The Most Beautiful Girl in School Has Become a Mother - Chapter 60

About thirty minutes and a little bit later.

I received a call from Miori and went downstairs.

In the living room, Miori was softly smiling, while Shuri was looking down and fidgeting.

──Huh, she’s not as hostile as I thought.

I don’t know what kind of conversation took place between Miori and Shuri.

However, the fact that Miori is smiling might mean that it wasn’t such a bad situation after all.

“Hey, Shuri-chan. You have to talk properly to Dad… no, to your big brother, or it won’t get through, okay?”

Miori said that and gently pushed Shuri’s back.

Is there some significance in deliberately correcting it to “big brother”?

As always, Shuri seemed hesitant to speak and fidgeted, as if she wanted to say something.

I crouched down to meet Shuri’s gaze.

“What’s wrong? If you have something to say, feel free to say it. I won’t yell anymore.”

Try to smile as much as possible, she says.

After saying it, I thought the word “yell” might have been difficult, but I guess the nuance would somehow get across.

“Um…?”

Shuri keeps glancing at me and then looking down, seeming hesitant to speak.

“What is it?”

Since I was at a loss for words, I tilted my head.

When my younger sister looked up at Miori with a worried expression, she gently reassured her, saying, “It’s okay.”

“Um… I thought you were lonely, big brother.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Not understanding what she is saying, I tilt my head.

“Shuri isn’t lonely because she has her mom.”

Shuri paused for a moment, then hesitantly began to weave her words.

“I thought you must be lonely because you don’t have a mom.”

“Huh?”

Then, Shuri explained slowly and hesitantly.

When Shuri stumbled over her words, Miori supplemented and connected the meaning.

According to her, Shuri brought up the topic of mothers not because she was dissatisfied with Miori’s “mom,” but rather the opposite.

She has a “mom” named Miori, so she’s not lonely. She’s more than satisfied. But for her older brother, there’s no “mom.” He’s always been there for me, but isn’t he lonely? Doesn’t he actually miss our mom?

Shuri, despite being so young, had been thinking about such things and worrying about me.

So, first, she asked me about my mom and tried to think of a way to ease that loneliness. She must have thought that talking about or looking at pictures of her would help distract from the loneliness, even as a child.

The words Shuri said were not complaints about the three of us now, nor about Miori. Rather, they all came from concern and consideration for me.

“That… Shuri, you…”

Guilt spreads to the corners of my heart.

I felt incredibly embarrassed for even being angry at Shuri, even just a little. I couldn’t think of anything but anger and disbelief at how foolish I had been.

“I told you, right? Shuri-chan would never say anything to hurt Isaki-kun.”

Miori said with a charming smile.

Everything she said was true.

Because she was a five-year-old, Shuri just couldn’t use words well. The words she used were wrong, and I was just misunderstanding her.

Her feelings were just one thing. She was only worried about me.

“Shuri, I’m sorry… I’m sorry!”

I hugged Shuri’s small body tightly and desperately apologized.

I’m a complete idiot.

Because she was a five-year-old, I thought she wouldn’t understand anything. I thought she couldn’t possibly know how much I was struggling, how much I was sacrificing my own time, and how much I was holding back on my own enjoyment.

Certainly, she probably doesn’t understand all of it. After all, she’s a five-year-old, so it’s impossible.

But Shuri understood it instinctively. She knew that I was doing various things for her, and she was grateful for it.

If it weren’t for that, she definitely wouldn’t worry like this.

“Big brother…”

“What is it?”

Shuri calls out to me, who is tormented by self-reproach.

I gently pulled away and gazed at my sister.

“Thank you for bringing Mom. Thank you for always putting up with various things and playing with Shuri.”

“Shuri…”

Suddenly receiving gratitude from my younger sister made my chest swell with warmth, and heat gathered behind my eyelids.

“Even Natsumi-chan was told today that I have to properly say thank you to my big brother. Because big brother always works hard for Shuri, I have to show my gratitude… or else it’s no good.”

“Kijima-san would do something like that…”

Kijima-san, being Kijima-san, had a proper conversation with Shuri today.

What does she mean by alone? What does she mean I’m the only one taking care of Shuri?

Not only Miori, but also Kijima-san has been such a great help.

I was disgusted by my own arrogance.

“Umm, big brother…”

Shuri kept her head down, her shoulders trembling.

Wondering what was wrong, I quietly peered into her face.

“Big brother… Are you still mad?”

She had a worried look on her face, on the verge of tears. Her large eyes were filled with tears, ready to spill at any moment.

The moment I saw those tears, I understood.

Why has Shuri been avoiding me since yesterday? Why hasn’t she spoken to me or even looked my way?

She was… anxious.

She was anxious, wondering if she had been hated by her only family member, if she had made me angry, and she couldn’t even confirm it.

That’s only natural. Even if Miori is called “Mom,” she was originally connected to me. If she were to be disliked by me, it wouldn’t be surprising for her to think that her connection with me would also be severed.

Because I, being immature, didn’t approach her, she was struck by an immense sense of loneliness. It might be something akin to the loneliness that Miori experienced in the past.

“Oh, I’m not angry. There’s no way I could be angry…!”

After saying that, Shuri burst into tears and tightly clung to my neck.

After that, she burst into tears. It was the first time Shuri had cried so loudly since she was much younger, back when crying was her job. She was crying so hard that it felt like that.

I was holding that small body tightly, repeatedly stroking her head.

It’s ridiculous that I, who have a real blood relationship, don’t believe it, and yet Miori, who is just pretending to be “Mom,” understands her better. Isn’t it that both I, her brother, and I, as her “father”, are unqualified?

“Big brother, I’m sorry for being stupid… I’m sorry…!”

Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my cheeks. How foolish of a brother was I to make such a small child so anxious?

I could only keep apologizing.

Upon seeing that, Miori must have been moved to tears as well. She crouched down and hugged both me and Shuri with her arms, crying loudly together with us. Even Miori, who had just cried a lot at the aquarium earlier, couldn’t help but think, “Not again.”

“When I said, ‘Why are you crying too?’ she got angry and replied, ‘I cry because I’m family now too.’ It didn’t explain anything at all, but those words made me happier than anything else right now.”

From the afternoon of the first day of Golden Week, the makeshift father, the makeshift mother, and the child are huddled together, crying loudly. Surely, from an outsider’s perspective, it would seem like something serious. To cry together over something as trivial as a meal is utterly ridiculous.

Indeed, from an outsider’s perspective, it might seem trivial. It might seem ridiculous. Shuri and I are siblings, Miori and I are classmates, and Shuri and Miori are complete strangers.

But in this moment, we felt like a real parent and child, perhaps even more than a real parent and child.

──Hey, Mom. Having a younger sister… family… It’s nice, isn’t it?

Thinking of my late mother, I call out like that.

Since Mom passed away, it has been nothing but hardship. Endurance after endurance. My own dreams and goals completely disappeared, and before I could even come to terms with Mom’s death, my younger sister suddenly became the center of my life.

Indeed, not having Mom around is lonely and sad. Like Dad, I still haven’t been able to face that sadness.

But at that moment──I felt somehow saved by the existence of Shuri, which my mother had left behind. No, it was surely Shuri who had saved me from the sorrow of my mother’s death. Just by existing, she had saved me.

And then, I muttered to myself.

──Mom. Thank you for giving birth to Shuri. I’ll make sure to protect her. So, please watch over her properly too.

Of course, Mom won’t answer. She no longer exists in this world.

Even so, I wanted to believe that she was still watching over me.