♡
They say when humans are truly surprised, they can’t even speak. They freeze up and can’t react at all. However, strangely, their thoughts speed up so much they get congested. Those thoughts circle around and get tangled up inside of their minds until they can’t sort through any of them. They can’t even focus on the voices around them and hold a conversation. That’s the way it was for me, and it was probably the same for Kisaki-san.
It was the first Saturday of September when my dad told me, “There’s someone I’d like to introduce to you.” It seemed he wanted to introduce us to the person he was currently dating.
My sister and I both figured this would be good news. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been nervous or hadn’t had any reservations about a person we’d never met becoming a member of our family. However, more than that, I felt happy. My dad, who had raised us for over ten years since my mother died, was finally trying to find his own happiness. As his son, I wanted to be genuinely supportive of him. I didn’t know what I could do, but I at least wanted to try not to do anything that would ruin their relationship. That was what I thought, and that’s why I could never have even dreamed of what happened next.
“N-Nice to meet you. My name is Orihara Kisaki.”
Who would have thought that the woman my dad would bring home would be my girlfriend’s older sister?
“I’ve been dating Shigeru-san for a little while now. I know it won’t happen right away, but if I could get to know the two of you little by little, I’d—huh? ...What? What?!”
The moment we saw each other, Kisaki-san and I completely froze up. We were so shocked that we couldn’t react at all. It was only natural when you consider the way Kisaki-san felt. The person she was dating and intending to marry had children, and when she went to go meet them, one of them turned out to be her little sister’s boyfriend. On top of that, it was the boyfriend who she had previously been told was a twenty-five-year-old adult. It’s no wonder she’d freeze up and stop thinking. I wasn’t able to deal with this sudden development either; I just froze up in shock and couldn’t speak properly, let alone come up with a sensible excuse.
As a result, everything after that was a disaster. The four of us ended up having some delivery that my father ordered for lunch, and...the mood was just horrible. My father and sister, neither of whom knew what was going on, tried to lighten the atmosphere, but Kisaki-san and I could only respond awkwardly. We were restless; we were there in body, but not in spirit. I could barely taste the expensive tempura that my father had splurged on. As for Kisaki-san, she left over half of it unfinished. Eventually, my dad began to worry about Kisaki-san’s health, and our introductory lunch ended in a tense mood.
My father took Kisaki-san home and left my sister and me behind. Then, about an hour after our lunch party ended, I got a phone call from Kisaki-san telling me to come right away without telling my dad and sister.