Forget-Me-Not ①

August, Second Year of High School

“Summer Vacation.”

It’s the long break that comes once a year, and every person who calls themselves a student revels in it.

I’m no exception.

Days without classes bring me a lot of time for reading, writing, and, well, a little bit of accompanying Ayane.

For the past few days, I’ve been going to the local library, borrowing and reading every book that caught my interest.

And every time my sensibilities are stimulated, my desire to write grows, and I scribble furiously to satisfy that urge.

I’ve been repeating those kinds of days.

Perhaps because of those days, the “sea” was a little boring for me.

I am currently at the beach, accompanying my sister Ayane and her friends.

“I’m going to the beach with Kumi-chan and the others. You should come too, Onii-chan.”

That was the beginning of today.

“I appreciate the invitation, but isn’t it weird for me to tag along when Ayane is going with her friends?”

“Not at all. Kumi-chan said she’s bringing her younger brother, too. Come on, let’s go.”

I thought of a few excuses to decline, but in the end, I’m too soft on my sister and agreed, without any intention of letting her become independent from me.

That’s why I ended up going to the beach, but I didn’t bring a book because I didn’t want the sea breeze to damage it.

And so, this increased my boredom.

“Haa…”

I sighed once, then realized a shadow was covering me.

“Ehh!”

I was struck with something like a stick, and I turned around to face the culprit.

“You shouldn’t swing dangerous things at people like that, Ayane.”

Whether she was listening to my warning or not, she said,

“Onii-chan should also play, watermelon splitting. I bet it’ll be fun?”

She invited me to play watermelon splitting without a care.

“What about Kumi-chan and the others?”

“I told them I’d go invite Onii-chan and to wait.”

“I’ll pass, so you and the others should just enjoy yourselves, Ayane.”

“Pass? Onii-chan, you passed when I invited you to swim earlier, too. Just come on and do the watermelon splitting~”

“I’m perfectly happy just quietly looking at the sea from here.”

“A person who was looking like a dead fish a moment ago doesn’t have much convincing power saying that, you know?”

Dead fish… Did I really look that bored?

“Honestly, Onii-chan is such a bookworm… Come on, come on, there’s no point in rotting here, so let’s go! Kumi-chan and the others are waiting, too.”

Whose genes this forcefulness came from, I didn’t know.

Without figuring that out, I was dragged along by my little sister.

After being dragged for a while, I saw three familiar faces.

“Everyone, sorry to keep you waiting! I brought Onii-chan!”

“We were waiting, Ayanen. Though, since my little brother is here, I wasn’t really that bothered, nen.” note“nen” is something she says at the end like “nanoja”

“Let go, Aneki! You’re so annoying!”

“I wish you would consider how I feel, having to wait with these two.”

Ayane’s friends, Seto Maria and Suzuki Kumi, and the latter’s younger brother, Suzuki Hareta, were waiting there.

Seto Maria is a proper girl, but when I first met her today, I mistook her for a boy.

I made a mistake because of her very androgynous appearance, neutral voice, and style of dress.

I apologized for the unfortunate misunderstanding, but she herself told me, “I don’t mind. In fact, I’m aiming to be perceived that way, so it’s fine.”

I refrained from prying further, but if she says so, then that’s probably the case.

Suzuki Kumi is a friend Ayane talks about often, and I can tell they are quite close.

In fact, I’ve passed her a few times with Ayane at school.

She is a self-proclaimed and universally acknowledged bro-con and is absolutely devoted to her younger brother, Suzuki Hareta.

That heavy affection was clearly conveyed even in the brief interaction we had today.

And the recipient of that heavy affection is Suzuki Hareta-kun.

He’s a third-year middle schooler, right in the middle of puberty and his rebellious phase.

Therefore, he tends to strongly rebel against his sister’s intense love.

“Aha haa, sorry, my Onii-chan was throwing a tantrum saying he didn’t want to come~”

“Ayane. I didn’t say I didn’t want to, nor was I throwing a tantrum.”

“No wayyy. It looked exactly like a tantrum to me, at least.”

“No, that’s…”

I was a little annoyed that she easily saw through my feelings, so I tried to argue back fiercely.

“Ah, save the sibling squabble for later, and let’s start the watermelon splitting, shall we?”

It was Seto Maria who interrupted my counterattack.

“That’s right, Ayanen, I want to eat watermelon soon, nen¹TL/n: “nen” is something she says at the end like “nanoja”.”

Suzuki Kumi agreed.

Seeing the situation, I swallowed the retort that was on the tip of my tongue, like sheathing a drawn sword.

“You’re right. Sorry to keep you all waiting. Let’s start the watermelon splitting.”

“Okay, then we need to prepare the watermelon. Kumi-chan, Maria. Could you both come here for a moment? There’s something I need help with.”

“Got it.”

“Okaaen.”

Ayane asked the two for help, and the three high school girls diligently began preparing for the watermelon splitting.

This left just Hareta-kun and me.

The younger brother of my sister’s friend, or the older brother of his sister’s friend.

Silence hung between us, who were practically strangers.

It should have been my role as the older one to break the ice, but unfortunately, if I were the type of person who could do that, I’d probably have a lot more friends.

An awkward silence continued.

However, the silence that seemed like it would last forever was broken by the younger boy.

“You’re so mature, Senpai.”

“Hm?”

I hadn’t expected the silence to be broken by such a random comment, and I didn’t understand why he said it, so I involuntarily asked him to repeat himself.

“No, well, when you guys were about to argue just now, Maria-san stopped you, right? When I saw you stop arguing without making a sour face, and with a sort of calm expression, I just felt that way.”

“Me, mature? No, no, not at all. I’m just a student struggling desperately to become an adult.”

“But you look mature to me.”

Hareta-kun scratched his cheek a little shyly.

“I want to become mature like Senpai. So, uh… I honestly thought I should learn from how you acted just now.”

The simple reason was that I generally knew from ten years of experience that arguing would be fruitless, but it wasn’t worth correcting him, so I didn’t say anything ungracious.

“Onii-chan! Hareta-kun! We’re ready~”

Ayane and the others, who seemed to have finished their preparations, called for the two remaining men.

“Alright, since we’ve been called, let’s go.”

“Yessu”

ーーーーーーーーー

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ー

On the train ride home.

The crimson light streaming from beyond the horizon strongly illuminated the train car, creating large shadows.

We had played to our hearts’ content, and everyone was exhausted. All four of them, excluding me, were fast asleep.

I couldn’t afford to miss my stop, so I resisted the urge to sleep, dozing off and on.

However, resisting one of the three great human desires isn’t easy, and my consciousness was about to slip away.

That’s when my phone vibrated.

I don’t usually exchange many emails, so I’m not used to my phone vibrating. I woke up as if cold water had been splashed on me.

A premonition ran through me.

The sender of the email was Takamine Hana.

No way.

I never thought she would actually contact me during summer vacation, and my heart raced at the unexpected event.

However, the content of the email was incomprehensible.

Or rather, it was empty.

She had sent me a blank message.

Thinking it was a mistake, I decided to wait for a second message.

It arrived after an interval of about five minutes.

Also blank.

This was the second time she’d sent a blank message.

Bad things come in threes.

Soon after, a third blank email was sent.

My mind, already sleepy, ground to a halt due to the inexplicable messages.

I looked over the three emails again.

But all of them were blank, not even a subject line.

There was no point in thinking about it any further, so I replied with “What’s up?” to get a straight answer.

A reply came.

ーーーーーーーーーー

Sender: Takamine Hana

Subject: None

Body:

Please come to Hanekuren Library at 12 o’clock tomorrow.

ーーーーーーーーーー

My sleepiness was completely blown away.

I had received an invitation from my crush.

My consciousness couldn’t help but fully awaken.

“But then again—”

What were those first three blank emails?

That nagging feeling, like food stuck between your teeth.

Maybe I’ll ask her tomorrow.

“Mm…”

Ayane, who was sleeping next to me, woke up.

“How many…….more stops? Onii-chan…”

Even though she was awake, she must still be sleepy, as her eyelids were barely half-open.

“It’s three more stops until Hanekure Station. We’re fine for now, but we’ll have to wake everyone up soon.”

“…I see.”

Ayane lowered her slightly open eyelids, leaned against my shoulder, and intertwined her arm with mine.

The faint scent of the sea drifting from her hair right next to me once again etched today’s memories into my heart.

“…Hey, Onii-chan.”

“Hm?”

“…Was it fun?”

“Of course, it was fun.”

“…Good. I felt bad that I couldn’t let you read your books.”

“You don’t need to… worry about things like that.”

“I had so, so much fun. I want to go to the beach with Onii-chan again.”

“…”

Given that I want to help Ayane overcome her brother complex, I couldn’t easily agree to that, and I could only remain silent.

“…Hey, Onii-chan.”

“Hm?”

“Forever. Let’s stay together forever…..okay”

After that line, I felt Ayane had completely fallen asleep, as if her soul had left her, by the change in the weight resting on my shoulder.

I let out a sigh.

“…I’m in trouble.”

What was once normal now felt terribly distorted, and though I wouldn’t have noticed the distortion without consciously thinking about it, maybe it had distorted to a point of no return.

When the time comes, will I be able to push Ayane away?

No, I probably won’t be able to if things stay like this.

After all, I might be taking pleasure in Ayane depending on me.

That’s probably why I’m so troubled and worried.

If I truly cared for Ayane, it would be inevitable that I would have to experience some unpleasant feelings.

I must be prepared.

As a first step to breaking away from my former self, I tried to untangle Ayane’s arm from my right arm.

“…Huh?”

It wouldn’t untangle.

Even when I tried to pull my arm out or move her entangled arm, it resisted strongly, instead wrapping around me even tighter.

“…Ayane, are you awake?”

…There was no answer.

A single bead of sweat trickled down my cheek.

I felt a fear that stemmed from instinct.

The will conveyed through her two arms.

It seemed to express her absolute rejection of my decision to make her independent of her brother.

“…don’t tell me.”

I will not let you go.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that Ayane was telling me that.

Shinigami-san: Ello again. Hope you guys liked the fact that this noberu is back. I liked it very much while I was editing it. I’m leaving the format of names in Japanese, lastname, firstname. If you guys want me to change it to firstname, lastname, please comment or reach to me in the discord server. I know my tl won’t be up to noir-tan’s level but hope you guys will satisfied with it. Enjoy~