Why was she bringing up Youko-chan out of nowhere anyway? Wait a sec. Galaxy brain moment. Remember that thing I learned from Prof. Ajisai?
“Are you jealous?” I asked. “Are you concerned she’s going to steal away your very best friend in the whole wide world? Ah ha! This is textbook jealousy. Look at me, I’m learning things.”
Satsukick-san kicked the back of my knee again. Jeez, she was on a violent streak lately! Yandere much?
I didn’t know how to handle Satsudoublekick-san’s jealousy. It was as unwieldy to work with as nitroglycerin, and honestly? I didn’t think I was cut out to handle it.
At any rate, we got home, and I knocked on my sister’s door. Unlike last time, I opened it to find her messing around on her phone in bed instead of gaming.
“Hey there,” I said. “You have another visitor.”
“Huh?” My sister catapulted herself out of bed.
The black-haired beauty behind me, Satsudoubl—okay, this joke was getting old. Satsuki-san gave my sister a little wave. “Thank you for having me,” she said. “It’s nice to see you again.”
“S-Satsuki-senpai!” my sister stuttered. She whisked a brush through her hair with one hand while yanking out a cushion for Satsuki-san to sit on with the other. Then she turned on me and glared. “Oneechan, you need to warn me next time you bring someone over.”
“Sorry,” I said out loud. (Internally, I stuck my tongue out at her.) Warning her ahead of time would have let her prepare a defense. You could bet your butt I’d keep bringing people over with zero notice.
“Gosh, I’m sorry I’m still in my PJs,” my sister said. “Um…Satsuki-senpai, are you here to see me for something? Just like Ajisai-senpai?”
Satsuki-san folded her legs and sat down primly. “Indeed I am. Your sister told me about your situation, so I thought you and I might have a chat.”
“Mmm… You really didn’t need to go to all the trouble.” My sister bowed. For all her (many) other faults, she had always had perfect manners around her senpais.
But this wasn’t like last time. Because Satsuki-san was up to bat, and she lived in a whole different universe from Ajisai-san. Ajisai-san cared about the other person’s feelings. She’d back down if you didn’t open up. But Satsuki-san? Satsuki-san was a woman raised under the tutelage of a mace-n’-stun-gun-toting mother. She knew her mom’s lessons by heart: if anyone stood in your way, you gotta get ’em good. She could have been one of the Zoldycks. Even as stubborn as my baby sis was, she couldn’t take on Satsuki-san. My little sister was about to learn the true meaning of violence.
I could tell Satsuki-san was totally shadowboxing inside her head. But on the outside, she just tucked her hair behind her ear before pulling the trigger. The trigger being: “I hear Sena visited you the other day.”
“Mm-hmm. You mean Ajisai-senpai, right? We played games together and had a good time.”
“Sena and I are cut from very different cloth. You’ll find I have no desire to spare your feelings,” Satsuki-san said in an even tone.
The tension in the room grew so thick you could cut it with a knife. Uh, overkill much? When this exchange (and we’re not talking bullets, Satsuki-san) was over, was my sister going to be left sobbing like a baby? As hard as it was to believe, I couldn’t rule out the possibility! Maybe my sister would be so traumatized by this raven-haired vision of beauty that she’d whimper, “I don’t ever want to go back to school! People are scaaary!” And then she’d become a real school-skipping delinquent. Hey, it was possible! Not like my sister was ever a crier, but whatever. Wait. She never cried, right? Hmm. Some old memory at the back of my brain started needling me…
But before I could recall what it was, my sister said, “Um…what exactly does that mean?”
“You’ve been skipping recently, is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Then I would imagine you’re falling behind on your studies.”
Satsuki-san got straight to the point. Haruna’s grades were, like, an objective worry. But if her family or friends brought it up, she could be like, “You think I don’t know?!” Because it was blatantly obvious, right? Yet that didn’t stop Satsuki-san.
“I know this is nigh-on oxymoronic,” she went on, “but missing a day of school takes a day to make up. Miss a week, and that’s all the longer to get back on track. What’s your plan to make up for lost time?”
It was almost too pointed of a question. It did a number on me, that was for sure. If Satsuki-san had said this to me when I was in my hooky phase, I would have broken down and bawled.
But my sister did not. “I know,” she said, completely to the point. “And I don’t care.” She stood up, went over to her desk, and picked up her notebook. “I’m still following along in the curriculum whenever I can.”
“Wait, what?” I said. Seriously? “You’re still studying, even when you’re not going to school?”
“Uh, yeah? Hello?” Her tone was all like, Who are you? Captain Obvious?
Wait, but like. Deadass?
Meanwhile, Satsuki-san didn’t react at all. “Self-studying at home is not like learning in a classroom. I doubt you could understand the material half as well.”
I expected my sister to go, “Nuh-uh!” But she didn’t. “Yeah, you have a point,” she said. “But I’m a pretty good student, if I do say so myself. I’m hovering around the top thirty mark in the class ranking, so it’s not the end of the world if I slip a little.”
“Oh?” Satsuki-san raised an eyebrow. Oh snap, I was about to see some real shit go down. “I wonder how accurate this assessment is. I fear you may be too optimistic.”
“I guess that’s possible. Oh, wait!” My sister’s face lit up. “Could I message you on LINE if I run into a problem that stumps me? That’d make learning way easier.”
Hold the phone. That would destroy my sister’s need to ever go back to school!
“Sure,” said Satsuki-san.
My mouth bypassed my brain and yelped, “What do you mean, ‘sure’?!”
Satsuki-san didn’t so much as deign to turn and look at me. “Why should I refuse to help anyone with the desire to learn? No matter what their situation may be.”
“Thank you so much, Satsuki-senpai!” my sister exclaimed. Before, she had bowed as like. A joke, sorta. But now she bowed way deeper.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why were they acting like this was problem solved?
“Satsuki-san, don’t just give up because your first attempt failed,” I said.
Satsuki-san frowned at me. “What do you want me to say to her? ‘School is a place to get life experience. You should go. Building communication skills is vital.’ Hmm?”
She didn’t want to be a hypocrite. And, like, I got that. But still.
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? The best way to win an argument—be it internet drama or whatever—is to emotionally check out! Be a gray rock!”
“Look, I didn’t come to your house to argue with your sister.”
“Geh!” Of course. She was right, and I was the one losing track of the bigger picture.
“Anyway,” Satsuki-san said, turning back around to face my sister and deliver one final repartee, “your learning environment is a living thing. The longer you stay home from school, the deeper you bury yourself in a hole. Soon, that hole starts to feel like the one place you belong. Eventually, you’ll stop feeling like you fit in anywhere at all. Don’t forget that.”
My sister fell silent. Her eyes flicked away from Satsuki-san’s glare for the shortest of intervals. It hit home, or at least a little bit.
Yet my sister put her usual expression back on a heartbeat later. “Okay. Thanks, Satsuki-senpai.” She nodded, like she was ready. Like she’d be fine with not fitting in.
The last dregs of Satsuki-san’s fight went out of her. “All right,” she said. “Very well, then. Let’s move on. Tell me what difficulty you’re having in your schoolwork.”
My sister lit up. “Thanks! I have some questions in math, science, and English.”
“Tsk, tsk. That’s quite the list.” Satsuki-san made the facial expression equivalent of shaking her head in disgust as my little sister grabbed her textbooks. Then she sat down beside my sister, who immediately became private tutor Satsuki-san’s model pupil. I trembled on the sidelines like a third wheel. First Ajisai-san, now Satsuki-san. My friends were dropping like flies before my sister’s powers of obstinacy. It defied all my expectations.
“By the way,” Satsuki-san said, “can I make a comment? Although it’s none of my business.”
“Yeah, what’s up?” my sister said.
Satsuki-san remarked, seemingly offhand, “You really shouldn’t give your family so much reason to worry.”
My sister was taken aback for a sec before she turned to look at me. Her big sis. Our eyes met for an instant, and I almost thought she was about to say something, when—
—she completely laughed it off. “Don’t worry, it’s fine! Oneechan can’t worry about me; she’s one to talk.”
“Very true,” said Satsuki-san.
“Hey!” I snapped. You’re right, I thought, but you shouldn’t say it!