That’s my sisters! Unlike me, you’ve got social skills to spare! There’s no way in heck I’d ever have the guts and resolve to talk with a (super ridiculously ultra cute) upperclassman like that! Boy, do I ever respect that about you two!
“And why are you smirking in perhaps the most unsettling manner conceivable?”
“Oh, I was just thinking, is all,” I replied. “My personal angels are getting along with an actual, real-life angel, right before my eyes, so I was sorta moved, I... Wait, whaaat?!”
“What yourself,” said Koganezaki (maid edition), who’d shown up beside me at some point without me realizing it at all! In addition to the uniform, she was carrying a sign that had “Come See What the Fuss Is About! Class 2-B’s Maid Café, Now Open!” written on it. “The line is getting unwieldy, and I’m here to manage it. It’s a far easier job than serving customers,” she continued, though I had to note that she’d come to a dead stop beside us and wasn’t doing much managing of the line at all. Then again, she just looked so darn pretty that the other customers in line—and, for that matter, most of the passersby in the hallway—were too focused on her to cause any issues.
“Ah! Sister dearest!” Emma exclaimed.
“It’s very nice to see you again,” said Sakura.
“You look so great in that maid uniform, sister dearest!” added Aoi. The sister squad had quickly caught on to our visitor.
“It has been a while, Sakura, and thank you, Aoi. Do not call me that,” Koganezaki replied...in a way that really did feel nicer than how she usually acted! She really was a big sister. There was just something about being a big sister that made people like, well, that.
Emma, incidentally, had let go of me at some point along the way and now had her arms flung firmly around Koganezaki. Oh wow, that speed...! Not even I noticed when she moved!
“I see the two of you are keeping Haza—Yotsuba company today, then. That’s very kind of you,” said Koganezaki.
“Hey! Why are you acting like I’m their pet puppy?!” I whined.
“I would never intentionally compare you to something that cute, but in terms of disposition, I have to admit the comparison does stand.”
Mean! She wouldn’t even let me keep the cute part of the metaphor!
Meanwhile, Sakura and Aoi were watching us very closely.
“Umm, excuse me, Koganezaki,” said Sakura. “You’re friends with our sister, right?”
“Huh?” I grunted. S-Sakura? Where did that question come from...? Oh no—don’t tell me that Koganezaki acted so curt with me, she has you questioning whether or not I’m getting bullied at school?! “S-Sakura! That’s, umm, just her way of showing affection! It’s nothing—”
“Yes,” Koganezaki cut me off—though not before hesitating long enough to let me babble out half of an excuse. “We are indeed friends,” she continued. The look on her face was so inexplicably kind that I was captivated...and forgot what I’d been planning on saying entirely.
The same, it seemed, was true of my sisters. Aoi and Sakura were just staring, eyes wide, until finally...
“Oh... Okay.”
...tears began to pool in their eyes.
“Well, umm—I know she’s not very reliable, I guess, and can be pretty bad at taking a hint, but, well...” said Sakura.
“But she’s really considerate! She’s always putting other people first, even though she’s a super awkward crybaby herself...”
Sakura? Aoi? Are you trying to convince Koganezaki to stop being friends with me right now?! I mean, yes, I am kind of a mess in all sorts of ways, but come on!
“But you know,” Sakura continued, “she really went through a lot in elementary and middle school! So...”
“If you don’t mind, keep being friends with her from now on!” Aoi concluded.
I was speechless. Speechless and thoughtless, in the sense that my train of thought had ground to a screeching halt. I’d been a loner up until I got into high school, but only now did I realize that my former friendlessness weighed on my sisters as much as—no, more than—it did on me. I felt really guilty for being pathetic enough to make them worry like that...though at the same time, I felt touched by their kindness.
I also knew that, really, I should probably have been scolding them for putting Koganezaki on the spot for no good reason like this. I glanced over at her...and found her gazing at my sisters with a shockingly gentle look on her face. She sighed deeply, apparently reaching some sort of conclusion, then looked at me.
“You really managed the third option,” Koganezaki said.
“What?”
“I once told you that you had three options. You picked the third...and it seems it turned out well for you.”
“Ah,” I quietly gasped. The third option. She’s talking about when Sakura and Aoi found out about my two-timing, right...?
“No need to worry,” Koganezaki said as she turned back to my sisters. “I’ll admit that she—that Yotsuba can be unpredictable and unreliable, in more ways than one...but I’m well aware of how many people she’s helped in spite of those traits.”
“Oh, but just one thing,” Sakura added, slightly more quietly than before. “You’re not allowed to love her too much!”
“Right, that! Keep it nice and restrained!” Aoi whispered as well.
I knew very well that the “love” they were talking about wasn’t the platonic sort, and Koganezaki quite possibly knew it on an even more profound level than I did.
“Yes... Of course,” Koganezaki said with a smile after an ever so slight pause. “I’m only interested in faithful people, regardless.”
Rude! What, are you trying to say I’m unfaithful or something?...is what I really wanted to say, but I held it back! After all, saying that would’ve made it look like I wanted to end up in that sort of relationship with her! N-Not that Koganezaki wasn’t a lovely, appealing person or anything! It was just that I...er...
Okay, so maybe I’m not faithful, like, at all.
That realization stung a little, but as I watched the four of them chat away happily, the pain was replaced by an appreciation for how nice this sort of thing was from time to time.