to hurt your feelings…?
“I-I didn’t think it was that bad,” I tried to cover it up, but…
“Uuuuu…!!!” Suzuka puffed out her cheeks in a sulking manner.
Naturally, she wasn’t satisfied with that at all. Ahh geez, this one isn’t going to end well…
Of course, just as I expected, it took quite a while before Suzuka’s mood was fixed. I always find it the most bothersome when she’s sulking. When she’s angry or sad, she’s a lot easier to deal with.
“I’m sorry, Onii-chan. It wasn’t delicious at all…”
After she finally calmed down, she hung her head low, dispirited. Well, I can understand why she had been let down by that.
“Don’t sweat it, really. It was your first time, wasn’t it? Nobody succeeds on their very first try, not even you.”
“Uuu… But…”
“That reminds me, how did you make this to begin with? You didn’t use the kitchen on your own, did you?”
Back then, we both were still young, so our mother didn’t allow us to use the kitchen unsupervised.
“I made it while mother supervised.”
“Eh? And she didn’t help you?”
“I did say I wanted to make them my own, and mother also said that I should try it out by myself first.”
…I see. Our mother really loves to spoil Suzuka, but she can be equally strict on her if she wants to be. She always told Suzuka to try stuff like this by herself to help her grow. As a side note, she never told me to try things myself. I always get scolded right away.
“So that’s how they ended up like this.”
“Ahhh, this is so frustrating…!” Suzuka pouted.
I still think that she did great for her first try without any help. And thinking that it was all for my sake made me even happier.
“…Onii-chan, I have a request.”
“A request? What is it?”
Suzuka suddenly had a change in attitude, and I waited for her response.
“I want to eat Onii-chan’s favorite sweets. Those panda cookies.”
“Panda…? Ahh, you mean these WanNyan Biscuits chocolate pandas?”
WanNyan Biscuits was a rather famous sweets brand back then. The TV advertisements were popular thanks to how cute they were, which resulted in very high demand. Though I don’t know what it was like on a national scale. At first, they had boy and cat motifs, but they opened up a bit and made elephants, birds, giraffes, and so on. Among their lineup were the aforementioned chocolate pandas.
“But those are biscuits. Not cookies, right?”
“What’s the difference between the two?”
“…Who knows?”
As a side note, I still don’t know the difference between biscuits and cookies. I guess I’ll have to look it up later.
“Since Onii-chan likes them, I wanted to make some for you.”
“Ahh, that’s why you made biscuit—I mean cookies, yeah.” I was getting even happier.
She knew my favorite type of sweets, and she wanted to make them for me.
“Yes. But I failed… That is why I want to eat them. Right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want to remember their taste so I can make them my own. If there’s anything I don’t understand, I can ask Mother later. Then I can make Onii-chan his favorite sweets whenever he wants them.”
When I saw Suzuka saying this while forming fists with her hands, a comfortable and warm sensation filled my chest. It seems like even eating that Cookie of Hell had its own benefit. Though I wouldn’t want to eat it ever again.
“I see. Thank you, Suzuka. Then let’s go eat some right away.”
“Yes! Going shopping with Onii-chan, ehehehe~”
And with that, we went out to buy the WanNyan Biscuits chocolate pandas. We made our way to the nearest convenience store, holding hands like always. It was the closest store to our home, and they should have been selling those biscuits, but…
“Ahh, they just sold out…”
As I had mentioned before, these cookies were pretty popular, which means that they were often sold out like this.
“O-Onii-chan…!”
“Can’t be helped. Let’s look elsewhere.”
We decided to visit another nearby convenience store, but to our misfortune, no matter where we looked, they were sold out. There were no chocolate pandas to be found.
“They do have green tea lions, though~”
As one would expect, the least-popular type of cookie could be found en masse. Maybe they were trying to start new trends or something, but they kept putting out rather odd products like these. The lion biscuits were discontinued rather quickly after that, if I remember correctly.
“No. Those aren’t the ones Onii-chan likes the most,” Suzuka pouted. “Let’s look some more,” she said, pulling my arm.
“I get it, I get it. Then there’s only one place we can go, right?”
Since Suzuka hadn’t given up, I could only follow her. With that decided, our next destination was a nearby large-scale supermarket. Since they had a huge assortment of goods, they should have some of the chocolate pandas as well.
“Onii-chan, do they have them?”
“Ummm…”
Right when we entered, we immediately set out to the sweets corner. I ran my eyes along the shelves, searching everywhere for the biscuits.
“Ah, found them! There’s one box left!”
The chocolate pandas were one box from being sold out here as well. Naturally, I immediately reached out to them, thinking that Suzuka would be happy—But.
Grab!
“Eh?!” “Wha?!”
Suddenly, an unfamiliar arm appeared next to mine, and we both grabbed the box at the same time. I turned that direction in surprise, and I saw a girl who seemed to be about the same age as me. She stared at me in equal surprise with big, cute eyes.
“Hey, I found them first. Let go of them.”
However, immediately betraying my hopes, the girl arrogantly thrust out her chest, declaring this as she looked down her nose at me… Hey, there’s no need to act like that just because you’re a little bit cute.
“Huh? That’s my line. I’ll be buying this, so let go already.”
“W-What did you say?! Why would I have to do that?!”
“Right back at you! Why did you already decide that I would have to give up on it! We’ve already gone to three other convenience stores, and we finally found it here!”
“Hmph, how naive! I visited five stores before this, and I even came here from a city over!”
“Just how much do you want to eat these?! And how unlucky can you be?!”
The girl’s face turned red and tears started forming in her eyes when I said that.
“S-Shut up!”
She probably was already aware of her bad luck. Her oppressing atmosphere disappeared, and to me she looked nothing more than clumsy now.
“A-Anyway, I really like these cookies, okay?! More than anyone ever has in this entire world! So just give them to me already!”
“There’s no way I’d just do that! I was searching for these for my little sister, so I won’t give them to you no matter what!”
When I said that, the girl finally noticed that Suzuka was there.
“Little sister?”
Right after that, however, she directed her gaze back at me.
“I-I don’t care about that. Just get pudding giraffes instead,” She started pulling more fiercely on the chocolate pandas.
As an aside, said pudding giraffes were biscuits in the shape of giraffes that tasted a bit like pudding. Since giraffe-shaped cookies were so long and thin, they were almost always broken, and I really didn’t like them all that much.
“Just get those green tea lions then, for all I care!”
“I saw thousands of them on the way here!”
Ah, I guess they really aren’t that popular—but nevermind that right now. Neither the girl nor I would give an inch. We both kept tugging on the box of chocolate pandas.
“Grrrrr…! Let…go…!”
We were left glaring at each other. I know that this was a childish thing to do, but it was for Suzuka’s sake, so I couldn’t stand down no matter what.
“Haaaah… You really don’t know when to give up, do you? Also, do you even have enough money to buy this? Maybe you forgot your wallet at home.”
“As if I’d do something stupid like that.”
“Hmph, it happened to me today, you know! I only realized that I had forgotten my wallet when I arrived at the 5th convenience store, so I had to go back again!”
“It took you that long to realize it?!”
“On top of that, I even left it on the shelf by my house’s front door! I forgot it when I put my shoes on!”
“Why do you sound so arrogant?!”
She made herself sound even more clumsy, and I couldn’t help but feel bad for her.
“Anyway, prove to me that you have the money with you. Because I know I have it!”
That being said, the girl didn’t show any signs of self-awareness at all. She took out a rather expensive-looking wallet and showed it to me.
“I have it,” I said, showing her the handful of 100 yen coins I had in my pocket.
When I did that, I earned myself an arrogant snort from the girl.
“Hey, go get yourself a wallet. Without it, you’ll easily lose your money,” the girl said, opening her wallet. “Huh?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Ehhhhhh?! N-No way?!”
…What? Why would she scream like that?
“W-What should I do?! I have my wallet with me, but I forgot to put money inside!”
“What?!”
The girl started to tear up. This is starting to get really painful, can we just drop this now?
“Um, so you can’t buy this, right?”
“Uuu…!”
When I said that, the girl reluctantly let go of the box of chocolate pandas so that I could have it.
“Uuuu… No way…”
The girl hung her head low with tears forming in her eyes. It made me feel a bit sad for her. Any more of that and I wouldn’t be able to leave her like this.
“…Fine, then. Let’s buy it together.”
The girl raised her head in surprise when I said that. “…Eh? W-What?”
“Just come with me,” I took the girl’s hand and walked to the cash register. After completing the purchase, I opened the box and took out one of the plastic bags inside, handing it to the girl.
“Eh? Eh? What’s this about?”
The girl clearly didn’t understand what was going on. Her gaze jumped back and forth between the plastic bag and me.
“I’ll give you half of it. There’s two plastic bags in one box, and we’re fine with just one, so take it.” I told the confused girl.
True, there wasn’t really a need to go this far, but I had a feeling that I had to do something for this clumsy girl. Otherwise, I might not have been able to sleep well that night. Suzuka only wanted to eat some, so one plastic bag should be enough.
“H-Hmph! Well, whatever!” said the girl in an embarrassed manner.
It was a mystery why she started acting so arrogant again, but I didn’t care too much about it.
“Anyway, we’ll be going now. Be careful on your way home.”
“W-Wait a second.”
I tried to walk away since our business was done, but the girl called out to me. What does she want now? She better not want the other half as well… Or so I thought, but she suddenly stepped in front of me, her face burning red, and glared at me. I prepared myself to dodge to the side when she raised her hand, but—
Squeeze.
“Eh?”
The girl suddenly grabbed my hand. The girl’s face was right in front of me. She awkwardly averted her gaze.
“…T-Thank you, okay.”
Her bossy, arrogant atmosphere from before had vanished, all I heard were her honest feelings. As I stood frozen in surprise, the girl awkwardly said goodbye with “S-See you!” and ran away. Even from behind, I could tell her face was beet red. That in itself made me embarrassed as well, but I didn’t know why. All I knew was that I had done the right thing.
“W-What a weird girl, huh? Well, we’ve gotten the chocolate, so let’s head home.”
Trying to shake off the awkwardness, I called out to Suzuka.
“Hmph…!”
However, Suzuka was busy pouting, looking very displeased. That reminds me… Suzuka wasn’t saying anything the entire time I was talking with the girl. D-Did I make her angry?
“W-What’s wrong, Suzuka? Are you angry that we only got one bag of chocolate pandas? This should be enough to get a taste of them, right?”
“That’s perfectly fine. Onii-chan looked really cool when you helped that girl. You’re so kind, Onii-chan.”
“Um… So why are you…?”
“It’s good that you’re kind to other girls besides me, but I don’t like it. You looked really close to that girl as well…” Suzuka said, pouting.
“We weren’t that close or anything. I literally just met her, and she’s really weird, too.”
“That doesn’t matter. It’s unfair.”
I don’t even know what’s unfair about it… However, I should ignore that and focus on trying to cheer Suzuka up.
“Alright. Then what should I do?”
Of course, the best way to cheer her up was always to grant any wish she had. That’s how it always went down.
“Ummm, then hug me. As tightly as possible.”
“Right here? You’re such a spoiled child, Suzuka.”
Flashing a bitter smile, I granted her wish. If my little sister wants me to do something, then the only thing I can do is fulfill her wish.
“Here. Happy?”
“Hmph…”
“Huh? Normally, you’d immediately be all ‘Ehehehe.’”
“…It feels a bit weird today. Make it even stronger. And, keep it going as we walk home.”
“Eh? Th-that’ll be a bit difficult…”
For some reason, Suzuka’s mood stayed the same even after I granted her wish, and she even asked me for the impossible in the end. This might have been the first time I’ve seen her sulking this much.
“I want Onii-chan to hug me as much as possible. I’ll make some cookies once we get home, so please eat them.”
“Ugh…” I couldn’t hold back a groan at the thought of having to eat these horrible cookies again.
But Suzuka wasn’t done.
“Not just cookies, I want to try many other foods. So you’d better be ready to eat lots, Onii-chan.”
You’re saying that with a sulking expression on your face? Are you doing this on purpose to make trouble for me? But I’m your older brother, so of I’ll course do everything you want.
“Hmph, Onii-chan is my Onii-chan alone!”
After that, I feared for my life several times during her cooking practice, but as you can see, it was all worth it…
*
It’s quite the memory, if I do say so myself. Suzuka started working on her cooking even more intensely after that, and every night for dinner, she always took care of one side dish.
At first, she had lots of problems with it, especially since our mother always told her to try it for herself at first. However, since Suzuka always excelled at everything, she swiftly got the hang of it after trying the dishes out one or two times. She quickly grew better than our mother, turning into the lord of the kitchen, so to speak. In that sense, this period of Suzuka causing trouble for me only lasted for a short time, I guess…
But I do feel like the times I angered Suzuka only went up in number starting from then. For example…
*
“Ah, Onii-chan, what is that?”
That day, our mother took both of us to a shopping center we rarely visited. While our mother was finishing her own shopping tour, Suzuka and I looked around at various stores in boredom. Suzuka suddenly pointed to one corner.
“Oh, it has games, huh?”
It was the shopping mall’s gaming corner. Unlike game centers with their actual gaming consoles, the games here were more made for children, keeping it simple.
“How about we play there a bit? It seems like Mom will take a bit longer, anyway,” I suggested.
“Games?”
I thought it was a good way to spend time until our mother was done, but Suzuka looked disinterested by the idea. But when I headed over there myself, she quickly followed after me. The space there wasn’t exactly big, and there were only simple games like pinball or whack-a-mole. I would have loved to try it out back then, but not with the allowance I had with me.
“How about it, Suzuka? Wanna try it out?”
That is, unless Suzuka herself had shown interest in it, because then I would have given her some of mine.
“Um… I don’t really understand this very much.”
However, she looked rather lost as she gazed at the machines. When I saw that, I gave up on trying to make her interested. I just looked around the place with her.
“Ah, Onii-chan, there’s lots of stuffed toys,” Suzuka said as she pulled on my shirt, pointing towards a certain object.
When I followed her gaze, I spotted several claw machines in the back of the place. One of those had the stuffed toys Suzuka was talking about.
“Ah, a ufo catcher, huh… Woah, there’s lots back there.”
The two of us walked deeper, where there were many ufo catcher games ready to be played. I had no idea they had something like this in the back of the gaming corner. Suzuka and I both were entranced by the prizes. So much so that I had the burning desire to get one of them.
“Suzuka, how about you try this out for yourself?”
Thinking that even the normally disinterested Suzuka might want to try her hand at this, I called out to her.
“…Wow…”
However, Suzuka was still entranced by the games. She wasn’t listening to me in the slightest. Thinking Well, whatever, to myself, I headed towards the ufo catcher with the plush toys stuffed inside. Suzuka has been focusing on these for a long time, so maybe I can get one for her—Or so I thought, but when I headed for one of the machines…
“………”
I spotted a lonely girl, staring at the machine. Well, I called her a girl, but she seems to be at least 2-3 years older than me, which means I should probably call her ‘Onee-san.’ What stood out the most about her was her golden hair and emerald green eyes. I couldn’t hold back a faint sigh of admiration. ‘A foreigner…’ I breathed. That being said, the girl didn’t seem to notice me at all. She was just staring at the toys… Does she want one?
I was a bit confused at her behaviour, but I shook my head and headed there myself. I couldn’t be distracted, since I had a mission. The mission, of course, was getting a toy for Suzuka.
“I wonder what kind of stuffed animal Suzuka wants… probably the rabbit one?”
While I was wondering which one to get, I laid eyes on one that looked like Suzuka’s favorite animal. However, judging from its position, I wasn’t completely sure if I could manage to grab it. Still, I was at least going to take the challenge, so I took out a 100 yen coin. I had just gotten 500 yen as an allowance from our mother, but she’d be angry if I spent it all here.
“Alright…”
Pumping myself up, I put in the coin and carefully lined the claw up with the prize, but…
“Ah, rats.”
The first try ended in failure. So did the second one after that. I had already spent two-fifths of my allowance, but for the sake of Suzuka’s happiness, I couldn’t stop myself.
And then came the third try.
“Ugh… so close!”
It looked good for a second, but the rabbit slipped away at the very last second. However, thanks to that, it fell into an even more advantageous position, so I thought I could get it on the fourth try, and I put in the coin.
“Alright…! Ah, huh?!”
The situation didn’t go as planned. I thought I had a good grip on the rabbit, but the claw got stuck on another toy close by, and I ended up pushing a stuffed dog toy into the chute instead of the rabbit.
“Wah… What should I do with this…”
…Would Suzuka be happy with a dog as well? Also, what’s going on with this dog anyway? It’s wearing a kimono? It says ‘Japanese-style Dog’ on the tag…? Weird.
“………”
I suddenly felt like someone was staring at me, and when I looked around to check, I found the same girl from before. She was now directing her gaze at me. Since she was a foreigner, and quite a beauty at that, I was a bit perplexed. But I quickly realized that she wasn’t staring at me, but rather the stuffed toy in my hands.
“Um, do you want this?” I called out to her.
I didn’t know if she understood Japanese at all, but I had absolutely no knowledge of English, so that was my only bet.
“…………?”
As expected, the girl didn’t show any indication that she understood me. All that was clear was her interest in the stuffed toy in my hands.
“…Here.”
“…?”
“You can have it.”
I gave up on communicating and just shoved the toy into her hands. Honestly, I was seriously nervous as I did that, wondering if it was just my imagination that she wanted it. However, my fears seemed unfounded.
“…Thank you1…ariga…tou…!”
When I saw the girl’s smile as she embraced the stuffed toy, I knew I had done the right thing, but—
“Mguh?!”
Out of the blue, the girl suddenly jumped at me, pushing my head into her chest. I couldn’t tell the exact cup size, but all I knew was that it felt seriously soft.
“…Th-That sure caught me off guard.”
The girl kept saying Thank you, thank you over and over, but eventually left me, waving her hand as she walked away. Though her reaction left me a bit perplexed, it was clear she was happy, so that was all that mattered. Thinking that, I turned around, and—
“Onii-chan…!”
Suzuka was already standing there, glaring at me.
“S-Suzuka?! W-When did you…?!”
“Onii-chan, that beautiful girl just hugged you, didn’t she?”
“T-That’s because I gave her the stuffed toy she wanted.”
“Is that so? So you gave her one as a present. Are you that close?”
“N-No, I just happened to get that one, and she looked like she really wanted it, so I gave it to her…”
I tried to explain myself, but Suzuka just pouted, clearly unhappy. For some reason, I felt like things like this had started happening more frequently as of late. Since this had never happened before, I wasn’t sure how to deal with the situation either.
“Ah, I know. How about I get one for you as well?”
Seeing this as a chance to cheer her up, I put my final 100 yen coin in the machine. This time, I felt sure that I would get the rabbit, but—
“Woah…”
Unluckily, the stuffed toys were all jumbled around because I had gotten the dog one, and the rabbit was now buried beneath the other ones. This naturally resulted in my final attempt ending in failure.
“Onii-chan…”
“S-Sorry, Suzuka…”
Rather than cursing myself for having wasted my entire allowance, I was more worried about Suzuka’s mood.
The shopping trip ended shortly after that, as we returned home with our mother, but Suzuka was still pouting and sulking in displeasure the entire time. No matter what I said, she wouldn’t cheer up. Her mood continued until dinner, and even our parents picked up that something was off with her.
“Hey, Suzuka. I’m really sorry about that stuffed toy, okay? I’ll do anything, so please cheer up, okay?” I said to Suzuka after our dinner ended.
Since a situation like this had never lasted for so long, I was honestly at a loss as to how to deal with this.
“H-Hmph…” For some reason, Suzuka had a rather complicated expression on her face. “…I’m not really angry.”
She said, to my surprise.
“But, whenever I remember the scene of Onii-chan being hugged by that girl, I get this stinging feeling in my chest.”
“Stinging feeling?”
“Do you know what that is, Onii-chan?”
“No, I have no idea, either… You aren’t sick, are you?”
“I’m making trouble for Onii-chan… am I a bad girl?”
“No, of course not. It’s my fault to begin with. I really should have gotten that stuffed toy for you.”
“Then please try to get it next time.”
“Yeah. I promise,” I replied.
“Ehehe~”
After I said this, I was able to feel relieved that Suzuka had cheered up again, as she suddenly tugged on my shirt.
“Onii-chan, I don’t need any stuffed toys like that. You wasted all of your allowance, didn’t you?”
“Ugh… so you figured it out. But I’ll definitely get it next month when I get some allowance,” I assured Suzuka, but she shook her head.
“You can’t just waste it like that. I don’t need a toy that much.”
“But didn’t you want it?”
“Well, I did, but I don’t really need it. I don’t want you to waste all your allowance because of me.”
“I don’t mind, though. And I just have to get it in one shot!”
“I doubt you can do that.”
Suzuka’s straight reply as she gave me a condescending glare was quite depressing. However, she didn’t give me much time to be depressed.
She continued.“But instead, I want you to do something for me.”
“What is it?” I looked at her earnestly.
“It’s simple. I want to take a bath together with Onii-chan.”
“Ehehe~ Ehehehehe~”
Suzuka’s delighted voice filled the bath. Currently, the two of us were sitting together in the bathtub. Suzuka was leaning her back against my chest, periodically letting out her usual “Ehehe~” laugh. She looked back at me with a grin.
“You sure are in a good mood now, Suzuka~”
“Yes!”
“It’s been a while since we’re taken a bath together like this, hasn’t it?”
“Yes! Ehehehe~”
Suzuka truly seemed delighted at this situation, answering everything I said with the same delighted giggle. Well, it’s not like that’s something I’d complain about.
“Still, you’re quite the tactician, Suzuka.”
“What’s a tactician, Onii-chan?”
“Um… It means you’re being cunning, I guess?”
“I am not cunning… Am I?”
“Well, I just thought that you were really clever for using the stuff with the toy to your advantage like this.”
“Hmm? I don’t really understand. I just wanted to take a bath with Onii-chan since it’s been so long.”
So was she asking for a trade like this subconsciously…? No, since Suzuka is clever, she must have based it on something. Either way, if she asks me like that, there’s no way I can deny her anything. Ever since she started attending grade school, our mother had told us “Start taking baths separately from now on, okay?” so I had naturally obeyed.
Suzuka really liked taking baths with me, so she was rather displeased about it, but I had started feeling oddly conscious of her recently, so I also tried to avoid taking baths with her for that reason as well.
“Well, this isn’t so bad once in a while.”
“Yes!”
Our mother hadn’t prohibited us from taking a bath together, anyway, so if this is all it takes for Suzuka to forgive me, then that’s all good to me.
“…Alright. As a special service, I’ll wash your body today, Suzuka.”
“Really?!” Suzuka quickly turned around towards me. “Umm, then please wash my hair as well! I love it when Onii-chan washes my hair for me!”
“Your hair is so long, it’s actually kind of a pain… But it should be fine just this once.”
“Yay!” Suzuka was in high spirits.
When I saw her this happy, I felt glad I decided to give her this service.
“Ah, and I’ll wash Onii-chan’s body in return, then!”
“Huh? No, I’m good. Today it’s a special service for you, so leave it to me.”
“I want to wash your body as well, Onii-chan. Can’t I?”
“Well, if you are that adamant about it… I guess it should be fine.”
Truth be told, this will increase how long our bath takes, which is certain to make our mother angry, but today is special. I want to spoil Suzuka a bit since I really messed up earlier today.
“Alright, then let’s start with your head. I’m not using the shampoo hat, so bear with me, okay?”
“I’m not using it anymore, either, so I’m fine.”
“Eh, seriously?”
“Do you still use it, Onii-chan?”
“O-Of course not!”
“Ehehehe, Onii-chan is still a child!”
“What’d you say?!”
As you can see, I was also enjoying this time in the bath with Suzuka. After that conversation, we spent an enjoyable time washing each other’s bodies. Of course, as I anticipated, the bath took longer than usual, but our mother (for some reason) only scolded me. On top of that, since I had wasted all my money at the gaming center, she got seriously angry at me. Still, I didn’t regret it in the slightest. It’s true that I couldn’t buy my manga, and I had to borrow it from a friend, but that didn’t feel like much trouble at all. After all, I had used my allowance for my little sister.
I used up all my money in order to make my little sister happy. Wasn’t that the best possible way of using it? Though I can’t deny that most of it ended up wasted.
…Those were my thoughts back then. No, I thought this exactly because of the circumstances back then. Still, that way of thinking hasn’t changed, of course. That’s why I didn’t mind getting scolded by our mother. Even when Suzuka apologized to me with tears in her eyes, I gave her an honest smile and I told her “It’s fine,” patting her on the head.
“But Onii-chan got scolded because of me…”
It would be tough work getting her back on high spirits after this.
“It’s no big deal. Hey, how about we sleep together today?”
“Eh?! Not only a bath, but even sleeping together?!”
Whenever she was sad like this, I would bring out the big guns. Again, sleeping together wasn’t exactly prohibited, but we should have been getting used to sleeping alone by then. But I was determined to give Suzuka exactly what she wanted today. And seeing her smile made it all worth it. Yeah, Suzuka’s smile is the cutest ever.
“Ehehehe, together with Onii-chan, together with Onii-chan~”
“Calm down a bit, or you won’t be able to fall asleep~”
After Suzuka snuggled into my bed, she started rolling around in happiness. I really doubted she would fall asleep immediately. Then again, I was also too happy to fall asleep, myself.
That night, we talked a lot before eventually falling asleep. Suzuka’s smile was purely for my sake, and I gleefully smiled back. It wasn’t any special occasion. It was more of a small event out of our normal daily lives back then…
1 Actual english, whilst the second one is Japanese
CClaw Translations 
Aww, good-morning
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So cute, hehehe.
Thanks for translating!!!
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