My Ex-Girlfriend’s Sister Ran Away to My Room, and We Can’t Stop Making Mistakes. - Chapter 36: Vanishing Act.

Vanishing Act.

Mii was nowhere to be found in the vicinity of the hospital. Left with no choice, I headed back home, only to find my room ransacked to a truly miserable degree. The clothes were hit the hardest. They had been yanked out of the closet and left scattered across the floor like garbage.

To top it off, the window was wide open.

“That idiot. Where the hell did she go?”

Even the jigsaw puzzle of the Grand Canyon displayed on the wall had been smashed to pieces. The brown fragments lay strewn all over the floor.

I suppose this was her own way of expressing her fury.

Mii hates me. Ayumu’s words echoed in my mind. Had she really been that desperate to avoid seeing her?

I didn’t have the slightest clue where she could have gone.

As far as I knew, the only person she could possibly rely on in Tokyo besides me was her.

I pulled Vanilla’s contact info out of my pocket.

“Hello?” a sleepy voice answered.

“Vanilla-san. Sorry to call at this hour.”

“Saki-kun? What’s wrong?”

“I should be asking you that. You sound incredibly congested.”

The sound of a heavy sniffle came through the receiver.

“Caught a cold at lightning speed, it seems.”

“That’s because you insisted on going home in that downpour. I told you so.”

“I thought I could make it. I was wrong.”

With a sluggish tone, she sighed. “So, what do you need? If it’s about Mii-chan, she isn’t here.”

“How did you know?”

“Just a hunch. Calling me at this hour means you probably managed to draw Mii-chan’s wrath.”

“She snuck out of the hospital. My room is a total disaster.”

“Yikes. Sounds rough.”

“Do you have any idea where she might have headed?”

“I’ll try contacting a junior from my part-time job, just in case. Though she probably won’t be there.”

“Please do.”

“Mm,” Vanilla murmured. “Are you worried?”

“Of course I’m worried. Where on earth did she go?”

“I don’t think you need to stress that much.”

“But she has nowhere else to go.”

“Doesn’t that mean her options are pretty limited, then?”

“Huh?”

“Well, if it were me…” Vanilla cut herself off with a sharp sneeze. Achoo! “She’s probably close by.”

“Close by? Where?”

“A park, or somewhere like that. She’s probably at a total loss, just swaying on a swing. Go look for her.”

“See ya,” she said, and hung up. Judging by how many times she had sneezed, she seemed to be in pretty bad shape.

Leaving my apartment, I began searching the nearby parks.

The rain had already stopped, leaving nothing but puddles reflecting on the ground.

In the dead of night, the air felt like the inside of a refrigerator. It was freezing. There were several parks in the neighborhood, but not a single soul was in sight.

Since I had no way of contacting her, my only option was to search on foot.

As I ran, the heat built up under my coat. Whenever the wind blew, the sweaty patches stung sharply against my skin. The night pressed on. The last trains had already departed, and the number of people passing by dwindled to a scattered few.

The streetlights felt blindingly bright. Relying on their glare, I searched for any sign of Mii.

After nearly two hours of searching, I finally spotted her in a park one station over. She was sitting all by herself, perched precariously on a swing.

“Mii.”

The moment I called out, she began to pump her legs, making the swing creak rhythmically. She was wearing a mismatched outfit—a sweatshirt on top and her school uniform skirt on the bottom. Just looking at her bare, exposed legs made me shiver.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you. What are you doing out here at this hour?”

She kept her head down, offering no reply.

Her hands gripping the chains of the swing were red from the midnight chill, looking painfully raw.

“Let’s just go home for now.”

She kept her eyes glued to the ground.

As the swing rocked, her shifting shadow stretched across the cramped park, growing larger and larger.

“Sorry about your room,” she muttered quietly after a long silence. Hanging her head apologetically, the words spilled out of her. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

“I’m the one who should be sorry.”

“For what?”

“About Ayumu. I shouldn’t have forced the call on you. I’m sorry.”

Mii didn’t respond to my apology.

A cold gust of wind blew, sending her hair fluttering outward.

“You were carrying the same thing I was, weren’t you? Guilt.”

I spoke to her as she kept her gaze lowered.

“About Ayumu. I had no idea you were suffering, thinking that you were the one who stole her life away.”

There are people who don’t get to enjoy these kinds of ordinary days. I recalled the time Mii had grown angry while watching a girl her own age.

Only now did it finally click. She hadn’t been talking about herself back then; she had been talking about Ayumu.

“She told me you don’t need to worry about it. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t your family’s fault either. It was her own responsibility. Her choice. She even said she was sorry.”

The metal joints of the swing screeched loudly—a high-pitched sound like a sharp scream.

Mii stood up. Still looking down, she turned to face me. I couldn’t see what kind of expression she was making.

“Saki-nii.”

The hand that touched my cheek was as icy as a block of winter frost. She stood on her tiptoes. Beneath her feet, the gravel crunched softly.

Her kiss was shockingly cold. The moment the surface of our lips brushed, she immediately looked back down.

“I’ve heard those exact words ten million times.”

Mii grabbed my arm. It was a weak, fragile grip, as if her hand might slip away at any second.

“Onee-chan is lying. She’s pretending she isn’t hurt. She refuses to push me away… and yet, she stays with me.”

She pressed her palm flat against mine.

“Just like you, Saki-nii.”

The light of the streetlamp reflected silently in a puddle.

“Hey. I’m hungry,” she said, her breath escaping in a white plume. “Let’s get meat buns.”

Mii cast her gaze toward the pale blue sign of the FamilyMart across the street. Pulling me along by the hand, she crossed the road and stepped into the convenience store.

“So warm…”

The inside of the store was indeed astonishingly warm. Beneath the stark white glow of the fluorescent lights, Mii’s eyes were bloodshot and swollen from crying.