Chapter 3

As we started to follow her, we heard—thump, thump, thump, thump—as she rocketed up the staircase. “Whoa, this is amazing! There’s a balcony! Oh, there’s one here, too! Wow!” Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump! Nitori’s footsteps echoed through the whole house. Sh-she has so much energy! We gathered at the base of the stairs, staring up at the second floor, dumbfounded. “Let’s head on up. We need to decide on our rooms,” Ichika said, and that was when it hit me. Right. The documents said everyone would have their own room! I’d been floored when I read that, thinking how luxurious it would be to have a space I didn’t have to share with anyone. At Kanro, all children in elementary school or younger slept in four-person rooms with bunk beds. Even when we reached junior high school, we were put in two-person rooms (of course, with bunk beds). “I call dibs on the Western-style room!” Nitori’s loud voice echoed down the stairs. “Don’t run! The sound carries like crazy down here!” Ichika answered in just as loud a voice and headed up to the second floor. I followed behind her. The stairs were a little steep. Maybe that’s just how old houses were? It felt a little dangerous. I climbed the stairs, holding the banister…and finally reached the top. “Wow…!” For someone who grew up in a children’s home like me, just being on the second floor of a house was a novelty. Straight ahead at the top of the stairs was a Japanese-style room. There was another at the end of the hallway, and to the left was a Western-style room. The idea that any of these could be mine filled me with joy, and an elated sigh escaped me. Drawn to the sunlight, I went into the Japanese-style room straight ahead. The inside looked like it was about eleven square meters. There was a closet on the right side, and a Japanese-style sliding door on the left. At the back I could see a sliding glass door that led out to a balcony. Oh, there was even a tiny display alcove! As I looked around, all excited, I heard Ichika talking to herself through the sliding door. The two Japanese-style rooms were connected through there. “I think I might go with this one. It gets good sunlight… Plus, I can dry my futon fast.” Oh yeah. We would have to air out our futons and stuff ourselves… There were only the four of us living in the house—in other words, no adults. Since this was practice for being independent, we had to handle all the chores ourselves. How did you even dry a futon…? Even if I didn’t know everything, I felt safe just having Ichika around. She seemed so dependable. “U-u-um…!” Gathering my courage, I slid open the door just a little. “What is it?” My doppelgänger peeked out. “I—I…I think I wanna take the room next to yours. Would that be okay?” Ichika smiled sweetly at me as I nervously met her gaze. “Of course. Happy to be your neighbor, Mifu.” “Same here, Ichika…!” The heavy tension in my heart gently melted away thanks to Ichika. Before I knew it, I’d managed to stop sounding so awkward. I…I did it! I talked to my big sister totally normally! My room was right next to my kind, reliable big sister! If I ever felt lonely, all I had to do was ask, “Ichika, are you there?” and her gentle voice would answer from the other side, “What’s up?” If we couldn’t sleep at night, we might whisper to each other, read books, or draw together. It might even be fun to sneakily eat a few sweets together—it’d be our little secret. I wanted to do that with all three of them, not only Ichika. Just picturing our future lives was enough to make my heart dance with excitement. My room definitely wasn’t shiny and new. The tatami mats were sun-bleached, the walls had tiny cracks in them, and most sounds carried over to the room next door. But I didn’t mind any of that stuff. “Do you think everyone’s doing okay, Mifu? Nitori’s probably fine, but what about Shizuki?” “Oh, right…! How is Shizuki…?” We went out and peeked down the stairs to find Shizuki still standing alone in the first-floor hallway. “Shizuki, which room do you want? Do you wanna be on the first floor?” “…” Shizuki glanced up at us and nodded just once. The first floor had a Western-style room, too—the one we’d all met up in earlier. But… “I wonder if that was really what Shizuki wanted…?” I fretted, but in the end, Ichika and I took the Japanese-style rooms on the second floor. Nitori took the Western-style room on the second floor. And the Western-style room on the first floor was left to Shizuki. “Next is…unpacking.” When Ichika pointed that out, Nitori grimaced. “Ugh… Wow…” We had gathered in the Japanese-style living room connected to the downstairs dining room. In front of us stood a massive wall of cardboard. This was going to be tough… The four of us couldn’t help but sigh as we stared at the mountain of stuff. “Well, we’ve got four people. If we work together, it’ll be done in a flash.” Nitori did a victory pose and grinned. Her smile was infectious and got me kind of excited about this pain of a cleanup.