My Ex-Girlfriend’s Sister Ran Away to My Room, and We Can’t Stop Making Mistakes. - Chapter 27: Let’s Go See a Movie.

Let’s Go See a Movie.

“35.7 degrees. Look.”

Mii showed me the number displayed on the thermometer, a proud look on her face.

In the end, it took two days for her cold to clear up. Yesterday, her fever had been so high she was delirious, unable to even sit up. I’d seriously considered taking her to a hospital, but today, she’d risen from bed with a completely nonchalant expression.

“I’m all better.”

“I was seriously worried. This is what happens when you don’t eat properly.”

“Whatever. Hey, this means I can finally hang out with Saki-nii, right?”

“No. I don’t want to drag someone around who just got over a fever.”

“Ehh…”

Her shoulders slumped in disappointment.

“It’s boring being stuck in the house forever. Come on, let’s go somewhere. Even if it’s close by.”

“No.”

“Fine, then I’m not eating.”

“Huh?”

“No porridge. No water, either.”

“Listen… you’re not a child.”

“I’m still a minor.”

She only ever brandished her status as a minor at times like this. Having made her grand pronouncement, she shed her pajamas and began busily changing into her clothes.

“Let’s go see a movie.”

“Sigh… I guess that much is fine.”

“Yay!”

“What do you want to see?”

“Anything. As long as it’s a movie.”

“So you don’t have a specific one in mind?”

“Nope. I just want to watch a movie, no matter what it is. Don’t you ever feel like that?”

“I don’t. You’re weird. If that’s the case, your phone would be enough.”

“I want to go to the theater. Anything is fine, just something at a nearby theater that we can see right away.”

Once she finished changing, she was already set to go. Realizing I couldn’t stop her, I reluctantly looked up theaters accessible by subway. Fortunately, there was a movie starting in exactly twenty minutes.

What was playing was a Hollywood disaster flick. After taking her seat, she unwound her muffler and leaned back slowly into the chair.

“Movies are most exciting right before they start, don’t you think?”

“I guess.”

“The trailers are fun. I like those best. Even though the actual movie is usually disappointing.”

“Well, you’ve got a point there.”

The movie began.

It was a film about protagonists trying to survive in a world overrun by a virus that turned people into zombies. I felt like pointing out how many times this premise had been rehashed, but the action sequences—which reportedly cost hundreds of millions to produce—were actually quite a spectacle.

“That was boring.”

Mii let out a deep sigh as we left the theater.

“Thin and hollow.”

“The ending was alright, though.”

“You mean the part where he fought for the sake of his family? That was the biggest turn-off.”

As we exited the screening room, Mii let out an even heavier sigh.

“He should have just abandoned them and run away. He could have made it if he was on his own.”

“It’s not that simple. He had zombies closing in on him. If he just said, ‘I’m saving myself, later!’ and bolted, there wouldn’t be a story.”

“What would you do, Saki-nii?”

“Hm?”

“If zombies were closing in right in front of you, and you had to choose between sacrificing me or saving yourself…”

“I’d probably protect you, Mii.”

“Then, what if I were a zombie?”

Having stepped onto the escalator, she spun around to face me. The dazzling, flickering lights of the theater display frames illuminated the posters around her.

“If I was actually a zombie, and you had to kill me to move forward, what would you do? Would you kill me?”

“I’d look for a way to cure you.”

“There isn’t one. It’s kill or don’t kill. But if you don’t kill me, I’ll suck your blood and parasite off you until you’re a hollow shell.”

“That’s not even a zombie anymore.”

“Just answer me.”

She was staring straight at me.

It was a loaded question. I could more or less guess what she was getting at.

“I wouldn’t kill you.”

“See? I knew it.”

“Knew what?”

“It’s the same answer as Sis.”

She reached out and touched my hand. Reaching for me more hesitantly than usual, she began to restlessly toy with my fingers.

“That choice, you know… in the end, it doesn’t help anyone. Because the person who refused to kill ends up dead. And I, who wasn’t killed, stay a zombie forever. Neither is saved. Both end up miserable.”

“But a life is saved.”

“And all that’s left is sadness.”

She gripped my index finger. Her nails digging into my skin stung a little.

“Nothing remains but the sadness of the one who was pitied. Nothing but the self-satisfaction of the one who did the saving. That’s all that’s left. Just staying alive doesn’t mean anything.”

“Mii, you…”

“Yeah. I’m talking about Sis. She hurt both me and you, Saki-nii, with her pathetic self-sacrifice. She’s the lowest, worst kind of person.”

“I can understand how Ayumu felt, too. She wanted to protect a place for her family to belong.”

“For whose sake?”

“Probably for yours, Mii.”

“What is that? It makes me sick.”

She spat the words out with venom.

“Saki-nii, hurry up and hate her already.”

The same words as before.

“Sis, who married a man twenty years older than her. Who abandoned you, her lover, to protect a hollow house.”

“No, things between her and me had gone south a long time ago.”

“But you still love her, don’t you?”

“I don’t know. I can’t tell.”

“You do love her. Your dick says so.”

“Stop it. Not here.”

“Who cares? There’s nobody around.”

The theater on a weekday afternoon was mostly deserted. She squeezed my hand. A small hand that felt as though it might slip away at any moment.

“That’s why I left that house. Because she wouldn’t kill the zombie I’d become, no matter how much time passed. If I stayed there, I felt like I was going to rot away from the sheer pity of it all.”

“Ayumu probably doesn’t think of you that way. Besides, a house isn’t the only place you can belong.”

“I hate school, too. Nothing but weird rumors going around.”

“What kind of rumors?”

Why did I even ask? I regretted it the moment the words left my mouth, before she even answered.

“That Sis was a prostitute.”

Heat flared in my head.

“That she’s a disgusting woman. That she married for money, and that we’re the family of parasites living off it.”

“They said that to you?”

“On the class LINE group. Everyone has burner accounts. I happened to see them, and there were rumors that I was doing ‘compensated dating’ too, while they were at it.”

“The person who showed that to you is a piece of work, too.”

“Yeah. So I beat the crap out of all of them.”

She said it with a bored expression.

“I threw everyone’s phones out the window. It was raining smartphones on the schoolyard.”

“You really went all out, didn’t you?”

“It felt great.”

“So, that’s why you’re suspended?”

“I might be expelled. Sis must be having a hard time right about now. Cleaning up the zombie’s mess.”

She gave a desperate, self-mocking laugh and jumped off the end of the escalator.

“Hey, since we’re already here, let’s watch one more movie before we go.”

“Fine by me. You pick this time, Mii.”

I didn’t want to step on any more landmines like the last one.

She looked at the display board showing the schedule, humming in thought.

“A romance movie where a boy and a girl meet and find happiness.”

“Sure, let’s go with that.”

“Alright, then that’s the one.”

We watched a romance film based on a shoujo manga—the kind of thing I never usually watch. The setting was a high school. It featured a trendy actress and a young, handsome actor.

To put it bluntly, it was exactly that kind of movie, but it was surprisingly interesting.

The biggest discovery was finding out that Mii liked this sort of thing. As the movie drew to a close, I happened to glance at the seat next to me. She was fast asleep, looking peaceful.