In the After School Library, A Refined Lady's Romantic Comedy Can't Be Compromised - Specials - Part 1
Translator: Lilo
Editor: Ryuubii
Specials Part 1
Siblings’ Rules
【Hasumi Shion’s POV】
At a certain cafe.
“Kirika-san, do I have no charm at all?” [T/N Author’s other work’s heroine.]
Takinami Ruika made an endearing statement to the manager’s wife of the cafe, Kirika-san, who was sitting across from her.
It seemed that she had tried to seduce Shizuru again, and had been magnificently ignored. That was why she invited me to come here. That much was fine, but did Takinami-san understand? That Shizuru is my half-brother.
“No, that’s not true. What are you going to do if you are discouraged by something like this? You knew Shizuru-kun is that kind of guy, didn’t you?”
In contrast, KIrika-san, who calls herself an ally of a maiden in love, responded seriously and ignore the fact that she has to deal with this kind of thing every time.
Kirika-san is a beautiful woman. It was not difficult to imagine that she must have been an eye-catching beauty when she was a high school student like we are now. She sometimes shows a surprisingly young expression on her face, and to be honest, her age is unknown. I wonder how old she is now. It seems certain that she has no children.
“Shizuru probably isn’t interested in women to begin with, don’t you think?”
I stated what was on my mind.
He said it himself. “I’m not cut out for love.” In fact, if you look at boys, they are all different. I don’t know whether they were serious or not, but some of them were always talking about women, while others were just not interested at all, as if they were not ready for it yet. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you were introverted or not.
I was also not interested, or rather, I couldn’t get interested. I have no idea what romance is, or what love is, or what it means to be in a relationship with a man.
“You think?”
Takinami tilted her head.
“My dad doesn’t come home from work a lot, so it’s often just the two of us, but he doesn’t seem fazed by me at all.”
“I mean you guys are siblings, right? Besides, even with that body of yours, you’re quite crude. He looks more of an older sibling than you do.”
“You…”
I myself don’t think I have a feminine personality, but I don’t think it was that much to warrant such a description.
“Oh, I don’t think so at all.”
Kirika-san cuts in.
“Shion-chan is beautiful, has a great body, there are not many girls like her. You should have confidence in yourself.”
“No, the extreme end of the other spectrum is also kinda…”
She was complimenting me too much, so I felt embarrassed.
“Even Shizuru-kun couldn’t not be bothered by Shion-chan like that. But he was probably trying to not look bothered by it.”
“Eh? R-really…?”
It doesn’t really feel that way though… But having him being conscious of me as a woman doesn’t feel bad at all.
“What do you think, Shion-chan? About Shizuru-kun, as a boy.”
“Eh? You’re asking me?”
When asked, I responded in a faltering manner.
“Um…well, he doesn’t look half bad and he acts like an honor student at school. I find it amazing that he’s doing all the work at the library or something. He even protected me from danger, so I guess he has a manly side to him too…”
He was not the kind of handsome or cute younger brother you might see in a shoujo manga, but he’s not half-bad. Maybe that’s why I could accept him as a younger brother.
At that moment, I saw Kirika-san and Takinami whispering to each other in secret.
“This feels like an awakening of a forbidden love.”
“Usually, he calls her “Hasumi-senpai” but maybe when it’s just the two of them, she makes him call her “Nee-san”. She looks like that kind of type.”
“Ah, that sounds great. It really oozes out the forbiddenness of it.”
“H-he’s just my younger brother!”
I stood up and shouted as I hit the table.
They were grinning at me.
“Ah, that was close… my imagination got the better of me…”
Sitting down again, I put my mouth on the straw of my iced coffee and drank it intensely.
“But really―”
And then Takinami-san turned her eyes towards me.
“Stop seducing Shizuru with your radical attire.”
“Like you’re one to talk, Takinami-san.”
I also stared at her in return.
I don’t want to be told by someone who openly talks about seducing my brother in front of me, his sister.
“Two older girls fighting over a younger guy… How lovely!”
And Kiriki-san stated.
Is this person really an ally of a maiden in love?
§§§
When I got home, my father was gone again today, and it was just me and Shizuru at dinner… I felt like this kind of thing was happening more and more lately. Coincidence?
“Say, Shizuru―”
I finished cleaning up after dinner and moved from the kitchen to the living room. In the living room, Shizuru was relaxing on the sofa watching TV.
Shizuru was always like this. He never returns to his room while leaving me to clean up. When he does so, he always has a reason and always says so. Is it out of consideration or just his personality?
“I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a while.”
After saying this, I sat down on the sofa diagonally in front of him. Shizuru turned his head towards me.
“You have such a stylish sister under one roof, and you don’t think anything of it?”
“Um, you’re saying that yourself…?”
Shizuru was taken aback.
“Sh-shut it, will you? If you deny that part, we won’t get anywhere with this conversation.”
Well, I was aware that I was talking in a condescending manner because Shizuru doesn’t seem to think of me as a woman at all, and it was also true that I think I have a great body that I can be proud of.
“Let’s see…”
Shizuru said as he thought about it.
“If that’s what you think, then you probably have succeeded.”
“Mhn?”
What does it mean?
“Because, Hasumi-senpai, at home, even in uniform, you go up and down the stairs without holding down your skirt―”
“Eh―”
I involuntarily squeezed my legs shut and placed my hands on top of each other between my thighs. It doesn’t mean anything now, though, because… I was wearing shorts, not a skirt.
“While wearing that light summer pajama, it looks erotic, and I would think that those breast are really amaz―”
“UGJH!?!?”
This time, I quickly hid my chest.
“Remember that time? When you came out of the bathroom with just a towel, that was such a nice view.”
“EEEEEEeehhH~~~!?!?!??”
Finally, in an effort to get as much distance from Shizuru as possible, I dropped to the edge of the sofa and curled myself up to hide my body.
I didn’t know that Shizuru did that and thought that. Looking back, I didn’t think anything of it at home, because I wasn’t at school, and I was running up the stairs. The white silk pajamas I wore at night were thin and see-through, and I’m one of those people who doesn’t wear a bra (Of course, I made sure they weren’t see-through at one point, so it should be fine…?). Needless to say, I was in a bath towel after taking a bath. I guess It was too stimulating, he even remembered it.
After all this time, I curse my defenselessness.
Did Shizuru take advantage of my defenselessness and look at my body as much as he pleased?
There was no doubt that Shizuru and I were siblings. However, we were not raised together. If that was the case, perhaps I should have seen him as a man before as a brother.
I looked again at the boy in front of me.
“……”
Shizuru was laughing.
I know this expression. It was the face that guys make when they are talking about women in an extraordinarily loud voice, or when they look at pictures of gravure idols and say how cute they are or how big their breasts are. ―In short, it was the look of a guy who’s having a good time with his friends.
I slowly shifted my body back and sat back down on the couch.
After doing so, I reached out my hand toward Shizuru and then flicked him on the forehead.
“Ouch.”
“I don’t like the way you’re laughing at me.”
I told him, who was looking up at me with his forehead pressed to his hands.
“Why are you making it out to be just dirty jokes? In truth, you didn’t do any of that, right?”
“No, well…”
Shizuru slurred his words.
“Of course, I’m just a freeloader at this place after all. I can’t let that kind of thing slip out even if it was just a misunderstanding. That being said, I don’t think anyone would believe me if I said I wasn’t interested in my stylish older sister.”
“…There, you don’t have to repeat yourself.”
Once again, when people mention it, it just embarrasses me.
Shizuru was basically brought by Dad to this house forcefully. He may not have been afraid of being kicked out because of his personality, but he must have disciplined himself strictly to avoid even the slightest misunderstanding happening with a girl under one roof.
However, he knew that I would not believe him if he told me honestly that he was a prince on a white horse who never thought of anything dirty, so he made a lame joke out of it.
“I believe you. I’m starting to get a feel for your personality, and you’re my brother after all.”
“I’m sorry…”
No, it was not that he was not good at it, but rather that he was too good at it. If I didn’t catch his act, he would have said, “Just kidding,” and I would have said, “You…!” and I would have thrown a cushion at him and that would have been the end of it.
“But there’s one thing I don’t believe.”
“Eh?”
Shizuru uttered a short voice.
“…How many times did you take a glance?”
I asked Shizuru with all my heart.
When I asked him earlier, “In truth, you didn’t do any of that, right?” he replied, “No, well…” and I became slightly suspicious. That’s when it hit me. I wonder if it was because we were siblings.
Eventually, Shizuru opened his mouth apologetically.
“Um, just once…”
“Geez, idiot!”
I threw a cushion at him.
“I mean, you already started to climb the stairs when I called out to you.”
“Alright, alright! No one thinks that you intentionally took a peek.”
Shizuru probably called out to me when I was wearing a mini-skirt or in my uniform because he had business with me. But when I rushed as I crossed the living room like a gale, I had already begun to climb the stairs as he was about to ask.
“AAH, geez! This is so embarrassing!”
I snatched the cushion that was in Shizuru’s hand and held it to my body. I shook my face and looked at Shizuru reproachfully with a “Uhh” look on my face. Shizuru turned his face away from me, looking quite awkward.
Now that it came to this, I won’t wear mini-skirts at home anymore. When I’m in uniform, I guard myself as ironclad as at school. I would always wear a cardigan over my pajamas, and not wander around the house in just a bath towel. I know that… the last one was normal for a woman.
I thought about it and let out a sigh.
“I’m not sure about being too guarded too. It’s not like I’m living with a complete stranger.”
It was easy to put on steel armor. But what will Shizuru think when I’m so guarded against him? Would he be hurt in the least? Or was this a natural reaction?
“? What is it?”
Shizuru tilted his head at my mumbles.
I sat back down again.
“…I will be careful to do anything immodest, so you be a gentleman and mind your manners. This is our rule as siblings, are we clear?”
“Ah, okay…”
Shizuru replied in an overwhelmed manner.
Rather than raising the level of alertness without any thought, we should all be respectful of each other. That would be the most appropriate way to settle the issue.
“But that means that, in the end, it will be Hasumi-senpai’s―”
“I-I know! I get it already!”
I anticipated what Shizuru was trying to say and stopped him.
Shizuru acted like a gentleman all the time. As much as possible, he would try not to look at it, not to be aware of it. After an unexpected accident, he would make sure it never happened again. I was the only one who acted defenseless and uninhibited.
“Ah, geez, I’m going back to my room! When the dishwasher stops, put the dishes away!”
I was overwhelmed with embarrassment that I couldn’t stand still ― I stood up vigorously and turned around.
I go up the stairs.
On a whim, I looked back and saw Shizuru meditating and resting his head on the back of the sofa with a tired look on his face like he was… telling an unfamiliar joke. If that was the case, you shouldn’t have done it.
It was easy to say with one’s mouth, “Don’t worry about it.” But for that to happen, the situation has to be right. If I was hanging around naked, there was no need for any kind of warning.
Modesty and manners.
For us who just became siblings yesterday to live well ― I guess it was important.
Also, Shizuru seemed conscious of me as a woman.