CH 288

–In just one day, Azusa, Kirari, and Yuzuki gave up on me.

But it was only after a whopping one week had passed that I was able to react in any way to that.

Until then, I was still thinking things like.

‘If they say so, then so be it. I hope we can be friends again someday when they turn around.’

I was thinking like it was someone else’s problem, even though I was the one who had to deal with it.　

That’s how emotionless I was.

But when a week passed and I saw the romantic comedy of the Ryuzaki harem that was becoming all too familiar in the classroom, … I realized a lot of things.

“Ryoma Onii-chan, what are you making for dinner tonight? Azusa wants hamburgers.”

“Hamburgers… Hmmm, I’m not in the mood for meat today. I’m in the mood for some kind of fish-based dish, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

The main character Ryoma Ryuzaki, sitting in the back seat by the window, and the harem of people gathered around him, exchanged words.

For some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off that scene.

“Huh? Do you want fish?”

“Yeah, but… is there a problem?”

“…Uh-huh. … Ryoma Onii-chan’s cooking is always delicious. There is no such thing as a problem!”

I was stunned to see Azusa smiling at him.

Azusa had a lot of likes and dislikes, and basically refused to eat fish and seafood… She would put up with it at school lunches, but at home she hated it so much that she wouldn’t even touch her chopsticks.

Especially, she never tried to eat in front of me. She said, “Why should I have to put up with it when I’m with Onii-chan?” She was the kind of girl who would only do what she liked.

Azusa was the type that would show her true self in front of her brother, or … ‘act selfish’.

But now it was different.

“Ryoma Onii-chan, it’s really amazing that you can cook too!”

She had become the kind of sister who “flattered” Ryuzaki.

It seemed as if she could no longer be selfish with Ryuzaki.

No matter what she did, she always affirmed Ryuzaki.

Seeing Azusa as she put Ryuzaki on a pedestal, whom she adored as an older brother at all times, it was like she was a different person.

And it is not only Azusa who had changed.

“I-I’ll help you cook…, let’s make a meal together, okay?”

Yuzuki took this opportunity to get close to Ryuzaki.

Ryuzaki was blushing and embarrassed when Yuzuki leaned on him from behind pressing her chest against him.

“Oh, hey, wait a minute…it’s touching!”

“Oh, yes, you guessed it. Yesterday, you kept your promise to me and took the liberty of cooking for me, so … you’ll have to wait for me today, too, won’t you?”

“All right, all right! Don’t do it in a public place like this… Good grief!”

It was still an unbelievable sight for me.

Having large b*****s had always been Yuzuki’s biggest complex. In middle school, her body was the subject of rumors among the boys, and Yuzuki was very uncomfortable when she heard about it.

But now she was using even that as a weapon to get Ryuzaki to like her.

This attitude of not caring about anything is so unlike Yuzuki that … it seemed as if she was a different person.

And speaking of a different person…, that girl had already changed completely from the outside.

“–Ryu-kun is really happy, isn’t he☆ Nyahahahaha, you should be more honest~!”

Kirari, once a dark-haired, glasses-wearing girl, had drastically changed into a blonde-haired, flamboyant, gyaru-like girl.

It seemed that she changed her appearance after hearing what Ryuzaki liked. I had no idea what she interpreted, even now, but … that drastic change in character could be said to be the strangest of all.

Yes, all three of them had changed their characters from their middle school days.

Seeing that, I finally realized.

I realized that I could never go back to the past.

I realized, … belatedly, that the girls I once thought were so special to me had now become something else.

The girls I was close to were nowhere to be found.

They have changed their characters and were acting according to the role given to them as Ryoma Ryuzaki’s subheroines.

After understanding that, I finally realized that I had lost something important.

Thus, I was alone.

The loss of my stepsister, my best friend, and my childhood friend made me … very sad and lonely…