On the way home from school, after everyone split up and the three of them climbed aboard a cabinet, Miyuki started to act strangely. On the surface her behavior wasn’t that abnormal. A close friend might have wondered if she was brooding about something. But in Tatsuya’s eyes, she looked awfully worried. The strangeness continued, deepening more and more as they alighted from the cabinet at their stop and drew nearer to the ticket gates.

“Mi—”

“Brother, may I ask you something?”

At the exact time Tatsuya had tried to say her name, she brought her downcast head up.

“…Sure. What is it?”

Instead of immediately answering his question, Miyuki came to a stop in a spot where they wouldn’t get in the way of others passing through the gates.

“You see, well… Would you mind terribly coming with me for a bit of shopping?”

“No, not at all…”

But why? Tatsuya swallowed those words. Miyuki wasn’t the type to go out and enjoy shopping as entertainment on a weeknight. If she absolutely needed to purchase something, she could order it online and it would arrive the very next day. Still, this didn’t seem like a good time to ask her about it directly.

“Minami, I’m sorry to ask this, but would you go ahead by yourself and get dinner ready in advance?”

“Of course, Big Sister Miyuki. Big Brother Tatsuya, please excuse me.”

Without appearing worried, Minami walked briskly toward the commuter boarding location. This, too, was an attitude that invited suspicion. Though maybe not as much as Tatsuya, Minami must have realized Miyuki was acting strangely, too. If she trusted Tatsuya to be her bodyguard, Minami’s attitude made a kind of sense. But he couldn’t wipe away the somehow unnatural impression she gave him.

After Minami left, Tatsuya brought Miyuki to the closest café. He’d figured that whatever the case was, he’d ask what was going on first.

When she entered the shop, Miyuki seemed somehow relieved. This, too, struck Tatsuya as suspicious. She’d told him she wanted to go shopping, but now that they’d sat down in a café, her expression implied that she’d accomplished her goal. Even Tatsuya didn’t understand why.

When the waitress came to take their order, Tatsuya asked for hot coffee, while Miyuki thought for a moment and then ordered black tea, not a cup but an entire pot. She didn’t seem like she planned on leaving here soon. He wondered if she really just wanted to talk to him alone.

“Miyuki?” said Tatsuya, growing ever more worried, unable to wait for their drinks to arrive.

“Yes, Brother?” she answered, the same girl as usual. She smiled, as though happy he’d said her name. Her leaden mood from earlier was gone as though it had never existed.

But that didn’t mean he could leave this unsettled. He decided to be straight with her. “Are you worried about something?”

“What? Oh, no. I’m all right now.”

Miyuki, too, seemed at least to be aware that she’d been acting oddly. Her shaking her head quickly, hastily, made her look like she was holding on to something.

The waitress then brought their drinks to them, suspending the conversation. Miyuki opened the pot’s lid and checked the tea leaves inside, closed it again, waited for a little bit, and then filled her cup with the black tea. Her movements were unnecessarily careful—or, in different terms, very slow.

Miyuki bent her neck to take a sip of the tea, then added half a spoonful of sugar to her cup and stirred it without making a sound. Twice around, thrice, four times… Once the number had exceeded twenty, even Tatsuya couldn’t keep quiet. His tone somewhat reserved, he asked, “I doubt this is what it is, but is me getting a present from Honoka bothering you?”

The spoon hit the cup and made a high-pitched clacking noise. “That would be absurd. No, it’s certainly nothing like that!” she denied quickly and firmly, her cheeks flushing.

“Sorry. You’re right. I didn’t really think it was that, so forgive me,” Tatsuya apologized with an awkward look.

“No… It’s not that I don’t like it, or that it made me angry. I just felt like she beat me to it again… Yes, so it wasn’t a complete misunderstanding. So you have no need to bow your head to me like that.”

Miyuki, this time the one confused, entreated Tatsuya to raise his head. Losing out to her vehemence, he did so, but the question remained in the back of his mind. Like he’d said, he hadn’t seriously thought Miyuki wasn’t herself because of jealousy. The reason for her suspicious actions was still unexplained. But Tatsuya decided going any further would just make things more awkward, so he gave up on pressing the issue. Seeing his expression of incomplete combustion, Miyuki tilted her head in mild worry. When their gazes met, each with a nondescript expression, they both began to laugh without knowing who started it.

After enjoying a little under an hour’s worth of window-shopping, the two of them went back home. Tatsuya hadn’t asked again what Miyuki had been worried about. That wasn’t to say it wasn’t still on his mind, but it seemed like she’d figured it out for herself, so he’d decided he didn’t need to smoke it out.

What had Miyuki been worrying about? Once he’d gotten changed in his own room, been called over the in-house line, and opened the door to the dining room, he immediately learned the answer.

The sound of poppers greeted him. A shower of colorful paper strips blocked his vision and fell to his feet.

“Happy birthday, Brother!”

Miyuki had removed the outer piece of her uniform and its tie and was now only wearing the dress. The pure-white, sleeveless one-piece perfectly matched her slender silhouette. He was used to seeing her in her school uniform daily, but with the outer piece removed, it seemed to give quite a different impression. It was as though the dress had been specifically designed for her.

Minami, waiting behind Miyuki, was wearing the same high-necked dress and apron as always. And on the table was a colorful plethora of what must have taken her a long time to make.

“So you wanted to stall me to get this ready…”

Tatsuya looked at Miyuki through narrowed eyes. She shrank back and averted her eyes.

“Well…I’m happy for the effort. Thank you.”

Basically, she’d wanted to surprise him. She certainly couldn’t have pulled this off until this year, since it had only ever been the two of them. He did feel like the idea was a little childish, but he didn’t fail to understand that she’d done it because she loved him.

“Please take a seat, Brother. I’ll bring out the cake.”

When Tatsuya gave a smile, Miyuki’s face lit up like a light show. She began to work eagerly. With Minami standing off to the side and looking resigned, Miyuki brought over the cake, put candles in it, placed a fork and knife in front of Tatsuya, lit the candles, and instructed Minami to sit as well before finally turning out the lights and taking her own seat.

“Blow out the candles, Brother.”

Tatsuya, who had been watching over her in silence as she bustled around in her work, responded to her by blowing out all seventeen candles in one puff.

Despite this unannounced birthday party being only a small group of three, it nevertheless ended in a lively way. Tatsuya had made noise, too, doing things like clapping along to the songs, drawn in by his sister, who was in high spirits the entire time, but right now he was relaxing alone in his room.

It had been a good change of pace, too, before the demonstration coming up tomorrow. His sister was too good for him, so she must have thought about that as well, he thought. And then, suddenly, he remembered that the present he’d received from Honoka was still sitting there untouched, ribbon and all.

He took the long, slender box out of his bag. It was very heavy relative to its size; expecting some kind of mechanical device, he untied the ribbon and neatly took off the wrapping paper. What came out was a box made of unvarnished wood with a high-grade feel. When he opened the lid, he found an antique clockwork pocket watch inside. Pocket watches no longer had much value as practical accessories, but in modern times mechanical devices like this were beloved as pieces of art.

“This has to have been expensive…,” he whispered to himself suddenly before turning the box over to check the manufacturer’s logo.

A subtle expression came over his face. The marking on it belonged to the corporate group Shizuku’s father operated. In other words, this had originally come from Shizuku.

It was made so that you could put a picture on the inside of the case, but it was empty, as he’d expected. Shizuku probably would have at least put in a photograph of Honoka there, but the girl herself had probably argued against it. He let out a smile as the scene vividly played itself out before his eyes.

A soft knocking reached his ears as he smiled to himself.

“It’s Miyuki. Brother, do you have a moment?”

Her voice was just barely audible from inside the room—as soft as a whisper. For whatever reason, she seemed to not want their other housemate to hear. In consideration for that, Tatsuya opened the door quietly.

His sister was standing there, dressed up gorgeously, with a light layer of makeup on. She wore a light-pink, lace-abundant dress—a robe décolletée that boldly exposed her back and neckline. Her long hair was done up in a complex manner, as if to show off her alluring, pale-skinned back, without a single spot or pimple on it. The skirt, which reached her ankles, was made of several layers of thin fabric of differing lengths, and her flawless leg lines were visible through it from about halfway down her thighs. Her form was charming enough that even Tatsuya, robbed of his impulses, felt a momentary shiver.

“Brother?”

“Right, sorry. Come in.”

Unintentionally, Tatsuya had been lost in admiration. Having been standing in the doorway in a daze, he regained his senses at the sound of Miyuki’s bewildered voice. He shifted to one side and let his sister in.

And she hadn’t come empty-handed. His sister had some sort of bottle in her right hand, two stemmed glasses in her left, and a purse hanging from her left elbow.

In place of Miyuki, who had her hands full, Tatsuya gently shut the door. With a polite thank-you, Miyuki bent her knees slightly and set the bottle on Tatsuya’s desk, then arranged the glasses.

“Is this the present Honoka gave you?” she asked, eyes stopping on the pocket watch he’d left on the desk.

“Yeah.”

“It has a very elegant design.”

“It does.”

Miyuki probably had no ulterior motives, but Tatsuya felt a hint of awkwardness anyway and put the gift, along with the box, inside his desk drawer.

“Anyway, what’s all this?” he asked as he unfolded the spare seat from its wall storage and offered it to Miyuki before sitting down in front of his desk, looking at the bottle and glasses.

Miyuki moved the backless caster stool next to Tatsuya, and repositioned herself so that their knees faced each other. Bashful, she smiled. “Brother, do you remember what happened last year on April twenty-fourth…?”

“Of course I remember.”

Tatsuya was dubious at a completely unrelated question being the response to his own, but realizing she wouldn’t answer his unless he answered hers first, he replied truthfully.

“I had no idea what was going on when you showed up all of a sudden in a furisode.”

He’d been surprised by her dress this time, too—but he didn’t say that yet.

“Yes, that happened, too, didn’t it?” Miyuki said softly, as though to herself, looking away just slightly. She’d been very serious about it then, but now that some time had passed and she looked back on it, she didn’t seem able to prevent herself from feeling shy about it.

“That aside… Last year, it was…just you and I, Brother.”

“Yeah.”

At this point, Tatsuya had a guess as to what Miyuki wanted to say. He gave a smile full of compassion, and she returned a clear one of her own.

“The year before last, we celebrated alone as well.”

“I remember.”

“This year we have Minami, so we celebrated together, but…” She paused, looking down in embarrassment. “But I still wanted…some time together alone. Would you do me the honor of allowing me to celebrate your birthday alone for a short while…?”

Tatsuya leaned forward in his seat and reached a hand out to Miyuki’s face.

His hand touched her cheek.

Miyuki’s shoulders jumped.

Her face came up as his hand gently stroked her in the same direction, and their gazes met.

Miyuki’s eyes moistened, and her cheeks reddened.

Abruptly, she looked away.

As though trying to prevent her brother, still touching her cheek, from sensing the heightening heat through his hand.

“Shall we raise a toast, Brother?”

“Is this champagne?”

Tatsuya obediently lowered his hand—but his gaze was still filled with her.

“Yes, but that’s all right. There is almost no alcohol in it.”

“All right, I’ll open it.”

Tatsuya took the bottle from Miyuki’s hands—her fingers were trembling, as though the cork was in tight. He easily removed it without popping it and returned the bottle to his sister.

“Thank you… Here.”

She poured about half a glass of champagne and set it in front of Tatsuya. After pouring some for herself in the same way, she lifted her glass in her right hand.

Tatsuya took his glass in his left and brought it to hers.

There was a clear-sounding clink.

“Brother…happy birthday. I’m so grateful that you are here.”

“Thanks. I’m grateful that I can be your brother.”

They tilted their glasses at the same time.

Incidentally, the present Miyuki had brought for him was in her purse. Inside the box was a somewhat large, circular locket pendant, its metal wrought elaborately into a motif of the moon, the stars, and the sun. Inside it was a 3D photograph of Miyuki’s head and shoulders, taken with her in the dress she wore now. She’d been frustrated earlier at Honoka’s beating her to the punch, but it seemed she still held the lead in ways like this.

And Tatsuya, without comprehending his sister’s intent, subsequently wondered about this situation for over an hour.