MBSGM 32

Chapter 32 

 My Stepsister Will Make Me Forget

“I’m home.”

Holding hands with Kanzuru, I walked with her partway home. Then we split up, and I went the rest of the way alone.

Even though I’d already let go of her hand a while ago, I could still feel the warmth from when we’d been holding hands lingering on my palm.

“Welcome back, big brother… You’re a little late today, huh? What were you doing?”

“Ah, I was hanging out with a friend.”

I replied the same way I always did — but my mind was elsewhere.
Holding hands with Kanzuru… Normally, that’s not something you do with a friend. It’s something couples do.

“By friend, you mean Kanzuru-san, right?”

“Yeah.”

I gave a short answer, but my thoughts kept spinning.

We did something that only couples usually do.
I always thought I’d feel uncomfortable — maybe not disgusted, but at least awkward — holding hands with a girl.
But when it came to Kanzuru, I didn’t feel any disgust or hesitation at all.
When she said our relationship might start to change… maybe this is what she meant—

“So it was her…?”

While I was lost in thought, Yuzumi’s voice suddenly cut through the silence — soft, but very dark.
—Wait.

“…”

Crap. I’d been thinking so hard that I just said it like usual, that I’d been out with a friend.
But Yuzumi already knows that this “friend” is Kanzuru, a girl.
That alone would have been bad enough… but then she specifically asked if it was Kanzuru, and I straight-up answered “Yeah.”

“To tell me so calmly that you were hanging out with another girl… does that mean you did something with Kanzuru-san so big, so important, that you forgot about me entirely?
Or is it that, now that you know I’ve found out you’re seeing her, you’ve decided to just be open about it?
Like, from now on, you’ll brag about it to my face — keep spending time with her in front of me, like it’s nothing?”

“Wait, listen. It’s true that I don’t want you restricting who I can hang out with, but I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Then what? You’re saying you did do something big with Kanzuru-san — something big enough to make you forget about me?”

“I didn’t do anything that big—”

I tried to deny it, as I always do.
But then an image of Kanzuru popped into my mind — feeding me tart in that café, holding hands with me on the way home — and the words caught in my throat.

Yuzumi, of course, didn’t miss that tiny pause. Her eyes darkened, the light fading from them.

“Wait. You did do something like that?”

Whether I really did something “big” or not… it’s hard to say.

Having someone feed you dessert, holding hands — even with someone of the opposite sex — could just barely fall within the limits of friendship if you’re close enough.
In some countries, that kind of thing wouldn’t even raise eyebrows.

But even so… I couldn’t honestly say “nothing happened,” either.
And while I stayed silent, thinking over what to say, Yuzumi suddenly grabbed my arm and started pulling me up the stairs.

“Y–Yuzumi!?”

Ignoring my shocked voice, she kept climbing, opened the door to my room, pulled me inside — and pushed me down onto the bed.
Before I could even process what was happening, she climbed on top of me.

“W–wait, Yuzumi! What are you—”

Before I could demand an explanation, she wrapped her arms around me, pressing close, and whispered sweetly in my ear:

“It’s okay, big brother… I’ll make you forget everything you did with Kanzuru-san. Right now.”

Her eyes had lost all their light.
Her cheeks were flushed red.
And as she smiled softly, she said those words.