The Revenge of My Youth: My Re Life with a Girl Who Was Too Much of an Angel Light Novel - Volume 1 Chapter 3
Chapter 3: After School with the Girl of My Dreams
Oh, shit!
Afternoon classes were over and I was walking down the hall while wallowing in regret..
The reason for that was, of course, the incident during lunchtime.
I’ve never lost my temper like that… Hell, I didn’t even know that I could scream that loud…
It wasn’t like I could help it though.
When I started working, I realized how hard my mother had worked to provide for us in a family where my father had died early.
A kid who had never worked in his life tried to steal the money that my mother had given me. It was inevitable that I lost my temper.
Well, I don’t think he’s going to do anything to get back at me because I’m not someone worth mentioning. I just don’t want rumors to spread… Well, it’s already in the past, let’s stop dwelling on it.
In any case, letting him take my wallet wasn’t an option that I could accept.
Alright, time for a mood change. For now, I got to focus on the library committee work with Shijouin-san!
I decided to do so, and opened the door to the library…
There was Shijouin-san standing at the window, looking out at the after-school scenery.
A gentle breeze made the girl’s long black hair flutter.
Her well-groomed face, her shining hair, her quiet demeanor… Looking at her like this, I realized once again that she was simply beautiful..
What a nostalgic scene…
My precious memory. This place, the library, was the place where I first had contact with her. Once again, I was standing in this place. The place that I thought I’d never got to visit ever again.
“Oh, Niihama-kun! Good work!”
“Ah, good work, Shijouin-san. Sorry, did I keep you waiting?”
“No, I just got here!”
I felt slightly happy at this exchange. How should I put it? It felt like we were meeting up on a date.
Well, not that I knew much about it, since I’ve never nailed myself a date back in my previous life…
“Okay, let’s get started! Let’s see, first we have to organize the books, right?”
“Yes, some new books have arrived and I’m distributing them!”
With Shijouin-san’s voice as our cue, we started working.
In my previous life, I didn’t have the courage to talk openly with a beautiful girl like her, but now that I’ve gained an incomparable mental strength, I could exchange words smoothly with her. I felt happy about that.
＊ * *
“Some people still haven’t returned the books yet, even though they’re long overdue already…”
“This guy and that guy… They’re repeat offenders…”
As I was working, I gradually remembered that the library committee has a lot of work to do, such as distributing new books, organizing the stacks of books, and recording things in journals.
What I was currently working on was dealing with people who failed to return their borrowed books on time.
“What should we do? …No matter how many times I’ve contacted them about the deadline, their responses have been very uncooperative…”
“Even if you asked me that… Fine, what about this? Let’s use the broadcast system and call out their names during lunchtime and tell them to return the books properly.”
“E-ehh? They’ll get angry if you do that, you know?”
“Well, firstly, we warn them about it. ‘If you don’t return the books you’re borrowing by the end of the week, we’re going to call you out with the broadcast system.’ Something like that. If they still ignore us after that, we’ll call their names for real.”
Some of my colleagues at work had the habit of ignoring their deadlines that we’ve agreed on.
Those guys also had the balls to ignore me when I mentioned it to them.
At one point, I decided to not let them off easily. After all, I didn’t want the boss to get mad at me.
So I sent out an email to those guys while accidentally sending the boss and a few others the very same email that said, ‘X-san, the deadline for the work I’ve assigned you had long passed. Is there a problem?’
And that worked. Those guys immediately worked their ass off to submit their work.
After all, they wouldn’t want their boss to treat them as someone who couldn’t keep their word.
“Well, if it comes to that, I’ll do the name-calling, and if there’s trouble, I’ll deal with it. There are a lot of students who are waiting for the popular new book, so I can’t just let them monopolize it and not return it.”
“…”
Shijouin-san went quiet. What was going on?
Oh, crap! I was using my businessman mindset again! Wasn’t this idea too extreme to be applied to high school students? Did I make her feel uncomfortable?
“…Yeah, you’ve really changed Niihama-kun. Your thought process… Your words… They have a certain weight to them…”
“I-Is that so?…”
Rather than surprised by my sudden change, it seemed like she was amazed by it instead. At any rate, I was mentally fourteen years older.
“Yes, but… Niihama-kun is still Niihama-kun after all!”
“Eh?…”
I blinked, trying to understand what she meant by that, but she ignored my confusion as a bright smile appeared on her face.
“Niihama-kun is the one who had been apologizing to the students who were disappointed to find that their favorite books were out of commission.”
She was talking about the time when I was a gloomy nerd.
“You acted more mature, but your gentle side is still here. You’re still organizing everything so that everyone who comes here will be able to navigate the library easily… You’re still trying to clean the dirty books…”
“…Shijouin-san…”
I was surprised by her words and at the same time, I felt that my heart was pounding.
She actually paid close attention to me, even though I was just a gloomy guy…
“Also, it’s amazing how by changing your hairstyle, you look like a totally different person! I wanna try it myself now!”
“Eh? Shijouin-san, there’s nothing wrong with your hairstyle…”
This girl said she wanted a makeover while making a serious face like that. She looked pretty enough, what exactly did she want to change?
“Well, you see… My parents always treated me like a child! My father is so overprotective! I want to make myself look more mature!”
I chuckled at her response.
Her longing for adulthood sounded really funny to me as I knew that she was actually serious about it.
However, to me, someone who had experienced adulthood to the point that I felt sick of it, I couldn’t help but wish that our time as a child would last as long as possible.
“Muu… Niihama-kun, why are you laughing at me like that? Are you mocking me?”
“Hahaha… N-no, I’m not, I swear…”
I smiled at Shijouin-san, who puffed her cheeks.
Shijouin-san was serious about her work, and I, a company slave who could break my limits when it came to work, joined in and we ended up doing more work than necessary.
It had been a day since I had died of exhaustion, but the work I was doing was so different from the work I did back at the black company. I felt joy and as I did my job, the time flew by.
＊ * *
“Phew, time went by quickly…”
After returning the library’s key to the staff room, I walked alone down the hallway, which was painted in orange, thanks to the evening sun. Before we parted, Shijoin-san said, ‘Good work! See you later!’ to me. By now, she was probably out of the school building already.
“My second youth… My second high school life…”
Today had been surprisingly a busy day for me. But after things had settled down like this, I began to appreciate the miracle that was bestowed to me.
Still, isn’t Shijouin-san such a nice girl? The more I talked to her, the more my heart started to beat faster…
Today was the first time I was able to talk to her properly. Her innocent smile was the same as always, it was very cute. The gap between her beauty and her childlike innocence was a bit unbelievable.
I hope I can continue to get to know her better.
If she came to think of me as a friend, I couldn’t be happier. (TLN: What about boyfriend instead. You’ll be happier)
“Huh…?”
Suddenly, I felt an indescribable sense of discomfort in my thoughts.
I felt something off…
But I didn’t know what it was, and this made me feel confused.
Seriously, what was going on?
“Are you taking me for a fool? Huh?!”
What’s that? …A girl’s voice? …It came from that hallway…
My thoughts were interrupted by an unexpected yell.
Someone was being surrounded… Huh, Shijouin-san?…
I leaned over from the corner of the hallway. There I found Shijouin-san being surrounded by three girls.
“U-Um… I’m sorry… I don’t think I understand what you are talking about…”
“Ha! Of course you’ll say something like that! After all, you’ve been living like a bitch since a long time ago, haven’t you?”
Those are… Hanayama and her gal cronies? …Those bitches who always bragged about how much money they mooched off from older men…
Hanayama was a girl from another class. She left a big impression on me to the point that I remember her name. She was a typical gal whose thoughts revolved around men and money.
They hate girls who are prettier and more popular than them… That’s why they antagonize Shijouin-san like this…
She was unlucky. Those bitches probably saw her passing by while they were messing around inside their classroom and decided to bully her.
“T-That… I’m sorry! I’m really not sure, what do you mean by ‘getting carried away’, if I may ask?…”
“See? This is what I’m talking about! Ha! Do I need to spell it out to you? The fact that you’ve been acting like a bitch in heat and keep selling your body every single day? You seriously pissed me off!”
“Right, right! Michiko is right! Seriously, you’re an eyesore!”
‘Getting carried away’ was a convenient word to use for bullies.
It was a language that gave the bullying target the impression that there was something wrong with their behavior even though it was merely empty words spouted randomly by the bullies.
“From tomorrow onwards, stop acting like a bitch! Cut your hair short and stop wearing makeup! Distance yourself from men, it isn’t hard!”
“Eh? But I don’t wear any makeup…”
“! …This bitch!…”
She was probably offended because she had to apply thick makeup to look good. After hearing that comment from Shijouin-san, she immediately reached for her collar.
“Oi, stop that.”
Of course I couldn’t let that happen. I jumped out of my hiding spot, called her out and stood in front of Shijouin-san to protect her.
“Niihama-kun!…”
“Ha? Look who came, this bitch’s classmate, the gloomy nerd! Oi, get out of my way!”
As she was a part of the upper echelon of the school caste, Hanayama shouted at me as soon as she saw me.
These kinds of women are the most annoying kind of people to deal with…
I’ve seen a lot of haughty women like this. They would push men around to do their jobs and somehow still got special treatment from their bosses just by shaking their asses around.
And because they lived by the logic of ‘Since I’m pretty, I deserve special treatment!’ they couldn’t tolerate the existence of women who were prettier than they were and they quickly resorted to bullying people to make themselves feel better.
Ugh… Even with my experience as an adult, dealing with this kind of bitch is tough… Even if I try to reason with them, they’ll pull out the victim card and turn everyone against you…
“Just now, were you trying to grab Shijouin-san’s collar? Stop that.”
“What do you care? Let me go! What’s wrong with you? Did you read too many of those gross comics that you thought if you protect this bitch you could go out with her? You’re so gross!”
Seriously, she was so disgusting.
Oh well, I knew what to do in such a situation. Besides, I came from the future, I knew how to handle her.
“Ah, right, Hanayama-san, have you been to the downtown area north of the station lately? You see, I’ve been seeing you talking with some businessmen in front of the hotel on the 5th Avenue…”
“…Huh?!”
Hanayama’s face paled quickly with shock.
It was true, wasn’t it? You were there to blackmail those old men weren’t you? Pretending to ask them for help, recording your conversations, taking pictures and eventually getting hush money?
Of course that was a very dangerous thing to do. After all, if the school found out, they would immediately expel you.
“You! …Why you!…”
“I had a chance to find out a little about it. Hanayama-san’s pocketbook.”
I was, of course, talking about the future.
During her third year of high school, she was expelled for blackmailing another girl, she even made it to the news.
The school was in a huge uproar at the time to the point that even I knew all the details about her situation.
“I don’t really care about it, but if you’re uncooperative, I have no choice, you see? An eye for an eye, no?”
“Damn it! …Don’t you even dare to spread it around! If you do, I’ll tell my boyfriend to kill you!”
After saying that, Hanayama quickly turned around and left.
“Eh? W-what’s wrong, Michiko?”
“Shit, just leave me alone!”
As Hanayama spat out a curse, her cronies, who didn’t understand what she was talking about, looked at her and followed her.
Well, even if I keep quiet about it, you’ll get expelled next year anyway…
Knowing that when that future came, Hanayama would be as desperate as if she had been sentenced to death, I smiled down at the back of the unknowing bitch.
* * *
I’m tired… Dealing with that kind of person is exhausting… Still, it’s easy to hold on to their weakness. To them, keeping up appearances is the most important thing, so they wouldn’t risk things that could tarnish their reputation…
There was a time when I had a female colleague push all her works to me. Whenever I complained about it, she would scream something like, ‘Niihama is forcing me to work!’, or ‘Niihama is sexually harrassing me!’
One day, she took a leave of absence with ‘My mother is sick’ as an excuse, but she actually spent it on a vacation. I managed to find that out through social media. When I mentioned it to her, she immediately broke out in a cold sweat and stopped messing with me ever since.
“U-um… Thank you for your help, Niihama-kun…”
Shijouin-san, who had been watching while keeping quiet, thanked me politely.
“Ah, don’t mention it, I didn’t do much. Anyway, I was surprised to hear shouts inside the building, I thought everyone went back home already, so I decided to come here to check it out… Well, in any case, I’m glad that everything turned out fine…”
“Sorry for the inconvenience… I’m glad that you helped me… Thank you…”
Shijouin-san’s face looked very pale.
Right, she had to deal with those unreasonable people.
“…Shijouin-san, will someone pick you up in a car?”
“What? No. My father always recommended a car to take me to and from school, but I wanted to go to and from school the same way everyone else did, so I always walked.”
“I see… It’s really late right now, so… I’ll take you home.”
I tried to act casually, but I was so nervous that I was sweating profusely.
Thanks to my time as a company employee, I now have a much stronger mentality than I did as a high school student in my previous life… I was still a virgin though…
Anyway, even for me, it took a lot of mental strength and courage to say ‘I’ll walk you home’ like a manga protagonist to a girl, especially to Shijouin-san.
But I wanted to do so.
As a man who had taken the liberty of positioning her as the jewel of his youth and admired her, it was unacceptable to let her walk home alone at a late hour when she was looking this pale.
“Are you sure? If that isn’t much trouble for you, yes, I would be happy to!”
My fear of being rejected was dispelled by Shijouin-san’s blooming smile…
I felt happy about this, but I couldn’t believe that she would show this kind of smile to a gloomy nerd like me. Seriously, was this girl an angel or something? I couldn’t help but worry for her future…
Well, anyway… This was how Shijouin-san and I left the school together.
* * *
“Bladers is really the best of the best! At the end of the first season, when the MC said ‘I’d trade the world to protect them!’ and decided to cast Darkslave, I was in tears.”
“That part could really make you cry, alright! And then, just when you think it’s all over, there’s that twist at the end! It was the best of the best!…”
“Yes, yes! I agree!”
I walked through the city alone with a girl.
When I was a company slave, I had to go on business trips and go to drinking parties and come across such situations.
However, as I didn’t have any skills in dealing with the opposite sex, I made a bad impression with my sluggish and bad communication skill. Instead of getting along with them, they thought I was uninteresting and unreliable, which hindered our cooperation at work.
So I came up with a plan.
I felt more relaxed whenever I talked about my favorite things like video games or novels.
This should be the case with everyone else, so I should let them talk about their favorite things, that was my plan.
And that turned into a big hit. Whether it was a woman or boss, whenever I let them talk about their favorite things like their pet or the baseball team they root for, they’ll generally be in a good mood. I don’t need to be good at talking, I just need to nod my head occasionally…
“Also, when the MC did that…”
Shijouin-san seems to be having a great time.
It seemed like she had been looking for someone to talk to about her favorite scenes in novels. I didn’t know much about her friends, but based on her behavior, I could guess that she wasn’t comfortable talking about her quirky hobby with them…
“That was nice. You seem to be feeling better.”
“Ah, yes, I feel better now that I’ve finally been able to talk about something I like.”
That’s good. She should try to take her mind off the previous harassment attempt and relax. I wouldn’t let the attempt weigh on her mind and cause her to get a mental breakdown over it like in her previous life.
“It isn’t the first time I’ve experienced something like that… But I still can’t get used to it…”
“I see… How many times has something like that happened?”
“Since around the first grade. Some girls always told me that I’m an eyesore… I’m getting carried away…”
First grade… They should be six years old, yet they were doing this kind of thing…
Seriously…
“Honestly, I don’t know what they want from me… But I can tell that they hate me… I’m scared… But, I’m glad that you were there for me, Niihama-kun…”
Shijouin-san looked up at me. Her face, ridden with slight anxiety, looked like a depressed puppy and it was cute. I almost lost myself because of the cuteness, but I managed to hold myself together.
I see, she doesn’t understand why she got into that situation… Makes sense since she is quite innocent…
“Alright… I think Shijouin-san should know what causes people like Hanayama to act like that…”
“Eh? Do you know the reason why, Niihama-kun? Then, please tell me! If I’m doing something wrong, then I want to know about it so I can fix it!”
Said Shijouin-san, her eyes filled with expectation.
“Alright. The reason is actually simple. It’s because Shijouin-san is beautiful and kind.”
“Eh?…”
“It’s jealousy, you see? Everyone isn’t as beautiful and kind as Shijouin-san, so they couldn’t help but feel jealous toward you.”
“N-no! What are you talking about? I-I’m not…”
“I’m serious. No matter how unbelievable it is to you, in other people’s eyes, you’re beautiful. You need to be aware of this, okay?”
I decided that there was no point in talking in circles to her, so I told her the truth.
I had to make her self-aware of her situation. This way, the overly serious Shijouin-san wouldn’t need to suffer from self-doubt anymore.
“Anyway, none of this is your fault, Shijouin-san. Alright, let’s do this, repeat after me, ‘It’s not my fault’.”
“I-It’s not my fault… B-but are you sure about this, Niihama-kun? Maybe there’s something I did that made them uncomfortable?”
“No, there isn’t. You need to change that perspective, Shijouin-san. Now, ten more times, ‘It’s not my fault’.”
“Why are you so sure?…”
Shijouin-san looked confused, but because of her serious nature, she began to recite ‘It’s not my fault’.
Still, this was necessary.
The reason why I sounded pushy since a while ago was because I was desperate. I had to make her tendencies to blame herself disappear.
It’s always the earnest ones who ended up in black companies. Even when they’re forced to do an unreasonable amount of work and the people around them push them around for no reason, they’ll still blame themselves for it. In the end, they will get more and more depressed as the time goes on and eventually overwork themselves.
And that was probably the reason why Shijouin-san did that in my previous life.
She failed to understand that the bullies’ motive was jealousy, so she blamed herself for everything to the point that she broke down.
In order to prevent such a future from happening, I need to change that mindset of hers.
“‘It’s not my fault’, ‘It’s not my fault’, ‘It’s not my fault’… There, I did it!”
“Good. In the future, don’t let bitches like Hanayama push you around. Their pride is too high to say things like ‘I hate you because you’re prettier than me’, so they use more convenient terms like ‘You’re getting carried away lately’ as substitutes.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. In the end everything is just jealousy, they did that to make themselves feel better, that’s why— Huh, what’s wrong?”
For some reason, Shijouin-san was staring at my face with a strange look on her face.
“Nothing… Niihama-kun’s face looked so serious… I’m thankful, but I wonder why are you going out of your way to help me like this?…”
“I just don’t want to see your troubled face, Shijouin-san…”
“Eh?…”
I remembered that in my previous life, Shijouin-san took her own life, and I’ve swore to myself to not let it happen again.
But saying that kind of line still felt embarrassing. I didn’t even notice the girl beside me was staring at me with wide eyes.
“T-that… Niihama-kun…”
“Yes?”
“You said earlier that the others are jealous of me because of my looks… Because it seems that you aren’t saying that just to comfort me… Are you…”
“Yes, of course. When I first saw you, Shijouin-san, I was surprised at how beautiful you are.”
“!!”
The words I just said might sound cheesy, but it was my honest feeling.
When Shijouin-san heard that, for some reason, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and she went silent while hiding her face.
Her response was natural. I mean, someone just told her with a serious face that she’s beautiful right to her face. At that time, I didn’t realize it though, so I just tilted my head in confusion at her behavior.
* * *
As expected, her house is huge…
I dropped her off in front of her house. Seeing her house which looked more like a mansion than anything, I felt the difference between our social hierarchy.
Look at her garden… It got a fountain in it… There are statues and flowerbeds… Maintaining them must be expensive…
“Niihama-kun, thank you very much. you ended up going out your way to escort me home too…”
“No, it’s fine. I enjoyed our little talk anyway.”
Shijouin-san bowed deeply, but the only thing I did for her was chasing away a bunch of noisy girls and escorting her home. I did those because I wanted to. She didn’t need to show me this much appreciation…
“No, I appreciate everything you did. In fact, if I were to walk alone, maybe I’ll feel more gloomy… But because of you, I’m feeling happy right now!”
I couldn’t help but smile at her. She had a big smile on her face as she placed her hand on her chest.
This expression really suited her more.
And because of her gentle nature, there will always be people trying to harm her.
People like Hanayama, people who would do something like that without feeling any remorse.
Those people would justify their actions by saying convenient words like ‘You’re getting carried away’, or ‘You’re a nuisance’, even though their real goal was different.
“…Um, if it isn’t too much trouble.”
Before I could think of anything else, I opened my mouth.
“If you’re having a hard time like today, you can tell me about it. I’ll do whatever I can to help you and at least I’ll be there to listen to your worries…”
“Eh?…”
I wasn’t trying to be cool, I was just concerned about her. However, I realized that I shouldn’t have said something like that in this kind of situation.
Oh, crap… I was so anxious that I said something I shouldn’t have! …This is supposed to be the first time I talked to her properly, that’s the line I should only say to my close friends!
I meant it though. After all, I wanted to help her as much as I could.
“W-Well! I’m going home! See you later, Shijouin-san!”
I walked away to hide my embarrassment.
“Um, Niihama-kun!”
I heard Shijouin’s voice from behind me.
“U-Um… I’ll say it again, thank you very much! See you later!”
“Y-yes! See you later!”
Shijouin sent me off in a loud voice and I replied to her with a loud voice too.
Anyway, our time together was over, so I headed back to my house.
* * *
What can I say? …A lot of things happened today…
I thought of that as I walked down the street clad in the darkness of the night.
The first day of my time leap was eventful, it was filled with a lot of troubles and unexpected encounters.
Compared to back in my previous life, today felt especially rowdy…
The environment didn’t change, but I’m the one who changed a lot, huh?…
I was surprised to see such a huge change occurring in my daily life. Even though the only thing that changed was my mentality, experiences, memories and such.
And the most striking difference was the fact that I was able to talk properly with the girl I always dreamed of.
I didn’t expect that I’d be able to talk with her this much on the very first day…
My mind wandered to the various expressions that Shijouin-san showed me over the course of the day.
The thing that left the biggest impression on me was her smile.
I wanted to do everything that I could to make sure that she would be able to keep smiling in the future.
As to how I would do that… I guess giving her advice whenever she encounters some troubles is the way to go…
It was simple but effective.
I didn’t need to make her strong enough to solve everything by herself. I just needed to make her strong enough so that she wouldn’t fall into depression easily.
And in order to do that, I need to be in a position where I would be able to talk to her regularly… [TL: Which is being her bf so that you can always support her]
Today, both of us talked a lot to the point that someone might have misunderstood our relationship as close friends. Sadly that wasn’t the case though…
Shijouin-san wasn’t aware that she was an attractive girl. She would openly talk to boys like it was a normal thing to do. It was her childishness that made her act this way, not because she paid special attention toward the boys she was talking to.
Still, I’ve established a proper connection with her today. I’ll try to hang around her more in the future as long as she isn’t bothered by my presence. The boys might get jealous, but I don’t care.
The moment I decided that, I felt something rising from deep within my chest.
Huh?…
It made me feel energetic, I felt like I could soar to the sky.
What is this? …Why am I getting so excited?
I felt confused. I didn’t understand what was happening with me.
Yet my body felt light and my heart felt with enthusiasm.
Surely, it was natural for me to be excited over this thing, after all I got the chance to get closer to my idol, Shijouin-san. But, I was getting a little bit too excited.
And as I was thinking of that, another thought entered my mind.
My death.
I remembered the last thought I had right before dying. I still couldn’t understand what it was about, but for some reason, it gave me a strange feeling.
Why does that come to my mind… Rather, what was it all about? …What am I forgetting?
I remembered that it was something that I could do, but I chose not to do it and it made me regret it for the rest of my life.
What the hell was it?
Jeez, I’m annoyed now… Ah… I’m at home already…
Before I knew it, I was already right in front of my house.
I should have walked for a good distance, but this younger body of mine was strong and healthy compared to my thirty-year-old body. I didn’t even feel tired.
Yeah, it’s my house alright… Not my ‘parents’ house’ but ‘my house’…
I didn’t have the time to look at the house closely this morning because my mom kicked me out, but now that I was able to look at it, a nostalgic feeling rose from deep inside my heart.
This was the only house that I could truly call ‘home’. My apartment was merely a place to sleep to me.
I’m home…
After a while, I walked through the front door. This was the house where I had been living since I was born. It was eventually demolished because our family broke down in my previous life. The creaking sound the door made, the scratches on the wall, the sensation of stepping on the wooden floor… I missed them all…
This is my house… Our family’s house…
I walked in with a heavy sensation on my chest. It was at that moment that I noticed that the lights in the living room were on. That was strange. Mom wasn’t supposed to be home at this time.
“Y-you? …Kanako…”
In front of me, there was a petite girl with a ponytail wearing a middle school uniform.
Niihama Kanako. She was my younger sister. Since I was supposed to be sixteen now, she should be fourteen since she was two years younger than me.
She had a very lovely appearance and she was popular among the boys at school. In addition, she had always been a cheerful person and she got many friends, the total opposite of me.
“…You’re late, brother…”
Kanako would talk cheerfully with my mother, but she treated me rather harshly.
We used to be on good terms and played together a lot, but before I knew it, our relationship went awry.
We weren’t ignoring each other or anything. It was just, as we got older, we talked to each other less and less, we stopped playing together or watching TV together. At some point, she only talked to me when necessary and whenever she did it, her tone was business-like.
In my previous life, our relationship didn’t improve. Rather, it got worse over time and eventually broke down. After my mother’s funeral, she and I became complete strangers.
“Ah… S-sorry I came back late… I’m home, Kanako…”
“Huh? Welcome back…”
She looked confused, but that was a normal reaction. This was around the time when we’ve grown estranged to the point that we stopped talking with each other even when we passed by each other inside the house.
“Huh, you’re only eating that cup ramen for dinner?”
“…What? Why do you care? Mom’s home late, no one makes dinner, what else could I eat?”
Said Kanako casually while holding a cup of ramen in her hand.
Right. While mom was a workaholic, she was the one who did all the cooking. Whenever she worked overtime, we had to resort to eating instant foods.
“You don’t like eating those ramen much, do you? I’ll make something for you, wait a minute.”
“Eh? What??”
She looked at me, confused.
That’s understandable. I’ve never cooked anything back when I was in high school.
Leaving my confused sister alone, I started looking over the ingredients. Mom said she was going to buy some groceries on her way home, so there wasn’t much for me to work with. Well, whatever…
After deciding on what to make and putting on my apron, I started cooking.
I put the frozen rice in the microwave and while I was waiting for it to heat up, I cut some onions.
Right, I should prepare mom’s share too.
“Wait, what?…”
Kanako looked at me with a confused look on her face as I casually chopped on the onion with the kitchen knife. I chuckled at her before continuing my work.
To save time, after I chopped the onion, I immediately added it to the pan along with the chicken.
Then, I put the thawed rice into the pan, added some ketchups, seasonings and other ingredients. After the rice was well cooked, I removed it from the pan and put an egg into it along with some butter.
After cooking for around twenty minutes, the omurice was done.
Sadly, I wasn’t skilled enough to wrap the rice inside the omelet, so I just put it on top of the rice.
“Here, it’s ready. Snap out of it and eat it.”
I made two omurice for both of us to eat and placed them on the dinner table. I called out to my sister, who had been standing frozen ever since I started cooking.
She seemed nervous, but she eventually sat down. Perhaps she was lured in by the aroma of the egg.
While staring at the omurice, she lifted her spoon…
“…Woah…”
As soon as she took a bite, her eyes widened.
I followed suit and took a bite. The taste was as good as I expected, good. I learned how to make it back during my early days of adulthood, but I hadn’t made it for a long time, so I was worried about the taste.
“Good. You seem to like it.”
When I called out to her, Kanako, who was already halfway through her meal, stopped eating. Then her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment as she stared at me with an intense gaze.
“Sorry, I haven’t been a good big brother to you.”
“Eh?…”
Her expression turned complicated. She seemed both shocked and confused at the same time.
Understandable. That was a normal response, I brought this topic out of nowhere after all.
“But, Kanako. I’m going to get my life back, not only at school but at home as well. So, you’re related to all this. I don’t think that this is enough for me to atone, but that’s fine. Also, I’ll at least try to cook your meals from now on. So, if you have a request, tell me, okay?”
“…Ehh?…”
I said that with a big smile on my face. She probably didn’t see that coming from her gloomy nerd of a brother.
It seemed like she couldn’t take it anymore. She didn’t know how to react to my sudden changes and she just stared at me stiffly while wearing a confused look on her face.
TL: Helena
ED: Iyo
TLN: Thanks for iyo for editing this chapter. Join our discord server to get announcement of this series
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Makoto1401
Good brother, take care of your siblings while you have the time.
Sometimes I wonder if I was a good sibling, haha!
Thanks for the work!