My Ex-Girlfriend’s Sister Ran Away to My Room, and We Can’t Stop Making Mistakes. - Chapter 17: A Face of Suffering.

A Face of Suffering.

Just as I expected, when I peeked around the back entrance during what were likely his “slacking off” hours, I found Vanilla lazily puffing away on a cigarette.

“Morning, Saki-kun. You look like you’ve had the life sucked out of you.”

Whether she’d recently bleached it again or not, Vanilla’s hair had become a shade even closer to pure white. When our eyes met, she let out a little giggle. “Still looking gloomy today, I see.”

“Please stop giving me strange nicknames.”

“Rinsu was good, right? She took a liking to you. Said you were interesting.”

“Hah… Well, thanks for that.”

“You don’t look particularly refreshed for someone who enjoyed her company, though.”

“Is that so?”

“You did it again, didn’t you?” Vanilla narrowed her eyes into thin slits. “You’re quite the glutton.”

“Don’t go leveling up my reputation on your own.”

“So even Rinsu’s charms weren’t enough, huh? I see. That girl must have some truly irresistible allure. I’d love to meet her sometime.”

“Actually, about that…”

The timing was perfect, so I decided to ask her if she could give Mii a job. Vanilla was the only person I could rely on in Tokyo; she was my only lifeline.

Vanilla listened in silence as I explained that Mii wanted to work. When I finished, she took another drag of her cigarette and exhaled a plume of white smoke. “Oh, is that all?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“Really?”

“Of course. I am the assistant manager, after all. I’m basically running the place. Actually, someone quit the other day, so we’re a bit short-handed.”

She told me that as long as I acted as her guarantor, it would be fine.

“I’ll fudge the rest of the details. But let me tell you now: make sure she doesn’t let it slip to the customers that she has a boyfriend.”

“She’s not my girlfriend, though.”

“Fuck buddy, then.”

“It’s not really that either.”

“Whichever. Just don’t get all lovey-dovey around the shop. It does too much damage to our regulars’ hearts.”

“I understand.”

“Then bring her in for an interview tomorrow. If you can make it around this time, that’d be great.”

With that, she pulled a business card from her inner chest pocket, jotted down the interview time, and handed it to me.

“This is a huge help.”

Mii would be happy to hear this. With her looks, she wouldn’t be out of place standing in that shop at all.

As I tucked the card into my pocket, Vanilla asked a question as if she had just remembered something.

“By the way… why does she want to work?” Vanilla tilted her head curiously. “How long does she plan on being a runaway?”

“I’m not sure. She said she felt like she had to do something. I think she’s feeling a kind of impatience or anxiety, in her own way.”

“Is she not going back to school?”

“Probably not.”

“‘Probably’?”

“That’s what she told me.”

Vanilla shrugged.

“You know… whenever it comes to her, you get incredibly vague, Saki-kun.”

“I’m not doing it consciously.”

“It feels strange.”

A clump of cigarette ash fell, scattering like a tiny explosion as it hit the concrete ground.

“Well, I know I’m meddling, but… you really ought to listen to what she has to say, Saki-kun. Like why she won’t go to school, or what happened. You haven’t heard any of it yet, have you?”

“I haven’t… exactly heard the whole story.”

“What a half-hearted answer.”

She let out a deep sigh. Staring straight into my eyes, she whispered a single word.

“The abyss.”

“Huh?”

“I see. Her trauma is your trauma, too.”

The abyss.

If you were to call it a shadow that had followed us all the way from our hometown, she was exactly right. The thing that bound her and the thing that bound me shared the exact same origin.

“It’s something you don’t want to talk about, isn’t it?”

In the darkness, the shape of a person swayed limply. A rope dangling from the ceiling. Swinging like a pendulum. That body looked so much heavier than it ever had when it was alive. I could only imagine the sight that Mii had actually witnessed.

“Saki-kun?”

She called out to me, her voice tinged with concern.

My lips, dry and parched, felt as heavy as iron shutters.

“Do you want to hear it?”

“I do, but if you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to.”

“No, I’ll tell you. Since you’re giving her a job… if you’re going to be involved this far, I feel like I should be honest.”

“Then I’m listening.”

She straightened her posture and faced me.

I tried to keep it brief, sticking only to the facts.

“It’s a nasty story.”

It was the first time I had ever spoken of this to anyone.

“At her house… her father committed suicide. Mii was the one who found him.”

My voice was raspy and faint, even to my own ears.

“And the cause… was me. Because I egged my childhood friend on.”

I saw Vanilla gasp, the cigarette slipping from her fingers and falling to the ground.

“I’m sorry. I pushed too hard.”

“No. It’s not something I need to keep a secret at this point.”

“I’m sorry…”

Vanilla stood up and approached me softly. When I looked up, she was surprisingly close.

“I see. So that’s why you’ve been making such a painful face all this time.”

She reached around and placed a hand on my back, moving it slowly in a comforting gesture. The sour scent of tobacco wafted from her as she leaned toward me.