Mai gave her a warm, protective smile. Then she chuckled and raised her pointer finger in an explanatory pose. “Somewhere delightful.”
She looked like a walking, talking anime trope. My sister and I whispered in tandem, “Oh my god, she’s so cool.”
Wait a minute. We made eye contact and then immediately looked away in embarrassment. Urgh. How dare Mai be so darn cool just by, like, sitting there? If she kept that up, even my sister would fall in love with her. Imagine if my sister ended up as my rival for Mai’s affections. I would lose in a heartbeat!
The limo drove us a fair way before letting us off at the entrance to a hotel. Oh, this wasn’t the Akasaka hotel, by the way. This was the one in Roppongi. Not like I could tell you what difference the neighborhood made, when it came to hotels. I mean…they were in different physical locations. I guess.
Wait a minute. Mai and I were still in our school uniforms. Would that be a problem? What if they let Mai in but detained me at the entrance? That wouldn’t happen, right? Right?!
Mentally, I was flipping the freak out, but I tried to keep my cool in front of my sister. I acted like this? Pssh. This was nothin’. I did this all the time.
“There’s nothing to be so nervous about,” Mai said.
Um, hello? I wasn’t nervous?! I automatically grabbed my chest before my heart flew up and out of my throat, but then I heard my sister say behind me, “R-right, sorry.”
Oh. Mai was talking to Haruna. Right, because I came here all the time. I was basically a regular. (I most certainly was not.)
“It’s just,” my sister said, “I’ve never been anywhere like this before.”
“Don’t worry,” Mai said. “This is a casual venue. We’re here simply to relax and have a little chat.”
My sister sneaked a quick glance at me. She looked like she needed someone to come bail her out. So I didn’t flinch away (I didn’t, I tell you!) and smiled too.
“Uh-huh,” I said. “You know, you aren’t the only one who was intimidated at first. I had cold feet when I first came here too. Mai told me out of nowhere to put on a dress and come join her for a dinner party, and then it turned out to be here.”
“I’m sorry about all that,” said Mai.
“Nah, it was chill. I was just hecka nervous being around so many pretty people.” (That part was true.)
Mai and I giggled obnoxiously with one another for my sister’s benefit. Well? What’d she think of me now, huh? Huh?!
My sister whispered, so quietly only I could hear, “Calm down, Haruna. I have to show up Oneechan!”
Excuse me? What was that last part? Look, I was only acting this calm because I was a pro at being put in Situations by Mai.
Anyway, we finally went inside and found the hotel restaurant—a sorta relaxed buffet setup. I saw a lot of young couples and families with kids. Honestly, it was basically a kinda (Scratch that. Majorly) upscale version of a diner. Or at least it had that vibe. I could handle this. Totally!
My sister’s eyes lit up. “This is incredible! Is it all-you-can-eat?”
Mai chuckled. “That it is. Once we’ve been seated, feel free to pick out whatever strikes your fancy.”
“Are you sure? This must cost a ton.”
Mai giggled again at my terrified sis. “Money is no object. You’re Renako’s sister, so you are like family to me. Let me treat you.”
Stars shone in my sister’s eyes. “You’re the best sister-in-law I could ever ask for!”
I couldn’t help myself. “She’s your what now?”
My sister gave me a thumbs-up, all but saying “You lucked out on this one, Oneechan!” My sister sure could turn on the charm when free food was involved. Kind of like someone else I knew (me).
“Oh, if only I’d gone to club practice today,” my sister moaned. “I would have been so hungry!”
Mai smiled at her. My sister was clearly enjoying herself. Not like I was complaining—it was nice to see her in a good mood. It also meant she’d be more likely to finally open up, right? Had to be. Great job, Mai, you found the perfect scheme: bait her with food!
Okay, that was a bad way to put it. It was more like the notion of everyone coming together around the dinner table. Since time immemorial, people had been sharing meals as a means of communication. Some even said you needed to share food to truly understand your friends. Come to think of it, Mai invited me out to eat every time our relationship hit a snag. No wonder she was trying the same thing with my sister.
Anyway, a waiter arrived and took us to our table. Mai stood up, hellbent on destroying the guard of my little sister, she of the insignificant financial resources.
“Let’s go, Haruna-kun,” she said. “Don’t worry about being polite. Feel free to try whatever looks good.”
“Okay! Oh man, that roast beef looks killer.”
Both of them sailed off to the buffet, and I followed a step or two behind.
You know, if I did marry Mai, she’d probably dote on my sis just like this. Which I wasn’t too keen on. I thought Mai had feelings for me, not my sister! Oh, whatever. It wasn’t like we were ever getting married to begin with.
Yeah, you know what? I needed to get some of that roast beef too.
The food was to die for—not like I’d expect anything less from a place that had Mai’s favor.
My sister sighed and fell back into her chair with a look of pure delight on her face. “I can’t eat another bite.”
She’d gone back for seconds. And thirds. And fourths. What’s more, she practically licked the plate clean in between each round. I had no idea where she was packing it all away, considering how skinny she was. Point was, this girl knew how to EAT.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it so much,” Mai said.
“You know it. If no one was watching, I’d go run laps around the hotel for ten minutes and then jump back in for round two. But it’d be rude to ditch you in the meantime.”
Mai giggled.
Thanks to the incessant stream of hotel waiters whisking plates away, my sister’s side of the table was perfectly clean. But I would wager she ate enough for at least two people. Second helpings of roast beef, premier omelet, sautéed abalone, beef pie… We were enjoying the feel of our full stomachs over post-meal coffee and tea, and right now, I was engaged in a serious debate with my stomach about going back for one last dessert.
But that internal discussion was cut short when Mai said, “Well now, I hear you’re not going to school anymore.”
My sister gulped. “Uh, well…yeah, kinda!” She rubbed the back of her head bashfully and giggled. “Gosh, here I thought you were just treating me to a nice dinner. I should have known that was too good to be true.”
“I would be perfectly happy to establish a habit of regular dinner dates with you. Would you be amenable?”
My sister’s eyes lit up. “Get out. Are you for real?” Then she caught sight of me and rushed to shake her head. “But that wouldn’t be fair to Oneechan. I can’t hog you all to myself! Here, let’s have one dinner date to every two of hers.”
“Isn’t that an awful lot?” I said.
But she ignored my sisterly words of wisdom. Seriously? One dinner with Mai for every two of our dates? Girl! She was tripping, right?
“Of course,” said Mai. “But why aren’t you going to school?”
“Uh. I guess it’s a question of, why do I need to go to school in the first place?” My sister cobbled together a gloating grin, which Mai responded to with a pleasant smile of her own.
“Well, I’m sure you have your reasons,” Mai said. “I certainly don’t think it’s necessary to force you to go. But I’m more concerned about why you’re choosing to respond with these smart-aleck arguments. Your poor family is worried about you, but you won’t tell them what’s wrong. I don’t think that’s particularly nice of you, if you must know. Other people have a right to stick their noses into your business when they care about you.”
“Um.” My sister looked everywhere but at Mai. “Why does it matter? I’m still keeping up with my studies.”
“Which is an admirable accomplishment. But that’s not what school is all about, is it? Book learning is but one benefit of schooling, and studying at home cannot make up the deficit. As much as I would like to applaud your efforts, I cannot say with a straight face that you are doing yourself any favors.”
“Urk.”
Hot damn. Because Mai paid for her meal, my sister was trapped between a rock and a hard place. Just like that, she had my sister on the back foot. Mai sometimes let her feelings get away from her, which made it easy for people (me) to get the wrong idea about her. But deep down, she was a super rational person. She had a strong value system—people should be ABC; people should do XYZ—upheld by a highly ethical core. Whenever Maizilla came out, she stomped every argument flat, no matter how carefully constructed. Even Satsuki-san was no match for her.
Then on top of all that, the Mai persona was a steamroller. She literally just sat there and gave off an aura that was the epitome of cool. People took one look at that and went, “Welp. Nothing I can do against someone that important.” Believe me, that was a thought I was all too familiar with. Once, I had never dreamed of dating anyone. And now I was dating Mai. You could imagine just how much of a stranglehold she had on me.