#11: If I Weren’t There — I Lie to My Stepsister ~I Decided to Take In My Non-Blood-Related Sister~

When I arrived at the usual park, Yūha was sitting on the bench as always. Apparently unable to stand the heat, she had tied her white cardigan around her waist. She had also cut her hair a little, leaving it at a light, breezy medium length.

She seemed to notice me the moment I entered the park, but for some reason, Yūha straightened herself on the bench. As I approached, she acted like she had only just noticed me.

“Oh, you came.”

She said it rather indifferently.

I figured it was just the usual adolescent attempt to hide embarrassment, so I deliberately left it alone. I simply nodded quietly.

“I was bored.”

Yūha shifted over and left half the bench open, so I sat there. There was enough space between us to put a bag down, so it didn’t really feel like we were sitting next to each other.

Now that I was here, it was finally time to see if I had correctly deciphered what her roundabout message had meant.

“Have you eaten lunch?”

“No. Not yet. So—”

“I see, then—”

Feeling a strange sense of triumph, as if I had completely nailed it, I placed the paper bag between us.

At the exact same moment, Yūha pulled a food container from her bag and placed it in the middle too.

Our timing matched so perfectly that our faces ended up very close together. By the time I noticed, Yūha’s face was close enough that I could almost feel her breath.

“…………”

An awkward silence followed. I lowered my eyes.

I see. Apparently, we had been thinking the exact same thing.

I had correctly understood that she wanted to eat lunch together. But Yūha had also prepared food for the occasion.

Her container was packed with sandwiches, clearly far more than a single person could eat.

Likewise, Yūha was staring at the paper bag I had brought. It was easy enough to tell that the bread inside was enough for two people.

“You made food for me…?”

“You bought food for me…”

A strange sense of despair hung between us. Together, we had enough food for four people. This wasn’t an amount we could overcome just by trying a little harder.

What do we do? was written all over Yūha’s face.

Probably mine too.

After thinking for a moment, I spoke.

“Give me the stuff you made. You can pick whatever you want from this bag.”

“Huh—really? But yours looks really good, Rokurō.”

“I want your sandwiches.”

What Yūha had brought were ordinary sandwiches: mashed boiled egg, lettuce and ham, things like that.

Compared to those, the bread I had bought was the slightly expensive, refined kind. Even at a glance, you could tell it was different from ordinary bread.

But if you asked me which one I wanted to eat… well, obviously I wanted the expensive bread too, okay? But there was no way anything could beat food someone had made specifically for me. A guy living alone basically never got the chance to eat someone else’s homemade food.

“Is that no good?”

“It’s fine.”

“Good. Then, thanks for the food.”

I reached out and took a bite of an egg sandwich.

It was dry.

I could just barely taste salt and pepper, but that was about it. All the moisture in my mouth vanished at once.

The chef stared anxiously at my increasingly complicated expression.

“Uh… Yūha.”

“Yes?”

“Did you put mayonnaise in this?”

“Huh…? No. Was I supposed to?”

I nodded gravely, and her face immediately turned pale.

“You really don’t have to eat that.”

“Why not?”

She tried to retrieve the container, so I snatched it away and pulled it toward my side. There was enough of a difference in strength between us due to age and sex that she wasn’t going to get it back easily now.

“This is mine. Just hurry up and eat the bread. It was freshly baked.”

“…Thanks for the food.”

Yūha still looked dissatisfied, but she gave up and reached into the paper bag.

She pulled out a savory bread topped with cheese and took a small bite.

“It’s delicious.”

“Right?”

“Sorry. Mine didn’t turn out very well.”

“With stuff like this, you mess up a few times and learn from it. Even if you screw it up, I’ll eat it, so don’t throw it away.”

I ate one of the lettuce-and-ham sandwiches. This one was actually pretty good, though it would probably have tasted even better with some dressing in between.

“Actually, this one’s genuinely good.”

“Really?”

“Really. Do you think I’d lie to you?”

“Rokurō, you do nothing but lie.”

What a complete lack of trust. What kind of life did a person have to live to be doubted this badly?

…Maybe the five different kinds of olive oil had been too much.

I reached for another sandwich and changed the subject slightly.

“That bread is really good, right?”

“Yeah. The dough is so soft and chewy. I’ve never eaten anything like this.”

“It’s from a bakery I used to work at. The manager is insanely obsessed with horse racing. The place is called Thoroughbred.”

“Thoroughbred…?”

“It’s a type of horse you see a lot in racing. Apparently the word means ‘purebred.’ And since the manager’s name is Sara-san—she says it’s a pun on both ‘Sara Bread’ and ‘Thoroughbred.’”

“Oh.”

Yūha reached for another piece of bread and took a bite. Her face immediately brightened.

For a while, we continued eating in silence.

I managed to finish all the sandwiches that had been enough for two people. Apparently, it was more manageable than I expected.

About half the bread in the paper bag remained. She had apparently eaten both of the dessert breads exactly as intended. Maybe I should have split them evenly after all.

Yūha smiled contentedly.

“Thanks, Rokurō.”

“I only bought it.”

“Then next time, you should make something too.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Aww.”

Ignoring Yūha’s disappointment, I stretched comfortably. The June weather was still pleasant enough in the shade. Once summer arrived, though, that would probably change.

Summer—

Come to think of it, summer vacation wasn’t that far away anymore.

“What do you do on your days off?”

I asked without thinking, and Yūha’s expression twitched slightly.

“Why are you asking that?”

“I was just curious.”

If she was pretending to go to school and hanging around random places instead, then I assumed she stayed home on days when school was closed.

I had only been wondering what she did at home…

But apparently, I had stepped on something.

Yūha turned her face away and murmured in a voice that almost disappeared.

“…………I’m usually here.”

“Even on days off?”