CH 4

Episode 4: Adolescence and the passing rain.

“Oh, Yuuma, your home already?”

Nene, who was at home on her day off from work today, was puzzled by Yuuma’s early return.

“I’m home…”

“…Hmm, what’s wrong? Did you and Schwarz-kun get into a fight or something?”

“N-No, that’s not the case…it’s just…I’m sorry, I just need to be alone for a moment.”

“O-oh, okay…”

I feel bad for making Nene worried, but honestly, I’m not very confident that I can speak cheerfully right now.

I went back to my bed and collapsed on my bed. As I did, I rolled over and stared up at the ceiling in a daze.

Yui’s painful expression…I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

My mind was in a fog. My body was as heavy as lead. To be honest, I never thought I would feel so damaged seeing Yui depressed.

──I failed.

Yui was so positive about overcoming her communicative disorder, and I thought it was working.

But I rushed her too much. Because school was starting soon, she tried to cope with it, and in the end…she got hurt.

“Damn it…”

It was frustrating.

I wanted to hit the people who laughed at Yui for having a slightly different hair colour as hard as I could.

Yui had done nothing wrong, so why should she have to go through such a painful experience just because she went out for a while?

And most of all──I’m angry at myself for not being able to do anything for Yui when she was crying.

Yui is my best friend, and she is like a sister to me. She was crying because of such an outrageous situation, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

Unable to control my emotions, I swung my fist down on the bed as hard as I could.

──I don’t know what I should do from now on.

In fact, I couldn’t even understand all of Yui’s feelings.

Will I hurt her again?

That’s what I kept thinking.

I wanted to do something about Yui’s communicative disorder before school began. So I let her work hard at it, and in the end, this was the result.

…I really don’t know what I should do.

I was on the bed, gazing up at the ceiling as I was at a loss for words.

…And that’s when it happened.

There was a knock on the door. But before I could even answer, the door opened, and Nene walked in.

“Onee-chan. Please leave little old me alone for now…”

“Ya-da ♪”

Nene smiled and said that.

I thought about kicking her out, but I didn’t have the energy.

While she was doing this, Nene hurriedly took off her slippers and climbed onto the bed. Following that, she sat upright and tapped her knee.

“Yuu-kun, will you come here? I’d like to give you a lap pillow.”

“…Eh?”

I got a little annoyed and glared at Nene. However, she responded with the same smirk on her face.

The two of us aren’t related by blood, but we were siblings. This was the first time I’d ever seen her face look like this, but I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t joking around. She was actually worried about me.

“Yuu-kun. You’ve got a lot on your mind, and it’s been bothering you, am I right?”

“That’s…”

“When you’re alone in the dark, your thoughts tend to go in the wrong direction. In such cases, you should always turn to someone close to you. And the one closest to you at the moment is me. I’ll listen to you as much as you want.”

Nene then patted herself on the knee again.

“Come on, Yuu-kun, give up and lie on my lap. I won’t move from here, even if you threaten me. I’ll wait till you break.”

I smiled bitterly and let out a small sigh.

…I would probably feel a little more relaxed if I did this.

Thinking so, I gave up and placed my head on Nene’s lap.

She covered my eyes with her hand while smiling kindly.

“Fufu, it’s been a while since we’ve done skin to skin contact like this, right? See, you’ve got some wrinkles between your eyes.”

As Nene said this, she began moving her fingers to stretch out the wrinkles between my eyes. It felt good, as the muscles around my eyes were being massaged by such warm hands.

“…Hey, Yuu-kun. Why don’t you tell me what you can tell me, what happened?”

“That’s…”

“I don’t know if I can be of any help, but if talking to me will make you feel any better, then you should do it. Come on, Yuu-kun, why don’t you talk to me?”

Nene pinched my cheeks while saying this.

──This isn’t good. I’m starting to feel maternal towards my older sister.

“Well, what can I say…”

“Hmm?”

“Onee-chan…being the only elder one in this situation, that’s kind of sly, don’t you think?”

“Fufu, well, I’m your ‘Onee-chan’ after all. At least, when my cute little brother is feeling depressed.”

And so, I spoke roughly about what has happened so far.

My best friend, Schwarz, had a complex over her communicative disorder and her white hair, and she was trying her hardest to overcome it.

However, she got hurt trying to cope with it all by herself.

“Ara ara, you really care about this Schwarz-kun, don’t you? I’m starting to get a little jealous.”

“But I was in a hurry and made her rush things and…Muggf?”

She covered my mouth with her fingers.

“It’s forbidden to say things that make you want to blame yourself. So I’ll do ‘this’ to that evil mouth of yours♪.”

As Nene said this, she nuzzled her face against mine. It feels kind of soothing to be pampered like this.

“Well…this may be something that may make you wanna push me away, but I don’t think this is something Yuu-kun should be thinking about. Schwarz-kun tried his best and failed. You both got depressed and quarrelled a little. But that it’s, isn’t it?”

“Mmm….”

“You just tried to say 『but』, didn’t you? You really do love Schwarz-kun, don’t you?”

Giggling, Nene paused for a moment before continuing.

“So let me ask you, do you think he’s going to stay depressed? Are you really sure that he wants to quit now? …Do you really think, Schwarz-kun, who dared to meet up with Yuu-kun, will?”

I was surprised to hear that.

──That’s right, how could I’ve forgotten about it until now?

It was Yui who said that she wanted to come meet me, who said that she wanted to overcome her communicative disorder, and who said to me, “Let’s be friends again.”

Given Yui’s situation, it takes a lot of courage to do just that…but even so, Yui took a step forward.

“If it’s a friend you care about, you can trust them, right?”

“…Yes.”

“He’s a brave boy, that Schwarz-kun. Don’t worry. He just fell down a little. He’ll get up and start walking again soon. You, his best friend, have to believe in him.”

“…Yeah.”

“I think it’s fine if Yuu-kun remains the one to be pulling Schwarz-kun’s hand. I’m sure there’ll be many stumbling blocks in the future for you two to overcome, but…the friendship you two have isn’t so small that it can be broken by something like this, am I right?”

“…Ah.”

Yuuma sat up. He felt the sinking feeling in his chest lighten up a little.

……But then, his face grew hot at the immediate thought of him laying down on a lap pillow.

“Well…thanks for the talk, Onee-chan. It cheered me up quite a bit.”

“Your welcome. I have to be an Onee-chan once in a while, after all. Maybe you’ve fallen in love with me?”

“Your too old to be thinking that.”

“Yuu-kun, if you have anything else to say, I’ll take that as a declaration of war.”

Then the both of them burst out laughing at one another. The gloomy depression from earlier was now gone from Yuuma’s smile.

“So, what are you going to do? Are you going to go to Schwarz-kun’s home and make up with him?”

“Yeah…”

I thought about what I should do. She seemed depressed, and I didn’t know what to say to her.

──But then.

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter.

I heard the sound of rain hitting the window.

“…Rain?”

“Eh? The weather forecast said it wouldn’t rain, though…”

In the meantime, the number of raindrops began to increase in number, and in no time at all, it started pouring down.

“Oh no!!! I left my futon drying on the balcony!”

“Seriously? I’ll take it in.”

I quickly leapt out of bed and made my way to the balcony.

The moment I went out to the balcony, I could see that the rain was utterly pouring down, and the futon was already moist. When I lifted it up, it felt a little heavy.

（I find it pretty fortunate that it rained while I was here. Since it would be too heavy for my sister to take it in all by herself…?）

──Me and my sister stayed on the upper floors of the apartment building. As I was taking in the futon, I looked down the cityscape, and…saw a white figure standing there.

“………..Yui!?”

Hiding in the shadows of the rain, Yui, without an umbrella, steadily approached the apartment complex where I was staying.

“What’s wrong?”

“Sorry, but I need to do this!”

“Eh…? Eh……!!!!???”

I threw the futon that I had taken in to Nene and ran out of the house.

I ran to the elevator hall and tried to push the elevator button, but it was currently out of order.

Without hesitation, I headed for the stairs, swearing in my mind that I would fix this damn thing as soon as possible. I ran down to the first floor, skipping a step every time I ran down and headed outside.

Yui stood rooted in the same place. When she saw Yuuma, she looked a little surprised.

“Eh? Yuuma…?”

“Yui! What are you doing…”

“Sorry!”

Before Yuuma could say anything else, Yui bowed deeply and said so.

“I’m sorry for saying those horrible things! I’m sorry I took it out on you and made you feel bad! Yuuma didn’t do anything wrong, but I…”

She sounded more desperate than I had ever heard her before.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m not worried about it. Look at me. See?”

I told her soothingly and let her raise her head for a moment.

“…Did you come here alone?”

“…….”

“Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you…?”

“I said something terrible. That’s why Yuuma had such a painful face, so I have to apologize…”

“We could have a chat about that if you want.”

“I wanted to say it to you in person, and I also wanted to ask you again…”

“Ask me?”

Yui nodded and took a breath.

“I know this may sound brazen, but please help me get over my communicative disorder! I want to overcome my communicative disorder and go to school with you, Yuuma!”

Yui continued in a desperate voice.

“B-because….because…because I love Yuuma! He’s my first friend, he’s my big brother, and I’m always so happy when I play with him! …That’s why! I want to go to high school with you! I want to take classes with you! I want us to eat our lunches together! I want us to go on school trips together. It will definitely be fun! And, I’d be even happier if Yuuma enjoyed it with me…eh, h-huh!?”

Yui seemed so desperate that she lost sight of her landing spot, and then, her voice began to tremble.

──But her feelings were fully conveyed to me.

…I was so, so happy.

“Yui.”

“Hya!?”

I was so overcome with emotion that I hugged Yui.

After doing it, I started to think,『Isn’t this really bad?』, but Yui herself didn’t find this uncomfortable, and she placed her hand on my back.

“I’m so happy right now…”

“Why are you so happy about this, Yuuma?”

“Of course, I’d be happy if my best friend said that to me.”

“……Ehehehe.”

── I was so happy about what she said earlier that I almost cried.

（……I really love this girl so much.）

But it can’t be helped since I actually love her. We had a lot of fun playing together, and I was also happy to see Yui having fun as well. She was my best friend and also my cute little sister.

（I want to spend my high school life with her.）

Once again, I sincerely felt that way.

（Going to and fro from school together, taking classes together, eating lunches together, going on school trips together…yeah, it’ll definitely be fun. And if Yui enjoys it too, that’ll be even greater.）

Up until now, I’ve always been trying to help Yui, my best friend, overcome her communicative disorder and complexes.

But from now on, it’s for both of us.

We made up our minds to do our best so that we could have a pleasant high school life together.

“………..”

“…………”

“Well, we should probably get going.”

“Yeah…”

Once I regained my composure, I immediately felt embarrassed about our quick embrace.

Flustered, I let go of her body…but then, I saw something shocking.

I immediately hugged Yui’s body again.

“Wah!? H-hold on!? Y-Yuuma!?”

“Clothes! Your clothes!”

“Clothes…?”

Yui pulled herself away from me slightly to look at her clothes. It was relatively warm today, and Yui was wearing a thinner white blouse than usual.

──Wet in the rain, her pale pink bra was clearly transparent.

“………..!?”

After confirming her condition, Yui hugged me again.

“I d-d-d-don’t know what to do….”

“Uhm…”

Yui’s bra was simple and plain, which was typical of Yui.

Yuuma will soon be a high school student. He’s had some exposure to sexuality, so he had ‘some’ degree of flexibility…when it came to a situation like this.

This was literally on a different level compared to manga. Having real, same-age underwear pressed against my body was a disaster. I only saw it for a moment, but I couldn’t get it out of my head.

（……What should I do?）

I can’t let her go home like this. It’s too embarrassing, even if this person is not Yui.

Hiding somewhere in the rain, I wondered what to do.

……Where?

Besides, Yui is physically weak, and I don’t want her to get too wet.

Should I take her to my house to take a shower and lend her a change of clothes, considering the distance?

But the elevator’s broken. And there’s a good chance that someone passing by on the way up the stairs may see Yui as she is now.

……I’d hate that. I hate that so much.

──But this isn’t about me. This is about Yui.

“Yui, can I give you a piggyback ride to my house?”

“Eh?”

“I’m thinking of giving you a piggyback ride to my house, unless you’d hate that? B-but at least it can hide that…transparency, and I can’t see it as well, so it’s at least better than walking back home normally.”

“A-ah, uhm….i-if it’s okay with Yuuma…t-then please…”

Yui let go of my body. I turned away from her, looking away so that I couldn’t see the transparency in her clothes.

She hesitantly wrapped her arms around my neck from behind and hugged my back.

──Fu-n.

…Yui’s chest is more on the modest side.

But now that our clothes are wet and clinging to each other’s skin, I couldn’t help but be aware of that ‘feeling’ when I’m being hugged like this.

──It was a close call. If Yui’s chest had been any larger, I would’ve died instantly.

“Okay, then I’ll lift you up. Just hold on tight, okay?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

I placed my hands on Yui’s thighs.

──Munyu.

……Piggybacking her, I grabbed her thighs.

（It’s so soft……!）

This was more than I had imagined. It was so soft that I couldn’t imagine it from her thigh’s slender appearance.

Moreover, Yui is clinging to me tightly, and I felt something soft and fluffy press against my back. She smelled nice…

──I died instantly.

“Y-Yuuma!? Are you okay? A-am I too heavy?”

“Y-yeah, yeah, I-I’m okay…”

“But I’m kind of shaking. Are you sure I’m not too heavy?”

“Y-yeah! I-I’m fine!”

My voice trailed off slightly.

Trying not to think of anything else as much as possible, I entered the apartment complex and climbed up the stairs.

Yui was pretty light, so physically, she was fine. But mentally, she was dying inside. I have never resented a broken elevator so much in my life.

“Oh yeah.”

As I was climbing up the stairs, I called home and briefly explained the situation.

“So I’m taking Schwarz back home with me, but….eh….”

“I know, that’s okay. Schwarz-kun’s hair is white, so you don’t want me to mention that…am I right?”

“Oh, well…yeah.”

In fact, there was one more important thing, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say anything about that.

“I’ve always wanted to meet this Schwarz-kun you keep talking about, so I’ll be looking forward to it. I’ll be waiting for you then.”

“…Yeah.”

Somehow, I managed to climb the stairs and opened the door to my house.

“I’m home.”

“I’m coming…”

Nene came to the door and greeted me with a smile on her face.

“Welcome back. And welcome, Schwarz-kun. You can take your time and settle d──”

She stopped her words mid-sentence. She looked at Yui, who I was carrying, and her eyes widened.

Pretending to be oblivious to Nene’s condition, I set Yui down.

“The bathroom is at the end of the hallway. I’ll bring you a change of clothes later, so go ahead and take a shower.”

“Uh…yeah.”

Yui bowed to Nene once and quickly walked through the side of the room.

And as Yui disappeared towards the bathroom, Nene peeked her eyes out at me.

“Hey, hey, hey, Yuu-kun!? I’ve never heard of Schwarz being a girl!? “

“…Well, I didn’t tell you.”

“Eh? So up till now, a young man and woman have been spending their time alone together in a private room at an internet cafe…and now he’s piggybacking her, skin to skin as a matter of course…Eh? Are you guy’s dating!? Ah~ You guys must be dating, Kya♪.”

“Wait, please don’t misunderstand!? It’s nothing like that!?”

“Just-what-do-you-mean?”

“I’m not pretending! Argghh, I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want something like this to happen! Anyway, I’ll go get her a change of clothes!”

After Yuuma said this, he escaped to his room.

Once in the room, Yuuma lightly wiped his body with a towel, changed his clothes, and then found some clothes to lend to Yui.

(For now, the jersey I used to wear is fine, right?)

I had some leftover clothes from my junior high years. …The mere thought of Yui wearing this leaves me a little distressed. But I shook it off and headed to the bathroom.

..If this were a manga, I would have had a lucky and embarrassing break with Yui taking off her clothes here, but I don’t intend to do that in real life. That would be way too awkward. I already felt a little guilty about what I had done previously.

I carefully checked that Yui had started to shower and went to the changing room.

“Yui. I’ll lend you my jersey, for now, so you can wear this until your clothes dry.”

“Thank you…”

In the background of the shower water, I heard Yui’s reply.

The door to the bathroom.

I could see Yui’s skin coloured silhouette behind the frosted glass.

…Naturally, when you’re taking a shower, you’re naked.

──So that means, right now, on the other side of this thin door, is Yui…

I nearly imagined it, but I hurriedly shook my head to shake off my worldly desires. Ever since I’ve carried her on my back, I’ve been thinking in that direction.

Yuuma is a boy. He is also in the midst of puberty. Naturally, he has as much interest in it and desires as anyone else.

He tried not to look, but he couldn’t help but glance a little. He couldn’t help but imagine what Yui looked like on the other side of the frosted glass.

“Yuu-kun~?”

“W-what!?”

Making a strange noise as someone out to him from behind, he turned back and found Nene looking at him with a grin on her face.

“What are you doing here in a place like this~?”

“J-just bringing a change of clothes, that’s about it!?”

“Oh really now? I thought you were going take a peek in the bath.”

“Do I look like the kind of person who would do that!?”

“I see…I guess that means you don’t have to peek since she would already show you if you asked…”

“No, that’s not true!? That’s not how it is between Yui and me…”

“Yui. I see. Her name is Yui. At least you both are already close enough to be calling each other by your names.”

“…Onee-chan. Do me a lifelong favour and stay in your room, please.”

“Ara ara, was I being too mean to you? Fufufu, it’s okay. I have no intention of interfering in the relationship between you both. Take all the time you need, Yuu-kunー♪.”

With that said, Nene returned to her room.

….Man, I’m so tired.

After a while, Yui came out of the shower.

“Thank you for letting me use the shower…”

She was dressed in the jersey from my junior high days.

Of course, there was nothing sexy about it, but seeing a girl wear a man’s clothes that are too big for her is kinda cute in itself. I also feel a little nervous seeing a girl wear my clothes.

Yui, on the other hand, looked restless and fidgety.

It was probably the first time she had ever been to a friend’s house, let alone a boy’s house. She looked nervous and shrunk down as if her oversized jersey buried her.

Seeing this, Yuuma felt somewhat embarrassed as well.

This was the first-ever time that Yuuma brought back a girl his age to his house.

“…Corn potage, the instant one, do you want some?”

“…I want some.”

“All right. Just sit down and wait for me.”

I made my way to the kitchen to prepare some corn potage for the both of us. It was pretty easy to make since all I had to do was pour in some hot water.

When I returned to the living room after pouring some hot water for myself and Yui, I found her sitting on the chair waiting for me.

“Here. Be careful. It’s hot.”

“Thanks……”

The moment I placed it down on the table, Yui went for it without hesitation and started sipping as if to nibble on it.

“O-ouch.”

“Are you okay? I told you to be careful. It’s hot.”

“Mmmm…”

This time, she carefully blew on it. And then, she took another sip.

“Delicious…”

Yui seems to have finally calmed down as she let out a relieved sigh. It’s kind of cute seeing her like that, with that drooling expression of hers.

But──

“…………”

“…………”

To be honest, it was a little awkward between the both of us with how things had transpired earlier. I sat in front of Yui as I secretly observed her without saying a word.

When I cooled down, I realized that I must have done some pretty nasty things, like hugging her, giving her a piggyback ride, and taking her into my house. Yui was also a girl, and she probably didn’t like being treated like that, especially by a male.

Feeling a little uneasy, I brought some corn potage to my mouth.

“Ouch!”

I was so distracted thinking about Yui that I carelessly placed my entire mouth on the bowl. Yui seeing this, let out a small chuckle.

Feeling his cheeks heat up, Yuuma slowly drinks the corn potage, carefully blowing on it this time. Yui followed suit and drank the corn potage as if she was nibbling on it.

──Then, Yui took out her smartphone. As usual, Yuuma also took out his smartphone, waiting for her message.

『Yuuma, you have an older sister？』

『Yeah. But it’s not like we’re related by blood or anything. We only just started living together recently, so she feels more like an old friend rather than a sister. My parents basically remarried, so my sister and I are both stepchildren.』

『So, she’s like your sister in law!? What’s with that gal game-like setting!?』

『Don’t call it a gal game!』

『But you live under the same roof as your sister, who’s not related by blood! You’ll definitely raise some flags! 』

『C-can you stop!』

『Hey, are you sure there isn’t anything between you and your older sister? I’m a big fan of that kind of thing.』

『Don’t put two-dimensional beings and three-dimensional beings in the same category. It doesn’t matter how many people you live with. You’re never going to raise any flags. 』

『Eh? Then what about Yuuma’s mum and dad? Are they living with you?』

『Oh, my parents aren’t home right now. They went abroad for work, so it’s basically just my sister and me.』

『It’s eroge!?』

『Girls like you shouldn’t be talking about any eroge games!』

As we continued chatting like this, our eyes met. It was as if our eyes communicated with each other, and suddenly our worrying about this and that became ridiculous, and we both burst out laughing.

After that, I took Yui back home and came back again. I lay down on my bed as I thought about the future.

At any rate, I’m glad that Yui is feeling better.

In addition, the rain solidified our friendship…it feels as if we’re one step closer as friends…or best friends, I could say. I’m honestly very happy about that.

（But…if I don’t do anything about ‘that’, it’ll be a repeat of what happened last time.）

As of now, Yui has come to a point where she can go out more or less by herself as long as someone accompanies her. But that’s not enough.

For now, Yui just has to put up with it and be able to walk out. And in order to do so, Yui needs to have confidence in herself.

──I think it’s because Yui has low self-esteem. That must be why she had this complex her entire life.

（If that’s the case, then I’d like it if she could overcome that complex…I’d like to make her lighten up a bit, but I don’t know what I should do…）

If I push her too hard, I might end up hurting her again…I don’t ever want to see Yui like that again.

I continued to think about this and that, and a thought came to me.

I got up from my bed, left my room, and headed towards my sister’s(Nene’s) room.

Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door.

“Onee-chan, can I come in?”

“Come in.”

When I opened the door, Nene was sitting on the bed playing with her phone, dressed roughly in a shirt and shorts. But when she saw my face, she sat upright on the bed.

“What’s wrong? You look serious.”

“… I have a request.”

With that said, Yuuma bowed his head.