Because She Tosses And Turns In Her Sleep (Not)

For reasons such as “a maiden’s room is off-limits” and “the living room is too large to cool efficiently,” they decided to sleep in Rokurō’s room.

“There isn’t much space, so we’ll have to put the futons side by side if we want them to fit.”

Rokurō’s room was fairly tidy, but there was almost no spare space. That was because nearly all the belongings he had owned in the studio apartment where he used to live had been crammed into this room.

They tried to find some way to put some distance between themselves, but doing so would require sleeping in bizarre positions.

“It’s fine. We can just put them side by side normally, like we used to.”

“You’re really okay with that?”

Rokurō still seemed faintly opposed to the idea of the two of them sleeping together. But if Yūha backed down here, he would end up sleeping in the heat.

Truthfully, Yūha was just as restless inside. Even so, there were some things she refused to compromise on.

“Of cour—of course.”

“Of course-course?”

“Don’t just connect them! I paused in the middle!”

Yūha sulked, and Rokurō apologized with a “Sorry, sorry,” then nodded as if resigning himself to it.

“Okay. Then let’s do this.”

He used the remote to turn on the air conditioner. After a short while, cool air began flowing through the room.

The two looked at each other, then spoke as though savoring the sensation.

“This is comfortable.”

“Yeah.”

They set the temperature a little high so they would not get too cold while sleeping.

It was eleven at night. The time when they were both starting to get fairly sleepy.

Yūha sat down on her futon and placed her phone beside her pillow.

“Alright, I’m turning off the light.”

“Okaaay.”

For some reason, Rokurō’s relaxed voice made Yūha’s heart begin beating faster. The fact that she had not stumbled over her words was practically a miracle.

The room suddenly went dark. Beside her, a man larger than herself lay down. He turned his back to her and covered himself with a light blanket so he would not get cold.

“Good night. See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah… Good night.”

After saying only that, Rokurō quickly fell silent. A few minutes later, beside the girl who still could not calm down, he began breathing softly in his sleep.

Thinking she should sleep too, Yūha closed her eyes. But no matter how much time passed, she did not feel like she could fall asleep.

The room temperature was comfortable. She felt tired as well.

But she could not stop thinking about him.

After a while, her eyes adjusted to the darkness. By the moonlight coming through the sliding glass door, she could make out most things in the room.

Including the young man’s figure, shifting ever so slightly with each breath.

Yūha turned onto her side and stared at Rokurō’s back.

It looked somehow different from the back she had seen two years ago, when he left home.

Back then, Rokurō’s back had looked fragile and unsteady, as though he might wear away at any moment.

But now it was different. No matter how much he stumbled, she felt that as long as she stayed here, everything would be alright. She felt as though she could overcome any hardship if she was with him.

Where had he acquired that strength?

How many lonely nights had he endured to become the person he was now?

“I really don’t know anything about you, Rokurō.”

She whispered in a small voice. Careful not to wake him, she slowly reached out and touched his back.

Just that alone made her feel as though she understood something she had not before. Come to think of it, even touching him properly like this felt nostalgic.

She knew nothing.

That was because Rokurō hardly ever talked about himself. He never brought himself up as a topic, and even when she asked, he dodged the question. Even Keiji Nitta, who was supposedly his best friend, did not know many things about him.

Where had he been during those two years?

What kind of work had he done?

And in the first place, why had he decided to leave home?

—No.

Yūha denied that thought inside her heart.

She had already vaguely realized that what Rokurō had done was not simply running away from home.

The proof was that after he left, their father and mother had somehow looked relieved. Talking about Rokurō had become taboo in that house.

She had thought she might never see him again.

But now he was right here, within reach.

And that alone made her happy.

“He’s really asleep… right?”

If he woke up now, things would become unbearably awkward.

She waited for a while and listened.

Rokurō was still turned away from her, breathing steadily in his sleep.

Careful not to let him notice, Yūha grabbed the hem of his sweatpants.

She would stay like that until she became sleepy.

Before falling asleep, she would let go and return to her own futon.

That was what she had decided.

Of course, she did no such thing.

I had never needed an alarm to wake up.

Apparently, I had an excellent internal clock, and I could usually wake up at roughly whatever time I intended. That little skill had come in handy when I delivered the morning paper. That job required waking up in the middle of the night, and using an alarm would have bothered the neighbors.

On days when I had nothing special going on, I usually woke up seven hours after falling asleep.

So that day as well, I woke up around six in the morning, just like always.

I was the type whose mind cleared fairly quickly after waking, so I immediately registered the unusually comfortable room as, Right, we slept with the air conditioner on yesterday, and I had not forgotten that Yūha was sleeping beside me either.

I was not going to do anything stupid while half-asleep, so there was nothing to worry about on that front.

By the way, I couldn’t feel my left arm.

Why was that?

I had a pretty good idea from the black thing at the edge of my vision.

…Yep. Mystery solved.

“Hey, wake up, Yūha.”

I shook her whole body, trying to wake the culprit.

My arm was useless. It had gone completely numb and would not move.

My absurdly pretty stepsister had stolen my arm without permission and turned it into a pillow.

An arm pillow, in other words.

Her head rested on my upper arm, and she was sleeping peacefully with a contented expression.

Because of that, our bodies were terrifyingly close.

If there had not been a blanket between us, this would have been bad.

Socially.

Relationship-wise.

And in every other possible way.

This is totally one of those situations, isn’t it?

Did something happen last night and I just don’t remember it?

Did “sleeping together” mean sleeping together!? (I’m the worst.)

“Pathetic…”

I did not have enough energy to keep up that kind of mood by myself first thing in the morning.

Trashy dirty jokes required alcohol, Keiji, and a private room.

“Come on, Yūha. Please wake up. My arm’s about to die.”

“Two more minutes…”

“That’s absolutely the kind of time limit someone gives when they plan to keep extending it!”

“Then five minutes… Hm?”

Her sleepy, mumbling face suddenly snapped alert.

Maybe that exchange had stimulated her brain.

Yūha opened her eyes.

Given our position, my face was extremely close to hers.

I was at least using my neck to pull my head away, but it hardly made a difference.

Yūha blinked repeatedly.

Her freshly-awakened face rapidly turned red.

“Ah…”

The next instant, she covered her face with both hands and rolled across the futon at a speed too fast to follow.

“Aaaaaaaaaah—ow!”

Roll, roll, roll, roll—thud!

She crashed into the wall and stopped.

Then she sprawled her arms and legs across the flooring and stopped moving entirely.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Ugh… It’s your fault, Rokurō. Now I can never get married.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

There was no way I could have gotten us into that position myself.

Someone had completely stolen my arm and used it as a pillow without permission.

And who could that culprit possibly be—

Yūha.

The true culprit was lying face-down on the floor, groaning.

“Auaaah… I can’t, this is awful, impossible, somebody help meee.”

“If you regret it that much, then don’t do it.”

“No, no! That’s not it! Right, it was because you toss and turn so much in your sleep, Rokurō!”

For some reason, she abruptly raised her head and went on the offensive.

I wanted to believe the fact that what she was saying made no sense was because she had just woken up.

“What are you even talking about?”

“Ugh…”

I shot her argument down head-on, and Yūha’s head drooped.

This was painful to watch.

“Honestly, there’s a limit to how badly someone can toss and turn in their sleep. Be more careful.”

“…Okaaay.”

For the record, Yūha did not toss and turn in her sleep at all.

Granted, that information was from years ago, so I could not say for certain whether it was still true.

Judging from that dissatisfied answer, though, she probably did not normally sleep badly.

But for today, we would say she did.

Yes.

That was what happened.

Otherwise, I would be in trouble too.

Taking the escape route I offered her, the girl lowered her head unhappily.

“I guess I tossed and turned a little too much just for today. Sorry.”

“Yeah.”

Damn, I’m way too kind.