Chapter 15 - 2

Chapter 15: Chapter 2

17th of July (Friday)

Morning. I got off my bed, my head still in a sleepy daze, and stepped out of my room. As I walked down the hallway towards the bathroom, I subconsciously found myself walking quietly so that I didn't disturb any family members. This is one of the many changes I have come to terms with after the arrival of a step-sister—-Namely, the morning routine.

When it was just my old man and I living here, I didn't have to worry about my appearance. I just carelessly trotted down the hallway with bed hair, bleary eyes, and a disheveled pajama appearance. However, I can't be that careless now.

Now I have to be mindful of both Ayase-san and Akiko-san. Since they were still technically strangers to me, and female at that, I sure as hell didn't have the courage or confidence to let myself show any shameful appearance in front of them.

After confirming that the bathroom was indeed empty, I checked my face in the mirror. Freshening up my dried throat with a bit of gargling, I washed my swollen cheeks and used the razor to shave the small stubbles of a beard that had started to grow.

Perfect—would be a bit of a stretch, but at the very least I don't have to be afraid of showing myself in front of others, so I confidently made my way to the living room.

"Good morning, Ayase-san."

Of course, just like every morning, she was perfectly prepared. Her hair was styled with not a single strand of bed hair to be found, her makeup was placed with the utmost care without a single flaw, and she was already wearing our school uniform, ironed with no wrinkles, with an apron on top to protect it. As always, I have yet to see my perfect step-sister show any kind of opening.

I'm sure she must have been up late reading her Modern Japanese material and novels to gather all sorts of reliable information, and yet I had run into her at the exact time and with the exact same appearance as every other morning, which yet again reminds me of her immeasurable self-restraint. On top of that, her workbooks and smartphone were lying on the dining room table, like she was still in the middle of studying at this very moment.

When I called out to her, Ayase-san slowly raised her head, standing up from the table like it was the obvious thing to do.

"Good morning, Asamura-kun. Can I make something easy like fried eggs today?"

"Ah, I don't need any breakfast today. I'll just make some toast."

"Huh, why?"

"You want to focus on your studies, right?"

In the corner of my eye, I could see two plates in the kitchen that looked like they had just been washed. One of them probably belonged to my old man, who had made some quick breakfast this morning since he had to leave before everyone else. The other, naturally, was Ayase-san's. She probably didn't want to wait for me, so she went ahead and ate something light before securing as much time to study as possible.

"But we promised..."

"Right now, my debt's much bigger than yours. If you can focus on the makeup exam for now, then I don't have any room to complain." I responded without leaving her room to complain.

As a matter of fact, if she fails her makeup exam, she has to take supplementary lessons, which decreases the time she'll have to search for and work at a part-time job, and her overall studying efficiency will decrease as well. As a result, the condition of our agreement, which is her cooking food for me, will have to be dropped, and I'll have to worry about my own cooking.

Ayase-san must have realized that I didn't want to unnecessarily burden her, so she didn't argue back.

"Thanks. I'll take you up on that offer, then."

"You're welcome... or so I'd say, but it's not that big of a deal."

"...Okay." Ayase-san faintly smiled and sat back down again, facing the table.

After watching with a satisfied gaze as my step-sister went back into studying mode, I headed to the kitchen. All right! I guess I'll go all-out for once. I think I'll just have to use my secret technique of putting sliced cheese on my bread. Heh, heh, heh.

I started getting excited all by myself, pretending that I felt joy about such a mundane task. I guess highschool boys are simple in their search for happiness. Then again, maybe the girls are the same? I guess I'll have to ask Ayase-san another time. Another time when she's not busy studying, that is.

The toast ended up perfect. The cheese was a beautiful golden color. As expected from my artistic cheese-grilling skills. Even while I was fighting with the melted cheese stretching endlessly from the toast, Ayase-san kept her focus on the work in front of her. Once again, I can't help but admire her level of focus. Is it even possible for her to raise her academic efficiency more than this? I feel like any kind of work BGM wouldn't do anything, except maybe bother her.

"Mmmm...~"

By the time a good portion of my toast had disappeared into my stomach and I was in the mood for some coffee, Ayase-san stretched her arms far above her head, letting out quite a suggestive voice. No, wait, it just sounded suggestive to me. She herself surely had no intention of making it out to be that way. I'm sorry, Ayase-san.

The problem is that because she's wearing the thin summer uniform, when she stretches her arms like that, her sleeves fall down a bit and I can see her white skin. It practically forces me to become more conscious of her.

I shouldn't look at her in that way. That would just be rude—or so I kept telling myself while trying to calm my breathing, so I tried to strike up a more casual topic.

"Done for now?"

"Yup. Then again, I have to get going now."

"That's pretty early."

"It'll be much more efficient if I go batting first. I've already finished eating and preparing myself."

"Batting first" here referred to leaving the house first. Leaving the house at the same time to head to school together would make us stand out way too much, and my efficient step-sister wanted to avoid that. nove)lb.1n

"Makes sense. Take care."

"See you later."

"...Ah, wait a second!"

Right when she picked up her things and was about to leave the living room, I called out to her.

"What is it?" She turned around towards me.

"About studying while on your way to school..."

Last month, she was doing some English listening practice on her way to school, and she almost got run over by a truck. I don't like the idea of warning her because of past mistakes, but I couldn't help but worry about her even if it made me sound too meddlesome.

"I won't." She said while turning forward again.

After that, her face turned a bit red, and it seemed like she was sulking.

"I won't make the same mistake again."

"I'm glad to hear that. Sorry for nagging you."

"Don't worry about it. See you." She averted her gaze and left the living room.

It seemed like she was trying to run away. I guess I shouldn't have said that. The faint bitter taste of coffee still lingered on my tongue as I reflected on my failed communication. That incident was a bad memory for Ayase-san, and she was embarrassed by other people seeing her work hard. I can't blame her for having that reaction.

I guess I'm still far away from being a respectable older brother. I gulped down the rest of my coffee like I was trying to wash away bitterness with more bitterness. Then I realized something.

"In the beginning, she never let me see how hard she was working, right?"

What had she been doing for the past few minutes? What kind of appearance did she have yesterday? Even though I was right in front of her. The change was so miniscule that I hadn't even noticed, but compared to when we first met, she's been gradually showing me more sides to her, even her weaknesses. It's just a small step, but I feel like we've gotten closer as siblings.

Even though it was almost the beginning of summer break, a high-level school like ours cut us no slack. Under the pretense that we wouldn't even be able to remember all of it, the teachers practically rushed through the workbooks, getting as much time in as possible, and then stopped the classes whenever they saw fit. After that followed self-study and self-practice, or in the worst-case even idle chatter. All in all, it made for an atmosphere that wasn't conducive to any kind of diligent studying.

That's why nobody noticed me using my smartphone beneath the desk. I was busy searching through the vast ocean of the internet for any work BGM that I could send to Ayase-san, who was probably the one person studying the most in this entire school. Time passed by, and lunch break soon arrived. After I finished eating the bread I had bought previously, I silently stood up from my desk. Maru heard my chair moving behind him and turned towards me, away from his own phone.

"Oh? Where are you going, Asamura?"

"The library room." I gave a vague response.

I wasn't actually planning on heading there at all, but if I told him that I was going to be loitering around the school for a bit, he'd only pester me more due to his endless curiosity, so I came up with a white lie.

"Aight, gotcha." Maru answered, dropping his gaze down to his phone again.

This was what usually happened during recess, for both of us. Although both of us are indeed friends, we don't always talk with each other, let alone act clingy. We both respect each other's personal space, spending a lot of time on our own as well. Since both of us dislike being overwhelmed by other people, that's probably how we've managed to stay friends for such a long time.

I stepped out of the classroom and headed towards the library room. That wasn't my final destination, of course. I was merely walking down the hallway towards said library room. My Senpai at work, Yomiuri-senpai, recommended me a book once that said people come up with better ideas while walking around instead of just sitting down on a chair.

Ever since I read that, I've been trying it out. As you can probably tell, I'm terribly easy to influence. While searching for some good BGM, I was silently hoping that some great idea would suddenly hit me. I let my feet carry me down the hallway. Right when I arrived in front of the actual library room, someone suddenly tapped me on the back.

"Heeey! What's wrong, Onii-chan?!"

"...!"

I was so taken by surprise that I forgot to breathe for a second. When I turned around, I was greeted by a familiar female student. She gave me a warm smile brimming with curiosity. Her bright hair was styled up with light curls, giving her a stylish atmosphere. She's the secret popularity winner of the student year, as well as Ayase-san's classmate, Narasaka Maaya. And she's the only student here who knows that Ayase-san and I are step-siblings.

She gave off the impression of a cat that loves to tease its owner by hiding inside the dresser as she looked at me with several books in hand. It looked like she had just come out of the library room.

"Oh, it's just you, Narasaka-san. I thought you were some sort of Tōrima1."

"What's that supposed to mean?! There's no way we'd have something like that at this school."

"You never know when you might run into one, which is what makes them so dangerous, right?"

"Ehh, I thought this was totally normal~ Skinship and all that."

"Are you always like this, Narasaka-san?"

"Sure am."

"Even towards Ayase-san? I can't see that at all."

"Yup! With Saki as well! She always calls me annoying, but she's secretly happy about it."

I don't think she is.

"I would conclude that she finds you annoying."

"The deeper the annoyance, the deeper the love, as they say!"

"Nobody says that. Also, if you follow that line of thought any further, you'll get arrested for sexual harassment."

"Ehh? Why am I, a girl, being lectured about sexual harassment by a boy?"

"Sexual harassment works in both ways, see."

"Hmph. You sound just like Saki, Asamura-kun."

If someone already told you, then why didn't you give it careful thought?

"Also, you were walking while looking at your phone, Asamura-kun! Guilty! Guilty!"

"Ah, yes. Now you're blame-shifting."

"Hey now, we're not in class. You don't have to sound so intellectual!" Narasaka-san pouted.

Surprise attacks, skinship, an open-minded attitude, and a mentality to ignore every complaint and warning. All of these things should be enough for anyone to hate her, and yet I can't muster up any anger at all. Is it because of her small stature, or the way she talks? I don't know, but that is probably her own kind of charisma. If someone else tried to pull off what she does, they'd eat a stun gun to the gut. I can see how she's popular with the boys, at least.

"You read books?" I felt a bit guilty constantly complaining to her, so I brought up a different topic.

Judging from the covers of said books, they seemed to be novels targeted at a female demographic.

"These? They got the newest releases I've been looking forward to. Summer break's close, too!"

"You're the borrowing type, huh?"

As a part-time jobber at a bookstore, I really wish she'd buy them instead, but to each their own, I guess. People have different circumstances and allowances that dictates what they can buy, so I don't feel too comfortable forcing my own values on them.

"Exam period is always a time of restraint, so I just wanted to read them all! You feel me?"

"Ahaha, I get it. Judging from that reaction..."

"No supplementary exams for me! I didn't get a failing grade anywhere~"

"I see."

"I got a total of 808 points! How's that~?"

"Eh...?" I let out a dumbfounded voice.

As a result of that, Narasaka-san's expression of confidence and arrogance quickly distorted into one of discontent.

"Ah! You were shocked just now! You didn't expect me to get an average of 90, did you?!"

"...I'm sorry, you're absolutely correct." I confessed my sins.

"That hurts. I'm in the upper ranks of the student year, you know~"

"I shouldn't judge people based on the impression they give off... I will reflect on it."

"That impression basically amounts to me being an idiot, right!? Asamura-kun, are you some kind of airheaded S?"

"I didn't..."

Mean it that way—sounded like a weak excuse. When she uses the word 'airhead,' I can't talk back at all. Narasaka-san seized the opportunity my silence gave her to bring her face closer to mine.

"If you feel bad about it, then tell me one thing~"

"Eh? I mean... sure?"

"While you were walking and looking at your phone like that, you were flirting with Saki via text, right?"

"Um, no."

"Ehh, really? Saki's been on her phone all day, too. I was really jealous. I thought that you two were getting along super well."

"What a horrible misunderstanding to have."

I'm pretty sure she was probably just looking at novels again. Also, how does she even come up with that kind of ridiculous conclusion, despite knowing what kind of relationship we have? There's no way love would bloom between two people who just became step-siblings.

"I was looking something up."

"Really now?"

"Here's your proof."

Since Narasaka-san didn't sound satisfied at all, I showed her my smartphone screen.

"Work BGM? Why would you look for that?"

"Um, you see..." I immediately switched to polite language, trying to come up with an excuse, but quickly changed my mind. "I wanted to find some for Ayase-san."

"For Saki?"

I explained the details. After talking to Narasaka-san a few times, I realized that she's prone to misunderstandings. If I keep it a secret, or try to talk my way out of it, she'll just get the wrong idea about it again. If I give her the boring truth, that curiosity of hers wouldn't come to bite me in the ass later.

Of course, I left out the part about Ayase-san working harder than anybody else to fix her flaws, and just mentioned that she simply wanted to increase her academic efficacy. That way, I can respect her wish.

"Huh. You're looking for music for Saki's sake. Hmmm." She grinned.

"I think it'd be better for you to voice your true feelings in order to create a more favorable environment of conversation with other people."

"Ohh, so you say~ Asamura-kun, so you have confidence in your own communication skills?"

"......I'm sorry."

She hit me exactly where it hurt. Since I had practically dug my own grave, I chose to apologize instead of fighting back and pouring more salt into my wound.

"You're a great Onii-chan, you know. There's no need to be embarrassed. Hold your head high in pride."

"I don't think I deserve that title just because I'm helping her out a bit..."

"Phew, how upright~ I'm a great Onee-chan just by making food, you know."

"You have a little brother, right?"

I think I heard something along those lines from Ayase-san before.

"I do. A ton of them."

"A ton? You must be a big family."

"About 100."

"Huh?"

"Just kidding~ We're a normal family."

So how many little brothers does she have? I was pretty curious and wanted to ask, but the runaway train Narasaka-san wouldn't wait for me to hop on. She changed the topic before I could say anything.

"You really are upright, though. Looking up BGMs and searching for a good one? That's super sincere."

"Isn't that normal?"

"Hmmm?" As if she was unable to grasp my words, she tilted her head in utter confusion.

...Oh lord, she sounds serious about that.

"I mean, how else would you search for music if you're not looking into the material?" I asked her.

"Hmmm... I never really thought about it. I just pick whatever's playing, going by gut instinct."

"I mean, going through the recommendations section is useful, but..."

Recent music apps and streaming sites often offer you a list of recommendations created by an AI on the home screen, showing you similar songs to ones you've enjoyed before, or songs based on your search history. Even an antisocial type of person like me, who doesn't really follow mainstream media or jump on the bandwagon, uses the recommendations feature from time to time.

"But that's not all, right? You look up some music on your own, don't—"

"I don't, no?"

"Ah, I see... Is that so...?"

Since she showed utter confusion and disapproval in response to my own values and ideas, I could only droop my shoulders in defeat. Everyone has their own way of going about things, and I don't have the right to blame her for hers, yet I couldn't help but feel a bit bothered.

"You seem a bit disappointed."

"I know I don't have any right to be. It just comes about when your values don't match up with someone else's."

"Well, I'm more than happy with all the recommendations I get, you know~ If anything, I'm more curious as to why you would go out of your way to search for music."

"Only listening to the stuff recommended to me makes it feel like I have no will of my own."

"Huh~"

"...I know that I have a twisted personality."

So don't look at me with such an innocent gaze. It feels like I'm a vampire being bathed in sunlight. Unable to look her in the eyes, I covered my face and looked up at the ceiling. However, the reaction she had to that caught me completely off guard.

"That's great! I love that kind of thing!"

"You're making fun of me, aren't you?"

"Of course not! I think it's wonderful that you have that kind of self image!"

"...Thanks."

It's rare to find a person who's this skilled at praising others. It makes me wonder if all the outgoing people in the world are like that. When it comes to manga, anime, and games, any normie or outgoing person who appears in fiction always has some dirty secret, and they're depicted as some kind of evil guy.

Cheesy delinquent guys who try to pick up the heroines, the leader of a female clique in the classroom who always bullies the pretty girls, you always see evil stereotypes like these in media. Of course, I understand these characters are purely there for the sake of plot. Even if people like that actually exist in reality, as long as I look at Narasaka-san, who is clearly an outgoing person as well, I can't help but think that there are people who act purely out of goodwill as well. She's cute, clever, and kind to others. No matter what metric you judge her by, she's practically perfect.

"I'd like to listen to some other music as well!"

"Ohh!"

So she's awakened to an interest in the same consumer-oriented method of listening to music? What a wonderful thing.

"I'll check out the songs you found, Asamura-kun, so tell me about them later!"

"Aren't you just switching who you're relying on for music? I'm not a song-recommendation AI, okay?"

"Looking it up myself is a pain, you see~"

It seems like a shared interest was non-existent from the very beginning. Real sad stuff, man. The only difference is whether you get the recommendations digitally or physically. In the end, she's still being swept along by other people's interests. But I'm the only one who actually feels discouraged by that, as these are my own personal feelings. I guess that there's different ways of looking at it, huh?

After school ended, I headed to my part-time job with a pretty melancholic mood. Everyone who had the late shift on Friday, basically any time after 6pm, would be forced through absolute hell. After changing into my uniform and stepping into the office, I was met by the manager and the other staff, who looked like soldiers about to head off to battle. There was only one exception—Yomiuri Shiori-senpai, who noticed that I had entered the room and walked towards me with a gentle smile, even waving her hand at me.

That's the 'My Pace Monster' for you. We're about to enter the deepest layer of hell, and yet she's acting like she's out for a night stroll to the convenience store. This is the city that never sleeps, the city of youth. Shibuya isn't called that for no reason; there's always some kind of trouble happening 24/7. Of course, that isn't just some kind of prejudice or rumor. It's the actual truth, and yet people still come here in waves.

Saturday aside, of course. Then the city turns into a landscape of young people walking through the streets, but Mondays and Fridays especially are absolute hell. Monday is the magazine industry's greatest day of the week, since their new magazines release then, and we as a bookstore suffer the most from that.

As for Friday, the circumstances are especially crucial for our bookstore. Besides being the city of the young, a large variety of office buildings with a lot of famous IT companies are lined up next to the other here, making this one of the few Office Cities in the entire country.

In the latter half of the 90s, when office building rent was still cheap, a lot of new startups and younger companies moved into the suburbs, turning it into a bitter valley2 resembling America's Silicon Valley. It's also called the Bit Valley.

These companies and enterprises found success back at the time, and grew to their current size... or so it said in a book Yomiuri-senpai recommended to me. Either way, this is a store a lot of salarymen often visit on their way home from work. It's general knowledge that the store is filled to the brim every Friday.

Even when we're busy, we still need to try our best to always be friendly towards the customers. Even if the store is packed full, we have to be careful of any possible theft. Even if the store is always bustling, we have to make sure to keep it clean and appealing. After we confirmed these ideals, our battle began.

"Haaah... Cash register today, huh...?"

"Aren't you a poor fellow, Junior-kun."

Before I made my way to the cash register, Yomiuri-senpai noticed me sighing and tapped me on the shoulder.

"Of course, with more people in here, the number of troublesome customers also goes up."

"Hey now. Should you really be saying that about our valued customers?"

"I'm pretty sure I've heard you've complain about that before. In front of a customer, in fact."

"I have no idea what you're talking about~" Yomiuri-senpai put her index finger on her mouth, signaling for me to keep it a secret.

For a second, I wondered what she was on about, but after seeing the other staff members giving us dubious glances, it finally clicked. It wasn't just the two of us here today, so our usual mood was forbidden. As always, she's feigning ignorance.

She had long black hair, reminding me of a Yamato Nadeshiko, and she lived under the image of a docile book girl. Nine out of ten people would think that Yomiuri-senpai is a prim and proper Japanese beauty, but that is a grave misunderstanding. On the inside she's practically a middle-aged old man who loves telling dirty jokes. Of course, since she loves books, reading is one of her biggest hobbies, and she's a full-fledged literary girl, but it's honestly terrifying how inaccurate that stereotype is here.

"You really don't show other people your actual self, do you?"

"I've been disappointed one too many times at my university. You're the only one who knows everything about me, Junior-kun. Did you know that?"

"Can you stop saying things with weird phrasing already?"

"I was just stating the truth, though!"

She immediately started to tease me. Then again, the reason she takes this attitude towards me was my fault to begin with, so I can't exactly complain. I know that it sounds weird coming from me, but I have the deposition to not have any expectations from the women around me, and for her I'm probably the person she can get along with the easiest out of all the other male staff here.

Even if she shows her real self, I won't get discouraged or disappointed in her, and whenever she feels like teasing me to vent some stress, I won't actually get angry at her. It's convenient and reliable. This is probably the easiest explanation of what kind of relationship Yomiuri-senpai and I have: Co-workers who are comfortable around each other.

"Also, why are you this relaxed? You used to always hate working during Friday's peak hours."

"Hehehe~ The thing is, I'm actually responsible for selling area maintenance and location placeholding today."

"Ah, not fair."

Now it makes sense why she's so indifferent. Location placeholding basically means securing enough space in the bookshelves in the selling area for the books and magazines that'll arrive tomorrow. It's our routine here to take care of everything the evening prior, so that the newest deliveries can be arranged on the display shelves first thing in the morning. This prevents any customers from arriving only to not be able to find the book or magazine they were looking for. It increases sales a tiny bit, but the store's convenience doesn't really matter at all. To us part-time jobbers, the most crucial thing is that we aren't assigned to the cash register.

"It's not unfair at all. Preparing for the new releases is another part of our job."

"Well, I can see how location placeholding has its own fair shares of troubles... Yomiuri-senpai, would you like to switch with me?"

"Why would you say something as cruel as that?!"

"And there's the proof that it's unfair."

If you weighed both against each other, the cash register is still much more troublesome. I totally get it. As a result, Yomiuri-senpai started humming to herself as she took the newest arrivals list out from behind the register and made her way to the selling area. Curse you, senpai of mine.

Grumbling half-heartedly to myself, I headed towards the cash register. As you might imagine, the next few hours were hell. Customer, customer, customer, payment, payment, payment. Enquiry, enquiry, enquiry. My eyes felt like they were spinning from the overload of information, but I already had my own strategy for conquering this.

Entering a state of complete trance. Like I was assembling parts that came towards me from a conveyor belt, left to right, I kept an expression devoid of any emotion on my face, dealing with each customer absolutely indifferently. It might sound like I was being a bit impolite towards the customers, but I was already trained to mimic proper customer service even in this state, and I received not a single complaint for my service. Eventually, the clock reached the 9pm mark, and it was time for me to head home.

"I'll be taking my leave."

"Huh, you're going home already? ...Oh, it's already this late, huh? Time always goes by in a flash on Fridays."

"Yeah."

"I guess I'll take a break as well. Junior-kun, once you're done changing, come to the break room."

"Huh, why?"

"Because I'm bored."

"Ehhhh..."

"Come on now. Eating lunch all on my own is too boring. Let me use all your juicy experiences with your little sister as my side dish."

"Don't spice up someone else's life more than it actually is, would you? ...Sheesh."

Yomiuri-senpai begged me with watery eyes, and I could only sigh in resignation. I guess I'm much weaker to assertiveness than I thought.

"I understand. However, there aren't any interesting stories I could tell you, so instead hear me out on something, okay?"

"Oho? That sounds mighty interesting."

I'll at least make this a give & take where we both profit. That is the most resistance I could muster in that situation.

The back area of the bookstore had a storage room, an office, a men's and women's changing room, and a break room. This location was quite a bit away from the actual selling area, so any voices or BGM were drowned out by the thick walls, but here you could observe the inside of the store thanks to the security cameras and the monitors that were set up. When I returned to the break room after changing into my comfortable casual clothes, I immediately spotted Yomiuri-senpai leaning over the desk, looking like melted ice cream.

"Melting, huh?"

"Of course I would. The population density inside the store completely renders the A/C useless."

"The air feels pretty thin as well. But you ran away from the cash register, so you don't have any right to complain, you know that?"

"Ehh, I didn't run away from it~"

"I know that, I was joking."

"You're so cheeky, Junior-kun. You do know that you have to be kind towards girls, right?"

"I am an advocate of gender equality, see."

She might seem like a stylish, beautiful Japanese Onee-san, but Yomiuri-senpai can actually act quite like a childish girl at times, so I treat her accordingly. If someone's constantly shifting between two moods, then I can only act accordingly. Taking her too seriously would result in me getting teased and toyed with, so I have to be careful of that. That's the note I keep in my mental Yomiuri-senpai instructions, which I followed right now as I sat down on a chair facing her.

...Physically taking her at face value is totally fine, so I don't have to be mindful of that.

"Aren't you underestimating the physical work when doing location placeholding? It's difficult for different reasons than the cash register."

"I'm aware of that. I also know that taking care of that is much more comfortable for you, see."

"No no no, it's pretty tough, you know? You have to crouch down, stand up, crouch down, with heavy books in your hands. It's absolutely ruining my hips like you wouldn't believe."

"What an exaggeration..."

"It's the truth. I feel like I'm living through the morning after a passionate lover's bed-creaking night, my legs still wobbly from all the ramming."

"I won't bite even if you use weird examples, okay?"

"Tsk, boring." Yomiuri-senpai pretended to click her tongue in a cute fashion.

She's being intentionally misleading as always. I've dealt with her enough to be able to figure out what is a trap and what's not. If my reaction to such a dirty joke is too serious, she'll tease me and say 'You're thinking about it too much~ What exactly are you being conscious of, Junior-kun~?'. If I ask her 'Do you have any experience?' out of curiosity, she'd just grin at me in silence. Basically, having any reaction means that I lose. In a situation like this, it's best to completely ignore her.

"I mean, if it's that tough on your hips, then how about a massage? I've heard about them from the establishment Akiko-san works at, so I could teach you."

"Akiko-san?"

"Ah, right. She's my step-mother, the mother of my step-sister."

"Ahh, I see I see."

We've spoken here and there of my new lifestyle caused by the arrival of a new step-sister, but we've never talked about my step-mother. Since Akiko-san is practically always working or sleeping, proper essential maintenance of her body is absolutely crucial, and whenever we get the chance to talk in the living room, she teaches me a thing or two about it. Using the health card in my deck of conversation cards sure is useful at times like this.

"There's a shiatsu3 establishment right in Dougenzaka... Ah, right here. She apparently recommends this one."

"Hmph, pretty complicated."

"Is it? Looking at the map, it doesn't seem too hard to find."

"I'm not talking about how to get there. You do know that I'm a university girl bursting with youth and energy, right? I'm not at an age where I want to rely on a massage parlor. That'd hurt my pride."

"You are aware that this 'bursting with youth and energy' expression isn't something that young people would use at all, I hope."

"You found me out, huh? I've kept quiet about it for a long time, but I'm actually cursed to stay young forever. I'm an old lady living inside a young woman's body."

"Can you stop making up crazy crap for no reason?"

"Ahaha, Junior-kun, I should call you 'Razor-sharp Retort Logic King.'"

"What kind of nickname is that? Aren't you the same, Endless Stream of Lies Blabber-san?"

"Hmm, 70 points, I guess? I like how you mentioned constantly talking about lies like how some girls constantly talk about love, but I don't think the average person would get the reference, so I've gotta deduct some points."

I'd really appreciate it if she didn't start grading my insults mid-conversation. Since she's using actual logic to debunk my nickname, despite this being a nonsensical conversation, it only hurts me even more. It seemed that Yomiuri-senpai, as cheeky as ever, noticed my internal conflict. It probably showed a bit on my face. She let out a happy snicker as she opened her lunchbox.

Although you could hardly call it a lunchbox. It was basically rice balls and salad bought at a convenience store. I found myself worrying if that was even enough for her, but then I realized that, without Ayase-san's cooking, I'd be pretty much eating the same thing.

"Now that you've started eating, can we finally start our consultation time?"

"Sure~ What's rocking, hot pocket?"

"The thing is..."

I felt a bit bothered by Yomiuri-senpai acting oddly arrogant and confident, but I swallowed down a retort and explained my situation. Of course, I kept as much of Ayase-san's privacy as possible, carefully choosing what information to share. After I finished the explanation, Yomiuri-senpai grinned at me again.

"Oho? You're searching for ways to raise your little sister's academic efficiency, huh?"

"Do you have any ideas? Since you managed to pass your university entrance exams, I figured you must have some sort of advice that you could give her."

"You just told me you were looking into some work BGM, right?"

"Indeed. Though I've been without success up until now. I feel like I have a safe selection, but none of them really felt like they'd be suited to raise her academic efficiency."

"Then I have a recommendation of my own. I was looking for some music that could help me study as well, so I looked into it."

"Ohh, find anything good?"

"Let me look for it... Ah, I found it. This is it." After fiddling with her phone for a moment, Yomiuri-senpai showed me a Youtube channel page.

The cover page of this channel, which she apparently was subscribed to, had Japanese-style drawings on it. However, all the words on there were English, so I figured it wasn't actually operated by a Japanese person. Rather than trying to attract actual otaku, it seemed like a subculture, giving it the feeling of a stylish lounge.

"Wow. They have more than ten million views. Even more at times."

"Amazing, right? There's people who replay the video a few times, but they have a constant 30,000 people watching their 24/7 live streams."

"Woah, you're right. Not to mention that all the comments are English."

"That's right, this isn't too popular with us Japanese people."

"There's still genres I haven't heard of, huh? How is it different from usual music?"

"Seeing is believing, as they say... or hearing, in this case." Yomiuri-senpai smiled, taking a small case out of her bag that contained wireless earbuds. "Here you go." She handed them to me.

"Eh?" For a second, I froze up.

It took me a second to realize what that action meant. Sharing objects with another person exists in countless variations, but having someone else use your own earbuds is probably the one with the biggest hurdle to overcome. Although we share food from the same large plate, use the same bath, and use the same washing machine, Ayase-san and I haven't shared our earbuds yet. Yomiuri-senpai, for her part, showed absolutely no hesitation or doubt, acting like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"The better the audio quality, the easier your ability to judge how good it is, right?"

"Ah, yeah, right..." I realized that I was the only one being oddly conscious about this, and started to feel embarrassed.

Though it didn't seem like she was trying to tease me about it. If I hesitated any longer, I might feel guilty for making her wait, so I accepted the earbuds like I was a primitive man looking at fire for the first time. That being said, I'd feel bad for stuffing them right into my ear, so I merely held them in front of my ears where I could still pick up the music. My ears should have been fairly clean, but I didn't want to risk anything.

However, right after that thought drifted through my head, the second the music touched my eardrums, it happened.

"This is it..." I muttered subconsciously.

All of my bad thoughts were washed away in an instant. The first thing I heard was the sound of rain pelting against mid-summer leaves. Along with this environmental noise, I could hear a chill type of music playing. Speaking of sound quality, it's pretty much on the bad side. It felt like I had gone back in time to a culture I have no experience with, and it also sounds like I'm watching an old movie.

"This is amazing. I've never listened to anything like this."

"It's lofi hip hop." Covering her mouth with one hand as she swallowed down a piece of her rice ball, Yomiuri-senpai told me the exact genre.

As expected, I hadn't heard of it before.

"Hip hop... so like HEY YO stuff?"

"Ahaha, not quite." Yomiuri-senpai let out a snicker when she saw me making a kind of rapper-esque pose.

I guess I was wrong.

"I think they call it 'hip hop' because the music is heavily reliant on the beat. Lofi is different from the hip hop you would normally imagine."

"I see."

"It's seen as a chill type of music, but the effects are fairly old, which makes it have some kind of healing effect when you play it on loop."

"With words I can understand, please?"

"Basically, it's good music." She said simply, giving me a proper (?) explanation.

I'm an average Japanese guy who isn't too familiar with English and its loan words, so I appreciate a brief summary like that.

"It seems to be a genre that's popular overseas. It purposefully uses low sound quality, which makes your heart relax through the nostalgic effect it has, which is especially useful when you're studying or trying to sleep."

"Ohh! This is exactly what I was looking for. You really know a lot, Yomiuri-senpai."

"That's because I'm an old lady, ho ho ho."

"How long are you going to keep that joke up?"

"Until it gets stale."

"It was never funny from the beginning."

"I'm talking about my own satisfaction. Your opinion doesn't matter at all, Junior-kun~"

"Can't argue against that."

"If you're going to challenge someone as magnificent as me to a debate, you'd best come prepared, Junior-kun."

"...Sure."

The knowledge she keeps boasting about does in fact make her sound like an old lady, and yet she doesn't act like one at all.

"But how did you even find this? If it's only popular overseas, it must be hard to even stumble across."

"No, it's not that big of a revelation. It just popped up in my Youtube recommendations. Ever since then, I've been using it when I'm studying."

"Even though the comments on the side are all in English... I can tell that they've got a warm feeling to them."

"You can?"

"Yes, somewhat."

"That's Junior-kun for you. You have a great sense of intuition. You're correct, too. This channel's become pretty popular online, see. It's relaxing, somewhat like a bar."

"A bar? Like one that serves drinks?"

Of course I'd be sensitive to a word like that, since my new step-mother was working at exactly such a location.

"They have them in TV dramas sometimes, right? If an adult's facing some sort of trouble or hardship, they immediately drift towards there. The bartenders listen to their worries and troubles in the midst of this relaxing atmosphere."

I wonder if the first encounter between my old man and Akiko-san happened kind of like that? I've only heard anecdotes from the two of them about it, but apparently it all began with Akiko-san showing affection for my old man, who was drunk at the time and poured out his wounded heart. It was an encounter at a place that could heal you. And to be honest, such a fated encounter sounded like them.

"I've always admired that, but it really doesn't get as romantic as you might think."

"I can't agree with you on that since I don't drink alcohol."

"Tsk."

"Why are you clicking your tongue?"

"I wanted you to confess to illegal drinking and understand your weakness because it'd be funny. But you didn't fall for my leading question."

"Seriously, why?"

I looked over at Yomiuri-senpai, who was sucking on the straw to her tea carton, and realized something.

"That reminds me. You're old enough to drink alcohol, aren't you, Senpai?"

"How rude. Are you saying that I'm not allowed to drink alcohol despite the fact that I'm an old lady?"

"I mean, you might be at an age where drinking alcohol could be harmful to you, right? What if you had some sort of disease?"

"Hm... Not bad, you're becoming a better debater."

"Also, bringing up the old lady joke again is futile now, so I'm gonna ignore it."

"Booo." She clicked her tongue at me.

Why are you this adamant on acting like an old lady? I won't make any comments like 'Don't worry, eventually you'll grow old and wrinkly'. I'll keep that answer to myself. Maybe for another time.

Following that train of thought, I went ahead and subscribed to several of these lofi hip hop channels. Yomiuri-senpai must have been enjoying them quite a lot. She kept explaining this and that with a tone one octave higher than usual, which made me smile.

"Ha ha..."

"Hmmm? Why are you laughing while looking at my face?"

"I'm sorry, don't mind me."

Yomiuri-senpai isn't to be blamed here. The reason I laughed is simply because I became aware of something pathetic. Right now I'm picking out songs that she's recommending to me. I'm choosing songs that were recommended to me by Yomiuri-senpai, who had them recommended to her by YouTube. I'm not different from Narasaka-san at all. I can't even argue against her anymore. I'm sorry, Narasaka-san. You were right from the beginning.

My legs taking me home from work hadn't felt this light in a long time. After all, I had a perfect present for Ayase-san. So far, I had been unable to really repay her for making my food day in day out, and being on the take side of our give & take relationship had been weighing on my conscience quite a bit. Now I can eat Ayase-san's cooking without any restraint. When I opened the front door, I was greeted by a delicious scent, like I was being welcomed home in celebration of my great achievement.

"I'm home, Ayase-san."

"Welcome back, Asamura-kun." Ayase-san was wearing an apron on top of her clothes, warming up the hot pot.

As of late, that's been a normal sight for me, but I still can't get used to the idea of a girl I'd previously never met suddenly living and cooking in the same house as me. Part of me is still nervous, but more than anything, I feel bad because she's basically doing my job for me. Of course, if I told her that, she'd argue and say 'We're the same', or 'Don't worry about it', but I still can't help it.

"Have you still not eaten dinner yet, Ayase-san? Sorry if I made you wait for me."

"It's fine. I was studying, anyway."

"I see. I'll set the table, so wait a second."

"Yup, thanks."

This isn't me helping her, or being kind. To me, it's the natural thing to do, and Ayase-san didn't insist on doing it herself, so she just gave a word of gratitude. My thought was that, if we didn't work on this together, we wouldn't have an equal balance between us, and Ayase-san seemed to have understood my idea, which is why any further exchange was unnecessary.

After stopping by my room to drop off my belongings and washing my hands thoroughly, I trotted back to the living room.

"Two rice bowls, normal bowls, and big plates, I guess?"

"No big plates. As for the normal bowls, I need ones that are big enough to fit udon, not just miso soup."

"Gotcha. That means we're having pork miso soup?"

"Not quite. It's motsunabe4."

"Wow, you can make something like that? Also, that doesn't really seem like a summer dish."

"I've heard it works wonders against summer fatigue. You must be exhausted from your job, so I figured this would be a welcome change."

"Motsunabe during the summer, huh? It does smell great. I feel hungry already."

"Right. I'll bring the hot pot, so could you take care of the rice?"

"Sure."

I handed Ayase-san the two udon bowls and started putting the steaming rice from the rice cooker into the rice bowls. During that time, a distinct scent of soy sauce filled the room, which made me even hungrier. Ayase-san had always been a great cook, but thanks to her doing it on a daily basis, I feel like she's gotten even better. After we finished setting the table, we sat down across the table from each other and clapped our hands together.

"Thanks for the food."

"Thanks for the food."

Even though we didn't time it all, our voices overlapped. It might just be my imagination again, but we tend to overlap with these sorts of gestures quite a bit as of late. Either I'm being influenced by her, or she's being influenced by me. I don't know how, but it just naturally happened. While I was pondering the influences of our shared lifestyle, I scooped a bit of the motsunabe up and raised it to my mouth.

"Ah, delicious. It's sweet and mellow."

"I see. I'm glad to hear it. It's a Hakata-style dish, so I was worried that it'd be a bit too rich and thick in flavor, but I guess it should be fine." Ayase-san made a relieved smile.

I wasn't just being polite, either. The taste filling my mouth really was quite to my liking. If my old man were to eat this, it'd probably weigh heavy on his stomach, but since he informed us that he'd be eating out tonight, there was no need to worry about that. Ayase-san had probably kept that in mind when she came up with this menu.

"You were adjusting it to my tastes, right? Thanks."

"...Well, pretty much. After hearing your impressions daily, it just naturally became a way for me to reference things."

"I feel bad for forcing you through so much effort... at least that's what I would have said yesterday."

"Eh?"

When I spoke brimming with confidence, Ayase-san had an oddly baffled response. I booted up the YouTube app on my phone and opened up the channel page of the lofi hip hop channel I had subscribed to previously. From there, I tapped on the 24/7 live stream that had "radio" written on it. Calm, relaxing music started to play. It was the opposite of any powerful and energetic genre. Instead, it was the kind of music that enwrapped you in a sense of rationality, like you were being swallowed up by the ordinary. It felt like I had suddenly been transported into a deep forest, far away from the rest of civilization.

Ayase-san must have agreed with my feelings to a certain degree. Her eyes were fixated on my smartphone, wide open like a camera lens during a photoshoot.

"This is..."

"Just listen to it for now."

"Ah, yeah." Ayase-san gently closed her eyes.

A bit of time passed, the two of us merely listening to the music. Ayase-san let out an astonished sigh.

"This is great. What genre is this? It's a lot different from normal calm music."

"It's called lofi hip hop. I thought that maybe this would be great music to listen to when you study."

"Ah. I see, that's why." She made an expression like she finished a puzzle inside her head.

Apparently she figured out why I had suddenly started playing music despite us being in the middle of dinner.

"It's the first time I've heard of the genre. I'm surprised you have."

"I only learned of it today. A Senpai at work told me about it."

"Ah, that person, right? That literary girl Onee-san."

Oh right, I think we talked about Yomiuri-senpai last month. I still remember Ayase-san teasing me that she sounded pretty similar to me. I mean, both of us enjoy reading books, so that much does make sense. But going along with her usual nonchalant attitude on a daily basis sounds fairly tough to me. I'm sure that, in her eyes, I'm someone she can tease and be herself around, but I doubt I'm anything like boyfriend material. Not to mention that I've never even heard her talk about her tastes in people, so there was no way I could be the judge of that.

"Right. It's not an overstatement to say that she's well-informed in almost every area."

"You're pretty close, huh?"

"A lot of our shifts overlap, but that's about... Ayase-san?" I felt like something was off, so I stopped mid-sentence.

Even though we were looking at each other, face-to-face, for a brief moment, it felt like she averted her gaze.

"...Huh, what?" After a bit of a time lag, she reacted.

"Are you okay? You seemed to be spacing out a little. You're not overdoing it with your studies, right?"

"Ah, no, I'm fine. I was just entranced by the music."

It's true that the lofi hip hop music was still playing, but was that all? I know that Ayase-san tends to overreact to things, so I can't help but be worried. If that's just a baseless fear, though, then I appreciate it.

"Yomiuri-senpai, was it? So she's got good sense for music, too, not just books."

"She must have a lot of experience as a university student, I guess. I can't even tell how deep her knowledge goes."

"Cool."

"Her actual personality is the absolute opposite of that, though."

If anything, the word 'cool' suits Ayase-san much better. Yomiuri-senpai is more of an airhead, or a humorous person, something like that. When I clarified that, Ayase-san let out a snicker.

"She seems like an interesting person."

"That I can guarantee."

It's a shame that I probably won't get a chance to introduce Yomiuri-senpai anytime soon. Since we don't hang out in private, I can't just invite her to our home like Narasaka-san visited us before. It truly is a shame. With these thoughts in mind, I realized that Ayase-san was pointing her phone screen at me.

"I subscribed right away."

"You're right. That was a quick decision."

"I'm the type who trusts in her instincts. I'm sure that this lofi hip hop will be the greatest BGM for studying."

"If it doesn't help at all, you can quit anytime."

"I know. I wouldn't listen to it just because you recommended it. I'll try it out, and if it works, I'll keep it."

"Great. That attitude helps me as well."

Being frank and honest is the best kind of distance I can ask for. If our relationship were too thick, it'd be heavy on the stomach, so in a way, this motsunabe could be a perfect allegory for it. Then again, if I said that out loud, I'd get more points removed by Yomiuri-senpai for my metaphor.

The first one to finish eating was Ayase-san. She must be trying to find as much time to study as possible. She ate up her share in a rather quick manner, putting away her dishes after she stood up with phone in hand.

"I'll try it out tonight. Thanks for the tip, Asamura-kun."

"Don't sweat it. Also, I'll take care of the dishes, so you can just put them in the sink."

"I appreciate it." She carried the empty rice and other bowls to the kitchen, putting them into the sink, and then headed to her room.

I hope that this helped increase her studying efficiency a bit. With this thought in mind, I finished eating the last bit of food on my plate.

—Do your best, Ayase-san.

───

1 A demon who brings misfortune to houses or people he passes by?.

2 Bitter Valley = Shibuya. If you're interested in more info on this, feel free to read this article.

3 Basically acupuncture but... Japanese style?

4 Hot pot stew made with offal, vegetables and (often) miso?.