The morning after the most shocking day of my entire life, a scent I couldn’t quite identify beckoned me out of sleep. It turned out to be the smell of miso. I groggily turned my head to the kitchen and found my little sister wearing the same apron as last night. She was busy pouring the miso soup she’d made for dinner last night into a pot.
“Oh, good morning, Big Bro,” she greeted.
“Ugh…”
Her smile was even warmer than the morning sunlight that streamed in through the windows. It reminded me of an expression my girlfriend would make, causing my heart to leap. To prevent them from overlapping again in my mind, I reminded myself of my stepsister’s name.
“Good morning, Shigure.”
“Did you sleep okay? Or did you end up tossing and turning all night with your poor little heart racing? I mean, only a single screen door separated you from your adorable little sister.”
“I slept just fine, thanks,” I retorted dryly.
“Really?” she giggled. “Well, that aside, I’ve finished making breakfast. I’m going to get the table set up, so I’d appreciate it if you put your futon away.”
As instructed, I sluggishly dragged myself out of bed. My body felt like it’d been replaced with a sack of bricks. Sure, I’d claimed to have “slept just fine,” but that had been a complete lie. Could anyone really blame me? I’d spent the night a few feet away from a girl who was the spitting image of my girlfriend, a thin screen door the only barrier between us. That would’ve unsettled anyone.
Even so, I hadn’t been conscious of the fact for very long. Before we’d gone to sleep, I’d learned about Shigure’s true nature. She and Haruka were like night and day in that respect, regardless of how similar they looked. It had been a blessing, in a way—their opposite personalities helped me to view them as different people.
In fact, I could see myself getting along with Shigure as family. At the same time, the idea of this dominatrix learning about Haruka filled me with uneasiness. So, no, I hadn’t lost any sleep over Shigure—I’d been up all night worrying about my girlfriend.
How am I going to explain this situation to Haruka?
It was a doozy of a problem, and one that I couldn’t exactly hide from. What would Haruka think, knowing that I—her boyfriend—lived with her spitting image? To make matters worse, I had no power to do anything about the situation.
Still, I was confident that if I just talked to Haruka, she would understand. I needed to let her know about Shigure as soon as possible—and not via some wimpy text message or anything like that. It needed to be in person. After several agonizing hours of tossing and turning last night, I’d arrived at the conclusion that I’d tell her about it during lunch time today.
I’d finally managed to fall asleep well past 2:00AM. No wonder my body felt so heavy.
Rubbing my tired eyes, I put away the futon and sat myself down at the dining table. For breakfast, we had steaming-hot white rice, leftover miso soup, golden fried eggs, and minced cabbage. I hadn’t enjoyed a warm, freshly made breakfast in years—probably not since my mom had passed away.
“Thanks,” I said. “We’ll need to decide on shifts for chores and stuff.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, what did you do for breakfast while you still lived alone?” she asked.
“I either ate leftover bread or nothing at all.”
“No surprise there. Yeah, you’re not going anywhere near the food. Instead of shifts, I think it’d be better if we divided the housework. I’ll handle the cooking and the laundry. You can take out the garbage and wash the dishes. How does that sound?”
“I’m cool with it if you are,” I replied.
“Well, that settles that!”
As we continued deciding on our specific roles around the house, I helped myself to the breakfast she’d prepared. I’d already gotten a brief taste of it last night, but her cooking was spectacular. Yesterday’s main dish had been salmon grilled with a generous sprinkling of salt. This morning, we were enjoying hearty plates of fried eggs and miso soup. I hadn’t expected there to be much room for innovation in what she’d cooked, but there was still a world of difference between Shigure’s meals and what I’d managed to slap together on occasion.
The salmon last night had been pleasantly moist and had possessed a rich sweetness. Likewise, the eggs had been cooked just enough to still be runny. The miso soup was equally as appetizing. It was fragrant, and each mouthful was a textural delight—finely cut enoki mushrooms added a pliant resistance to the otherwise unassuming dish.
All in all, her culinary abilities were quite impressive. If Shigure had been my little sister during my single days, I would’ve turned out as one hell of a degenerate older brother, no doubt about it.
While I piled heaps of praise on her cooking, Shigure set down her chopsticks and spoke up. “By the way, I have something important to discuss before we go to school.”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Starting today, I’ll also be going to Seiun.”
Wait, there was only one place with that name around here! Seiun High was the school I attended. It was a relatively well-known and prestigious private school within the Kanagawa Prefecture.
“Oh,” I responded. “I guess that means we’ll be going to the same school.”
“We should be in the same class, too. You’re also in advanced placement, right?”
“Seriously?” I blurted out.
Seiun only had one AP class. That meant we would be in the same room for our two remaining years.
“Looks like we’ll be seeing each other around the clock, huh?” I joked, trying to make light of the situation.
“Yep. And for that exact reason, I’d like to keep our relationship as siblings a secret.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Where’s your sense of imagination? Just think about it—even if we are siblings because of our parents’ marriage, we just met each other yesterday. If people found out about our living situation, it would make for perfect fap material for the boys!”
“PUH!” I made an odd choking sound as my mouthful of miso was promptly evacuated through my nose. Agh! It burns! It burns! “Girls shouldn’t be talking about things like fapping!” I cried out.
“It’s the truth. I’m not going to mince words,” she stated flatly. “Anyways, I don’t want to deal with those kinds of bad vibes on my first day at a new school.”