Parents remarried. Now my lover starts referring to me as "Onii~chan" - Chapter 1 Part 4

“Should I help you with the unpacking as well?”

When I had finished carrying the cardboard boxes, I called out to Neneka.

And then Neneka laughed a little awkwardly.

“It’s okay! Since I got various clothes in here as well, I will go slowly, unpacking as I organize them appropriately.”

“Ah, I see… sorry.”

Those clothes Neneka talked about, there might be these that she didn’t want or that might be inappropriate for men to see… I wanted to curse my lack of delicacy that I had asked her about it without thinking it through.

“Well… changing the subject, can we discuss how we are going to go about this in the future…?”

I was fearfully trying to bring up the important part of the story.

How did she feel about the fact that she and her boyfriend were now living together as stepsiblings? Also, was she willing to confide in our parents about our relationship?

There were so many things I wanted to ask and talk about.

The reason why Neneka didn’t talk to me earlier was probably because we were in front of our parents. So, perhaps she thought that once we would be alone, we would be able to have a conversation about this like we usually did.

However… Neneka, while laughing wryly, was slowly peeling off the duct tape off the cardboard boxes.

“I’m sorry, Onii-chan… if I don’t sort out my clothes right now, I won’t have any clothes to wear for tonight…”

She didn’t even look at my side.

Implicitly, I felt a tingle in my chest, as if she was saying, “I don’t want to talk about it, and I want you to get out of my room as soon as possible.”

“Oh… sorry. Well, see you later.”

“Yeah later.”

As a conversation between us stepsiblings, this would be passable.

But as a man and a woman who had been dating for two months already, this was quite distant.

–We were dating, weren’t we…?

This anxiety was stuck in my head for a while now.

If only Neneka followed up by laughing that, “You are surprised right… but to be able to live with you, Daiki, might actually be lucky don’t you think?” I wouldn’t have felt this gloominess starting inside me.

I left Neneka’s room and stared at the closed door.

From today, my girlfriend would live in the room next door. However, she seemed to be trying to hide the fact that we were lovers… or even pretended that it didn’t exist anymore.

“What am I supposed to do…?”

I tried to have a conversation with her, but she refused. It seemed as if she was trying to maintain a distance between us.

“Maybe I’m… going to get dumped…?”

“Hey, Daiki. What are you mumbling in front of Neneka-chan’s room?”

“Huh!? M-Mom!”

When I came to my senses, I found my mother standing in front of me, with her eyes gazing right at mine.

“I-I-I-It’s nothing! It’s nothing at all!”

“Is that so? Well that’s fine as it is, but… since Neneka-chan is going to be living with us from today, be careful with your words and deeds, okay? Don’t do anything crazy, okay? For if I get to hear any such case…”

“If you get to hear any such case, then what will you do…?”

“I’ll take responsibility and make sure the Morita bloodline is cut off in your generation.”

“What exactly are you going to do about it!?”

For some reason, I felt a chill in my lower abdomen.

My mother’s profession was a nurse. If it was about a way to stop me from having a descendant, I was afraid that she might have got a lot of ideas.

“If you have nothing better to do, why don’t you take a bath? We are a family of four from today, so we have to take turns.”

My mother’s voice sounded somewhat amused when she said, “a family of four.”

“Okay… I’ll go ahead and take a bath.”

“Don’t take a long bath, there’s someone next.”

“I know.”

I reluctantly replied and went back to my room.

–I have no choice, let’s leave Neneka behind for the time being.

I finished getting ready in my room, grabbed my phone, and headed to the toilet, which doubled as a changing room.

I slammed the door of the changing room, took the earphones that I always kept in the cupboard, put my phone in the waterproof case, and headed for the bathroom.

Listening to music while taking a bath was my recent pleasure.

While listening to trendy J-Pop music, I soaked myself into the bathtub in a good mood.

If I remembered correctly, this song was supposed to become the theme song of an anime, I even remembered my friend showing me the opening movie of the anime. Maybe next time I’ll watch the anime too.

I felt healed being soaked in the hot water while listening to music on my phone. When I closed my eyes, I felt as if I was in another space altogether.

–It was so comfortable that I could almost unconsciously forget that I lived in the real-world due to this.

That’s right… I was starting to feel like the fact that Neneka was living in the same house as mine was all just a dream altogether.

–I was sure that when I would leave the bathtub, it would be the usual… where I was living with my mother alone in this house.

And just when I was so calm and about to escape reality, the music changed into a calm ballad.

The overall volume of the song lowered. The prelude began with piano tones like raindrops.

–Ah. My latest favorite, here it comes!

It was at that time when I was entranced by this song, suddenly… I heard a loud clatter mixed with the soothing music.

Responding to that familiar sound, I quickly opened my eyes and looked at the entrance door of the bathroom.

“…”

“…”

It was so sudden, that there was no voice.

Even though I was soaked in a tub of hot water, I froze, unable to even blink.

To my surprise, the bath door opened… and a naked Neneka was standing there.

The first thing I saw was her soft, fluffy breasts. I thought about how I didn’t understand the meaning of the… real thing, and I hurriedly shifted my gaze.

But, at the end of that shifted gaze, I saw a slender leg. I thought it was a bad idea, so I moved my gaze again and saw Neneka’s face frozen in place with wide-opened eyes.

Neneka stood there, just like a sculpture.

She must have tied up her long hair in order to take a bath, But her hair, even though tied, frayed-out from places, flowing down to her neck, which in turn made it kind of sexy.

–Wait! Which place is even safe to look at!!

At about the same time, when I hurriedly turned my back to Neneka, she also hurriedly closed the door.

Behind me, the door slammed shut with a rattling sound yet again.

–W-Why was Neneka coming in, when I am taking a bath!?