About

"Riku found out." My father's voice over the phone was dark enough to make me realize the gravity of the situation instantly. Riku came to our home when I was in elementary school. I still remember how I, a child without a shy bone in my body, easily accepted the baby—the child of an aunt who had died in an accident—and held him without really understanding the circumstances. Because I left home for high school, the years I spent with Riku weren't that long, but my parents treated us equally, and I loved him like a real brother. During my student years, I felt a pang of loneliness every time I went home to find him taller and his speech becoming more precocious. But once I started working, I barely had the chance to see his face at all. My parents said they would tell him everything when he turned twenty. They believed that as a child, he wouldn't have the emotional capacity to accept the truth. The peaceful family dynamic shattered a month ago. With a little over two years left until Riku's twentieth birthday. He learned the truth at a time my parents never intended. It started when he graduated high school and decided to go on an overseas trip with friends during spring break; he had to get a copy of his family register for his passport. My parents said it was a complete blind spot. I knew I had to go home this time, no matter what. I took paid leave and literally flew back. Riku, whom I hadn't seen in two and a half years, was anticlimactically normal, treating my parents and me just as he always had. If anything, we were the awkward ones. I read the room, didn't mention the register, and tried to spend time with the family as normally as possible. After a quick overnight trip, my mother called to say "thank you," but honestly, I didn't know if my visit had any positive impact. ◇ When I opened the door to my apartment, I was momentarily speechless at the sight before me. "...What happened to your hair?" "...Just a change of pace? I graduated high school, after all." Standing at the door was an unfamiliar blonde young man in a coat; the innocent brother in my memory was nowhere to be found. However, the way his ears and nose were red from the freezing cold overlapped with my memories, bringing back days of playing in the snow in our hometown, which was much colder than Tokyo. "What... is it weird?" "...No, it suits you, but..." Perhaps it was because of his sharp features. The new color looked surprisingly natural on him, but as his sister, I couldn't help but wonder if there was a deeper meaning behind the change. "Sorry I couldn't pick you up at the station." "Nah, I'm not a kid. I'm fine." I forced Riku to hand over his Boston bag, despite him saying he could carry it himself, and led him into the warm room. Riku, who would be attending a private university in Tokyo starting in April, was staying at my place for three days to look for an apartment. "You haven't had dinner yet, right?" "No. I'll make something." "Wait, you can cook, Riku?" "Well... just simple stuff." The image of him in my head was frozen at the time we made pancakes together as children. To think he would offer to cook dinner himself. While I was marveling at the passage of time, Riku began pulling vegetables and meat out of his bag. He tied his long hair back and rolled up his sleeves. His forearms were much more muscular than I remembered, and for some reason I couldn't explain, I found myself staring. "...What?" He must have noticed my gaze, as he gave me a puzzled look. I hurriedly looked away, saying it was nothing. I felt bad just watching, so I decided to at least clear off the dining table.