“So what do you think?” “Hey, what do you think?” They both asked me for my input at the same time, and I reflexively took a step back. “U-um…” “Th-the facility I lived in had flowers in the foyer…,” I said. A smug expression crept onto Nitori’s face as she went, “Hmph!” “B-but we didn’t buy those flowers. We grew them in a flower bed in the garden.” Now it was Ichika’s turn to shoot Nitori a look, as if to say, “See?” “Ugh, geez. Fine. From now on, I’ll pick flowers from the garden and use those to decorate.” “You’re going to change the water in the vase, right?” “Obviously!” Nitori shook her head like she was saying, “You’re so annoying!” But Ichika responded coolly: “I wonder. While we’re on the subject, let me point out that I’m always the one taking out the garbage and doing the laundry.” “N-not always…” “Okay, not always, but there are four of us, and I’m doing more than half the work.” Ichika’s unhappy tone drained the fire from Nitori’s voice. My heart sank, too. It had been almost two weeks since we started living together. Living together as sisters was starting to lose its special shine and feel more like natural, everyday life. At first, it had been all fun, like one big sleepover. But as things became routine, the hard parts started to outweigh the fun, especially when it came to chores. Like if we didn’t take the trash out on trash day, it would sit there forever in the can. And laundry stayed dirty for eternity unless we ran the washing machine and hung our clothes out to dry. No grocery runs meant no food, and then we’d go hungry. Even the hallway was covered in dust by the end of the day if we didn’t do anything. It was a constant reminder of just how much the grown-ups in my life had been helping me. I knew that someone had to take care of the chores, but there were so many things I wasn’t sure how to do…and before I realized it, most of the burden had fallen on Ichika, who was used to handling chores. “Honestly, you’re sloppy when it comes to chores, Nitori. Just today, you left the plates we used for the Hamburg steak in the sink. If you don’t rinse them off first, the sink will get all greasy.” “Can’t help it. We don’t have a dishwasher.” “That’s normal. Everyone washed things by hand at my foster parents’ house.” “It’s normal to have a dishwasher. Your hands get all prune-y otherwise. Anyway, you’re being too nitpicky. Who cares if you rinse plates or not before putting them in the sink?” “And you’re being way too nitpicky about the flowers!” I was busy in thought; meanwhile, the two of them were getting more and more heated. Eek, at this rate, they were gonna have a full-on fight! I quickly jumped in. “Hey! How about we each stick to the chores we care about the most?! Oh, or maybe we could do it like how cleaning duty is assigned at school!” They looked a little startled by me suddenly cutting in, but then they seemed to understand and smiled gently. “Yeah… Sure. What were we even fighting about? You’re right, Mifu.” “If something’s botherin’ you so much, then fix it yourself! That sorta thing, huh?” Nitori said. The sharp tension from before seemed to vanish in an instant. “Hey, do we have any large sheets of paper, like drawing paper? Even the back of a calendar would work.” “I have an idol poster I don’t need,” Nitori offered Ichika. “I’ll take it!” “Sure!” Nitori said and ran upstairs, quickly returning with a white-backed poster. “Okay, Mifu, go get Shizuki.” “Huh?” I blinked, struggling to follow the sudden change of pace. “We’re about to kick off the Miyabi Family Chore Division Meeting,” Ichika said with a wink. Miyabi Family Chore Division Chart Ichika: Kitchen, Dining Room Nitori: Foyer, Hallway, Stairs As soon as the four of us gathered around the dining room table, my big sisters immediately began writing on the white paper with chunky pens. Shizuki and I just watched them, mouths hanging open. “Mifu, what do chores do you want?” Nitori passed the pen to me like it was a relay baton. “Er, I…I’ll…um…” I thought for a minute, and my shoulders drooped. “There’s nothing I’m particularly good at or picky about…” It sounded like I was useless and couldn’t do anything, didn’t it? I felt a little down on myself. But Ichika didn’t seem to notice, and she raised her finger high. “How about the living room, then?” “Huh? Oh, s-sure!” I nodded several times at Ichika’s smiling face. I didn’t know if I was up to it, but I couldn’t afford to say something timid like that in this atmosphere. O-okay, then…! Mifu: Living Room, I wrote boldly on the white paper, and Ichika gave a satisfied chuckle. “What about you, Shizu?” Nitori nudged the pen and paper at Shizuki impatiently. “Um…” Shizuki looked at her with frightened eyes. Maybe she was having trouble following the conversation? “It’s for the spot you’ll be in charge of cleaning and stuff. Where do you want?” “I’m…fine with any… Um…o-outside, maybe…?” Shizuki’s gaze darted all around: to Ichika, then the paper, then Nitori, then the pen. “Outside? Like the balcony or the garden?” “…” Shizuki nodded but looked a little flustered. Maybe…she was like me and not good at anything in particular, so she meant to say, “Here I am, out of my room, so please just decide for me”? “That’s a big help. The balcony’s all covered in pollen.” “Yeah. And the weeds in the garden are going wild.” I thought they were being a little overbearing, but Ichika and Nitori had already moved on to the next topic. “What about locking up?” “You mean closing the storm shutters and checking the locks? Shouldn’t the two of us do that? We’re the big sisters. More importantly, what about the toilet and bath—?” They did argue a lot, but they were in perfect sync now that they’d joined forces. They quickly worked everything out together, leaving Shizuki and me out of the picture as we stood on the sidelines.
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But that wasn’t right. I was a member of the family, too! Once I gathered up my courage, I said, “Okay!” and took Shizuki by the hand, faced the two of them, and shouted, “Hey, include us!” “Oh.” Ichika and Nitori stopped talking and quickly made room for us. “Of course,” Ichika immediately said. “Sorry for getting carried away with ourselves.” “We were just talking about how to handle taking out the trash.” “I—I think we should take turns. There are some days without trash pickup, but the days are fixed…so weekly shifts seem fair.” Bit by bit, I made an effort to express my opinion. “I see. You’ve got a point. What do you think, Shizu?” “…I think that’s fine.” Shizuki seemed as unlikely to speak up for herself as ever. Still, her eyes now lacked that scared look she’d had before. Our chore meeting continued. “All right! The Miyabi family rules are decided!” We peered at the paper that Nitori had excitedly thrust at us. Miyabi Family Chore Division Chart Ichika: Kitchen, Dining Room Nitori: Foyer, Hallway, Stairs Mifu: Living Room Shizuki: Outside We clean our own rooms. Toilet, bathroom, and trash duties are on a weekly rotation. The four of us handle laundry as quickly as possible in the mornings together. Cooking and grocery shopping alternate between the big sisters (Ichika, Nitori) and the younger sisters (Mifu, Shizuki). “Oh…! Wow!” I blurted out. Rules and assignments would normally be something I’d think of as annoying or a pain. But these were rules I could love. Because they were our family rules. No one was telling us to do this or do that; they were rules that the four of us had decided on our own, for ourselves! “Let’s start tomorrow. Who’s first up on toilet-cleaning duty?” “How about we rock-paper-scissors for it?” Ichika suggested. We all held out our fists. “Rock, paper, scissors!” All four of us threw paper first. “Tiebreaker!” We all threw scissors. “Tiebreaker!” Then we all threw rock. “Tiebreaker!” “Tiebreaker!” “Tiebreaker!” “Tiebreak—” We kept tying and tying…until I finally lost on the twentieth round. “…I was starting to think we were cursed,” Nitori said. “That’s identical sisters for you…” My big sisters looked fed up. Even Shizuki let out a sigh. “Ha-ha-ha,” I laughed weakly. “Maybe we should draw lots next time instead of rock-paper-scissors…” Moving on—before, the chores had only been done (or overlooked) when someone noticed. Now that we’d divided them, we would develop a sense of responsibility. And I was on duty this week! I’d do my best as a member of the family.