“...”
“...”
I stood at the front door of my house, doing my best impression of a delinquent’s angry glare. The target was a girl my age—nothing more, nothing less. Well, actually, as much as I wish that were true, it wasn’t. She was—and still is—something much, much more.
“Where are you off to, Mizuto-kun?”
“How about you? Where are you going, Yume-san?”
We exchanged words and then fell into a silence for the third time.
Truth be told, I didn’t even need to ask. I knew she was going to the bookstore above the burger place at Karasuma Sanjo. A new mystery novel had come out today, and it seemed that both of us wanted to go buy it.
However, leaving the house at the same time posed a problem. We would have to walk there together, head to the same section in the store, and line up behind one another at the checkout.
If that happened, how could anyone see us as anything but a couple that had the same taste in books?
Both of us wanted to avoid being perceived that way at all costs, but right now, we were at an impasse. All we had to do was leave at different times, but the question was who would get to go first. This little nonverbal back-and-forth mind game we were currently having would determine that.
Sure, we could have just talked it out, but also, no. No way. Not a single thing in this world could be resolved by talking things out with this girl.
“Oh, Yume and Mizuto-kun?” Yuni-san emerged from the living room, dressed in her suit. “What are you two up to?”
Yuni-san had just become my stepmom a little less than a week prior. In other words, she’s both the woman who married my father, and the mother of the girl standing in front of me.
“Are you two heading out?”
“I was just about to,” I said, smoothly trying to use Yuni-san’s question to push myself into the lead.
“Oh, you wouldn’t happen to be going to the bookstore at Karasuma, would you? I know how much you love books! That’s where Yume’s going too, right? I swear, she only ever leaves the house to go to the bookstore or the library.”
“Uh...” I faltered.
“Mom!” Yume protested.
“Don’t tell me you’re going there together! I’m so happy, Mizuto-kun! You’re really doing your best to be friends with her! Please keep being good to her. She’s just so gosh darn shy!”
“S-Sure...”
If looks could kill, I’d be dead from Yume’s death glare. But what else could I have possibly said after all that?
“Well, I have work, so I’ll see you all later. Be good siblings to each other, okay?” Yuni-san said as she left, slowly disappearing out the door.
That’s right. We were siblings. Stepsiblings. The children of our remarried parents.
“Why did you agree with her?” Yume asked me.
“With the way that conversation went, how couldn’t I?”
“Why do I have to be on good terms with someone like you?” she hissed.
“Bite me. I don’t want to be buddy-buddy with you either,” I retorted.
“I really hate how you just roll over for anyone and everyone, you shitty bookworm.”
“And I hate how you’re always so self-centered, you shitty fangirl.”
Our parents had no idea about our true relationship. Only she, Yume Irido, and I, Mizuto Irido, knew that we used to date and had just split up less than two weeks ago.