Chapter 7

Once I got back home, Mana and my mom were already there. Mana was preparing dinner, while my mom was smoking right below the ventilation fan. “Welcome back.” “Ah…yeah. Hi.” “Hey, Bubby! We’re having curry tonight! It’s almost done, so sit tight!” “Yeah, cool,” I said while lying down on the sofa. My mom was always busy with her nursing job, so Mana took up all the house chores. Mom took on more of a fatherly role—it was uncommon for her to do things like cook or peel me from bed in the morning. “Hey, Mama, did you know Bubby came back home with Hina today?” “Oh, did he?” Mom started grinning, the cigarette still in her mouth. What are you, some mischievous middle schooler? “Hey, don’t go telling her that!” I snapped. Mana turned around and stuck her tongue out. I gotta change the subject. “Do we still have my notebooks from back in grade school, by any chance?” If I remembered correctly, they should be in storage here somewhere. Fushimi said she had a special memo pad for our promises, but I didn’t remember getting one myself. If I did take notes, they’d be in my school notebooks. “Ah, yeah, we have some of them in the closet.” Mom put out her cigarette and headed to the Japanese-style room. I followed her, and she opened the sliding door. She stuck her head in and started hunting for my books. “They should be around…here.” She took out a cardboard box that had my name written on it. “So what are you looking for?” “Well…it’s…nothing.” I evaded the question and started looking inside. “Oh, c’mon, you can tell me, my little Ryou.” She put her arms around my neck and started poking at my cheek. “Stop it.” She just laughed. Why does she always act like one of those friends who’s a “bad influence”? My mom had me when she was still young, right after she started working, and that led to her marriage. She was still in her forties, when most moms of kids my age were older. My dad passed away in an accident when my sister and I were still little, so my mom took on the father role, too. “Are you going out with Hina? That’s why you went home together, right?” “Of course not.” “Really? When I saw Mana so upset about it, my woman’s intuition told me something was going on. I was like, ‘This definitely isn’t just walking home together!’” “Well, don’t believe everything your ‘intuition’ says. Nothing’s going on.” You can only think that because you don’t know how popular she is with every other guy in the class. I didn’t have any special talent; nobody in class cared about me. Why would she like me? “You’re not? But you were so close back then! I remember clearly how she came to tell me ‘I’m going to marry Ryou!’ all the time.” “Wait, she did?” “She’s still adorable, of course, but Hina back then was an absolute angel.” I don’t remember any of that. I continued searching the box until I found my notebook of miscellany from fifth grade. Most of its contents were terrible drawings and random scribbles—no promise memo was to be found. “…Huh?” Something had been ripped out. What’s with this? I wondered, when the smell of curry reached my nose. “Mana turned out to be a good kid, despite the gyaru thing. How about you marry her instead?” “We’re siblings.” “Ha-ha-ha. You’re right.” “Mama? Come help!” The shouting came from the kitchen. “Coming, coming,” Mom replied, standing up and leaving. “The promise memo…the promise memo…” I took a look at other notebooks until I found it in my sixth-grade math notebook. I’ll have my first kiss with Hina when we get into high school. Wait, whaaaaaaaaat?! Wh-wh-what the hell?! The note stood out among the formulas and rows of numbers. “What was I thinking?!” I rolled on the floor. I-it’s even more embarrassing seeing it in writing! But I guess…this is what she meant?! Fushimi said the last time she came to my house was when we were in sixth grade. The note was dated February 15. The day after Valentine’s. Did we promise this…? Did we make this mortifying promise then? Fushimi had cut herself short earlier. She’d said, “In sixth grade, on…,” then blushed. Maybe she’d meant to say, “on Valentine’s Day”? Yeah, now I get why she didn’t tell me. But why high school and not middle school? I can’t imagine it being me who set those terms. Meaning it had to have been Fushimi’s idea, and I’d accepted without thinking it through. My first kiss… You little… You stupid little kid! Had I watched a drama on TV or something? In that case, what had happened back when I returned to my room after pouring the drinks now made some sense. If I were less principled, I would think she was inviting me and had taken the chance, so she was waiting for that to happen… “G-giving a sleeping girl a kiss?! I’m not doing that, stupid!” I threw the notebook back in the box. “Bubby, what’s with all the fuss? What’s that about a kiss?” Mana was standing there, arms crossed, dressed in her uniform plus an apron. “K-kiss…? I-I was thinking out loud! ‘Man, Mana’s tempura is…chef’s kiss.’” “But you said you wanted curry. Why tempura now?” Mana gave me an icy stare. “…I know.” “Also, you ate my chips, didn’t you? Your plate better be totally clean after dinner.” “I’m sorry… It will be.” “And…there were two cups in the sink. Why?” Th-there’s no escaping her wrath. G-gyarus are so scaryyy! “…” Wait, why am I in trouble here?! Because I ate her chips without asking? Because she thinks I won’t finish my dinner because of that? Or because…I let someone in…? She was still glaring at me. “So many annoying things happened today.” Ah, all three. A reverse royal flush of crappy luck? “Mana, just so you know, I didn’t do any—” “Go kiss your tempura by yourself.” She tried to kick me, but I stopped the blow. I’m not about to get beaten up by my little sister! “Eek! H-hey, lemme go!” “You’re gonna kick me if I do! Maybe if you didn’t shorten your skirt so much—!” “I do what I want!” And there are the panties… This is why gyarus have such a bad reputation! Mom realized something was amiss, because Mana wasn’t coming back, so she returned and scolded us both. I ate my dinner quietly, like a cat spending a week with another family. “The curry’s really good,” I said. “…Well, duh.” Mana seemed just a little bit happy.