I kept slurping up soba noodles like nobody’s business, only stopping to take a bite of one of the fried rice balls or to cool my mouth off with a sip of banana juice. It wasn’t the best drink pairing for a meal like this, admittedly, but I could hardly complain when I was prepared to devour anything and everything in sight without even remembering to breathe. I felt all five of my senses slowly growing clearer and clearer with every bite of chewed-up food matter I gulped down my throat. This was beyond the realm of deliciousness—I felt like a cadaver returned to life.
After guzzling the last drop of remaining broth, I set the bowl on the table. Satisfied, I opened my eyes again, and finally, I could truly appreciate the beautiful sight laid out before me. It was a scene that I’d been trying to recapture for what felt like ages: Karen and I, merely existing in the same space, enjoying our carefree lives together.
“So how was it?” she asked with a smile. This was the first time I was cognizant enough to truly recognize and appreciate her as Karen, my little sister. The moment I did, the flood of emotions I’d bottled up for years came rushing to the surface, crashing over me in waves. Every little detail about her was so vivid, so exactly the way I remembered it. Everything from her smile, to the way she breathed, to her tiny mannerisms, all the way down to how each individual strand of hair in her bangs swayed back and forth with every slight movement of her head. Suddenly, my vision blurred, and I heard a single water droplet plip into the empty noodle container. The dam burst, and that first drop was followed by an endless stream of tears as I broke down into a sniveling, sobbing mess. The tears were hot against my cheeks, and it was all I could do to keep myself from bawling loudly and inconsolably.
Then Karen reached out and ran her fingers through my hair, tracing her soft little hands up and down the length of my scalp. “You’ve been trying so hard for so long, Big Brother.”
There was a maternal gentleness to her tone, almost as though the words radiated actual heat that melted something cold and hard inside of me.
I nodded. I nodded over and over.
After thanking her for the meal and cleaning up after myself, I’d finally managed to calm down quite a bit. That was the most satisfying meal I’d had in my entire life thus far. My chest was still fluttering with euphoric contentment. “…Hey, Karen.”
“Yeah?”
I had to ask her something, now that I was once more in a sound state of mind. Something I absolutely had to verify, even if I wouldn’t like the answer. “Are you…actually the real Karen?”
Karen groaned, putting her elbows on the table and resting her head in her hands. “This again? You really can’t tell, huh? I thought I told you, I’m—” she began, then stopped short as her lips curled into a mischievous grin. “Well, which do you think I am, Kaoru? The real Karen or an impostor?”
“Hey, don’t answer my question with another question.”
“But it’s more fun that way!” Karen flashed her canines. To be sure, it was hard to feel that annoyed when I knew it was all in good fun for her. “Well, Kaoru? C’mon, let’s hear it. Which do you think I am?”
It seemed I had no choice but to play along with her little game.
“I think…” I inhaled a shallow breath. Karen looked at me with innocent eyes, eagerly awaiting my answer. “I think you’re the real one.”
“Is that your final answer?”
“Y-yeah.”
“Well, there you go, then! Don’t let me tell you any different.”
I’d seen the anticlimactic punch line coming, yet it still earned my groan. Surprisingly, this joke answer actually resonated with me, and I was pretty satisfied with it. In the end, there was really no way to know if this Karen was an elaborate fake conjured by the tunnel to deceive me, nor any clear definition of what “real” meant in a supernatural situation like this. In that case, all I could really do was believe what I wanted to believe. That’s what I assumed Karen was trying to tell me.
“You’re right. All that matters is that you’re real to me…” I agreed, hoping that by saying it aloud, it might make it feel more like the truth.
“Anyway, enough about that! We’ve got watermelon in the fridge, Kaoru! We should have some!”
“Sounds like a plan.”
I decided that worrying about it any further wasn’t going to get me anywhere, so I stood up, and we headed to the kitchen. Opening the door to the fridge, I saw that inside, there was indeed a plate of sliced watermelon covered in plastic wrap. Below that were a variety of other treats, as well as a vast assortment of drinks, just like Karen had said, including a few bottles of Cheerio and Lifeguard. I didn’t know where she’d gotten all this stuff, but something told me it would be pointless to ask.
We sat on the veranda and sank our teeth into the juicy watermelon, its ice-cold flesh gushing sweet nectar directly into our mouths. It had to be the best watermelon I’d ever tasted. When Karen started spitting the seeds into the yard, I followed suit. Soon, all-out war began as we duked it out to see who could spit their seeds the farthest. It was so much fun, I actually started crying.
“Sheesh, Kaoru! Since when have you been such a crybaby? Aren’t you supposed to be the older sibling here?”
“Yeah… You got me there,” I replied, sniffling. “But you can’t blame me. People actually cry more when they’re older, y’know. ’Cause they get more sappy and sentimental about stuff.”
“They do?”
“Yeah. Pretty sure I read that somewhere.”
“Huh. I thought people were only supposed to get tougher when they grew up.” Karen swung her legs back and forth as they dangled over the edge of the veranda.
“Well, some do, that’s for sure. I knew one person who was very tough.”
“Yeah? What were they like?”
“Oh, man… Where do I even begin?”
Incidentally, it was Anzu who had immediately popped into my mind.
“She was the prettiest girl you ever saw, but could hold her own in a fistfight right up there with the best of ’em. This one time, she stood up to a super intimidating guy who was way bigger and older than her, but even when he started slapping her across the face and kicking her in the stomach, she didn’t bend or break… She kept her cool and waited for an opening to strike back. That’s the sort of girl she was. At first, I was honestly kind of afraid of her, but once we started spending time together, I realized she’s actually pretty damn cute once you get to know her…”
“Do you have a crush on her, Kaoru?” Karen asked, looking up at me with pure, wide-eyed curiosity.
I set my half-eaten slice of watermelon on the plate and gazed out over the ocean. “…Yeah. I think I do, actually.”