The Stepbrother’s Reaction

Do you really need to tell your younger brother about your new lover? That depends on the brotherly relationship you have, of course. But if that brother stops by your place regularly, heroically cooking and cleaning for you, and even knows your lover personally, it’d be hard to think about not relaying the news.

So Itsuki wasted no time doing so on the night he revealed his new project to his editor and promptly tore it up in his face. He and Chihiro were eating at the table like always when he tried to bring it up as casually as possible, almost as if he were talking about someone else—like, Hey, I got a girlfriend, no biggie.

“Oh, speaking of which, Kanikou and I are officially a thing now.”

“Brff…ffphh…!! Koff, koff, koff…!”

Chihiro’s reaction was nothing short of dramatic. Bits from the egg-and-rice omelet he was eating shot into the air and down his esophagus, choking him. The ketchup that dribbled down his chin looked like blood from a critical hit.

“Y-you okay?!” Itsuki asked, alarmed.

“Y-yeah, I, bngh, sorry, I need a napkin—”

Chihiro stood up, intending to grab a towel to clean up, the concern still clear on his face…

“Hyah!”

…and then tripped over his own feet and fell down.

“Chihiro?!”

There was no time for Chihiro to even stick his arms out. He dove to the floor headfirst, lying there inert.

“Um… You all right…?”

“I-I’m fine,” he weakly replied to his gravely concerned brother. “Nngh…” He got back up to his feet, groaning the whole way. The tip of his nose was red from the impact, and his eyes were tearing up. Without another word, he walked to the kitchen, wetting a washcloth and wiping down the table with it as Itsuki awkwardly watched.

“Phew…”

When the cleaning was done, Chihiro brought the washcloth back to the kitchen, sat down at the kotatsu once more, and softly smiled at Itsuki.

“So what were we talking about, big bro?”

“After all that, you’re trying your best to pretend nothing happened…? You’re a resilient dude, you know that? Your nose is still red, by the way.”

Chihiro frowned, face reddening at Itsuki’s honest admiration.

“Nghh…”

“But, um… I wasn’t expecting it to be that much of a surprise. Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Itsuki… But is that really true? Um… You’re together with Kani now?”

“Yep. It’s true.”

“Oh,” Chihiro softly replied. Itsuki nodded back, totally failing to see what the issue was. Why was he so clearly responding negatively to this?

“…Are you against it, Chihiro?”

“……Not against it, no. That’s your choice to make, after all…”

“…Do you hate Kanikou or something?”

“No! I don’t hate her at all! …Um. Maybe we don’t totally get along all the time, but…”

This wishy-washy reaction bewildered Itsuki even more. “…So what’s the problem?” he asked, coming on a tad more strongly.

Chihiro sat there in silence for a moment.

“……I mean,” he finally said, voice near a whisper, “if you get a girlfriend, then when I come over here and do stuff… I’m gonna get in the way, aren’t I?”

Itsuki stared at him, not expecting this.

“Huh? Why would that be the case?”

“Like… If Kani’s your girlfriend, and she starts coming here even more often than now… Then, um, it could escalate from there, and if—if you start living together or whatever, then won’t I get in the way? Of…you know, making out and stuff…?”

“Making out?” Itsuki’s cheeks turned a shade of crimson. But the problem wasn’t with Nayuta herself, apparently. Chihiro was just concerned about Itsuki having a lover at all. The thought made him sigh.

“You know you’d never be in the way.”

“…Really?”

Itsuki looked into the eyes of his anxious little bro. “In fact, if you don’t keep on coming over like always, that’s really gonna suck.”

“Huh?”

“…Not that I’m proud of it, but I’m incapable of keeping myself alive.”

“Oh…um…maybe, yeah…”

“So… I mean, just imagine the two of us living together. We’d have to eat convenience-store food three meals a day, this place would get dirty twice as fast, and we’d be living in filth and miasma in the blink of an eye!”

“You sound almost proud of that, and I’m not sure you should be,” a concerned-looking Chihiro interrupted. “But…it’s okay for me to keep coming here like usual, then?”

“Hell, I wouldn’t mind if you came more often… But only if you’re okay with it.”

Relief finally began to spread across Chihiro’s face. “Well, if you say so, I’ll be glad to keep cooking for you.”

There was something about this reaction that struck Itsuki as genuinely happy. He wondered for a moment why a boy would want to get so involved with their elder brother’s business, but he declined to say anything about it.