CH 34

By the way, brother, are you free next Sunday?

Translated by Dawn

Edited by Dawn

By the way, brother, are you free next Sunday?

The night after returning from the amusement park, I was relaxing in my room.

“Big brother, I’m done taking a bath.”

The door to my room opened with a rattle, and my little sister Mai peeked out through it.

She was wearing a plain white towel over her dark hair, which was still in a bob cut.

She was dressed as usual in a short-sleeved T-shirt and short pants.

“…I’m glad you went to the trouble of telling me, but at least knock first.”

“Isn’t it fine? Since big brother and me in good terms. …or did you do something that you wouldn’t want your sister to see?”

“I’m not, so get out quickly.”

I waved my hand, and Mai closed the door and said “Well, I just wanted to tell you that.”

Seriously this was why I didn’t like middle schooler boys.

…No, wait. Mai is a girl, so she’s not a middle schooler boy technically.

Then, what do you call it if it’s a girl? It’s the opposite of a boy, so middle schooler girls?

As I was thinking about this nonsense, the door opened again. And Mai appeared again. There was still no knocking. Really, this girl.

“By the way, brother, are you free next Sunday?”

Ah, it’s here. The moment I answered that I was free, I couldn’t run away.

I wish she would tell me the reason she asked me that first.

I might be told that I wasn’t good at socializing, but that didn’t mean that if I was free, I would definitely go.

I answered carefully so that she would not realize that I had no plans.

“If I was free, what would you be trying to get me to do?”

“Ah, so you’re free. Then, let’s go together to this. My friend gave me a ticket, but all my other friends are busy.”

“Hey, I haven’t said anything about being free yet…wait, what is this?”

Forgetting to argue, I looked at the ticket I received seriously.

There were two tickets. Both tickets were the same and looked like a piano recital or something.

But it didn’t look like a professional concert.

…Come to think of it, Mizutani also played piano, right?

“I have a friend who is taking piano lessons. She has a recital coming up, but her parents can’t make it. So she gave me those tickets.”

“Are we allowed to go to that?”

“It’s okay. Since we had the tickets.”

“….”

Unless I was mistaken in my understanding.

I felt that a recital like that was definitely not the kind that a stranger could watch.

Maybe it was the kind where only related people come. Families or something.

If we went, we would look out of place.

Especially me, I’d never even seen her friend’s face.

Mai looked at me as if she could see through my thoughts.

“I know what you’re thinking, but…I think not having your own parents come to your recital when you already practicing for it is pretty saddening, no? You see, we’ve had a similar experience, right?”

“…Well.”

When we were growing up, Mai and I didn’t have a father.

My mom was what you might call a career woman, and she often couldn’t make it to class or whatever because of her busy work schedule.

But we had it better. Since we were used to that kind of thing.

Mai’s friends might not be so used to it.

If so, she would feel even more lonely.

…It can’t be helped.

“When is it?”

“…afternoon! Don’t forget next week, okay!”

After opening her mouth for a moment, Mai smiled like a blooming flower.

With a final wave of her hand, she slammed the door violently shut and walked out.

“You shouldn’t do that, oi.”

Strangely, I felt not so bad.

*****

She said that her friend’s piano recital would be held at a concert hall in a civic center.

So Mai and I were on our way to the next station on the train.

We were both wearing our school uniforms. I didn’t think there was any dress code, but I guessed it would be a big event. After thinking that we should not wear anything too strange, we came to the conclusion that school uniforms would be the safest choice.

We got off at the next station and walked a little to the left to find the concert hall.

It was a more solid building than I had expected.

Mai and I looked at each other and felt relieved that we had come in uniform.

“When’s your friend’s turn?”

“Hmm? She said somewhere in the middle.”

When I asked Mai, I got such an answer.

Again, so vague. Again, so vague. I didn’t even know how many people were going to be presenting. I wonder how long it would take to get to the “middle”.

I was prepared for the possibility that it might be quite long, but fortunately, a pamphlet was handed out as we entered the venue. It showed who was going to play in which order and the approximate time. This was a big help. Thank God.

…Wait a minute.

As I looked at the names on the pamphlet from the top to the bottom, my eyes stopped at a certain point. At the bottom of the pamphlet, the person who would be the final pianist. The name on the pamphlet was—

“Mizutani?”

“Hmm, what did you say?”

“…no, nothing.”

Shaking my head to deceive myself, I checked the same spot again.

No matter how many times I looked at it, the letters were the same.

Karin Mizutani. Fantaisie-Impromptu, Chopin. That was what it said.

“Look, I knew Honoka was right in the middle. Look at this pamphlet, brother. My friend is this Honoka. Wasn’t it just like I said?”

Mai was talking about something with a pamphlet in her hand, but what she said couldn’t get into my head at all.

Most of my thoughts were already occupied with Mizutani.

I had never seen her play.

I hadn’t heard much about piano in our conversations.

Of course, one reason was that I was afraid to step in.

But that was not the only reason.

It was because I thought Mizutani seemed a little depressed when she talked about piano.

Of course, I had hoped to see Mizutani perform at some point.

But I wonder if this was the right way to do it, even if it was by chance.

Come to think of it, at the amusement park last week, Mizutani seemed to have said that there would be a “thing” next week.

I wonder if the reason she went to the trouble of fuzzing it out was that she didn’t want people to see the performance after all?

…No, there’s no point in thinking about it anymore.

Anyway, I just need to watch the performance quietly today so that Mizutani would not find me.

There were a lot of other people in the venue, and the lights were dark, so she wouldn’t be able to find me.

“Ooii, what’s wrong, big brother? Is there something wrong?”

Before I knew it, Mai was waving her hands in front of me.

I gave her a light pat on the head and she screamed, “Uwaa, this is power harassment!”

I left her alone and sat down on an empty seat.

Mai sat down next to me while complaining.

Well, for now, let’s try not to fall asleep.