“Um, hello. I’m Aoi-san’s friend, Tomozaki.”
“O-oh, thank you for being friends with my sister…!” she said with a little bow. She was Aoi Hinami’s little sister, otherwise known as—
“S-sorry I didn’t introduce myself…! I’m her sister, Haruka! I’m in my third year of middle school…and my favorite food is chee—”
“Um, Haruka-chan, right?” Haruka-chan seemed quite flustered as she gave that odd self-introduction. I took the lead, pushing myself to nonchalantly use chan with her given name. Also, I cut her off, but it seemed that she liked the same thing as her sister.
Oh yeah. For some reason, I hadn’t considered the possibility, but I was in front of the Hinami family house, so of course I would get random encounters with Hinami family members. In fact, if you considered the number of people in her family, that was more likely. As a gamer, I was ashamed of myself for not having managed such simple math.
“Th-that’s right! Nice to meet you…!”
I watched out the corner of my eye as Haruka-chan nervously but cheerily made an exaggerated bow, and I thought to myself.
I had seen her face twice before.
The first time was when I had been with Kikuchi-san at an Italian restaurant in Kitayono, when we had run into the Hinami family by chance.
And the one other time—
“It’s nice to meet you, too… Also, thank you for the video letter.”
The video letter was most likely the trigger that had brought about these major changes in Hinami.
And Haruka-chan had been in it.
“Oh, no, thank you! Thanks for celebrating my sister’s birthday!”
“No, no, she’s always helping me out…”
“Oh, no, but still…”
Once we were done exchanging the stock phrases of “sister’s friend” meeting “friend’s little sister,” silence fell for just a moment. Haruka-chan gave me a really awkward, questioning look, and my heart began to burn with a sense of duty. As the older one, I had to take the lead.
“Umm…”
However, the only new relationships I’d ever built with people outside my class were Gumi-chan from my job and people at Atafami meetups, so I didn’t know the right topic to bring up at a time like this. I was getting flustered.
What’s wrong? You’re not as awkward when you first meet someone; people shouldn’t be immediately assuming you’re a loser, I encouraged myself as I tried to figure out my wording, when suddenly, Haruka-chan gave me a suspicious look.
“Umm…Tomozaki-san.”
“Y-yes?”
Then she furrowed her brow in an expression that was reminiscent of her sister. “…Why are you in front of our house?” she asked in a skeptical tone.
“Yeah, that is the question, huh.”
Obviously. Even if she knew Hinami and I were close enough to celebrate her birthday on a trip—finding a classmate of the opposite sex loitering in front of your house would make you wary. It was probably common knowledge that Aoi Hinami was super popular at school.
“…Hmm?”
Then I suddenly noticed that Haruka-chan was casually holding a gray, rectangular phone charm–looking thing with rounded corners that was attached to her schoolbag. As I examined the familiar object, it hit me. A keychain alarm.
“Um, okay, so…”
“Y-yes?”
When I began my excuse, Haruka-chan took a step back, her hand clenching around the alarm. So basically, if she pulls it hard, it’ll scream to everyone nearby that I’m doing something criminal. I absolutely couldn’t let that happen. My initial remark here would be an important turning point in deciding whether I was a friend in Aoi Hinami’s class or some weirdo who was claiming to be in her class.
Even as I was hesitating to answer, I felt my normal points dropping rapidly. It was like a certain courtroom game—if I continued shouting Objection! to the wrong things and lost all my credibility, the defendant would be found guilty. And unfortunately, in this case, the defendant was me. I put my brain into full gear, but when you think about it, I hadn’t had enough experience talking with a middle schooler to run detailed simulations—so in the end, I arrived at a simple answer.
“Um, about your sister.”
“…Yes.”
“She hasn’t been…strange lately?”
I figured there was no need to look for weird excuses. After all, I hadn’t actually come here with dubious motives.
Haruka-chan looked momentarily surprised, and she relaxed her grip on the alarm a bit. First, I wanted to get her suspicion level down low enough that she’d let go completely.
“…Yeah,” she said somberly and nodded.
That answer put me at ease in a sense.
When we bumped into her at the Italian restaurant in Kitayono, Hinami had seemed to act like the perfect heroine around her own family, rather than as herself. It had left a deep impression on me.
If that was the case, then she might be making sure not to let her family notice this change. That was what I’d been worried about.
If she was wearing a mask, her ideal self, even with her family—then it would mean that her own house wasn’t somewhere she could expose who she really was.
Trying not to startle Haruka-chan as she hung her head with a somber expression, and trying to avoid the alarm, I spoke as gently as I could.
“Right? She hasn’t been responding to messages, so I got a little worried. I thought I would just wait for her and then lecture her once I found her. Ha-ha-ha.” I babbled on lightly, with fake laughter like Mizusawa, and Haruka-chan laughed along with me.
Thanks, Mizusawa. Whether it was fake or real, if it would help this relationship and smooth out our communication until we could eventually speak honestly with each other, then that fakeness was a part of being real.
Haruka-chan seemed like she had relaxed a bit. “I’m worried, too.” She nodded and then glanced over to the Hinami family house. “Lately, she’s been cooped up in her room all the time, doing nothing but playing video games…”
“Nothing but video games…” I repeated. I wasn’t sure if I should say it, but there was only one thing that came to mind. “Could it be…Atafami?”
I had the feeling this wasn’t the time, but my instinct as a gamer made me say it anyway. I couldn’t help it.
“…”
“Ah, um…”
I prayed that she wouldn’t be like, What is wrong with him? Why’s he saying weird stuff? Maybe I should call for help. In fact, I was about to begin apologizing for being a weird nerd at her when Haruka-chan giggled and nodded.
“…Yes, that’s right.”
“I—I knew it!” I said with relief, a little too loudly, and Haruka-chan twitched a bit. Please watch what you do with your hand.
“So you know that my sister likes Atafami,” Haruka-chan said, and I could tell she’d let her guard down a little.
I started to feel rather proud. If it’s about Atafami, then leave it to me. “Of course. Since I’m her rival.”
“Really?! Who’s the better player?!”
She was getting more interested now. The way it was looking, maybe Hinami played Atafami with her family, too. We’d only just met, and we were already having a fun conversation. Atafami really is one of the best games there is.
“Of course I’m better.”
“Huh?! Is anyone better?!”
Haruka-chan was startled, as if this was the biggest thing she’d learned that day. Well, when you think about it, it makes sense. I don’t think Hinami would ever slack off when it comes to Atafami, so she wouldn’t go easy on her sister. Of course Haruka-chan would think her sister was the very best there was. Since Hinami is an ultra-high-level player, ranked number two in Japan online. I’m just number one.
“We’ve gone to some Atafami meetups together. I’m really good even there, too.”
“O-oh…is that right…?!”
When I babbled on, proudly asserting my Atafami dominance, Haruka-chan looked a little put off. Oops—when I’m in my wheelhouse, my nerdy bad habits come out. I glanced over at what Haruka-chan’s right hand was doing, but it didn’t seem like she was squeezing the alarm any harder, so that hadn’t made me sketchier in her eyes at least. Phew.
Haruka-chan looked up at me curiously. “I’m sorry,” she said a little apologetically, “until we talked, I thought you were pretty suspicious…”
“Oh, you did?” I commented with a wry smile.
“…But I guess you really are her friend!” she said as she let go of the keychain alarm.
“I’m glad I could clear your suspicions.”
I was sincerely glad—mainly that I was no longer dreading the moment a small mistake would get me branded a criminal. Atafami really does bring people together.
“…I wonder what’s the matter with her?” Haruka-chan murmured. “She won’t tell me anything.”
The wariness on her face was slowly easing.
“…I see.” I carefully digested what she had said.
Hinami wasn’t hiding from her family that something was wrong, but she wouldn’t even tell her sister. Haruka-chan adored her older sister, so I’m sure that was sad for her. As someone who was also concerned about Hinami, I could understand her feelings, too.
But Haruka-chan was her family, growing up in the same house—plus, she was a middle schooler.
While it would hurt to have the older sister she loved so clearly draw a line between them, it was an allowable amount of hurt for a middle schooler.
“I’m worried, too, but she won’t tell me anything… Actually, she won’t even give me the time to talk,” I said.
“Oh…I see,” Haruka-chan said, her gaze going to the window of her own house. If my memory was correct, that was Hinami’s room.
Though Hinami couldn’t go to school, she wouldn’t tell the reason why to me or even to her sister. Aoi Hinami was the same as me—she was still alone, after all.
She’d told me of her past before—that her sister had passed away, and that she didn’t know the real reason for it.
Of course I couldn’t ask about that directly, but maybe I could learn some small clue as to the reason Hinami had gotten like that—even a shred would do. So if I could manage it—what should I ask Haruka-chan?
As I was mulling over that, Haruka-chan said my name with some determination. “Um, Tomozaki-san!”
“Yeah?”
She looked up at me with a serious expression. “—What’s my sister usually like at school?”
I wasn’t expecting that.
“I only know how she is at home… I want to know more about her at school!”
I recalled the obvious.
“Yeah…”
Caring about Hinami and wanting to know more about her—wanting to help her somehow—
—I was not the only one who felt that way.