I’m an Introvert, but After Taking Care of the School’s Most Beautiful Girl Who Lives in an Apartment When She Was Sick, She Became Attached to Me and Started Inviting Me Over to Her Place! - Chapter 55-56

Chapter 55

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“I’m hoooome—”

“O-oh, welcome back, Onii—! Where are the donuts?”

“Hey, hey, show a little more interest in your big brother coming home, will ya?”

As I came home and was taking off my shoes, Kanau appeared, having come all the way to the entryway to greet me. Sorato was impressed by this rare grand welcome from Kanau, but his little sister’s gaze wasn’t on her brother at all. Her gaze was glued to the box of donuts in his hands.

They were from Kanau’s favorite donut shop, and the moment she saw the box’s design, her eyes sparkled as she rushed over in a sickeningly sweet, coaxing voice. Sorato narrowed his eyes and shot her a cold, half-lidded glare.

“Haa~? I did show interest—I said ‘welcome home,’ didn’t I? What, you want that much attention from me?”

“Wanna see me eat every single one of these donuts right now?”

“No way~! I love you so much, Onii~♡”

“Gross…”

“Can I punch you?”

When he tried to take the donut box away from his sister as part of a light joke, she let out a “Nooo~” and ran her hands over his body in a slow, lingering way, making a shiver race up his spine.

“Alright, alright. I’ve received more than enough of your love. I want to sort my stuff out, so let me inside.”

Reflexively pushing his sister away with both hands, he stepped into the living room looking utterly exhausted.

Huh?

“What’s with you? You actually made dinner for once?”

“…Well, you know, Onii, you’ve seemed unusually cheerful lately, right? So I figured, since I had the chance… Or something like that.”

From beyond the doorway, a gentle aroma of cream and vegetables drifted through the room. In the kitchen, knives and a cutting board were scattered a bit messily—clear traces of Kanau’s effort, despite being bad at cooking.

Gone was her earlier smug expression. Fiddling with her hair a little shyly, Kanau had apparently made dinner while thinking about her brother, who had been coming home late more often lately while looking happy. On the kitchen counter sat a navy-blue plate filled with cream stew, steam rising gently from it.

“Well, um… It’s been sitting for a while, so it might not taste that great… And I’m not as good at cooking as you are, Onii, and I messed up a bunch of things halfway thro—”

Seeing her brother silently stare at the food, Kanau began to voice the worries she had been quietly building up. But her brother, Sorato…

“Thank you. I was so hungry I thought I might die, so this really helps.”

“Nn…”

He gently placed a hand on his sister’s head with a soft pon and lightly stroked her glossy, smooth hair. Kanau closed her eyes , clearly feeling comfortable with the caress, then rubbed the top of her head against Sorato’s chest as if to say, “Do more.”

“You’re such a spoiled kid.”

“Shut up…”

Smiling and saying, “So this is what people call tsundere, huh…,” he continued stroking Kanau’s head for a bit. Looking satisfied, she pulled away from his chest and plopped down onto the nearby sofa.

Before long she started watching TV, but at the same time, she kept a careful eye on her brother out of the corner of her vision as he sat at the table and took a bite of the stew she had made.

“Huff, huff… Mm—! This is really good.”

“R-really…?”

A faint spice aroma, potatoes and carrots rolling around in his mouth, and the decisive, rich creaminess that made the flavor addictive—it all made the rice go down easily. Still lacking confidence in her own cooking, Kanau kept checking his reaction again and again.

“What would be the point of lying here? Is there a second helping?”

“I made a little extra, but…There might not be that much.”

“…Man, you really are good at cooking after all.”

“Are you just flattering me? I don’t need that, okay?”

“It’s not flattery or overpraising. I mean, you’ve got better specs than me to begin with. And since you’re ‘my little sister’ alone means you can do pretty much anything.”

“Haa… This is starting to feel stupid, arguing back and forth like this.”

Trying to calm Kanau down as she still looked unconvinced, he patted her head once more. The resistant look in her eyes softened, and she quietly settled down. Ever since they were little, just doing this made her honest and to Sorato, she had always been an adorable little sister.

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“Cough—hack!”

…Huh? My throat…

After getting out of the bath, Sorato entered his room and picked up a book, only to begin feeling a faint discomfort in his throat. Each time he swallowed, the back of his throat throbbed dully, like a burn, and his voice grew hoarse. Now that he thought about it, his joints ached all over, and even after wrapping his body in a blanket, the chills wouldn’t stop.

“Ahh… Yeah, this might be bad. Well, I’ll try taking some medicine just in case…”

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Chapter 56

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“Cough—hack—khack…!”

“38.6°C. You definitely caught a cold.”

“Cough… Sorry, Kanau.”

“Why are you apologizing, Onii? Anyway, I’m heading to school, so make sure you rest, okay? …Ah, but if anything happens, don’t hesitate to contact me, got it? I’ll ditch everything and come rushing back.”

“Ahaha… I’ll try not to let that happen.”

The next day, the strange discomfort in my throat took a turn for the worse, and I ended up with a full-blown fever. My head felt floaty and sluggish, unable to think properly, while my throat throbbed with a dull ache. Joint pain, chills that wouldn’t go away even wrapped in a blanket—the full set.

In how badly beaten up I felt, I even started wondering, “Maybe this is divine punishment for getting carried away lately…” Kanau, my sister, was worried the entire time at the sight of my unusually high fever, but since she couldn’t exactly skip school, she made sure to tell me to keep in touch properly before leaving the house.

 “Haah… I guess I caught it when I went to Natsuki-san’s place… Or rather, I guess I’ve just been overdoing it lately…”

In my hazy consciousness where I couldn’t fall asleep, what floated up were the many fun times I’d been swept up in lately. My encounter with Natsuki-san that began from a chance incident, and the off-campus study trip I spent with an unexpectedly odd group.

And then, the time spent with the most beautiful girl in the school. Which was slightly bad for my heart, but was so comfortable at the same time that the gap between her cuteness at school and in private almost made me feel like I’d catch a cold.

No, I really did catch a cold, didn’t I!

“…………That’s bad. I’m saying weird things because of the fever.”

If I’d pulled a joke like that in a one-on-one moment with Kaon, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine it turning into a living hell. But given my current situation where no one was around to call me out, leaving a painfully cold joke hanging in the room was also more than enough of a living hell for me.

…Haah, I should just behave and rest. My head hurts…

Maybe it was divine punishment for spouting such nonsense, but my headache felt worse than before. As I tried to sit up, I suddenly let all the strength drain from my body. With my joints creaking in pain and chills making my body tremble endlessly, I pulled the blanket over my head once more and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

♢♢♢♢

My parents had been absurdly doting parents for as long as I could remember. Born as siblings only one year apart, Kanau and I were showered with equal amounts of affection to the point of excess, and perhaps thanks to that, we grew up without much friction. Even now, as high schoolers, we maintained a good relationship.

My father, Kousuke Suzuya, held qualifications as a Japanese linguistics instructor, and recently he’d begun traveling overseas for work. With his natural communication skills, he apparently worked as a “special Japanese-language instructor” in all kinds of countries.

On the other hand, my mother, Mami Suzuya, worked as a nurse at a hospital in Tokyo. Compared to my father, she was the quieter type, and with her dexterous hands, she could handle most things with ease. Our family of four, made up of these people, was a bit odd, but each of us supported one another well enough to hold things together.

Because Dad rarely came home, Mom basically covered our day-to-day income. As a result, her working hours naturally grew longer, and she came home later. When we were little, after getting home she still had to make dinner, take care of various household chores, and prepare for the next day. Mom never showed us any weakness or frustration, but there was no doubt that period was the toughest time for our parents.

Even so, Mom never resented Dad for working overseas. Instead, she encouraged us when we missed him, saying, “When he comes home, let’s all go eat lots of delicious food together.”

Watching the backs of our unique yet admirable parents as we grew up, Kanau and I gradually became able to do more ourselves and made efforts to increase the time we could spend together as a family. To start with, Kanau and I split up making dinner, doing laundry, preparing the next day’s lunches, washing dishes, and so on, reducing Mom’s burden when she got home. As a result, we naturally had more chances to sit together on the living room sofa and talk.

Dad would join us via video calls, and even though he was far away, family gatherings gradually became a daily routine for us.  But I knew I couldn’t have done this alone.

“Onii, I’ll help too.”

“Let’s make something tasty for Mom together.”

“Hey, Onii, you’ve still got housework left today~.”

“Are you okay? Do you want me to make tomorrow’s lunch?”

Because I had my sister Kanau, only one year younger than me, I was able to make it this far. 

I’m human too. There are times when I’m worn out physically and mentally, and times when I just want to slack off.

But during those times, because there was someone who would scold me and work alongside me, I never broke. Brother and sister of the opposite sex, only a year apart. Normally, we might have clashed constantly and maybe never even spoken to each other, but because we grew up in this unusual environment, we were unbelievably close even now, as high schoolers.

In that sense, I was deeply grateful to my parents. So… Surely, if she had someone like that too.. A silver-haired girl suddenly came to mind. Feverish, crying out in a voice like a small child searching for her parents. She, too, surely carried something she couldn’t bear alone.

But I knew.

That unbearable “something” stopped being “something” the moment there was just one “someone” beside you to support you. Being alone was terrifying, like sinking into a pitch-black, bottomless swamp. You couldn’t grasp what should have been a tangible thing, and you ended up wanting to look away.

So… If I could at least… If I had the courage to reach out my hand to her as she desperately struggled—

♢♢♢♢

“Mm. How are you feeling?”

“Huh, Mom… Why? What about work?”

“I had an early shift today. You still seem to have a fever, so rest quietly.”

As Sorato groggily surfaced from shallow sleep, his mother Mami was there, in the middle of changing the cooling sheet on his forehead. Apparently contacted by Kanau, Mami calmly took Sorato’s temperature, told him to rest, and left the room almost immediately.

As expected of a nurse… She’s efficient.

Comparing her to himself when he’d been taking care of Kaon the other day, he once again felt deep respect for the overwhelming difference in skill. According to Mami’s assessment, fortunately, it didn’t seem like his cold would get any worse.

“Here. I made some rice porridge too, so after you finish it, take this with the fever medicine.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Mom. Hey, you shouldn’t catch a cold from a patient. Get out of the room already.”

“Yes. Call me if anything happens. I’ll be in the living room.”

Even if it was an early shift, nursing work was still exhausting. Letting her take care of him on top of that inevitably stirred up feelings of guilt in his heart. Taking the tray with the porridge, he quickly ushered his mother out of the room out of concern that he might pass something on to her.

He gently eased the silence left behind in the room with the lingering warmth of the porridge. Somehow, Sorato felt like he finally understood the sense of loneliness Kaon had spoken about. The emptiness in his heart felt larger than usual, and loneliness quietly piled up.

The warmth of human skin, his sister’s brightness… He found himself naturally longing for them.

“Fwaa… I’m sleepy. I guess I’ll sleep some more…”

He carried the porridge to his mouth bite by bite, then washed it down with tea at the end, finishing it cleanly. His blood sugar rose, and drowsiness gently washed over him. Pulling the blanket over himself, he once again fell quickly into a deep sleep.

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