“By the way, where’s Dad?”
“He already ate and went to the clinic.”
“And my sister?”
“I think she’s still sleeping.”
“I see.”
“I wonder if I should finally go wake her up?”
“No, I think it’s fine. Surprisingly enough, she’s not the type to oversleep, so I think she’s just sleeping because she doesn’t have anything to do.”
“Really? Well, okay then.”
“...Um, Kisaki-san?” I put down my chopsticks. “It’s just... Please don’t push yourself too hard.”
“What?”
“Kisaki-san, since you’ve started living in our home, you’ve woken up early every day to make us breakfast, and you’ve been working really hard doing the chores and stuff... Of course, I’m very happy and grateful, but I’m worried we’re overworking you.”
“...”
“It must be hard living in an environment you’re not used to. Besides, it’s no longer just your body right now. I think you should take it easier. We’ll all just get something to eat in the mornings by ourselves, so it’s okay if you sleep in...”
“You really are kind, Kaoru-kun,” Kisaki-san said with a gentle smile. “Thank you for being concerned about me. But it’s all right, I’m not pushing myself. I’m just doing what I can.”
“Really?”
“Really. My morning sickness has calmed down, and lately I’ve been feeling good. Plus, just staying put isn’t good for me either.”
“Well, as long as you’re okay.”
“Shigeru-san is also very considerate of me. On the other hand, Kaede-chan doesn’t worry about that kind of stuff and is just very straightforward, which is relieving in its own way. It’s all kind of fun, so I’m fine.”
“...”
“After all, you don’t have to worry. I’m not going to try and put on airs in front of you. It’d just be ridiculous. After all, my goal of being my son’s ideal stepmom went up in flames a while ago...” Kisaki-san said in a self-mocking tone as her smile twitched slightly.
“Ha ha ha...” All I could do was laugh. A lot had happened, after all. I’d met her a few times before I found out she was going to be my new mother, and she thought that I was twenty-five years old, so yes, a lot really did happen—and most of it was of a sexual nature. In any case, Kisaki-san was very open with me, so I could understand why she’d feel like it would be ridiculous to put on airs with me.
“I originally treated you like my potential brother-in-law, but who’d have thought that before that you’d become my stepson? There really is no way of knowing what life is going to throw at you.”
“I hear that.” I totally agree. There’s no way I could have foreseen that my girlfriend’s older sister would become my stepmom...
“Well, that’s why life is so interesting,” Kisaki-san said in a decisive and clear voice, like she was wrapping everything up. “Like I said, I’m not going to force myself to act like a mother now. You’re already a high school student, Kaoru-kun, and Kaede-chan is an adult. If you two were a little younger I might have taken on the role of your mother, but honestly, doing that now would just be annoying, right?”
“Yeah, that’s true,” I nodded with a smirk.
It was a pretty frank conversation. When I was little, I did have those kinds of feelings. I would be lying if I said that I hadn’t been frustrated back then: I didn’t have a mother, and I wished for a new one. However, now that I’d become a high schooler, those feelings had pretty much faded away.
“So, let’s be straightforward with each other, Kaoru-kun,” Kisaki-san said. “We both have secrets that we can’t tell Shigeru-san, after all... Let’s help each other and rely on each other when we’re in trouble, without worrying about trying to make our relationship something it isn’t. Let’s approach each other as equals rather than as parent and child.”
“That’s the best way to do it, huh?”
Frankly, I appreciated how straightforward she was being. I was glad that she could look me in the eye and have a two-way conversation instead of needing to act superior.
Treating each other as equals instead of having a parent-child relationship felt a little lonely, but I guess this was just one kind of shape that a family could take. If we’d suddenly tried to treat each other like a parent and her child, we’d have just been asking too much of each other, and even then our relationship would have been superficial. So, for now, I was happy with this kind of strictly business relationship.
Kisaki-san got a mischievous look on her face. “But if you ever want to call me ‘mom,’ you can just go right ahead, you know?”
“...If I feel like it.” I looked away, feeling kind of embarrassed.
“He he he. Aww, look at you all embarrassed,” Kisaki-san giggled.
Orihara Kisaki—who was actually now Momota Kisaki—was my girlfriend’s older sister and my father’s new wife. For me, she was quite an interesting acquaintance, since she was my stepmom and would probably become my sister-in-law. I didn’t know how things would turn out with her at first, but now I was feeling like they could go better than I’d expected.
♡
“...Oh. Well, that’s nice.” Orihara-san’s voice sounded pretty gloomy over the phone—or maybe it’d be more accurate to say it sounded like she was sulking and biting back her anger.
After Kisaki-san saw me off and I left the house, I got a text from Orihara-san. It was just a simple message wishing me a good morning, but as I explained what had happened during breakfast, her mood got stranger and stranger. Since she was still in her apartment, I called her after I got off the train. I tried talking to her, but it just kicked her bad mood up a notch.
“Wh-What’s wrong, Orihara-san?”
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s not actually ‘nothing,’ right? Are you upset?”
“I’m not upset. I’m not upset at all.” Her tone was prickly, and she was clearly upset. “I’m not jealous at all of your fun little breakfast with my sister.”