Ten minutes had passed since Yuuki and Yui had parted ways. He made his way through the city, eventually taking an opposite turn midway through the road leading from the school to the train station, and finally reaching a residential area consisting of rows of apartment buildings. He hurried through the entrance of his five-story building in an effort to avoid any potential rain. Once inside, he passed through the lobby and opted to take the stairs to reach his second floor apartment rather than use the elevator, which was currently stuck at a higher floor.
He shared his apartment with his father and his little sister. The apartment itself consisted of a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a veranda.
Speaking of his father, his routine consisted of waking up early in the morning in order to commute to his workplace downtown, so he was inevitably destined for a late arrival back home more often than not. To make matters even worse, he had been assigned on a long-term business trip that forced him to rent an apartment in Kansai, making him only able to see his children once during the weekend, if that. As a result, Yuuki mostly lived alone together with his sister Mina, who was three years younger than him.
When Yuuki unlocked the door and entered the apartment, he noticed that Mina’s shoes were nowhere to be found. Not only that, but the place was eerily silent, and all the lights had been turned off.
Maybe she got sidetracked on the way home? Yuuki thought to himself. As soon as he walked into the living room, however, a loud bang echoed throughout the place. The apartment that he had initially thought was empty was now suddenly bathed in light, as his little sister briskly leapt at him, party popper in hand.
“Ta-da! Lookie here! I made you a birthday cake all by myself! Are you surprised, or are you surprised?” she asked, excitedly pointing to the dining table. Her outfit wasn’t as questionable as it normally was; right now, she was simply dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of shorts.
“The second one,” Yuuki responded.
“Yay, I did it! I surprised Yukkie! Woo-hoo!” She celebrated, skipping around joyfully before proceeding to latch onto Yuuki’s arm and pulling him toward the table. Yuuki offered no resistance as he was dragged along by her. He sat himself down into the chair she had prepared for him and stared at the birthday cake she’d created. Laid in front of him was a frosted swiss roll cake decorated from top to bottom with canned fruits, which made it look quite heavy on the stomach. While Yuuki never would’ve expected Mina to have actually baked a cake all on her own, it was, nonetheless, a welcome surprise.
“No need to hold back! Dig right in~!”
“It’s not my birthday today, Mina.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s for your pre-birthday party.”
“You mean a post-birthday party.”
“Doesn’t matter! Who said it was illegal to eat a birthday cake outside your birthday, anyways?”
“How progressive of you.”
Mina cupped her chin in her hand and glared at Yuuki. She pondered her next move now that her vigor had been sapped by Yuuki’s calm and collected demeanor.
“If the birthday thing isn’t working for you, then how about... Aha, I got it! You know how we have Mother’s Day and Daddy’s Day? I think we can get away with having a Big Brother’s Day, too!”
“Don’t call it Daddy’s Day.”
“We already have the cake and everything, so we should make this your day and celebrate it! Let’s hear it for Yukkie! Hip hip hooray!” she cheered his name with enthusiasm, paying no attention to any possible protests since her mind was already set on having a party of some kind.
At least she’s having fun, Yuuki decided not to sweat the finer details. Besides, she was always an energetic one, and once she had made up her mind, nobody could convince her otherwise. Hence arguing with her on every little thing was simply not an option. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that his current indifference was a by-product of his interactions with her.
“I’d feel guilty if I had all of it by myself, though.”
“No worries! I already devoured some earlier.”
“So I was late to the party after all, huh? Also, you don’t use that word there. You could’ve just said that you had your share.”
“I gobbled it all up!” she declared while bowing firmly.
The way she spoke sounded off at times, but that’s to be expected, seeing as she was still in the middle of refining her speaking habits. It was necessary considering how her word choice tended to be strangely peculiar, and other times just outright weird. Not only did she often misuse words, but she also had a clear problem enunciating Yuuki’s name. Mina struggled with the intonation so much that she ended up creating a nickname for him that was easier for her to pronounce—Yukkie.
“Oh, by the way, I’m already full, so no lunch for me.”
“You must’ve had one heck of a piece.”
Mina pretended she didn’t know what he was talking about as she circled around and finally sat down across from him. Yuuki slowly came to the realization that she was probably afraid that he would get angry with her for making a cake and subsequently eating it all on her own. It would definitely explain the sudden birthday celebration shenanigans, which were clearly just a last-minute excuse to get away with eating cake.
“How is it? Taste good?” she asked, planting her elbows on the table and watching Yuuki cut himself a piece of the cake with his fork.
Mina had charming round eyes, smooth lips, and nearly translucent white skin that only further accentuated her youthfulness. Her face was narrow, and her body was petite to match. She had also recently grown her hair out to shoulder length so that she could wear it up in pigtails. According to the person herself, she apparently wanted to look like some sort of anime character.
“Very. But it might be a little too sweet for my liking,” Yuuki responded.
“Glad to hear it! Hey, can I get a bite?”
“You’ve already eaten more than enough.”
“Aaah...” she ignored him and opened her mouth wide, waiting for him to feed her.
He gave in and scooped up a piece of cake, making sure to get a lot of the icing, before tossing it into her mouth. Her expression softened into a smile.
It’s true Mina was his sister, but Yuuki couldn’t help but admit how good looking and adorable she was... on the outside, at least. Since most girls paled in comparison to her beauty, he'd developed a resistance toward even the most dazzling of women.
Yuuki resembled his father, while Mina was the spitting image of their late mother. The resemblance was even more apparent when looking at their mother’s own childhood photos.
Yuuki remembered how his father used to tell them stories about the days when he was still in school and about how their mother was idolised as a princess, akin to a flower far from anyone’s reach.
Though unfortunately, the phrase “whom the gods love die young” couldn’t ring any truer in her case. While Mina did inherit her mother’s pretty face—which happened to be the part about herself she loved the most—she was still a ways away from being an actual princess in terms of her habits.
“I’ll bake you one every three days!”
“Not necessary.”
Yuuki knew that she meant no harm, even if she was just fooling around. He was convinced that it all came from a good place, after all. She just wanted to take care of her brother and for him to be happy and enjoy himself.
Mina watched him as he finished up his portion and brought the plate into the kitchen, where he promptly rinsed it and left it to soak in the water. He noticed another plate which was covered in whipped cream hidden beside the sink, but decided to turn a blind eye to it, for Mina’s sake more than anything. He then returned to the living room and switched on the TV.
Mina followed him in and sat beside him not long after. Before long, she let out a yawn and drifted off to sleep. Yuuki spent the next few hours staring blankly at the screen, watching the news. Eventually, Yuuki glanced at the clock and realized that it was already six o’clock. He considered waking Mina up, who was still indulging in a very sound sleep on the sofa, but recalled that she’d mentioned skipping lunch today.
I guess I’ll go make whatever, he thought to himself.
He carefully got up from his seat and headed to the pantry to retrieve a bag of instant ramen. He took a pot out from the cupboards and brought some water to a boil before tossing the noodles into it. He then scoured the fridge for whatever ingredients he could find to enhance the taste. Eggs, bean sprouts, whatever. He let it simmer for a couple of minutes, then carried the entire pot to the table and dug in.
As he ate, he recalled how his father used to nag him about the noodles. Apparently, according to his dad, instant noodles were a poor man’s food. Yuuki put that thought out of his mind as he slurped down the noodles.
“Lemme have some of that,” Mina whispered in his ear. She’d just now appeared in the room and laid her hands on the table beside him.
“What happened to not wanting lunch?”
“Aaaah...” she opened her mouth wide once again.
“I just made it, so you better blow on it before you eat it. Unless you want to burn your tongue and run around the place like a headless chicken, of course,” Yuuki warned as he handed her a pair of chopsticks.
It took some doing, but eventually she was able to control her ardor and slow her pace. She slurped on them idly for a bit before suddenly spinning around and stomping off toward the bathroom.
“I’m gonna go have a bath!” she declared, her mouth still full of food.
“I haven’t prepared the hot water yet.”
“It’s okay! I got it!” she exclaimed loudly, exiting the room with equally noisy steps. She came back just as quickly as she’d left, however, as it seemed she was looking for another mouthful. A few minutes passed as she stayed put in one spot, slurping more of Yuuki’s noodles. It was a bizarre occurrence, considering how she normally acted, but before long, she was once again hurrying off to the bathroom now that the water was ready.
“I have successfully taken a bath!” Mina proclaimed. She’d only been in there for about 10 minutes, but still an abundance of steam spilled out of the bathroom. She stood in front of Yuuki, who was fiddling with his phone, with only a towel wrapped around her.