First Day Of Ski Trip, At The Lodge: Today I Am With The Trouble-Making Sister

The moment we finished our late lunch and stepped out of the restaurant, Honoka immediately turned to me.

“Hey, hey, let’s try going down this forest trail course next!”

She spread out the resort map as she spoke, pointing her finger toward a forest trail that branched off and connected to an adjacent ski resort. It sat on the western edge of the mountain; going straight would take you to the neighboring resort, while making a sharp turn to loop back around was the trail for our resort.

“Hmm, but if we head down that trail now, won’t it start getting dark before we finish?”

The sun sets remarkably early during this season. On top of that, clouds had begun rolling in since early afternoon. If things went poorly, it could get quite dark shortly after four o’clock.

“We can just stick to our current course. The bottom leads straight to the resort entrance, so we can head home instantly if it gets dark.”

However, Honoka proved to be stubbornly persistent on this matter.

“But sticking to the exact same course is so boring! I heard the scenery on this forest trail is absolutely magnificent! They say if you’re lucky, you can even catch a glimpse of rime ice.”

Rime ice is a phenomenon where misty water droplets freeze onto tree branches, forming delicate ice crystals. While it was supposedly a beautiful, glittering sight, I personally had absolutely no interest in it.

“Rime ice requires the perfect weather conditions to form, doesn’t it? There’s no guarantee we’ll even see any.”

“But still, the scenery is supposed to be amazing. The trail is narrow, but the slope is gentle, so it’s incredibly easy to glide down even for a beginner.”

“For your information, I’m actually a pretty proficient skier. I don’t particularly need to stick to a beginner course.”

At that, Honoka pouted, her expression slumping into a look of dejection.

“But… I really want to go…”

I have a terrible weakness when it comes to faces like that. It wasn’t as if I had feelings for Honoka, but as an only child myself, I simply hated seeing a girl look lonely, regardless of whether she was older or younger than me.

“Fine, let’s go.”

The moment the words left my mouth, Honoka’s face instantly lit up with pure radiance!

“Hooray! I knew you were sweet, Isshiki-san!”

She looked as though she was ready to leap straight into my arms. Well, if making her this happy cost me nothing but a minor detour, I suppose it was a small price to pay.

“Alright, to reach the forest trail, we’ll need to take the next lift up one more time and head over to that lift over there.”

With that settled, the two of us headed back toward the lift queue.

After taking two consecutive lifts, we finally reached the entrance of the forest trail. The clock was rapidly ticking toward four o’clock.

“This is bad. The clouds are getting thicker. We should make our way down quickly, or it’s going to get dark mid-run.”

I spoke while squinting up at the sky, but Honoka immediately objected.

“It’s not as if it’s going to turn pitch black instantly. We’ll be fine, there’s no need to rush!”

“But this course doesn’t have any night-lighting equipment. In the evening, it becomes incredibly difficult to read the terrain of the slopes, making it surprisingly dangerous.”

“The slope isn’t steep at all. There’s absolutely no reason to rush, so let’s just take our time gliding down.”

There was something about Honoka’s behavior that struck a distinct chord of unease within me.

“Listen, you’ve been acting strange for a while now. Is there something going on?”

At my question, Honoka pulled an expression that practically screamed ‘uh oh.’

“N-No, it’s nothing! Nothing at all! Come on, let’s just go!”

This time, Honoka was the one to slide forward first, disappearing into the entrance of the forest trail. She really is acting incredibly unnatural.

“Phew~ Time for a little break.”

Honoka came to a halt, letting out a soft sigh.

“Again? We’ve done nothing but take breaks for a while now.”

Before we could even cover a hundred meters, she would constantly look for an excuse to stop—saying things like “Let’s take a break,” “Look at the scenery,” or “Let’s take a photo.” Furthermore, she kept casting anxious glances up at the sky. Whenever I queried her about it, she would merely brush it off with a laugh, saying, “Oh, it’s nothing.”

…But there is absolutely no way this behavior is normal. She is definitely plotting something. I felt it with absolute certainty.

And then, during our fourth break:

“…I guess it’s impossible today,” I heard Honoka mutter under her breath.

“What’s impossible?”

When I pressed her, Honoka frantically waved her hands in a panic. “Ah, no, nothing! It’s really no big deal.”

“If it’s no big deal, then just spit it out. Your behavior has been highly suspicious for a while now. It looks precisely like you’re waiting for something…”

Honoka unclipped her skis and sank down onto a mound of snow resting at the side of the trail. She spoke with a tone of pure resignation.

“Yeah… To be honest, I heard there’s a certain jinx tied to this course.”

“A jinx? What kind of jinx?”

Honoka peeked up briefly to gauge my expression before averting her eyes bashfully. Her cheeks looked a tiny bit flushed.

“Um… well, you see…”

I stood waiting for Honoka’s next words. She let out a heavy sigh before finally delivering the answer.

“They say that if a couple witnesses the rime ice glittering in the glow of the setting sun on this forest trail, those two will end up getting married.”

“Huh?”

The sound slipped out of my mouth automatically. If a couple catches the rime ice during the sunset here, they’ll get married?

“Where on earth did you hear a jinx like that?”

“Apparently, it’s a jinx specific to this club. Though, it seems this ski resort originally harbored a similar legend to begin with.”

“Who on earth told you a story like that? I’ve never heard a single whisper about it.”

At that, Honoka hesitated, looking rather uncomfortable.

“Kamokura-san… It seems Kamokura-san fully intended to catch the sunset with my sister on this mountain this year, and use the jinx to propose to her.”

“What?!”

My voice boomed loudly without me meaning to. Kamokura? That guy actually harbored a plan like that? Heading out to this forest trail to catch the rime ice at sunset just to fulfill the jinx and propose to Touko-senpai…

“But Kamokura-senpai is only a third-year university student. Touko-senpai is a mere second-year. To be thinking about marriage already…”

“Kamokura-san is going to be a fourth-year in the spring, you know? Apparently, he had absolutely no intention of going to graduate school and wanted to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation. He wanted to marry my sister the exact moment she graduated.”

The memory of Kamokura’s demeanor on the day of the incident flashed through my mind. Behind that ‘expression of someone who had lost absolutely everything,’ lay a devotion like that. Even though he had brought it entirely upon himself, I couldn’t help but feel a tiny pang of sympathy for the man.

“My sister had caught wind of it through word of mouth, so she was vaguely aware of his intentions. That’s probably why she was so incredibly hesitant to join this ski trip in the first place… but since Meika and I insisted on going, she likely felt she had no choice but to tag along.”

“Does that mean Touko-san… still harbors lingering feelings for Kamokura in her heart?”

A bitter sensation, like a drop of dark paint dissolving into water, spread through my chest. However, Honoka immediately shot down my worry.

“No, absolutely not. I can declare with absolute certainty that the only person inside my sister’s heart right now is you, Isshiki-san. It’s simply that she didn’t want to step foot into a place heavily associated with her ex-boyfriend, that’s all.”

“I see…”

I let out a massive sigh of relief.

Then, Honoka turned her gaze toward me, her eyes carrying a deeply nuanced expression.

“That’s exactly why I wanted to come here with you, Isshiki-san. This was actually one of my core objectives for joining this ski trip.”

As I raised my head to look at her, Honoka stood up from the snow.

“I wondered if I managed to catch the rime ice illuminated by the setting sun right here alongside you, if the two of us would eventually end up bound together.”

She slowly turned around to look at me.

“Even if it didn’t go that far, I thought it might grant me a little bit of confidence…”

Flashing a poignant, lonely smile as she uttered those words, Honoka looked breathtakingly beautiful.