Episode Five

“So, how did it go yesterday?”

Fuuka tilted her head and asked from across the aisle, homeroom still a few minutes away.

“Nothing much. The new mum was even prettier than her photo, and kind. Dad was grinning the whole time.”

I answered vaguely, eyes drifting toward the centre of the room. Ao’s bag wasn’t on her desk yet.

“Yuna’s dad is just happy. Don’t go saying anything weird to him.”

“Anyway—”

Fuuka had been looking down at her phone, but her head snapped up as if something had just occurred to her. Her ponytail swayed with the movement.

“What about the little sister? I want to see a photo!”

She pointed at my phone and rocked in her seat, unable to stay still. I looked away from her again.

“…She seemed like a good kid. Cute.”

I don’t think that counts as a lie.

There was nothing to be ashamed of, and if it was Fuuka I could have told her. From today Ao’s surname would change, and it wouldn’t be long before the whole class knew we were stepsisters. I understood that perfectly well — and still couldn’t explain why I’d deflected.

“I’ll show you a photo another time.”

“Hmm.”

Fuuka didn’t push any further. Not prying when it matters is one of her better qualities.

I half-listened to her talking through her weekend plans with her usual air of mild grievance, when a figure crossed my field of vision and drew every eye in the room.

Glossy black hair, and a skirt swaying at just the length the teachers would tolerate. Returning greetings to classmates as she went, she looked almost like someone out of a magazine.

My stepsister is as lovely as ever today.

“Yuna? You okay?”

“Sorry, nothing. I just barely slept last night.”

I snapped my gaze away from Ao and looked up at Fuuka perched on the edge of my desk.

Before, I could watch Ao quietly from across the room and nobody said a word. That wasn’t true anymore. She’d hardly want her sister staring at her all day at school.

“Studying again? Try not to overdo it until things settle down at home.”

“Yes, yes. Just make sure you don’t repeat a year.”

“I’m not that hopeless!”

Fridays always feel louder somehow. I let her indignation wash into the noise around us, and breathed my second sigh of the day quietly enough that Fuuka wouldn’t notice.

◇

“All right — this problem. Can you get it, Nagai-san?”

The teacher stood at the board, textbook in hand, calling on Ao.

She’d been called on a few times now, and every time the teacher had used “Nagai-san” without exception. Dad and Shiho-san must have made some arrangement. Thoughtful of them.

I glanced at the clock without really meaning to. An hour had slipped by without my noticing. All morning, through lunch, and now this — I hadn’t been able to concentrate at all today. Fuuka had already noticed. I needed to reset over the weekend. The midterms were coming up and this couldn’t go on.

I was gazing absently at Ao moving chalk across the board when she turned to go back to her seat and our eyes met for just a moment.

My whole body flinched, and the chair gave a small scrape.

It looked like she was giving me a small, inconspicuous wave. But that was probably my imagination. Getting too self-conscious about things wasn’t going to help.

I pretended not to have noticed and turned my eyes awkwardly back to the board.

I’d done the pre-reading, but modern literature had never been my strongest subject. I really needed to pay attention — and yet my heartbeat kept getting in the way, and I ended up catching barely half of it.

The bell announcing the end of the week rang out, swallowing the thin voice of the teacher who was nearly at retirement, filling the room with the sound of chairs scraping back all at once.

My body felt heavy in a way I couldn’t shake, and I let myself slump forward onto the open textbook on my desk. My hair would get messed up, but right now I couldn’t bring myself to care.

At home there was the Ao who called me Onee-chan. At school there was Nagai-san, unchanged. Until yesterday I’d only ever watched her from a distance, a classmate I couldn’t approach. Now it was different. The thought of keeping this up all the way to graduation was… going to be quite something.

I closed my eyes, and the image of Ao laughing in my room last night floated up, followed by her drowsy face this morning, and I nearly choked.

“Yuna~ Saki-chan’s calling you~”

A classmate’s voice. I lifted my head slowly. My hairpin had shifted and my fringe had flopped down over half my face. Through the narrowed gap I looked toward the corridor, where a small, mascot-like figure was stretching up on tiptoe, doing her best not to be swallowed by the crowd as she waved for my attention.

I stretched out the stiffness that had settled into my body. My shoulders had been tight all day — maybe I should go for a massage sometime. Even if I was still in high school.

I said goodbye to Fuuka and the others, heaved my backpack on, and shuffled out into the corridor.

◇

“Right, I think that’s everything for today. Good work this week, everyone.”

My voice settled into the student council room, the last of the afternoon sun slanting through the windows. It was about six months since I’d taken the seat at the head of this room. I think I’d grown into it, more or less.

Student council work isn’t anything especially demanding. In the end it’s something like a rehearsal for adult responsibility dressed up in a school uniform. Still, if this kind of thing would help with university applications, it was worth doing. Standing up in front of people had never come naturally to me, but when I framed it as being for the future, I found I could manage well enough.

“Are you staying on a bit longer, President?”

Saki asked, resting a finger against her small chin. The oversized cardigan she’d worn since first year was as endearing as ever.

“Hmm… maybe.”

I turned it over for a moment and gave a vague answer.

“As expected. President, want to go somewhere over Golden Week?”

Rin, the vice-president, narrowed her long, sharp eyes as she extended the invitation. Word around school was that she was the most captivating person in the year. Keeping her invitation on hold was perhaps a rather extravagant thing to do.

It was Friday, probably. The student council members filed out with more bounce in their step than usual, and I let out a quiet breath into the silence they left behind.

On any other day I’d stay and study until the sun was fully down. Today, though.

I had no idea how Ao spent her afternoons, but she might be at home waiting for me. If I stayed to study, dinner would run late, and I didn’t want to leave her sitting there hungry.

“…I’ll head home.”

I drew the curtains and looked around to make sure nothing had been left behind.

I should figure out what to make on the way home. Yesterday was a celebration so I’d put in more effort than usual — but from today this was just ordinary life, and getting too carried away probably wasn’t the right approach.

My footsteps rang out evenly through the after-school corridors. Turning over a few menu options in my head, I glanced at the sports clubs running their drills outside and made my way toward the staffroom.