She’s so perceptive. I mean...what? Can you really know something like that just by looking? Are adult extroverts able to tell if you have a boyfriend just from your fashion?
“I can’t really explain it, but...your attitude has changed a little bit, Orihara-san. You were always nice, but it’s like you’re nicer now, or you became happier. Specifically, it started around the end of May this year.”
Isn’t she a little too perceptive?! She’s dead-on about when it happened! Is she psychic?! Or could it be... I’m just super easy to read? I wonder if I was so excited about my first boyfriend that I was oozing out happiness at my workplace. Oh man, this is so embarrassing!
“Um, well, the truth is, around that time I met someone nice...”
“Wow, I knew it!” Feeling like I couldn’t deceive her anymore, I confessed to Komatsu-san, and she got a really happy-looking expression on her face.
“D-Don’t tell anyone, okay? I haven’t told anyone yet.”
“It’s okay, I understand. Despite how I look, I’m good at keeping secrets,” Komatsu-san said lightly.
“Seriously... Seriously, don’t tell anyone, okay?” I firmly emphasized to her. “Seriously, please... This is really something that can’t be found out. Coworkers are a given, but I don’t want you to tell your family or friends either. P-Please. I’m begging you, please keep it a secret!” I was in such a panic that my words became heated, but when I thought about it calmly, it might have had the complete opposite effect. As expected, Komatsu-san’s expression became tense.
“I-I understand. I won’t tell anyone,” She nodded firmly, and the look on her face was one of fear.
Just how desperate did I seem when I was making sure she understood?
“W-Well, it’s not really something I can tell people!”
“I-It’s okay, really... Um, I actually have some understanding of that kind of stuff too. They do say that love is more exciting when it’s forbidden. Even if they’re married, you can’t help falling in love with someone...”
“...” Apparently, she thought I was having an affair with a married person. I’m really not happy about it, but...I guess this is alright. As long as the truth that I’m dating a minor doesn’t get out, then it’s fine. I’ll accept this false charge of infidelity.
“Okay... Now, let’s have fun today!” Komatsu-san said with a forced smile. “Let’s do something fun together and forget all about our daily worries and problems!”
She’s worried about me... My junior is worried about me because she thinks I’m physically and mentally exhausted from a forbidden love... Wh-What should I do here? I can’t tell her the truth. It’s not like I’m in a romance with no future like an extramarital affair... No, wait.
I’m probably not in a position where I can look down on affairs. Right now, the person I’m dating is a fifteen-year-old high schooler. He’s totally a minor, and our relationship is totally illegal. I’m not in the kind of romance where I can be proud of myself and criticize adulterers. Our romance isn’t just a painful relationship, but one where I don’t know what the future holds. No, it’s not that I don’t know, it’s that I’m trying not to think about it. I’m desperately looking away from the reality that I’ll have to face one day and running away to those happy moments that felt like a dream.
As my mind started to shift toward anxiety, my smartphone that I’d laid on the table buzzed. I looked and saw that it was a phone call from my big sister. I excused myself and headed outside to answer the phone call.
“Hello, Onee-chan? What’s—”
“—Hime, where are you right now?” my sister said, getting right to the point. She didn’t even wait for me to finish before she started speaking. Also, her voice was very stern and sharp.
“Wh-What do you mean ‘where’? Like I told you yesterday, I’m having lunch with my junior from work.”
“Come home right now.”
“Huh?”
“I said come home right now,” she said, repeating her stern words in a stern tone. I was bewildered by how one-sided she sounded.
“W-Wait. I just finished eating, and we were talking about going somewhere to hang out...”
“It’s not work, right? In that case, come home.”
“Why? I mean, you had plans too, didn’t you Onee-san? I thought you went to your boyfriend’s house to introduce yourself...”
My sister had recently gotten herself a boyfriend. From what I’d heard, they were physical with each other before they started dating, so their relationship had a messy start; however, now it seemed they were officially dating. For my thirty-four-year-old sister, dating someone meant talk of marriage wasn’t far behind. Fortunately, her boyfriend was someone who was serious about that kind of thing, and when they started dating he’d apparently told her, “I want to go out with you with marriage in mind.” However, there was one problem, or a little bit of an obstacle. I didn’t know all the details, but it seemed like her boyfriend was also married in the past and has older children, a daughter and a son. He currently lives with the two of them, so if my sister were to get married to him, she’d end up living with them.
A woman they don’t know would suddenly start living with them. It would be quite the challenge for the children, and probably tough for my sister as well. Even though she’s never had any children herself, she’d suddenly become the mother of two... Today she said she had plans to meet them face to face and have her boyfriend introduce her to them, and she said that she was going to have lunch at their house, so... huh? I wonder if she’s in a foul mood because something bad happened.
“Onee-chan, did something go wrong?”
“Yes. Something did. ‘Went wrong’ is one way to put it.” Then, in a dark voice filled with disappointment and annoyance, she said, “This morning, I was fired up and did my makeup so it looked casual and appropriate for my age and like I wasn’t trying too hard. Then I planned out my outfit so it was neat and not too flashy but showed I hadn’t forgotten about my feminine side. I did my best to dress up and prepare what I was going to say so they’d think ‘I’d be happy if someone like her became my mother.’ But it was all ruined. I was barely able to eat, and the conversation didn’t flow at all.”
“I-I see... It must have been tough.”
“Yeah. Thanks to you,” my sister said very bitterly.
Thanks to me? What is she talking about? Did I do something?
“Anyway, come home right now. I have something important to talk to you about that concerns your life,” my sister said, and the phone call ended there.
What am I going to do? I have no idea what she’s talking about. However, I don’t think I can just ignore this. There was an unnatural amount of menace in her voice. She must have some kind of unavoidable problem. What in the world could have happened to my sister?
Just as I was deep in thought, my phone buzzed again. This time it wasn’t a phone call but a text, and it was from Momota-kun.
“What?!”
I thought my heart would stop. I was so shocked and in despair that I almost fell to my knees right there. It was like my mind went blank, but I gradually understood what was going on. I finally understood why my sister was acting so angry and overwhelmed, and the meaning behind her bitter words.
I understand now. I’ve been so used to running away from reality that I had accidentally forgotten. The one with the unavoidable problem wasn’t her, but me.