Vol 1 Chapter 13 – Oddly Specific【Volume 1: The Road to Romance】

The three of them locked up and headed outside to go shopping.

The question of where to buy the baking ingredients, however, nearly caused an incident.

Shino had been ready to go straight to a specialty baking supply store — but Miki objected. “If we’re going out anyway, we should go to the department store that has the arcade,” she announced.

A sibling argument looked ready to ignite on the spot. And yet, somehow, it never quite caught fire.

The moment Miki leaned in and whispered something to Shino, Shino suddenly appeared to reconsider. Her stance softened, and she conceded: “Fine. The department store is.”

What exactly Miki had said to win her over, Sandai — standing off to the side watching — had no way of knowing.

Once they arrived at the department store, Miki spotted the arcade almost immediately and declared she would wait there while the two of them shopped.

“Miki, here — five hundred yen.”

Shino pressed a 500-yen coin into her sister’s palm. Standing around doing nothing would be boring, after all.

“…That’s barely enough for a couple rounds of the claw machine. I’d need medal games to kill the time with this.”

“Don’t be greedy. I’m not exactly rolling in money either.”

“I know, I know…”

Miki scrunched her face with a grumble. She was clearly not satisfied with the amount.

(Well… she’s at the age where she just wants to play, Sandai thought.)

He exhaled lightly, pulled a 500-yen coin from his wallet, and pressed it into Miki’s hand.

“Onii-chan…?”

“Now you’ve got a thousand yen. That should buy you a bit more time, right? But that’s the limit — money doesn’t just appear out of thin air. And no giving your sister a hard time either.”

“Thank you! Got it! …Heheh, maybe I’ll give Onii-chan a little tip as a thank-you for the allowance.”

“A tip…?”

“Come here, lean down.”

He leaned in, and she cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered close to his ear.

“…Onee-chan is kind of a klutz, actually. She sometimes misses a step on the stairs. So if that happens, make sure you catch her so she doesn’t get hurt, okay? I think it’s gonna happen today.”

It was an oddly specific warning. The kind that sounded less like a hunch and more like she already knew exactly what was going to happen.

Well — sisters probably noticed things about each other that nobody else would.

Sandai gave a short nod. “Got it.”

And with that, Miki turned and dashed off happily into the arcade.

“…You don’t have to give Miki money every time. She’ll learn that throwing a fit gets her what she wants.”

Shino appeared at his side with a small sigh, and Sandai shrugged.

“It wasn’t that much, and I told her not to give you trouble, so she’ll be fine. Besides…” He paused. “Wanting to play when you go out is just what kids do. Once in a while should be okay, right?”

“…Fujiwara, you’re going to be incredibly indulgent if you ever have kids.”

“You think so?”

“Definitely. I can kind of picture your life after marriage, actually. You’d be the sweet dad type.”

“That’s a nice thing to say, but honestly, it’s debatable whether I’ll ever even get married. I don’t exactly have a wide social circle.”

“That was until now… wasn’t it?”

The quiet, suggestive way Shino said it made the thought that had been smoldering in the back of his mind since the head pat flare up again. Could it be that Yuizaki is…

He wanted to ask her what she meant.

But the thought of what would happen if her answer wasn’t what he was hoping for made something in him go cold — and so, in the end, he said nothing.

After that, they moved through the shopping without any real hitches — talking about which flavors they liked, which they didn’t, easing through the aisles at a comfortable pace.

And then — it was time to head back.

It was precisely when Sandai had nearly forgotten Miki’s warning that it happened.

Vol 1 Chapter 14 – Kiss-Kiss【Volume 1: The Road to Romance】

With the shopping finished, Sandai decided to go with Shino to collect Miki.

The baking ingredients had been on the third floor. The arcade was on the first. To get to Miki, they needed to head down.

But both the escalator and the elevator were packed. Either one looked like it would mean a real wait.

“…Let’s just take those stairs over there.”

He’d been about to join the escalator queue when Shino suddenly spoke up.

He glanced at the staircase. It was completely deserted — quiet and still, with not a single person in sight. On a Sunday, it seemed the world at large had collectively decided that walking down stairs was not something they wanted to do.

“…Stairs, huh. Both the escalator and elevator are backed up, so sure, why not.”

“Yeah.”

No particular reason to refuse. He followed Shino’s lead and started down the empty staircase.

And then.

The moment Sandai stepped off the last stair and set foot on the first floor —

“Kyaa!”

He spun around on reflex at Shino’s cry.

She was falling — off-balance, lurching forward — and crashed straight into him.

“— Careful—”

He caught her on pure instinct. But the force behind her fall was stronger than a simple stumble had any right to be, and the momentum carried them both down together.

Thud. His back hit the floor.

He lay there a moment, enduring the dull ache spreading through him — then slowly, slowly opened his eyes.

And went wide-eyed in shock.

“…?!”

Right in front of him was Shino’s face, eyes gently shut.

And then, a beat later, he became aware of a sensation on his lips.

He was kissing Shino.

The situation was too sudden, too absurd — his mind couldn’t catch up. His thoughts spun in dizzy circles.

He lay there, frozen, and somewhere around the ten-second mark, he noticed Miki sprinting toward them from across the floor.

“Were you guys okay~? Oh, I saw the whole thing, by the way.”

At the sound of Miki’s cheerful voice, Shino slowly pushed herself upright.

“…Yeah.”

Shino blinked her eyes open, slow and languid — and her cheeks flushed a warm, peachy pink, like the petals of a peach blossom in bloom.

She leaned in toward Sandai’s ear and whispered softly.

“Thanks for catching me. It was an accident, but… we kissed, didn’t we.”

Those words sent Sandai’s already-spinning thoughts careening off the edge.

Was she simply saying thank you and stating a fact — nothing more? Or was there something else tucked underneath those words?

He had no idea.

His mind threatened to go completely blank.

“A-Are you hurt?”

The only words he could manage to push out were the safe ones — a simple, unremarkable question about her well-being. But Shino heard them, and she nodded with a pleased little smile.

☆

After that, nothing felt real.

They went back to his apartment and made sweets together, but he couldn’t have said what he actually did to help.

The finished sweets were eaten — he had no memory of the taste.

Every time he looked up and caught Shino smiling that bright, happy smile of hers, his eyes kept drifting down to her lips, and he couldn’t stop them.

The rest of the day passed in a haze.

“Onii-chan, see you~”

“See you, Fujiwara.”

“…Yeah. See you.”

He saw Shino and Miki off, stood on the platform, and watched until the train carrying them disappeared from view.

Then Sandai sat down on a bench on the platform.

And buried his face in his hands, cheeks burning redder than an apple, and stayed there, silently falling apart.

He didn’t understand himself.

He didn’t understand Shino’s feelings.

He didn’t understand anything.

“I’m already—”

The rest of the murmur never made it out — swallowed whole by the thunder of the next train rushing past.