We then talked some more about Momota-kun.
“By the way, Onee-chan... Why did you suddenly start calling him ‘Kaoru-kun’?”
“Why? Well, that’s all I can call him, isn’t it? I can’t call him by his last name in front of Shigeru-san, after all.”
“Oh, I see.”
“...When I slept over, I accidentally called him ‘Momota-kun,’ and it made things really weird. I’ll never call him by his last name again.”
“Hmph.”
“What? You seem unhappy about that.”
“I mean...even though I’m still calling him ‘Momota-kun,’ you’re calling him by his first name.”
“You should just call him by his first name too then, right?”
“Yes, but...”
“Hmm?”
“...If I call him by his first name, he’ll call me by my first name too.”
“Oh, it’s that you don’t like being called by your first name? Now that you mention it, you’ve always told me that you don’t really like your name.”
“No... I think the bad feelings I had about my name have pretty much disappeared since I started dating Momota-kun... It’s not really that I don’t like him using my name, it’s more the opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“I-I get so happy.”
“...”
“He’s called me by my name before, and it just made me so happy, it was weird... One day, I want us to call each other by our first names, so I’m wondering what I should do...”
“Right... Cool story.”
“Wait, no! I wasn’t bragging! I’m seriously worried about it!”
After that, we just talked about things of no importance. We chatted about all sorts of stuff, and none of it was all that special or remarkable.
Talking to my sister like this about whatever was a little refreshing. Even though my sister had been staying over at my apartment a lot recently, she’d...never been one to strike up unnecessary conversation. Since we’re family and we’d lived together for a long time, silence wasn’t a problem for us. Our relationship was the kind where we didn’t need to fill space with a conversation to avoid awkwardness. So, yeah, it was kind of refreshing for us to talk like this.
Come to think of it, there was another time before where we’d had a long phone call like this. I believe it was the night before my sister’s wedding. On the day right before she’d married her ex-husband, we’d talked on the phone a whole lot...
“...Hey, Hime-chan,” my sister began. It was about two hours after we had started our chat, when we had finally run out of things to say and there was a little bit of silence. She said something to me as if she had just thought of it. Her tone was the same one she’d been using in our chat. It was the way she always sounded, kind and gentle.
“I approve of you and Kaoru-kun,” she told me.
At first, I didn’t understand. “Wh-What?”
“I’m saying I approve of you and Kaoru-kun dating,” she said, truly casually. “Well, I say I ‘approve,’ but I just mean I’m not going to say anything about it anymore, and I won’t be against you. Of course, I don’t know what other people will say, and I don’t know if I can help you when that happens. However, I won’t oppose your relationship anymore.”
“...”
“What’s wrong? You’re not happy?”
She was so against it! Even when we made up after our fight, she was still adamant about it. “What’s this all of a sudden...?”
“Well, no matter what I say, you two aren’t going to break up, right?”
“R-Right...”
“Then there’s no point to it. Being against you two has started to get ridiculous, and I have my own hands full, so I don’t have time to deal with you guys anymore,” she said in a very light tone. But then she lowered her voice. “...In the end, it’s just like you said, Hime-chan. There’s a lot of reasons for me to oppose your relationship, like the law and public opinion, but...in the end, I was just projecting myself onto you. I didn’t want you to go through the same thing that I did. I didn’t want you to have to experience the kind of despair that comes from having the man you care about, the man you swore your love to, being taken away by a young woman.”
“Onee-chan...”
“I was worried. I imagined this future where, even if things are good now, one day Kaoru-kun’s love for you would subside, and he’d throw away his girlfriend that’s twelve years older than him and leave for a younger woman. I couldn’t trust Kaoru-kun.”
“...” It was painful how well I understood my sister’s feelings. I’d always held that fear too. It’s not that I don’t trust Momota-kun, but in the future, when I’ve become even more of an old lady than I am now, what will he think of me? As he gets older and becomes more mature and better looking, will I really be able to keep pace and become prettier?
“But I’m sure it will be okay,” my sister said in a warm, gentle voice that seemed to brush aside my fears. “With him, it’ll be fine. He understands what’s most important in love. Much more than I do...”
“...”
“Well, on the very off chance that you get dumped, it would be a good experience in its own way. Your life won’t be over just because you messed up once in love. You should just get back on your feet and find a new love.”
“...Yeah. But Momota-kun and I are never going to break up.”
“Everyone says that when things are going well. Being blinded by love makes you do that,” she said, repeating the same harsh words she said before. “However, it’s important that the two of you accept that blindness and work hard together. Kaoru-kun told me that.”
“Momota-kun did...?”
“He’s a great guy.”
“...Yeah, he is.”
“That’s Shigeru-san’s son for you, all right.”
“Ha ha ha. Hey, no bragging.”
“It’s fine, isn’t it? Up until now, you’ve talked my ear off bragging about the two of you, after all.” We both laughed at each other, like two normal sisters you could find anywhere.
“Well... I guess I should hang up. It’s gotten pretty late.”
“Yeah. U-Um, Onee-chan...congratulations on your wedding and your baby.”