10 What Is “Family”? “I can’t be part of your family…” Shizuki’s words had been echoing in my head ever since that night. After school, I sat alone at my desk in class and sighed. For days now, whether I was in class or on break, my mind wandered back to that moment. I’d been so happy to have a family of my own… Shizuki wasn’t even thinking about being happy. She thought she couldn’t be part of our family at all. We’d kept trying to reach out, hoping she’d open up to us soon…but maybe we had only been annoying her instead. What she’d said to Ichika was also bothering me a lot. “I decided not to make friends.” Why would Shizuki say something so sad…? Just then, I happened to glance out the window. “Oh…” I saw Ichika and Nitori walking home together. For some reason, the two of them seemed to be picking up the pace a little toward the school gate. Were they going shopping? I watched as Nitori suddenly brought her face close to Ichika and whispered something in her ear. Ichika immediately burst into giggles and walked even faster. Then they were gone. They kinda…looked like they were having a lot of fun… I felt a little lonely and sighed again. Lately, I was constantly seeing my big sisters spending time together. Once in a while, they seemed like they were talking about something in secret…and would quickly stop whenever Shizuki and I showed up. “I wonder what they really think about Shizuki…” Ever since the night she told us she couldn’t be part of our family, the two of them had stopped saying her name so much. Could they have given up on her? The thought made me…sad. Family was supposed to be warm, and everyone could get along and speak their mind… You could make up right away, even if you fought, and then get along even better than before… At least, that’s what I’d thought. But the secret conversations lately had made even me feel distant from my big sisters. “No…! There’s no distance. We’re family,” I muttered to myself, shaking my head quickly. Just then… Pat! “Ack!” Someone tapped me on the shoulder! Stopping myself from jumping into the air, I turned around and… “Mifu! Hee-hee. Did I scare ya?” …found Minato and his mischievous smile. We saw each other every day in class, but he still managed to surprise me and get my heart racing. “Geez…! You made me jump!” I pretended to be a little mad to hide how nervous I was. I wonder if I fooled him. “Hee-hee, sorry. I have something to show you,” Minato said, then he opened his bag and pulled out a big, square book. “I borrowed it from the library. Ever heard of this photo book? Living with Penguins in Town.” “Penguins…?! Wow, so cute…!” “Right? Since you have a penguin on your bag, I figured you liked them.” Minato pointed to my schoolbag. The penguin mascot hanging there was my favorite. A long time ago, I’d wanted it badly when I went on a field trip to the aquarium with everyone at Kanro, and I had used my meager allowance to buy it. So he’d noticed. His quiet thoughtfulness made happiness spread through my body, and my heart felt soft and light. I went along with him and flipped through the pages. In a southern country, Cape penguins share a town with humans. Below that sentence were photos that seemed almost unreal—penguins nesting in home gardens, inside fences, and behind vending machines. They lived in the town like stray cats. I kept flipping through the pages, entranced, and stopped at a two-page spread showing a woman and a penguin playing in shallow water. “That’s so cute…!” I couldn’t help but smile. “You finally smiled.” I heard Minato’s voice right next to my ear. I looked up to find his gentle gaze watching me closely. “You look cute when you smile, Mifu.” His radiant grin aimed right at me made my cheeks heat up. Minato had moved his seat to sit right beside me without my even realizing. The two of us were alone in the classroom. We were so close, we’d touch if we shifted even slightly. I didn’t know how to answer. Whatever I said would probably come out sounding weird.
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I stayed frozen, and Minato frowned slightly. “You know, you’ve seemed down lately.” “What…? I have?” “Yeah. You were totally zoning out during class. It was a little worrying. Did something happen?” Minato was…so kind. The nervousness in my chest quickly changed to warmth. “Um… To tell you the truth…I’ve been struggling to get along with Shizuki…” I found myself blurting out the worry I’d been holding inside. “Get along with her?” “That’s right. Ever since I met her, Shizuki—” “Huh? Met?” He cocked his head, and it hit me. Oh no! Minato didn’t know about our situation! “U-um…er… I mean… Since forever…” “Oh, right.” Improvising a lie gave me a sharp ache in my chest. Of course I hadn’t wanted to lie to him. But…back in elementary school, people often said mean things to me or gave me weird looks because I didn’t have any parents. Telling him the truth would be painful…and scary. “Shizuki is definitely shy…” Minato thought for a moment before continuing. “She’s always by herself at school. And she’s the only one who doesn’t wear a hair clip like the rest of you do.” He even noticed that? Minato had been paying attention to my sisters, too—not just me. Was it because we were unusual quadruplets who stood out? Or was it because they were my sisters? Ah, whatever, what was I even thinking? I was there to talk about Shizuki. “R-right. So I basically told her, ‘Let’s try to get along better,’ but…” “And she shut you out?” “Kind of… Things are a little awkward now… I don’t know how to make things right with her,” I said, looking down. But Minato just laughed like it was nothing, leaned back in his chair, and gazed up at the ceiling. “I get it. That’s pretty common, but it’s still rough. I have a big sister who’s three years older and a little sister who’s two years younger, and we fight every day.” I heard the words big sister, little sister, and fight, and I looked up in surprise. “What? You have a big and little sister?” “Didn’t I tell you? I’m a middle child of three.” “Wow…!” His family structure seemed kind of similar to mine. Curiosity bubbled up inside me, and I stared at Minato’s face. “What do you fight about?” I asked, and Minato touched his hair and pursed his lips. “Hmm, for example, my big sister totally hogs the bathroom mirror in the morning, so I always have to fix my bedhead at the mirror in the foyer.” I laughed a little trying to imagine it. Ichika and Nitori fought about the same thing. “Geez, Nitori! Hurry and move!” “It’s my turn right now! There are other mirrors!” Only having one of something always led to fights. “My little sister’s in her rebellious phase. She’s constantly on her phone and doesn’t talk to anyone, mostly.” Oh, his little sister might be a bit like Shizuki. I found myself leaning in and asking, “And then what?” “Then one day, I got angry and told my older sister, ‘Enough already!’ and she snapped back, ‘Shut up!’ and it turned into a full-blown fight. Then my younger sister went, ‘I can’t deal with either of you. You’re both banned from my room!’” Yep, that sounded even more like Shizuki. “And what happened after that?” “What do you mean, ‘after that’?” “How did you make up?” “Huh…? Hmm… I wouldn’t say we make up…” Minato hummed for a minute, then grinned lazily. “Don’t sibling fights usually fix themselves without anyone realizing?” “Huh?” Here I was seriously waiting for an answer… I deflated, hitting the desk with a thunk. “R-really? You just go back to normal without realizing it?” I asked him again to be sure, and Minato continued cheerfully, “Yeah. I mean, we’re family. Isn’t that normal?” Isn’t that normal…? My mind became a total mess at those words. The floor beneath my feet seemed to bend and warp like waves. Normal… Normal… What even…was “normal”?