“You’re too nice,” Ajisai-san protested. “Besides, didn’t you mention you already have a big sister?”
“I guess. ’Cause when my dad remarried, she became my stepsister.”
Huh. I didn’t know that.
Kaho-chan mumbled around the fork in her mouth, “But, like, we don’t really talk ’n stuff, y’know? We have totally different interests. We’re still at the stage where we’re kinda working out where we stand with each other, if you know what I mean.”
“Sounds like you live with a total stranger, huh?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
I tried putting myself in Kaho-chan’s shoes, and the thought alone revolted me. Still, Kaho-chan was my exact opposite. She would probably warm up to her stepsister in no time.
“Also, I don’t think she likes me,” Kaho-chan said. “Plus, she’s hecka smart and pretty, so it’s like… It’s a whole thing.” She put a hand to her cheek and blinked a few times in what must have been an imitation of this smart, pretty stepsister. Then she snickered. “We’d have clicked in no time if she was more like Aa-chan. Or a bimbo like Rena-chin!”
“I’m a what now?!” I demanded.
This was the first time anyone had ever called me a bimbo. That word conjured a mental image of the kind of girl who went, “I could never eat an omelet! ’Cause I feel so bad for the poor baby chicky-wicky.” And that was definitely not me. Right? I wasn’t a bimbo, right? QED?
“Speaking of sisters,” Ajisai-san said, turning to me, “you and your sister seem really close.”
“We do?” For some unknown reason, I felt the need to refute that through any means necessary.
“Oh yeah,” Kaho-chan said. “She was that girl who helped us practice basketball that one time, right?”
“Mm-hmm. Her name is Haruna-chan, isn’t it? She’s very sweet. Polite, well-mannered.”
“Rena-chin, you’re shaking your head like crazy.”
“What’s that about?” Ajisai-san asked.
Polite? Well-mannered? Whomst? Maybe there was another Amaori family in the area with a girl named Haruna.
“I dunno, guys,” I said. “My sister’s a cheeky brat. She’s too smart for her own good, she wins every argument we have, and she always gets the upper hand against me. She’s the dagger pointed at my backside in my own family.”
“Go off, OP,” said Kaho-chan. “Spill that tea.”
“Haruna-chan is none of those things!” Ajisai-san protested.
Huh. She and I had very different perceptions of my sister. Maybe Haruna had a split personality or something.
“Well, I guess it’s hard to say nice things about your family. Right?” Ajisai-san added, ending the topic on a high note.
I wanted to expose my sister’s full list of evil traits, but I didn’t want the others to think I was that judgmental. So I magnanimously decided to spare her. My little sister should have been grateful.
Then Kaho-chan remarked, “Oh hey, we’re the only three people in the Quintet who have siblings, y’know? Mai-Mai and Saa-chan are only kiddos.”
“Huh. You’re right. You’re the baby of the family, and Ajisai-san and I are the eldest of our siblings,” I said.
Kaho-chan snickered behind her hand. “Y’know, you don’t seem like the eldest. You’re giving major younger sibling.”
“Excuse me?” I yelped. “Do I seem spoiled rotten to you?!”
Then Ajisai-san laughed too. Wait, but I was a good big sister! Right, Ajisai-chan? Right?
After that fun, simply delightful shopping trip, I headed home. Heh heh heh. Oh yes, I’d bought myself new shoes for the first time ever. Without my sister’s help! Truly, what an impressive amount of growth I’d made since turning over this new leaf. By next year, heck, I might even be ready to order Frappuccinos at Starbucks quantum libet. (Okay, maybe the Latin was a bit much.)
As I left the train station and walked past the park near our house, I spotted a familiar figure sitting on the swings. It was the very same girl who had featured in our earlier conversation: one Amaori Haruna. What was she doing over there? She was still in her uniform and had her backpack with her, so I assumed she was on her way home. But that made no sense. At this time of day, she should have been at sports practice. Something was wrong here. I couldn’t tell very well since I was so far away, but it looked like something upsetting had happened.
Well, well, well. How the turns had tabled.
Chuckling to myself all the while, I sauntered up to my sis and said, “Something seems to be bothering you, my dear little sister.”
“Oneechan?” She looked up at me and frowned in suspicion. “Can you quit staring at me like a freak?”
The lion, the witch, and the audacity of this b—I mean, how dare she use the slur against socially awkward people! What if I took offense and bawled my head off in public, huh? She wouldn’t like it one bit. Just watch. I’d do it!
But that was a bad idea, and I shooed it away before claiming the swing next to her. “I can guess what you’re doing here.”
“…Um, what?”
“So, picture this. You lost your house key. Your phone’s dead. You’re wallowing in misery, and then along comes your guardian angel.”
That’s me, I indicated with my thumb.
My sister stared at me for a moment and then sighed in utter disappointment, like a teacher witnessing their student bomb a test for the first time in their life.
“Oneechan, you’re an idiot.”
“Excuse me?!” It was the sincerity that ticked me off. “Keep that up, and I won’t let you in the house!”
“I have my key, you know,” she told me.
“You wha?”
“And even if I had lost it, I could still hang out at a friend’s house until Mom and Dad got home. Plus, if my phone died, they could lend me a charger.”
“Flawless logic. Was this a trap all along?”
“Oneechan, you’re an idiot.”
“Not again!” I wailed.
Whatever happened to “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all”? Which was rich of me, since half of the reason I was here was to gloat at her. But still.
“What’s that?” my sister said, apropos of nothing.
“Huh?”
She pointed to the paper bag in my hand.