“This dream again...” Kai squinted his eyes at the light leaking in through the gaps of his curtain. The spring sunlight felt warm and soft, but the terrible dream had ruined it for him. There were still ten whole minutes before his alarm was set to go off. He unset the alarm on his smartphone and sluggishly got up. How many times would he have to relive that dream?
“...gh.” Kai covered his mouth as his nausea began to swell up. Whenever he dreamed about that school or thought back on it in any way, his stomach would begin to turn, or he’d become unbearably dizzy. He’d run from both his club and his school, but couldn’t even get away in his dreams. What was he meant to do, then?
Slowly, and as deeply as possible, he breathed in and out to clear his mind. “Phew,” he finally exhaled, letting out another deep breath. After a moment of staring at the pitch black screen of his phone, Kai finally calmed down, and then it was the time he’d set his alarm for in the first place.
Figuring he should wash his face, Kai got out of bed and went into the living room. There was no need to turn on the light, since it was already on. There in front of him was the very image of someone who had just woken up; dressed in a jersey and watching TV, Kai’s older sister, Misako, was loudly slurping a cup of tea.
She pushed up a pair of strong glasses and looked over at him with a dead gaze. There were huge bags under her eyes. Usually, her long, silver hair would be running wild due to bed head, but today it seemed soft and obedient. She probably hadn’t slept at all.
“Good morning, Kai,” she said.
“What are you doing, nee-san?”
“I’ve made so much progress with my work that I figured I needed something to do with all my spare time,” Misako explained. “So I figured I’d come check in on my little brother, who’s not used to living by himself yet.”
“I keep telling you this,” he retorted, “but I think your manuscript will stay white as snow if you come over.”
Misako froze solid and began staring without saying a word. She then knocked back the rest of her tea and silently took off her glasses. The eyes behind the glasses were almond-shaped and, along with her slender face, gave off a fox-like impression.
“Don’t take off your glasses just to glare at me...” he told her.
Her squinting eyes made a deep wrinkle in her brow, wasting her pretty face just for the sake of glaring. If Kai tried something like that, he’d probably look like a scrunched up persimmon.
“Kai,” she said icily.
“What?”
“You better apologize quickly, or else...” Misako smiled, as if she were about to unleash her hidden trump card. “Your older sister’s gonna... cry.”
When foxes play tricks on humans, this must be the look on their faces. That’s what her smile made Kai think.
“I’m gonna cry, I’m about to cry!” she wailed. “I’m gonna cry in three seconds! Ooooone, twoooooo, th—”
“I’m sorry,” Kai quickly apologized. “I went too... well, I didn’t go too far, but maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Splendid,” said Misako, contentedly replacing her glasses. “Now, allow me to prepare a portion of tea for you. But first, I do implore you to go and wash that uncouth look off of your face.”
It seemed that her current novel included characters that were something like nobility or knights. Misako changed her speech mannerisms at the drop of a hat depending on her mood and, being a novelist, the stories she created.
“Thanks.”
“What’s this, mademoiselle?” Misako asked grandly. “Have you fallen for me?”
“I’m a guy, remember?” Kai was about to tell her that she should wash her face too, but managed to stop himself. Conversations with Misako tended to go on and on once they started. Instead of just blabbing on one-sidedly, she had a habit of wrapping the other person up in the conversation as well, causing it to drag on endlessly. Instead, Kai sighed as he finally made his way toward the washroom.
That being said, it wasn’t as if his home was exceptionally large. There were only two rooms: the bedroom, which held his bed, and the living room, which currently held Misako. Other than that, there was only a hallway connected to the living room, which in turn led to the powder room, laundry room, and bathroom. It was more than big enough for a high schooler living on his own.
Living alone cost money, so Kai initially planned to live in a smaller one-room apartment. However, Misako (who had already been living in the area) put up a lot of resistance to this notion, so he’d scrapped the idea. According to Misako, Niigata was a snowy region, and its winters were much colder than anything in Tokyo; a single room wouldn’t retain warmth without a vestibule, no matter how long you ran the heating unit.
In the living room behind him, Kai could hear Misako humming as she made tea. He listened to her strange humming all the way to the washroom, where he pooled the water flowing out of the faucet into his hands and splashed his face vigorously. The Niigata tap water soaked into his mouth; its flavor was far removed from his slowly fading memories of Tokyo. For the first time, Kai felt as if he could wake up from his nightmare.
“Did you need something?” he asked, upon returning to the living room.
In response, Misako shrugged her shoulders in such an exaggerated motion that it looked like they were about to fall off. “Don’t be so cranky,” she reprimanded him. “I’ll have you know that your parents have kindly asked me to watch over their precious son.”
“And they told me to look after my careless sister,” he retorted.
“It goes without saying that I care for my baby brother every day,” Misako went on, completely ignoring his rejoinder. “But of course, today is the day my brother sets out on his journey in a new world! This calls for...”
“For...?”
“A prayer that you’ll screw up your first impression spectacularly!”
“You’re terrible...” he muttered. In all likelihood, this was the true purpose behind Misako’s visit, which is why it wasn’t funny. She was definitely being serious, because it’d be more fun for her that way.