Leaving One Lie Behind

Where exactly had I taken the wrong turn?

By all rights, I should have been planning a steamy hot-spring trip with some sexy beauty right about now. I should have been scraping together what little savings I had to rent some absurdly erotic room with a private open-air bath.

But what was reality like?

What I held in my hand wasn’t a ticket to happiness, but a vanilla soft-serve from the convenience store. Beside me was a girl with a pretty face but modest everything else—or rather, my stepsister. She was biting into a soda-flavored ice pop and occasionally glancing my way.

“…What?”

“It’s good.”

“I see.”

Just imagining any kind of steamy event with her made my skin crawl. I had at least that much of a moral compass.

So far, neither of us had brought up the dating app.

Surely Yūha had realized it by now too. The fact that I had appeared at exactly this time. The nickname “Sabu,” which was pretty unusual if you actually thought about it. And the photo I had uploaded without any editing whatsoever would make it obvious it was me the moment she looked at it again.

And yet she wasn’t bringing it up—

Maybe that was because Yūha had known all along too.

Just as I had known that “Yū” was Yūha, Yūha had known that “Sabu” was me.

That was the most reasonable conclusion.

So much for teasing her the next time we met. What a stupid idea.

“Is the vanilla good?”

“It is.”

“I see.”

Combined with our awkward conversation, it almost made me sigh. I somehow held it in and instead let out a massive internal, “Haaaaaah.”

Why was I acting like some hard-boiled, silent tough guy? Because the person beside me was Yūha. Whenever I was around her, my words always seemed to lose their edge.

“Are you eating properly?”

“What are you, my mother?”

“I’m your little sister.”

“…Yeah, I eat. If I collapse, I’m screwed.”

It wasn’t good cooking, but it wasn’t bad either. I ate nothing but thoroughly mediocre meals every day. In the end, that was the cheapest option, and somehow or other, it was healthy enough.

“What about you, Yūha?”

“…More or less.”

A girl in school uniform sitting in a park on a weekday. She obviously realized what I was pointing out. But Yūha dodged the question.

In that case, I probably shouldn’t press any further.

Instead, I decided to make one suggestion. I wasn’t some righteous crusader going around telling people to attend school properly.

“Why don’t you change into regular clothes?”

“Huh?”

“You must hate people staring at you when you’re in uniform.”

I understood why she left the house wearing her uniform. But there was no reason she had to stay dressed like that afterward. She wasn’t going to school anyway.

“I see. …Maybe.”

“If you wore regular clothes and went to the library or something, nobody would complain, and you’d have air conditioning.”

“Oh… the library.”

She looked like the thought had never occurred to her. Honestly, young people these days. They read so few books they didn’t even know how comfortable public facilities could be.

“But where would I change?”

“In a restroom or something.”

“No.”

“Huh?”

“And Mom would notice from the laundry. We hang our clothes in the same place.”

“Ah. Yeah, that’s annoying.”

If her laundry had always been mostly uniforms and suddenly became casual clothes seven days a week, there was no way it wouldn’t be noticed. And with the season getting hotter, she obviously couldn’t keep wearing the same clothes without washing them.

Ideally, she could use a coin laundry and dry them there too, but the problem was the cost.

“We’re out of options.”

“That was only your second idea. Try a little harder. Your brain is the one thing you’ve got going for you, Rokurō.”

“Shut up.”

My personality was the only thing completely ruined. Everything else was probably above average. …The fact that I thought that was probably proof my personality really was awful.

“That’s all I’ve got. Give up.”

“What? We were so close.”

“You’ve got nothing but time anyway. Figure something out yourself.”

“Mm. Okay.”

Yūha obediently nodded and popped the last bite of her ice pop into her mouth. Then she checked the stick and held it out to me.

“No prize.”

Her expression had the same brightness it had when she was younger.

She looked much more energetic than I had imagined, and deep down, I was ridiculously relieved.

But I didn’t let any of that show on my face. Keeping every facial muscle relaxed, I simply nodded with a blank expression and tossed the last piece of cone into my mouth.

“I’ve got work, so I should head back soon.”

“Right. You’re working now.”

Yūha visibly wilted.

“Hey, where do you live now?”

“Earth.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Japan.”

“Not that…”

I gave her an exaggerated smile, as if trying to soothe her irritation.

“Don’t worry. If you’re ever really in trouble, I’ll come for you. No matter what.”

After finishing my evening newspaper deliveries, I went shopping and returned home.

Thinking I might actually look up a recipe and cook properly for once, I turned on my phone. There was a notification, and I noticed it immediately.

“…Seriously? We’re still doing this?”

She had to be certain by now that this account belonged to me.

And yet a proper reply from “Yū” was waiting for me.