Chapter Two

Bewilderment X Contact

There was a rather desolate commuter town three stops away from my school. Its decidedly retro downtown area looked like it was stuck in the ‘80s while the world had moved on without it. It was here that an old, wooden, two-story apartment building stood. And inside that building, a single room served as the Satou family’s “castle.”

Upon entering the premises, I could hear a phone ringing from the second floor—in other words, from my apartment. As the stout, older woman who lived next door glared down at me, I raced up the steel-frame staircase, which had long since fallen into resembling a rusted hunk of swiss cheese. When I finally reached the second floor, the old woman remarked scathingly, “It’s been ringing for 10 minutes straight.”

Seriously? Why are they being so persistent? It had better be a damn emergency. I bowed my head to the old woman in apology, raced inside the apartment, and yanked the hallway phone from its cradle.

“Hello?! Who the hell might this be?!” I barked, doing nothing to hide my displeasure.

“You finally picked up! It’s me! Your incredible father!”

“Gah! I should have known it was my bastard of an old man!”

The perpetrator of these passionate, lovesick calls was my father—Naoyuki Satou. Knowing this, my tone grew even more irritated.

“Dad, you know that our apartment has zero soundproofing,” I nagged. “If I don’t answer, call again later. You’re bothering the neighbors.”

“Hahaha! Sorry, sorry. I just got this weird desire to hear your voice out of nowhere!”

“Ugh, why are you being such a creep?”

“There’s nothing creepy about a father worrying about his precious, one-and-only son. So how are things? Are you feeling well? Having fun at school?”

Oh crap. I should have known.

I had a sudden sinking feeling in my stomach. This was all too familiar. Prior experiences warned me that my dad was trying to hide something, much like when a child tried to cover up a bad report card from their parents. Well, it was an apt comparison for him—despite being in his late 40s, my old man still acted like an elementary schooler sometimes. Probably because he was off chasing dinosaurs.

In any case, I needed to hang up as soon as possible.

“Yeah, I’m doing well and having fun,” I said. “Nothing could be better. Does that take care of everything? Good night, sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite!”

“Wait, wait, wait! Hold on a second! Don’t hang up!” my dad frantically jumped in. “If you hang up, I’ll call again! That phone’s gonna keep on ringing until you pick up! I did want to hear your voice, but I actually have something important to discuss with you today!”

You got me, you sly bastard. Since I wanted to avoid the neighbor’s glare, I briefly entertained the idea of pulling out the phone line altogether. That would have been going too far, though. Alright, I’ll hear him out.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” I said. “So what is it?”

“Well, about that... Hmm...” he mumbled.

“What’s up? It must be really important, huh?”

“Not exactly, but acting so formal makes things awkward. Er, maybe ‘embarrassing’ is the right word.”

“Gross. I don’t want to hear a middle-aged man talking like some bashful, love-struck teen girl gushing about her first crush. Spit it out already. It can’t be anything good anyway. I’m guessing you’ve spent Grandma’s money on another excavation and want me to apologize to her?”

“Actually, I’ve gotten remarried.”

“See, that’s exactly what I th—wait, what the hell did you say?!”

I felt so completely overwhelmed that a scream had unintentionally leaped from my throat. A moment later, someone banged on the opposite side of the thin wall that served to separate the neighboring rooms. I responded to the old woman’s protest with a loud apology and returned my attention to the conversation.

“R-Remarried?!” I cried. “As in, you got hitched?! When?! Wait, you never even mentioned having a partner!”

“Yeah, I met her in the city I’m currently working in.”

“In Fukuoka? But you’ve only been there for two months, right?!”

“As a wee little high schooler, you might not understand yet, but sometimes, the flames of love can ignite in an instant.”

Seriously? One spark, and you can go from zero to married in two months? I found that incredibly difficult to believe; in fact, it scared me more than anything. How much could you truly learn about someone in the span of only two months? The inner machinations of adults were still a mystery to me, I suppose.

“So that’s all you called to tell me about?” I asked. “Well, it’s your life, Dad. So long as you chose her, I’m okay with anyone.”

“I’m happy to hear you say that... and that was one of the things I called you about, but there was something else I wanted to discuss with you today.”

“What is it?”

“I wanted to tell you about Tsukiko’s—my wife’s—child from another marriage.”

“‘Child from another marriage’? She’s already a mother?!”

“At our age, it’s not that uncommon. I mean, even I have you.”

“Y-Yeah, I guess so. Guess that means I have a new sibling.”

“Exactly. And just like you, your new sibling is a junior in high school. Is she your little sister or big sister...? Oh, since you were born in April, that would make her your little sister. So anyway, Shigure—your new sibling—will be moving into our apartment as of today.”

“Hold on! What the hell did you just say?!”

Once again, the wall shook, and for a second time, I ended up having to apologize. Due to my distress, however, my words of appeasement lacked any sincere emotion.

“Hiromichi,” my father scolded me. “No need to shout over every little thing. You’ll disturb the neighbors.”

“Right now, I’m the most disturbed person in the entire world! For the love of God, what the hell is going on?! You suddenly call to tell me you’ve gotten remarried, your new wife has a daughter the same age as me, and we’re going to be living together immediately?! I can’t deal with this! I mean, for one thing, this apartment doesn’t even have proper rooms!”

I lived in an incredibly modest one-room apartment. There was my makeshift “room,” complete with an eat-in kitchen, and a sliding screen that separated my father’s cluttered “room” from mine. I was using his space as a storage for now, but both sides were already incredibly cramped. Sure, it was a decent enough living situation for one person in an old, wooden complex, but there just wasn’t enough space for two new inhabitants.

“In that case, clear out my room, and let her use it,” my dad said. “Throw everything out except for your mother’s mementos.”

“Say I threw everything out. Our apartment is still too small for all of us! Two parents and two kids in this small-ass place would mean we’d be packed together like sardines. Plus, they’re girls—they’re probably bringing a lot of stuff.”

“Huh? Oh, you’ve got it all wrong. Starting today, only Shigure—your little sister—will be joining you. Tsukiko and I will be heading to America.”

What? Are you kidding me?!

“Originally, I wanted to return home with Tsukiko and Shigure,” my dad explained. “But a professor from my college years begged for my help, so I’m going to assist him with an excavation in America. I’m about to get on the plane, actually! Can you imagine what would’ve happened if you hadn’t picked up the phone? Shigure’s heading over there right now, actually—good thing you’re expecting her! Hahaha.”

“Wait! There’s nothing ‘good’ about this! I’m seriously freaking out right now! You want me to live alone with a girl the same age as me? All by ourselves?! In this apartment?! You can’t be serious!”

Ugh, gross! My hand’s sweating all over the phone!

“What are you so shaken up about?” my dad asked. “It’s not like you’re a virgin!”

“I am a virgin, Dad! Your son is still squeaky clean! I’ve never even been kissed! Why do you have so much faith in me, huh? You dumbass!”

“O-Oh. I see. Well, anyway, she is your little sister. There’s no need to be formal.”

“A little sister I’ve never seen or met before—in other words, a complete and total stranger! You can’t expect me to be cool with this. Tell that girl to go back to her old home right now!”

“Oh, crap. I just heard the boarding announcement. Well then, I’m off! I won’t be home for at least a year, so you two enjoy yourselves, okay? Love ya!”

“Hold it! This conversation is far from—”

Click! Beep, beep, beep...

“Dad...? Dad, you friggin’ asshole!” I yelled as I slammed the phone back into its cradle. Of course, the neighbor protested by slamming the wall with all her might, but I couldn’t be bothered to apologize anymore.

I was so perplexed that I could practically feel my brain spinning around inside my skull like an old vinyl record. My knees grew weak, and I slumped to the ground. This was a mess. The mess of all messes. Sure, we were officially considered siblings on paper, but I’d suddenly be living with a girl I knew nothing about. And, to make matters even worse, our parents wouldn’t be returning home for a whole year. I’d considered the possibility before, but could my old man genuinely be insane? Did he have no moral compass?

And on top of that, he didn’t feel the need to tell me until today?!

I was happy about my dad’s remarriage, honestly. Following my mom’s death, he had somehow managed to raise me all by himself. If he’d found a new partner, I wanted to celebrate that. Having said that...

“This is a disaster,” I grumbled out loud to myself.

What’s the deal with him? What kind of crappy father springs this sort of situation on his son instead of letting him process the whole deal?

I sighed. The situation felt like a bad joke, not to mention it was a joke that was only going to continue. While I sat here, my sister—who had never seen my face before—was steadily approaching the apartment. That meant that I couldn’t stay slumped heap on the ground forever.

“Either way, I should clean up this room before she gets here,” I declared to myself.

I needed to do something about my dad’s space and the living room, the latter of which had become my nest. I never put the futon away, my dirty clothes littered the ground, and the lewd manga magazines I’d borrowed from Takeshi were lying out in the open for anyone to see. I couldn’t let a girl into such a dark and sinister man cave—that had to be against the law, right?

Just as I began to get to my feet, the doorbell rang.

“Crap!”

Sh-She’s already here?

I hadn’t even put away the lewd magazines yet! Maybe it was the old woman next door? I had been loud over the phone a minute ago, so perhaps she was trying to barge in uninvited to give me a piece of her mind. Or it could have been the newspaper or the public broadcasting tax collector.

Well, I guess I’ll go take a look.

I would decide how to respond based on who it was. With that in mind, I looked through the door’s peephole.

“Huh?” I gasped in utter shock.

Everything that had been occupying my stupid primate brain until that moment—what I needed to do to prepare, how I ought to act, and what I should have been thinking about—was blown away, leaving my mind completely blank. It felt as though my feet had left the ground, as if gravity had disappeared from under me.

Yes, within an instant, what I’d witnessed through the peephole had caused my thoughts and emotions to freeze. But who could blame me? On the other side of the door stood Haruka Saikawa—my girlfriend who I had just parted with at the station.

Wh-Why?

Why was Haruka in front of my apartment? And of all times, why had she chosen now?

I still hadn’t told Haruka where I lived. Sure, I’d told her the nearest station, but since I’d never brought her here, she shouldn’t have known where I lived. Had she followed me here? No, she’d gotten on the train first. That shouldn’t have been possible.

Then why is she here right now?

In the midst of my confusion, I racked my brain. I noticed Haruka acting flustered through the peephole, seemingly at a loss. She constantly glanced between her surroundings, her smartphone, and the door plate for verification. The usual vitality that graced her face was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she appeared utterly helpless as she fidgeted restlessly on the spot.

I can’t just stand here. What was I doing, allowing my girlfriend to make such an expression? It suddenly became all too obvious to me—all I needed to do was ask Haruka why she’d come to my apartment.

Anyway, I need to go out there now.

I undid the lock, which I’d fastened from behind upon returning home, and apologized from behind the door. “S-Sorry. I’ll be out in a second... Huh?”

Once I found myself face-to-face in front of Haruka, I lost the ability to speak again.

“Oh, you’re home!” she cried. “Thank goodness. I was starting to panic, wondering if I’d gotten the wrong room.”

Something was off. I hadn’t been able to tell through the peephole, but once I saw her with my own two eyes, it all finally made sense.

---

---

The girl in front of me who was wearing a relieved expression wasn’t Haruka. Still, you’d be hard-pressed to think otherwise—everything about her, from her hairstyle down to her long legs, resembled my girlfriend to a tee. In spite of this, the way in which she looked at me was different. In the case of Haruka, I always noted a certain sparkle in her eyes. From that single difference, I knew instantly this wasn’t my girlfriend.

And with that realization, it was as if a veil had suddenly been lifted. Things I hadn’t noticed until now were suddenly visible. For starters, she was wearing different clothes. Underneath her brightly-colored cardigan, she wore a sailor outfit, but it wasn’t Seiun High’s uniform. She also wore loafers, not Haruka’s usual sneakers. And the most glaring difference was what she was carrying—she held a supermarket bag in one hand and a large suitcase behind her.

In this situation, even a dumbass like me knew there was only one possibility.

“Um, is something wrong?” the girl asked. “Is there something on my face?”

“Are you... my new stepsister?”

“Yep! Nice to meet you. I’m Shigure Oeyama. Whoops... I guess I’m Shigure Satou now, aren’t I? I’m Tsukiko Satou’s daughter, and, starting today, I’m also your new stepsister. Here’s to the future, Big Bro.”

X X X

My father had suddenly remarried, and, in the blink of an eye, my stepsister and I were living in the same apartment by ourselves. The shock of my father’s phone call had left me powerless and writhing on the ground. And yet, somehow, that had only been the icing on the shit cake I found myself in. The real cherry on top was the shocking twist that my stepsister was the spitting image of my girlfriend.

This isn’t good. No, it’s terrible. Absolutely horrendous. I can’t even.

I’d be living with a girl who looked exactly like my girlfriend. God, what had I done to deserve such a cruel fate? I could practically sense a mysterious entity’s malicious intent lurking behind my back. How was I supposed to deal with the reality that stared me directly in the face?!

These repeated upheavals had left my emotions completely torn and frayed. While I stood at my doorway, utterly dumbfounded, Haruka’s doppelganger spoke to me anxiously.

“Um, you heard that I was coming today, right?”

“Y-Yeah,” I replied. “I did hear about that... a minute ago.”

“A minute ago?! Talk about abrupt. Still, I’m glad you got the message. Um, may I ask your name, Big Bro? I did hear it from my mom, but I must’ve forgotten.”

“Um, I’m Hiromichi Satou.”

“Hiromichi, then?”

“Ugh. I’d prefer if you... didn’t call me that,” I muttered. Having Haruka’s lookalike also address me by my given name was dangerous for my sanity.

“How about I just stick to ‘Big Bro’?” she asked with an odd, inscrutable expression. “That would be easier for me, too. Well, now that we’ve finished our introductions, would you kindly let me in?”

“Uh, no. Wait here a sec.”

“Huh? How come?”

Crap.

I’d mistook her for Haruka and ended up opening the door, but the room was still a disaster. I couldn’t let her in right now, so I spread my arms out and rushed to block the entrance.

“Like I said, I didn’t get the call until just a minute ago,” I explained. “The apartment’s still pretty messy. Do you mind waiting here for a little bit?”

“Oh, is that all? No worries. We’ll be together from now on, after all. I’ll help you clean up. I’m coming in!” she replied, brushing past my defenses and entering the apartment.

“Ah! H-Hold on a second!” I cried as I frantically followed her.

Since a loser like me couldn’t exactly shove a girl he’d just met, I had no way of guarding against her invasion. Of course, grabbing her delicate shoulders and pulling her back outside was completely out of the question, as well. Given how modest my lodgings were, the hallway at the front was rather short. The moment you failed to make the first move, catching up became impossible. Still, even though it was too late to chase after her, I definitely needed to hide the incriminating magazines before she found them.

Unfortunately, she’d already walked into the living room and immediately looked down to find a lewd magazine I’d left wide open for the world to behold.

“Heh,” she snorted.

Agh! She’d laughed! She’d definitely laughed at me just now—right through her nose even! Like a child mocking some dumb apes at the zoo!

Aaah... I want to curl up and die.

“Oh, sorry about that,” she apologized. “It was just my mom and I for a long time, so I’d completely forgotten about this sort of thing. But, yeah—I guess this is a boy’s apartment, after all. It’s obvious there would be things you wouldn’t want a girl to see. Sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you or anything. I was being careless.”

“Thank you for understanding,” I muttered under my breath after a pause. Kindness really could be incredibly painful sometimes.

“Well, I guess I’ll let you clean the room,” my stepsister said. “And while you do that, I’ll prepare dinner. You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

“No, I haven’t. Thanks.”

“You’d better look forward to dinner with bated breath! I’m a pretty good cook, I’ll have you know.”

She pulled out a frilly apron with a white-and-pink checkered pattern from her suitcase, put it on, and immediately got to work in the kitchen. In between my frantics attempts to tidy up, I’d take quick glimpses at her.

Just as she’d implied, her cooking skills looked to be impressive—she appeared to be right at home in the new kitchen. The comforting sounds of a simmering pot and the rhythmic chopping of vegetables flowed from the kitchen area. Occasionally, I’d even manage to catch bits of lovely humming. For all intents and purposes, it was as if Haruka herself were in the kitchen, and it caused my heart to leap out of my chest.

Wait a second, you asshole. What the hell was I thinking? Would any girl do as long as they had the same face? Mistaking my stepsister for Haruka—my wonderful, irreplaceable girlfriend—was an extremely dangerous delusion. And what exactly lies at the end of that delusion, genius? No matter how I approached the situation, I knew it would only end in destruction. Because the two girls looked so alike, they’d unconsciously overlapped in my head.

“There are three people in the world who look exactly like you,” was a common saying. What were the odds that two of them existed within my rather small, pathetic social circle? At this point, I needed to consider moving somewhere else by myself. Seriously.

As I was busy mentally freaking out, my stepsister spoke up, her back still turned while she cooked. “You got a call about me a little while ago, right? Was it from my stepfather?”

“Yeah. He told me at the very last minute that you’d be coming to live here,” I replied.

“Ahaha. That must’ve been shocking, learning about me just before I got here.”

“That’s putting it mildly. My dad can be a real asshole sometimes. I feel bad for your mom—she can’t be having an easy time with him either.”

Shigure went silent for a moment, then retorted in a sharp tone, “I don’t mean to sound rude, but she’s your mother now, too.”

She sounded upset—more so than she had so far. I’d been so preoccupied with cleaning that I’d been staring at my hands while I talked, but now I glanced up at her. I found her glaring down at me with a displeased expression, her eyebrows raised.

Huh? Is she mad at me?

“I’m not just talking about myself here, but my mother, too,” she said. “You haven’t even referred to me by name since I arrived here. Call me ‘Shigure.’ You are my brother, after all.”

“Y-Yeah, but...”

“What, do you think you’re the only one who’s struggling with suddenly having a new sibling?”

“Huh?”

“Look, even I’m forcing myself to make the best out of this. It’s not fair that you get to grumble and sulk to yourself without putting any work in.”

“Ah!” I gasped.

She was right on the money. Regardless of the circumstances, no one would be able to suddenly accept a complete stranger into their home, much less into their family. And as a girl, her anxiety must have been incomparable to mine. Still, she’d been trying to open up to me, even if only on a surface level. Just like she’d said, she was trying her best to meet me halfway. And what had I been doing this whole time? I’d just been hosting a pity party for one, worrying about my own circumstances.

“Get it together, Hiromichi!” I yelled, slapping my face for emphasis.

“Huh?! Why’d you just slap yourself, Big Bro?! Your cheeks are bright red! Seriously, how hard did you hit yourself?!”

“No worries. I’m okay now,” I reassured her.

“You don’t look ‘okay’ at all! Have you lost your mind or something?!”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m fine,” I stressed. It was exactly what a serious Loser—with a capital “L”—like me needed to wake up.

It would be easy to just sit idly by the sidelines and let others lead the way, but those weren’t the actions of a true brother. Okay, it was true that I’d never had a sibling before, so my “brotherly qualities” were simply traits I’d conjured up on the spot. Nevertheless, if I was gonna end up being someone’s sibling, I sure as hell didn’t want to be a pathetic one.

“My bad,” I apologized. “I’ll be more careful from here on out, Sh-Shigure.”

It had been somewhat embarrassing, but I’d managed to say her name. Given my lack of experience in the department, calling girls by their first name still made me nervous. But when her expression quickly changed to happiness and relief, it made me feel as though it had been worth it.

“Great!” she exclaimed with a smile that looked exactly like Haruka’s.

My heart pounded in my chest. But this was my problem, meaning I had to get used to it. Rejecting Shigure just because I was too much of a wimp to handle everything going on right now would be extremely disrespectful to both her and Haruka.

“Dinner’s ready,” Shigure stated. “Do you mind pulling out the tea table, Big Bro?”

“No problem, Shigure.”

“Hey, is that the second time? You’ve mastered the art of saying my name already. That’s fantastic—I need you to become my older brother in mind and body as soon as possible. That way, you can spoil your adorable little sister absolutely rotten!”

Her smile, which had been an exact replica of Haruka’s until that moment, suddenly twisted and transformed. She wore a provocative, teasing grin. Although I couldn’t imagine my girlfriend wearing that expression, Shigure seemed quite accustomed to it. I internally felt a sense of relief at the obvious difference between the two.

If only I had known better.