The Case Where I Found Out My Big Sister with a Brother Complex Was Actually My Stepsister, Tried to Hide It, but She Found Out Immediately and Became Uncontrollable - 37-38

Chapter 37: Hasumi’s Determination

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“Um… You’re Tsunagi and Tsunagi’s Onee-san, right? Wh-What’s with that level of closeness? Your chest… I mean, your bodies are way too close together, aren’t they?”

After freezing up for a moment, Hasumi voiced her doubt out loud. To be fair, her reaction was perfectly understandable. As I tried to figure out how to explain the situation to Hasumi, my big sister spoke up before I could.

“Sumire-chan! Actually, we’re not actually related by blood!”

“…Huh?”

Hasumi looked more shocked than I’d ever seen her. Of course, this reaction was to be expected as well. If she’d known from the beginning that we were step-siblings, it would’ve been different, but finding out later that her classmate wasn’t actually blood-related with his big sister… Well, yeah. That was not something you heard every day. 

Hasumi still looked surprised, but she managed to remain calm enough to ask a question.

“…Even if you’re not blood-related, does that really justify being that close all of a sudden?”

“No, it’s because I confessed my feelings to Tsumugi. That’s the reason why we’re like this now. I’ve always really loved him, but since I thought we were blood siblings, I had no choice but to give up on my feelings… But then, on my birthday yesterday, I found out we’re not actually related, so I realized I didn’t have to give up anymore!”

“I see… So then, Tsunagi… What did you do about your Onee-san’s confession?”

“I haven’t said yes or no yet. Too much happened yesterday, and while I was trying to sort things out in my head, I ended up falling asleep.”

“Exactly! And your sleeping face was soooo cute~”

“You really didn’t need to say that—”

As my big sister and I exchanged our usual banter, though she seemed a little brighter than usual, I noticed from the corner of my eye that Hasumi had her head down. She looked a bit gloomy for some reason.

“If Tsunagi’s Onee-san becomes a real love rival, there’s no way I can win… She’s been with Tsunagi since they were kids, and even if they’re not blood-related, they’ve always been together. For Tsunagi, living together with his Onee-san has become second nature. Not to mention, they can be physically close without it being weird…”

I wanted to ask Hasumi, who was looking down, if she was feeling unwell—but then—

“Oh right! Tsumugi, you were talking in your sleep! You were calling me ‘Nee-san,’ you know? Did I show up in your dream? If I did, then that means you really do care about me even in your dreams~!”

“S-Seriously! That’s enough already!”

My big sister, caught up in her excitement, kept talking to me at full throttle… Normally, she would have noticed Hasumi looking down and said something, but right now, she was so hyped up that she didn’t seem to be aware of her surroundings at all.

While I was struggling with how to deal with my big sister, I saw Hasumi slightly lift her face from the corner of my eye. When she raised her head, I could tell she was mumbling something, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying over my big sister’s loud voice.

“… No, even if they’re not blood-related, the revelation is still too sudden, and Tsunagi hasn’t fully started seeing his big sister as a woman yet. She’s beautiful and has a great figure, but Tsunagi isn’t the kind of person to respond to a confession just because of someone’s looks. The proof is that he hasn’t even given her an answer yet, even though she already confessed to him… which means I haven’t lost to her yet. So from here on out… It’s a race for speed.”

Once I finally managed to get away from my big sister, I turned to Hasumi. Feeling worried about her, I asked her a question.

“Hasumi, you had your head down since earlier. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine now… More importantly—”

Hasumi clung tightly to my left arm, maybe even tighter than my big sister had, then said with a bright smile.

“We’ll be late if we don’t go to school soon. Come on, let’s go.”

“R-Right, but why are you holding my arm like that—?”

“Just go with it!”

And so, I ended up going to school in the extremely extravagant style of having my big sister on my right arm and Hasumi on my left. To be honest, I wished they would give me a break. It was really embarrassing, but for some reason, neither of them showed any signs of letting go. Both of them clearly unwilling to back down.

Just what’s going to happen to us from today on…?

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Chapter 38: Hasumi’s Confession

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“Tsunagi, do you have a moment?”

After the first period ended and it was break time, Hasumi spoke to me. She had seemed off when we were coming to school, but now she was her usual self again, and that made me feel a bit relieved.

“Yeah, is there something you want to talk about?”

“Yes. I was wondering if you’re free after school today.”

“I’m free. Do you want to go to a café together again?”

I made the suggestion, but Hasumi shook her head and then said something that I wasn’t very familiar with. She was speaking in Japanese, but those words seemed foreign to someone like me. 

“No, there’s a romance movie I’m curious about, and I was thinking we could go see it together.”

“…A romance movie?”

…Of course, I had seen plenty of movies before, but since neither my parents nor my big sister ever watched romance movies, I had grown up in a household where those kinds of films were never really present. As a result, I had never watched a romance movie myself.

“I’m fine going with you, but wouldn’t it be more fun if you went with someone who gets more excited about romance stuff? Like one of your friends, maybe?”

“I’ve already seen a few other romance movies with them. I just thought, since this movie is a special one, I’d like to watch it with you, Tsunagi.”

If she put it like that, there was no way I could turn her down.

“Alright, let’s go watch it together.”

“Thanks!”

And so, right after school ended, we headed straight to the movie theater and entered the theater where the romance movie was showing but then, I noticed something.

“Is it just me, or are there a lot of couples around us?”

“Well, of course. It is a romance movie after all.”

“Yeah… I guess that’s true.”

…I understood that a romance movie would naturally attract couples, but maybe Hasumi and I looked like one too from an outside perspective. I tried to push those stray thoughts aside and focused on the movie as it began playing.

“……”

As for the movie itself, it was a very straightforward love story.

A boy and a girl who were in the same club started growing closer and gradually fell in love. Yeah, the story itself was simple enough, but… Partway through the movie, Hasumi, who was sitting to my left, took my left hand in her right one, and with the romantic atmosphere of the movie, I became overly conscious of her hand…

To be fair, maybe Hasumi was holding my hand as a form of friendly physician skinship between close friends. Her action didn’t seem strange, considering that lately she had been hugging me out of the blue. I shouldn’t be shaken up by something like this.

Just as I was thinking that, I suddenly felt her gaze and looked toward Hasumi, who was sitting beside me and sure enough, she was looking right at me.

“…Hasumi?”

I spoke softly, just loud enough for her to hear, trying to gauge what was on her mind. And Hasumi responded, also in a whisper that only I could hear.

“Tsunagi…There’s something I just have to tell you today.”

“Something you want to tell me…?”

Hasumi brought her face close to my ear and said:

“I… I like you, Tsunagi.”

“Eh─”

As I was about to let out a surprised shout, Hasumi quickly covered my mouth and whispered.

“You have to be quiet. We’re in a movie theater, remember?”

“Yeah, you’re right… Wait, that’s not the main problem here…!”

Ha—Hasumi likes me?

It was so sudden that I couldn’t process it at all. Or rather… Though she said she ‘liked’ me, but what kind of ‘like’ she meant? We were in the middle of a romance movie, so I almost took it as a confession, but maybe she meant it in the sense of liking me as a friend.

“What do you mean by ‘like’?”

“Well…”

Hasumi gently placed her hand on my cheek and, with a smile, brought her face closer. Just before our lips touched, she stopped and said.

“The kind of like where I want to do something like this with you right now.”

“…!?”

That Hasumi is…!?

…No good, my brain really couldn’t keep up. Just yesterday, I had learned that my big sister and I were actually step-siblings, and that she had feelings for me as a boy, not as her little brother. I was still struggling to come to terms with that, and now…

Hasumi likes me?

…For a moment, I thought maybe it was a prank, so I looked at Hasumi’s face again, trying to gauge her expression. She was smiling gently, but there was nothing in her face that suggested she was joking or lying…

Then, does that mean she really has feelings for me?

“……”

Even though we continued watching the romance movie after that, I couldn’t focus on it at all. My mind was completely occupied with Hasumi. We stayed until the end credits rolled, but I hadn’t absorbed anything from the film. Afterward, Hasumi and I left the theater together.

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