CH 32

The uncomfortable feeling I remembered, in the end,- was correct. 

Ever since then, for the past month my brother has been hosting study sessions at home regularly with different members each time. However, Himegasaki-san always attended without fail every time. She seemed to be interested in my brother.

She speaks so sweetly only towards my brother, and she blushed with gleaming eyes when their shoulder touched. At first, I told myself that maybe it was just my imagination, but after each study session, it turned into conviction.

Himegasaki-san always sits next to my brother, and when someone else takes over her place, she will say, “Uhm, I have a lot of questions for Kurobe-kun,” and create a space where she can stick to my brother. She became even bolder each time.

On the other hand, my brother did not show any particular disgust or caution to Himegasaki-san, he didn’t give her a cold gaze, and conversed with her naturally.

All this time, my classmates praised my brother for being cool and aggressively tried to appeal to him. But when they weren’t looking, he had an icy glare that could make anyone shiver from their spine. In contrast, Himegasaki-san was not treated like that.

Himegasaki-san in the manga gave an impression as a person who has no interest in anyone. She was a ‘cool beauty’ archetype, but she was able to open her heart at last because the main character, Hiroshi-kun, always rescued her many times when her life was threatened.

That’s why I was sure there were no backstory settings that she dated Kurobe-kun for a while.

Then, if the two of them get along well, the power of love may prevent my brother from committing any crimes. With that in mind, I decided to increase the chances of contact between the two and make an effort to bring Himegasaki-san and my brother together.

Thankfully, my brother always asked me to help serve the guests during the study session. “Are there any snacks?” or “Do you know where the spare cups were?” It feels like I’m working part-time at a cafe.

“Hey Mai, do we still have juice?”

And today, when I went to the kitchen, my brother coincidently called me out from the living room.

“Oh, I’m not sure, wait,” when I answered him with an ambiguous voice, Himegasaki-san immediately tried to stand up and said, “Oh, I’ll help. I remember the place.” But soon she was stopped by my brother’s classmate who already stood up and said, “It’s okay, Himegasaki-san has always been the one who helped all this time. Let me help too.”

Is Himegasaki-san aiming… to be my brother’s rival*? But he will be holding a death game in the future…

*T/N: Tbh I don’t understand what this sentence means, even in Japanese. I’m still trying to figure it out but my brain exploded so I just leave it here for a while until I reach enlightenment.

“Mai-chan, do you really have a weak constitution?”

“Eh?”

“I asked Kurobe. He said you used to be hospitalised a lot before.”

After I poured the juice into cups and refilled the snacks unwillingly, my brother’s classmate didn’t immediately return to the living room but tried to start a conversation.

“Uhm, you are…?”

“Oh, you don’t know who I am? I often come to the study session tho…”

I didn’t know. Honestly, my focus was only on Himegasaki-san.

If it’s Hiroshi-kun, maybe I will notice, but that person didn’t come to the study session.

“…I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I’m Nagatani*. Or rather I’m sorry for being overly familiar with you.”

*T/N: This is not a mistake, even though in the manga he introduced himself as Hase, in the novel, the furigana is read as Nagatani. I wish to follow the novel truthfully so I will keep using Nagatani. But FYI, the kanji is the same (長谷), it can be read as Hase or Nagatani. So in short, it’s the same person. If there is a change in the future chapters, I will put another note.

“No, not really…”

“Hmm then, how should I call you from now on? Mai-san?”

“It’s fine to call me as it is.”

“OK, Mai-chan then.”

Nagatani… Even though he did appear in the manga, I think he’s a person whose death is described almost in a short summary. While drinking juice, Nagatani-senpai asked, “How are you feeling lately? Are you okay? You will be hospitalized again next month, I heard?”

“Well, I’m healthy these days, hahaha.”

What kind of explanation did my brother actually give to them? The people who came to the study session were often worried about my physical condition, and they gave me sympathy while saying, “I heard you didn’t go to elementary school halfway? Studying the basic mathematics of multiplying and dividing by yourself must be hard!”

I think it’s my brother’s work, but what’s the benefit of making me a sickly person? Even if he could avoid the hassle by saying something like, “My sister is sick, I have to go back soon”, I still think it’s really over the limit. There is absolutely no need to go this far.

“Next time, when you are feeling better, how about hanging out together?”

“Hang out? Do you mean I join you guys?”

“Ah no. It’s not with all of the people here now… It’s just me, you, your brother, and hmm maybe another girl will be suitable. Someone that Mai-chan also knows, like Himegasaki.”

T/N: He lowkey asking for a double date lmao.

Nagatani-senpai put down the juice cup and said so. Then shifted his gaze to me seriously.

“Well, I want to get along with Mai-chan, or rather I want to get along with the person who made those interesting bento lunches.”

Even after my brother entered high school, I continued to make bento lunches. Because I can’t meet him at school, I put in a lot of effort inside the lunch. But did my brother show off my bento lunches…?

Even when I think about it, I can’t imagine my brother showing off his bento lunches. When I was wondering about the strange occurrence, my brother suddenly came over here.

“Don’t make fun of Mai so much, if she gets too stressed she might get a fever.”

“No, I’m serious. Mai-chan, I’m serious, okay?”

My brother’s friends who overheard my brother said to other classmates, “is he a lolicon*?” teasing Nagatani-senpai.

*T/N: Lolicon is a term for someone who prefers much younger, most likely underaged girls. In here, they are just teasing. But in their point of view, reaching high school is like reaching adulthood, a step ahead of middle school. (just like when you see all middle school still looks like a bunch of kids and high school is all teens who almost reaching adulthood).

I looked at my brother, and he was giving me a dissatisfied glare. Unlike my brother, I didn’t treat anyone as a sickly person, and I didn’t imbue them with a strange impression. But when I was going to stare back to ask why did he have to look at me like that, my brother had gone back to everyone.

Please read this chapter only at chococats.id.

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“Don’t laze around. If you don’t properly get the radius of this circle, you won’t be able to understand the next step.”

My brother pointed at the shape drawn in my notebook. Back then, I used to have my brother teach me once in a while, but now it’s almost every day.

My brother is certainly brilliant with all of his test grades being high. I think it’s more economical and easier to learn from being taught by my brother than to go to a cram school or hire a tutor.

And the problem of my undecided career path was solved before I knew it. That’s because I was told by my parents, “If Mai doesn’t have any high school in mind, we hope you go to Onii-chan’s high school.”

I haven’t decided on what I particularly want to be, and I also haven’t decided on my career path survey. When I asked the teacher, the submission due date is…October. By aiming for my brother’s high school, which is the most difficult one at the moment, even if I choose another high school, I can just lower the standard. It will be easier than deciding on a high school with a high standard later and having to raise my standard in studying.

I looked back at my brother while giving him the problem earlier’s answer.

“Say, what is my exam pass rate like?”

“We don’t know yet. We will only know when the result is out.”

“What about in Onii-chan’s opinion?”

“Maybe about 50%?”

“Ugh…”

Even with the help of my brother, the exam pass rate was still 50%. If that is the case, my chance to pass other high school exams is also delicate. If I reduce my surprises preparation time, I can devote myself to studying, but I don’t want to do that if possible. From now on, I guess I can only do my best.

For the time being, let’s try the secret plan that I’ve learned before.

[[Onii-chan, hold on, I don’t understand this part.]]

*T/N: these brackets [[…]] mean that Mai is speaking in Spanish.

While showing my note, I spoke to my brother in Spanish.　

This is the result of my attempt to balance studying for entrance exams and providing surprises. Learning a language other than Japanese. By learning another country’s language, I can gain a great advantage for the exam and also gives surprises to my brother in one go. Until this time, I just spoke Japanese and had difficulty displaying my English, but suddenly I spoke Spanish. I’m sure my brother will be quite surprised. While feeling convinced of my victory, I turned to my brother, but he didn’t seem to be surprised at all.

“Which one you don’t understand? This diagonal line part?”

[[Not that, but this square root…]]

“Oh, that part…”

My brother calmly tries to explain the problem that I pointed out.

No way, he understands…?

When I was so surprised that I couldn’t even express anything, my brother’s face went closer while still looking at my notebook.

“Why are you surprised? Then, should I teach you Spanish too?”

“No thanks…”

“Then, let’s study seriously.”

“Yes…” 

T/N: LOL Mai is defeated.

What should I do about this? Or rather, I didn’t consider that he could understand it. What’s his deal… Just how perfect does he want to be until he is satisfied? There were elective classes to study other languages such as Chinese, French, and Italian at school, that’s why I chose Spanish, but I didn’t expect him to understand it too. My brother said he often listens to music while studying, is he actually listening to language courses?

“…By the way today, what did Nagatani say back then?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said before, ‘it’s fine as it is‘.”

With my brother’s words as a hint, I recalled today’s conversation. ‘It’s fine as it is’ part is about when Nagatani-senpai asked if it’s okay to call me ‘Mai-chan’.

“I was asked if he could call me Mai-chan. But because I didn’t know Nagatani-senpai’s name, he apologized for being a little too familiar with me.”

“I see…”

With my words, my brother’s expression looked sour. I’m not sure why he looks like that. Did I step on a landmine…? These days, I couldn’t really understand my brother anymore. I wonder what he’s thinking.

“Are you going to hang out with Nagatani?”

“It’s not like I can go.”

“Yeah. Well, you will have to pass because of poor health, so it’s impossible anyway.”

“About that, why do I’m seen as someone who being alive until today seems like a miracle at Onii-chan’s high school?”

Taking the opportunity, I asked him what I have been wanting to ask. 

“You almost died before, right.” My brother declared so without looking ashamed at all.

“Huh?”

“When I happened to talk about your accident, they didn’t seem to understand, and the story had become like that. It’s too bothersome to deny it, and this time I will really be treated as a liar, so please match the story.”

He looked at me with his ice cold eyes. My brother is not a poor talker, so there is no way he got misunderstood. But I nodded while feeling perplexed.

Please read this chapter only at chococats.id.

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T/N: Hello again. This time I really took a long time to finish, I apologise. I’m preparing to release another translated novel here, so my time a bit divided. I don’t know if it will be good or not, but I hope you guys can also enjoy the novel!

Anyway, see you in the next chapter!