“What happened was truly unfortunate…but you’re still young, Gensei, and Yumi still needs a mother, so what are you going to do? Any plans on getting remarried?” someone asked him.
“That’s right, you’re a diplomat. You need a partner who can support you, right? I actually know someone who would be perfect…,” said another.
Some relatives began brazenly suggesting a new wife before my mother’s funeral was even over. Unable to believe such callousness, I wept in frustration while clutching my mother’s portrait. My brother, however, suddenly stood up, approached those relatives surrounding our father, and without hesitating for even a moment—
Whack!
The raw sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed through the funeral hall as one of the relatives fell hard on his backside.
“What is wrong with you?! You people aren’t our family! Never show your faces to us again!” shouted my brother, hurling the funeral money back at our stunned relatives’ faces before literally throwing them out of the funeral hall. It was the first time I had ever seen my brother so enraged, and I stopped crying in pure shock until he gently embraced me.
“I’m sorry you’ve had to put up with all that until now. I know they hurt you so many times… I should have done that a long time ago,” my brother confessed, his voice tinged with regret, before shifting his gaze toward our father.
“Dad, let’s cut ties with them. I’ll take such good care of the Suou family that we won’t need these branch families anymore.”
My brother was so radiant, and truly someone you could depend on. I knew instantly that he would take over the Suou family with dignity, just as he’d promised.
Don’t worry, Mom… Naotaka—The Suou family is going to be okay. Naotaka’s going to take care of me, too, so I’ll be fine…
I inwardly spoke to my mother, holding her portrait to my heart. I wanted to let her know that we were going to be okay so she could rest in peace. It was also a vow to myself to recover together with my brother. But life was never that easy and could be quite unpredictable.
“All right, Yumi! I’ll be back before you know it!”
Two months later, my brother died in an aviation accident while traveling to our father’s workplace. I never even saw his remains. The coffin that supposedly held my brother was sealed tight, its lid concealing whatever lied within. Perhaps that was why his death never felt real; even after he was gone, for many days, I felt like I was floating in a dream.
However, I finally snapped back to reality the instant I saw several men visiting the house one day—the same relatives who had been thrown out of my mother’s funeral. Their timing was surely no coincidence, either, arriving not too long after my brother’s—the family successor’s—funeral.
If I don’t do something, they’re going to steal everything from us and take over the family!
I couldn’t allow it. I wouldn’t let those people who had insulted my mother and me seize control of the family my brother had died investing in. The thought was unbearable. Driven by anger and a sense of duty, I stormed straight over to my father the instant they left.
“Dad! I’m going to become a diplomat! I’m going to become a diplomat and take over for the Suou family in my brother’s place!”
But my father…
“That’s not what I need from you.”
He turned me away as if my newfound dream was not even worth considering.
“Don’t even think about trying to replace Naotaka. All I need from you is to find a husband worthy of the Suou family name. That’s it. You’re free to do whatever you want as long as you do that.”
Even then, I felt my father still only saw me as a woman destined for a wife’s role. It was so maddening that I gave up the piano as well. Only after having lost everything could I clearly see how much my mother and brother had shielded me from the world, but I could no longer depend on them anymore. I stopped being content with simply being a prodigy’s little sister—a position with no responsibilities. I needed to push myself until I, too, became a skilled diplomat. I had to. With my brother gone, I was the only one who could protect our family.
So, to cut off any escape route, I abandoned the piano completely. Every hour I had once spent at the keys now belonged to my books. I transferred from music to academics at school and buried myself in my studies, day after relentless day. But the sacrifice paid off: I passed the external entrance exam to Seirei Academy—the same school my brother went to.
“I did it… I did it!”
I felt a sense of accomplishment and a faint hope that I, too, could conquer anything I put my mind to…but that was short lived. I was immediately confronted with reality following the first academic test after enrollment. I scored fourth lowest in my grade.
Desperate to salvage my pride, I told myself it was only because the test favored internal students who knew what questions would be on it. But once classes started, that excuse no longer worked. Even among the other transfer students, I was clearly the only one falling hopelessly behind while everyone else sailed ahead.
Why…? We all took the same test, and I passed, too, so why is there such a big difference? Why am I so far behind?
And that was when it hit me: Seirei Academy’s entrance exam had an interview in addition to the written test. That was the answer.
Oh, that’s why. I only passed…because of the Suou family name…
In the end, I couldn’t even claim the entrance exam as my own victory, and that realization made every day miserable. The constant ache of feeling inferior to everyone around me was unbearable enough, but then came the shadow of my brother’s legacy, especially since his fame as a middle school student council president was well known. Once word got out that I was his sister, the unwanted attention began.
“Your brother used to take such good care of me—”
“You’re not really like your brother at all. Oh, no, it’s not as if that’s a bad thing—”
“Hey, Yumi. Maybe we could go out sometime together—”
People praising my brother’s brilliance, people drawing comparisons between us, people trying to cozy up to the Suou family’s sole heir—they all felt like predators circling me, so I fled. I ran and ran, until I came to my senses and found myself standing before the music room door.
“Ah…”
There it was: the piano I hadn’t touched since losing my brother—the same instrument that had once been my refuge from pain.
“…”
Even though I had decided not to run away anymore, I found myself drawn to the bench. My fingers found the keys, and with the first note, my mother and brother materialized before me, their voices of praise echoing in memory, and I cried. Tears blurred my vision as I played, streaming down my cheeks and onto the keys, but when I finished playing the piece, I suddenly heard applause coming from behind me and quickly jerked my head up, startled.
“…?! Huh?!”
Only then, did the boy applauding seem to notice I was crying. With a startled expression, he stopped clapping and hurriedly took a handkerchief from his pants pocket, but after looking at the handkerchief and frowning slightly, he pulled out a pack of tissues from the opposite pocket.
“Uh… Here. Use this…”
When the flustered, stammering boy offered me a tissue, I quickly buried my face in my hands, mortified at being caught in such a vulnerable moment.
“Oh, uh…! Sorry! I didn’t mean to bother you… I was just walking by…and your playing was so beautiful that I couldn’t help myself…”
This was the first time since losing my mother and brother that anyone had praised my playing.
“Uh… I’m Kyoutarou Kuze. What’s your name?” he uttered, his eyes wandering nervously when I involuntarily looked up.
“…Yumi Suou.”
“Suou… Suou… Hmm? Where have I heard that name before?”
I thought I was going to be asked about my brother again, and I reflexively bit my lip, but the boy started waving his hands frantically, apparently misinterpreting my reaction entirely.
“Ah, sorry! I come from a pretty ordinary middle-class family, so I’m not familiar with wealthy, prestigious families! I can pick out names that match major corporations, but…”
He had clearly been scolded before by people offended that he didn’t know their family. His desperate, misguided explanations struck me as oddly endearing, and I found myself laughing a little despite everything, and his lips curled awkwardly.
That was how Kyoutarou and I met, and from then on, we began meeting regularly in the music room.
“I’m not trying to brag or anything, but my grades were good. It was basically the only thing I had going for me… My father was strangely enthusiastic about it all as well. He was like, ‘You could even get into Seirei Academy with those grades!’ and he made me take the entrance exam. But ever since I started going to school here, I’ve felt so alone. I mean, everyone’s obscenely rich, right? We have absolutely nothing in common. Of course, it’s my fault for taking the entrance exam before actually researching the academy, but still.”
Kyoutarou and I were both outcasts at school, though for different reasons. He knew nothing about my background, so I felt like I could finally breathe when we were together, allowing me to completely forget how suffocating the classroom felt. Even after he learned the truth about me, his attitude remained unchanged…
“Oh… So you’ve been working so hard for your brother’s sake as well. You’re amazing.”
And just like that, he praised me from the bottom of his heart…