My Little Sister Suddenly Confessed to Me, but What Am I Supposed to Do by Dating My Little Sister? - Chapter 36 & 37 & 38

Chapter 36: Certain Friends of Shiori

One day, three of Shiori’s friends were talking about her in the cafeteria.

Even someone with Shiori’s transcendent communication skills becomes prey to gossip when she isn’t around, doesn’t she?

Using wiretapping—no, the power of heaven—I listened in.

“Ahhhh, Shiori’s having lunch with Hasemi-kun again.”

“I want to eat with Shiori sometimes, too.”

“That girl has so many topics to talk about, she’s considerate of everyone around her, and she never says anything bad about anyone.”

“She’s such a good girl, riiiiight?”

The three voices overlapped.

“Come to think of it, Shiori says there’s definitely something good about every person, and she doesn’t discriminate. Even if there’s someone I’m not great with, if Shiori’s around, I can talk to them without worry.”

“Exactly! She’s not just nice—if someone starts badmouthing another person, she’ll get upset and say ‘that’s not true.’ But she’s not just playing the good girl. She actually understands that person and explains why things are the way they are with real reasoning. I was genuinely impressed.”

Friend A of Shiori said this while eating the mapo eggplant from Set Meal A.

“I had a problem once and talked to a friend about it, and they blabbed about it. It was awful. But Shiori never says things you don’t want her to say, right? I feel safe consulting her.”

Friend B of Shiori said this and bit into the fried chicken from Set Meal B.

“She’s crazy good at studying, too, so she’s super reliable. In middle school, I told her I was screwed for the next math test, and she gave me practice problems covering the test range with model answers. They were amazing—so easy to understand, and several exact questions showed up on the actual test.”

Friend C of Shiori slurped her soba from the soba-and-inari set… Wait, that’s not Set Meal C!

“Ehhhh! So nice! I wanted that too!”

“But if you rely on her every time, she says ‘it’s not good for you.’ Still, she’s gentle and properly teaches you what to do. I cried and said I’d do my best.”

“Right, right! Even when she scolds you, there’s kindness in it. She’s totally different from my parents.”

“But it’s hard to talk to Shiori, isn’t it? You barely get a chance.”

“Because almost all the girls in class are waiting for their turn to talk to her.”

“I wish she had, like, a reservation system, you know?”

“Oh, that’d be great! I’d buy a ticket!”

The three burst into laughter simultaneously.

“She’s super funny when she just talks normally, and she knows a lot about fashion, too. I could just quietly listen to Shiori talk.”

“But doesn’t she show consideration in that way, too? Like, she makes sure not to talk too much herself.”

“Yeah, yeah! She’s a great listener. Even when we’re all talking, she listens properly. And if someone seemed down, she’ll send them a LINE message later.”

Friend A said this while gazing lovingly at a screenshot of a message from Shiori she had saved.

“Ahh, I got one too! A LINE from Shiori.”

“Ahh, Shiori’s LINEs are incredible, right? She’ll say ‘What happened today? Are you okay?’ I was shocked. I was acting totally normal and no one noticed, but only Shiori saw through it.”

“Really? She’s seriously a goddess.”

“But does Shiori have a boyfriend, I wonder?”

“Ahhhh, that…”

“She absolutely never says, right?”

“She must be popular, that girl.”

“She’s apparently really good at giving love advice, too. Like, she tells you exactly what to do.”

“She seems experienced, but she hides not just having a boyfriend, but even having a crush.”

“Or maybe she really doesn’t have anyone?”

“Oh, but in middle school, I saw her glancing over at a different class a few times, like she was worried about something.”

“Ehhhh, really? So she does have someone, doesn’t she?”

“But Shiori has tons of friends in other classes, too. Maybe she was just looking out for that person.”

“I see. But she might have someone, right?”

“I want to know! If the person Shiori likes is the same person I like, I’d give up and let her have him. Actually, I’d cheer her on.”

“Ahh, if my crush was the same as Shiori’s, I might help her out.”

“If my boyfriend was the person Shiori likes, I’d break up with him.”

“You’ve never even had a boyfriend.”

“Ehhh, hypothetically! Hypothetically!”

“Hey, I thought of something, but is it okay to say it?”

“Eh? What? If it’s badmouthing Shiori, I won’t listen.”

“Ehhh, I’d never do that! I’ve never even heard anyone say anything bad. If there was someone like that, it’d be terrible.”

“Ahh, that’d be bad. Everyone would ignore them.”

“And then Shiori would help that person, right?”

“Totally. That would definitely happen.”

“So, what did you think?”

“Ah, right, right. About Shiori… What if she actually likes Hasemi-kun?”

“Ehhhh, isn’t that badmouthing?”

“No way! But isn’t it possible?”

“Hmm, but they’re siblings, right?”

“Because they go to school together, eat lunch together, and go home together?”

“For siblings, they seem a bit too close, but… I guess it’s barely within the range?”

“But Shiori has never once asked anyone else to eat with her or go home with her first, right?”

“She’s popular, so people are always with her without her needing to ask.”

“Right, so that means she doesn’t discriminate. But doesn’t that mean she is discriminating when it comes to Hasemi-kun?”

“Well, he’s her older brother, so that can’t be helped, can it?”

“But Shiori looks really happy, doesn’t she?”

“Ahh, yeah, yeah. She doesn’t show that kind of smile very often. She’s always being considerate of everyone around her.”

“It’s like she’s relaxed only with Hasemi-kun. Her eyes aren’t looking at a brother—they’re looking at a lover.”

“Hmmmmm…”

The three crossed their arms and pondered together.

“Could that really be a thing?”

“What if, for example, Shiori herself doesn’t realize it?”

“Ahh, she does seem like she’d be clueless about herself.”

“Hey, hey, hypothetically, if that were true, what would we do?”

“Ehhhh, isn’t that obvious?”

“Riiiight?”

Without caring about the eyes around them, the three said it in unison:

“We’d cheer her ooooon!”

“Taboo or not, it’s Shiori! We want to make it happen for her!”

“Right, right! Shiori understands it properly, doesn’t she? She’s smart.”

“So what do we do? What do we do?”

“We don’t know if it’s true, and if we tell everyone based on speculation, it’s no different from badmouthing.”

“Then, for now, there’s only one thing for us to do.”

The three placed their hands on top of each other on the table and pledged together as if making a vow:

“Let’s warmly watch over them!!”

Shiori’s transcendent communication skills are at the level of magic or hypnosis. The scary part is that she herself doesn’t realize it—or rather, it’s unconscious…

Without actively spreading it, similar conversations happened in various groups of girls, and an atmosphere formed where no one would interfere with the two of them.

Chapter 37: A Night Alone with Just the Two of Us

My father is always late. Late is late, but he does come home every day. On weekends, he sleeps all day, though.

My mother is a nurse, so she’s there some nights and not others. Naturally, on days she has the night shift, she isn’t home.

During our usual after-school tea time in the living room—is it about time to stop using this phrase?—my sister began to talk excitedly.

“Onii-chan, we’re alone tonight!”

“Eh? Is that so? Dad’s not coming home… oh, come to think of it, Mom has the night shift, right? I was wondering why she wasn’t here. Did something happen?”

“Yeah. Dad’s on a business trip, and Mom was crying about something.”

“Crying?!”

Mom crying because Dad’s on a business trip? Does that mother even cry?

“Something like, ‘Shioriiii, Mom’s hospital is switching from three shifts to two shiffffts, saaaaave meeeee!'”

She suddenly started mimicking our mother, complete with gestures. My sister is way too good at this.

“Haha, you sound just like her. By the way, what’s a two-shift system?”

“Eh, you didn’t hear, Onii-chan?”

“Nope. As usual, no one tells me anything. Am I a loner even at home…?”

A loner at school and at home? What even am I? I can’t live like this anymore…

“You’re not a loner because I’m here! Apparently, the two-shift system means working more than twelve hours with a nap in between or something.”

“More than twelve hours? Heeh. Are labor standards okay with that?”

“Maybe it’s fine because there’s a nap?”

“You take it lightly. So, she’s on the night shift today?”

“Which means… tonight it’s just you and me, Onii-chan. Ehehehehe.”

She drifted off to a different world again.

“Not again. Heeeeey. We’re not doing anything, you know. Nothing special.”

“Ehhhh? We aren’t?”

She snapped back instantly, made a fist, and protested with a ‘ganbaru-zoi’ pose.

“What exactly are we supposed to do?!”

“Ehhhh… like play games, play cards, or drink the coffee of dawn together?”

“With us siblings, that last one just means eating breakfast. Or rather, isn’t it a bit late for this? It’s happened before where Dad was on a trip and Mom had the night shift.”

We’ve been eating dinner just the two of us since way back.

“Buuuut… we’re dating noooow, aren’t we?”

Squirming her body, she placed an index finger on her lips and looked up at me. It’s calculated, but… well, it’s cute.

“As an ex-girlfriend, and currently as siblings, though.”

“Do you know the phrase ‘motosaya’ (getting back together), Onii-chan?”

“Don’t ask a guy who does nothing but read books. In the sense of returning to the way things originally should be, our current state is ‘motosaya’.”

“Buuuuuuu.”

She pouted her lips, looked away, and sulked.

“Midterms start next week, right? We don’t have time to play around.”

Correctly speaking, there are five days left, including the weekend.

“You’re good at studying, aren’t you, Onii-chan? Even on your tests in middle school, you always got pretty good scores.”

“Why does Shiori know my scores?”

“I know everything about you, Onii-chan! I possess that kind of ability!”

“Yeah, yeah. Stop sneaking into my room.”

“Uuuu.”

Faking tears won’t work. Come to think of it, she found that book when she confessed. I need to change its hiding spot.

“Are you not going to study for the test, Shiori?”

“Eh? Do you study for tests, Onii-chan?”

“Ha?”

“Shiori, do you not study?”

“Hmm… in the sense of ‘studying for a test,’ I guess I don’t?”

“You mean you do it daily at home…”

As expected of an honor student, she’s different.

“Eh? I study at school.”

“…Like in the library?”

She comes home with me, so I don’t know when she’d be studying in the library, but I asked anyway.

“Nope. In class.”

“…What about at home?”

“In the sense of ‘school study,’ I don’t really do it, I guess? For school stuff, I just listen in class and read the textbook.”

Ha? Between her communication skills and her academics, is my sister a cheat character? I may have been underestimating her still…

“Haa, is that so… Then what do you always do in your room?”

We almost never go into each other’s rooms. We’re in the living room right now, too.

“I think about you, Onii-chan!”

“…Anything other than me?”

“Hmmmmm… sending LINEs or emails to friends, doing favors for friends, stuff like that?”

“As expected of someone with so many friends. Don’t you have any hobbies?”

“I read books and stuff, but—ah! I make things for you, Onii-chan!”

“…”

My sister’s love is heavy… or rather, I’m starting to get worried.

“Alright, I get it. Let’s go out and play!”

“Eh! Until morning?! Yaaay! Ehehehehe.”

“We’ll get taken into protective custody, so midnight is a no-go. If we leave now, it has to be somewhere close. Karaoke maybe? Or bowling?”

Persons under 18 are forbidden from being outdoors after 11 PM per prefectural ordinance.

“In exchange, help me with math when we get back. It’s gotten a bit dicey since high school started.”

“Okay! Ehehehe. A night date with Onii-chan, and then studying in your room at night…”

Well, I guess this works as an excuse to have Shiori tutor me? If I didn’t do this, my pride would get in the way and I wouldn’t be able to ask…

Now, which one should we go to? Which one will rack up more word cou—ah, no, which one will we enjoy more?

Chapter 38: A Night Alone with Just the Two of Us

I want to move my body a bit…

With that, I chose bowling.

It was still a chilly evening in mid-May, so I told my sister to dress warmly and change. I went downstairs wearing a white shirt, gray hoodie, and denim.

While waiting in the living room, my sister came down wearing an off-shoulder knit top with a denim jacket over it, a red-and-black checkered mini-skirt, and black stockings.

“Eh? A mini-skirt?”

She’s dressed pretty fashionably, but I did say bowling, didn’t I?

“Nope, it’s a skort.”

She spread the hem of the skirt with both hands. Her thighs, covered in black stockings, were visible up to a rather dangerous point.

“Got it, don’t spread it, don’t spread it.”

It’s important, so I said it twice, and we left the house. Please stop hiking it up…

We headed to Laun—no, a complex facility with games, karaoke, bowling, and such. It was fairly far from home, but we decided to walk there as an evening stroll.

“Hey, Onii-chan, can I hold your hand?”

“Let’s not—we’re in the neighborhood.”

I smoothly declined my sister, who had recently lost all her shyness. But she didn’t give up. This time, she clasped her hands together and pleaded.

“Then what about linking arms?”

“No, that’s even worse.”

“Ehhhh, but it’s a night date.”

“No, it’s still evening.”

The days were getting longer, so it was still faintly bright. But my sister seemed to already be in a midnight mood.

“Here, then. Just grab onto my arm.”

“Well, I guess that’s fine. Yaaay!”

Don’t ‘yay’ me.

Me in my normal outfit and my sister in her fashionable one, walking with her gripping my arm… what would people think seeing us from afar? Someone needing assistance? An injured person with their companion? Well, as long as we don’t look like a couple, it’s probably fine, right?

We walked for about thirty minutes and arrived.

I passed by the game center on the first floor and tried to head to the reception desk, but my sister stopped.

“Shiori?”

When I called out to her, she turned toward me, smiled brightly, and pointed… at a photo booth machine.

“Ahh, seriously? Yeah, yeah, we’re taking photos, huh? But I’ve never taken purikura before, so how do you do it?”

“Then I’ll teach you, so let’s take some!”

Yes, yes. I tried to enter the booth, but—

“Onii-chan, wait! Which background should we use?”

“Background? Wait, you choose that outside?”

My sister selected the background with practiced hands.

“Hearts would be good, right? Okay, let’s go in, Onii-chan.”

Once inside, the camera button(?) was glowing.

When my sister pressed the button, the machine started counting down to take the photo.

I have no idea what’s going on…

“Onii-chan, hurry, hurry! Strike a pose!”

I stood next to my sister and posed. Not really knowing what to do, I made a peace sign. Three, two, one—the shutter clicked.

“Haa, done, done.”

I tried to leave, but my sister stopped me.

“Onii-chan, it’s not over yet! Next, get your face closer—hurry, hurry!”

Eh? What? It’s not just one photo? Face? Get closer? Is that what purikura is like?

My sister pressed her cheek against mine. Stoooop.

Three, two, one—the shutter clicked again.

Just when I thought it was finally over, my sister made another request.

“Onii-chan, next is a princess carry!”

“Haa?!?!”

“Hurry! The photo’s going to be taken!”

“Eh? We’re doing this? Do we have to?!”

Three, two, one—the countdown started. Not understanding at all, I panicked and princess-carried my sister. When I lifted her light body, she wrapped her arms around my neck and looked at the camera just as the shutter clicked.

“Haaa, a princess carry from Onii-chan. Ehehehehe.”

“No, please let go, Shiori-san. And you tricked meee!”

Closing one eye, sticking out your tongue, ‘tehepero’ won’t help you! What the hell did you make me do?!

“Ugh, fine, let’s go.”

“Onii-chan, there’s still more. Now we do the decorating.”

“What’s decorating?”

The photos we took were displayed on the screen, and my sister held a touch pen and looked at me. Ahh, I’ve seen something like this in anime. So this is how you write.

“Onii-chan, what should I write?”

“Whatever. Just write what you want.”

“Okaaaay!”

My sister ran the touch pen across the screen while saying things like “Love love” and “I love youuu.” After that, she kept operating the machine.

What even is purikura? The only photos I’ve ever taken are for IDs…

“All done!”

My sister said that, and I finally stumbled out with her, utterly exhausted.

After waiting a while, the photos dropped down from the retrieval slot with a plop.

“Here’s your copy, Onii-chan. Ehehehehe.”

My sister gazed at the purikura, entranced.

“Ha? Who? Why are the eyes so huge?”

Especially my sister—her eyes are already big, so now she looked like an alien.

I remember in an old anime, there was a scene where purikura with a sister got discovered by the parents, but with these, wouldn’t we be safe?

The purikura had things written on it like “Love Love,” “I Love You,” and an ai-ai-gasa (shared umbrella). It was even harder to tell who was who.

“Well, with this, the princess carry isn’t a problem, right? Anyway…”

I looked at my sister.

“Ehehehehe, princess carry.”

She was still in her own world.

“Heeeey, let’s get going soon.”

My sister finally returned to this world. At this rate, she’s going to end up in another world, isn’t she? Will the next story be “Shiori’s Isekai Arc” or something?

Come to think of it, she operated the purikura without any hesitation.

“You’re used to it, huh? Do you take purikura a lot, Shiori?”

“Yup. My friends always invite me to take them.”

Haa, is that so? Guys don’t take them together. In the first place, I only have a few friends… Just a few! They exist!

Pulling myself together:

“Well then, shall we go?”

I finally tried to head to the bowling reception, but my sister pointed at another purikura machine.

“Onii-chan, let’s take another one with this machine.”

Full-body purikura…

Please, have mercy.

Are we not going bowling?