Episode Twenty-Three: Since When Did I Become Yours, Yui-san?
“…So, long story short, even though Ritsu-san went out of her way to help, I ended up not preparing anything at all for Yui-san’s birthday present.”
Evening at the café.
I muttered it, faintly dissatisfied, across the counter, and Ritsu-san, stopping by after class, stabbed her fork into her cake with a puzzled look.
Yui-san’s birthday was practically right around the corner now.
Just the other day, when I’d asked her directly what she wanted, she’d told me not to bother preparing anything at all.
I’d wanted to give her something tangible, something that would actually last — and honestly, I couldn’t deny feeling more than a little unsatisfied about how that turned out.
“…I wonder what she’s actually planning.”
Ritsu-san propped an elbow on the counter, tilting her head, puzzled.
“What advice did you give the other girls? About presents for Yui-san?”
Ritsu-san had told me before — if anyone asked her advice, she’d just steer them toward something Yui-san probably didn’t need.
Given that I couldn’t put anything into Yui-san’s hands myself, honestly, the idea of some other girl’s gift actually taking physical form in her house didn’t sit entirely well with me.
So I was a little curious. What everyone else was giving her.
“Hmm, let’s see, a Taiga drama Blu-ray set. Told every single girl who asked a different series.”
“Wait, Taiga…?”
Why a historical drama, of all things.
It’s true Yui-san likes movies. But in all the time we’ve lived together, I’ve never once seen her watching a Taiga drama.
“Ritsu-san, I’m pretty sure Yui-san’s more into Western films. Just the other day she was watching something intense — motorcycles and trucks everywhere, weird masked guys, someone with white face paint…”
“Ah, yeah, I know that one. Watched it too. What was the title again… forgot.”
Ritsu-san showed zero surprise at any of this. Which made me suspect she already knew perfectly well Yui-san was into Western films from the start.
So then, why the Taiga drama? Noticing me tilt my head, confused, Ritsu-san grinned.
“That’s ‘cause I’m into Taiga dramas lately.”
I couldn’t hide my astonishment. Ritsu-san, through and through. Apparently her whole plan was to have Yui-san’s own present quietly redirected straight to herself. I couldn’t help laughing — what a shameless, well-executed scheme.
“…What are you actually planning to give Yui-san, Ritsu-san?”
Ritsu-san’s Yui-san’s closest friend, so surely she’d prepare something real.
Understanding what a wonderful bond they share, I never feel any strange rivalry toward Ritsu-san, oddly enough.
“Dried salmon jerky.”
Ritsu-san popped the last bite of her cake in her mouth and delivered that with a completely straight face. For a moment, the word was so wildly disconnected from “birthday” that I genuinely couldn’t process it.
“Salmon jerky…? That’s not a present, that’s a Hokkaido souvenir, isn’t it…?”
Ritsu-san had just gotten back from her “expedition” to Hokkaido with Yuuri, after all.
I’d gotten a brown bear keychain as a souvenir from Yuuri too. Still not sure what to do with it — currently asleep in a drawer in my room.
“I don’t need to give her anything fancy, honestly.”
Is that just how it goes, between them? I don’t fully get it. But then again — this is Ritsu-san and Yui-san’s third birthday together, so maybe it makes sense, when I actually think about it.
Maybe I’m just the one making a bigger deal out of it, since this is my first birthday celebrating Yui-san.
“…Yui-san’s got that dinner that day, right? So she’ll probably be back late.”
“Ah, with her dad, right? It’s her birthday after all.”
“She’ll get a good meal out of it, I’m sure, but that means there’s really nothing I can do for her that actually feels like a proper birthday celebration…”
Prioritizing family is understandable. No father would want to skip celebrating his daughter’s birthday, the one day a year it comes around.
But if I can’t even manage a meal, let alone a present, there’s really only so much left that I can actually do.
“Oh, right. In that case, want me to grab you some champagne? You’re only nineteen, Kanata-chan, so you can’t buy alcohol yourself yet.”
“Eh, is that really okay?”
“Of course. Once she’s home, celebrate properly with a drink together. Yui’ll definitely be happy.”
Ritsu-san really does treat Yui-san like a genuinely important friend, despite everything.
Yui-san, I’m sure, thinks of Ritsu-san as someone special too, in her own particular way.
*
Getting home from my shift, Yui-san had apparently just gotten back too, and we crossed paths right at the front door.
“Ah, Kanata, welcome back.”
“Welcome back to you too, Yui-san. You’re late today.”
Like it was nothing at all, Yui-san opened the door and gestured me in, and, just as naturally, I went in first.
“Dad called me in today, so I stopped by the company, that’s why I’m late.”
Bending slightly to take off her shoes, her scent drifted up, softly. It’s different from her usual at-home scent, and it never fails to stir something in me.
The pink perfume bottle that had been running low had, at some point, quietly turned into a fresh new one, and realizing my request — please don’t change it — had actually been honored made me genuinely happy.
The moment we got home, she dropped onto the living room sofa, and Yui-san called from the kitchen — want something to drink? Taking her up on it, I asked for hot milk tonight.
Yui-san really is so quick on her feet, doing anything asked of her without a single complaint, and it makes me feel like I’m slowly, steadily turning into a hopeless case.
But — being spoiled by her makes me happy. And the fact that I can’t help feeling that way is exactly the problem.
A highball and hot milk, lined up together on the coffee table.
The wall of age separating us. Only two years, and yet those two years show up even here, in something this small.
Once Yui-san settled in beside me, she tipped her glass back and poured the alcohol straight down her throat in one go. Her pale throat moved, and my gaze caught on it, helpless. Drinking that fast, was she really okay? Her expression never changes at all, so she must genuinely hold her liquor well… though there have been nights she’s clearly had too much.
“Come to think of it, is your brother coming to the dinner for your birthday?”
I asked it, a small question that had been nagging at me.
Yui-san has an older brother. She’d mentioned before that he and her father don’t get along, but I figured a birthday, at least, would be spent together as family.
But contrary to what I’d assumed, Yui-san laughed and shook her head.
“Yuki-nii and Dad really don’t get along, so if we all ate together, it’d turn into a funeral wake instead of a birthday party.”
Eh, it’s that bad between them? I was honestly a little surprised. I thought back to what my own father had said, back when I visited home.
He’d asked, hadn’t he, whether the two of them had patched things up yet.
If my father even knew to ask that, this had to be some deep-rooted issue, going back a long way.
“…I see.”
“Yeah. Being stuck in the middle’s rough too.”
Yui-san let out a deep sigh. She must genuinely struggle with it. Family rifts are never something you’d wish for. Especially in a family of only three people.
Falling apart like that — it’s sad.
Thinking about all of that, curiosity welled up, unbidden — what kind of person is Yui-san’s brother, actually?
I want to meet him, talk to him. My desire to know more about Yui-san just keeps growing, without limit.
“…I’d like to meet him. Your brother, Yui-san.”
I murmured it, and Yui-san’s hand, mid-reach for her glass, went completely still. Had I said something strange? I studied her.
“Um, Yui-san?”
Puzzled, I added, is something wrong?, and Yui-san’s well-shaped brows drew together. Her glass hovered midair, never quite reaching her mouth.
“You want to meet him? Yuki-nii?”
“Eh… yeah, I think I’d like to meet him…”
“…Kanata, do you like my face?”
“Huh?”
What, out of nowhere. Thrown by such an unexpected question, I looked back, meeting her steady gaze head-on.
“…If anything, is there anyone out there who doesn’t like your face, Yui-san?”
The honest truth slipped out before I could stop it. The first time we met, I’d genuinely been stunned. People this beautiful actually exist outside of celebrities. Even now, I can look back at her properly, but at first she was too beautiful to even meet her eyes directly.
But even though I’d meant it as a compliment, the crease between Yui-san’s brows only deepened, and I thought — odd.
Last time I’d complimented her looks, she hadn’t seemed bothered at all, like she was used to hearing it.
“Then, if I were a man, would you want to date me?”
Asked so suddenly, my spine went rigid. If she were a man? I’d never once considered that. Because Yui-san is unmistakably a woman, inside and out, and I’ve never once sensed anything remotely masculine about her.
“…Regardless of gender, I don’t like unfaithful people.”
Grasping at an escape from the question, I said it, half-desperate, and Yui-san pressed further.
“What if I were devoted? Faithful to just one person?”
Every escape route, cut off. It felt like being backed onto a cliff’s edge. Presented with that condition, there was only one possible answer left to give.
To begin with, Yui-san’s popular even with women — so is gender really even relevant at this point? Maybe I’m the only one who thinks so.
Whether she were a man or a woman, I don’t think much about Yui-san would actually change.
“Um… heir to a major corporation, gorgeous, kind, faithful — a person like that? If someone like that really existed, wouldn’t it be strange not to fall for them?”
There’s no one in all of Japan who’d turn down a catch like that. Assuming, of course, someone that perfect actually existed.
The moment I said it, Yui-san’s face twisted like she’d bitten into something bitter, and she let out a long, deep sigh.
“Then, no.”
Eh, no — no to what? Unable to follow the thread, I tilted my head.
“I’m never letting you meet Yuki-nii.”
Hearing that, it finally clicked — this wasn’t about “if Yui-san were a man” at all. It had been about Yukiya-san, specifically, this whole time.
Wait, if that’s true, then I might have just said something completely outrageous. Wouldn’t it be strange not to fall for Yukiya-san…
Yui-san tipped her highball back and drained it in one go.
“…Right, of course. You’re straight, Kanata. If there were a man out there with my exact face, of course you’d prefer him.”
She said it, sulking, clearly put out, and, panicking, I grabbed her hand without thinking.
“Yui-san, that’s a misunderstanding. When I said I wanted to meet your brother, I didn’t mean I wanted you to introduce us so that—”
Yui-san set her highball glass down on the coffee table with a sharp thud and glared at me, resentful.
Oh no, I might have actually just stepped on a landmine. I could feel a cold trickle of sweat run down my back.
“Kanata.”
“Y-yes…?”
Her pale arm reached out and pulled me close. I let myself be drawn in without resistance, folding neatly into her arms. Yui-san’s sweet perfume surrounded me, and, tentative, I wrapped my own arms around her back, hugging her in return.
I need to properly explain that wasn’t what I meant. The strength of the arms holding me tight squeezed something deep in my chest.
“…I thought you were asking hypothetically, if you were a man. I wasn’t picturing your actual brother at all.”
Ah, no. That’s not it either. That’s not what I want to say. I’ve never once thought I’d rather date a man with her face.
Every word I try just digs the hole deeper.
“Hmm…”
A faintly dissatisfied sound came from right by my ear. Even Yui-san sulks sometimes, apparently, and it left me feeling strangely, ticklishly fond of her. Almost the reverse of our usual dynamic.
Now that I think of it, she’d been like this too, hadn’t she, the very first time she kissed me.
“…I’m not going to fall for your brother.”
“Really?”
Somehow, Yui-san sulking like this felt unbearably endearing, and my cheeks softened despite myself. I never would have pegged her as the jealous type.
“…Well, but I guess I won’t really know for sure until I actually meet him.”
Since she’s always the one teasing me, I figured — time for a little payback, just this once. The moment I said it, the arms around me tightened, harder still.
I love gentle Yui-san too, but I secretly love it, sometimes, when she holds me this tight, this forceful. That part, still a secret.
“I’m never handing you over to Yuki-nii.”
“…Since when did I become yours, Yui-san?”
“Since the very beginning. Since the day you moved into this house.”
How unreasonable, I laughed. But finding myself thinking that even this pushy, unreasonable side of Yui-san isn’t something I dislike — I’m probably far too soft on her, by now, for my own good.