Volume 3 Chapter 9

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♦

The next day…

Satoya-san called me.

The meeting place was the cafeteria near the station where we had met up before.

From what I had heard… seems like he was worried about me.

Taku-nii had asked him for advice about me, and he told him to believe in me, but after that, he started to get worried that he might have said something too irresponsible. Therefore, he asked me to come meet him over a tea or something.

He’s a very kind person.

Although, to be honest… it was a bit late.

The strategy I came up with had already bore fruits wonderfully.

“…I see, so everything has already solved itself.” After listening to me, Satoya-san took a sip of coffee and gave a wry smile. “In the end, everything turned out how you planned. You’re quite the scary high schooler, Miu-chan.”

“Ahaha. Oh please, you flatter me too much.” I laughed slightly and started to stir the Frappuccino with a straw. “Not everything turned how I expected. I’m sorry for being so careless with my plan. Both mom and Taku-nii acted outside my expectations… The entire process was a disaster, but fortunately, the result was just what I wanted.”

“With result… you mean that Ayako-san came to understand her own feelings?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Hmm, sounds like it was quite complicated.” Said Satoya with a bewildered face. “If that was really all you wanted, wasn’t there a much easier and straightforward way? Why did you bother doing all of that to pair them up…?”

“…Because, it wasn’t fair.” I said. “I simply thought it wasn’t fair.”

“It wasn’t fair?”

“It wasn’t fair that Taku-nii did so much to make mom fall in love… and for her to act all arrogantly with a ‘Well, since he insists’ attitude and not taking him seriously at all.”

I understand that this is just my selfishness.

That’s why I hated this situation.

The day she arrived home after her first date… I was extremely pissed at how my mom was giving Taku-nii’s affection as a given.

“That’s why I wanted mom to love him. I wanted her to take his love seriously… so seriously that she’d be willing to steal her daughter’s first love mercilessly. I wanted her… to scream her lungs out saying she loved Taku-nii.”

“And that’s why you pretended to love Takumi, to become Ayako-san’s rival and stir her up.”

“That’s right. She was in a comfortable zone with no one to compete with, so she needed a rival to get her anxious and jealous.”

Although the result… wasn’t very good.

I don’t know why, but mom didn’t believe me and immediately realized that I was only pretending to provoke her.

But everything turned out well in the end.

“And now I’m relieved of my duty. Thank God.”

“…Really?” Satoya-san asked.

He erased the smile he had on his face and got serious.

“Is this really what you wanted?”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is… That you actually like Takumi, don’t you, Miu-chan?”

“…”

“To support them, you pretended to like Takumi… But, were you really pretending? The reason you’re pushing for their relationship so fervently… was to overcome your own feelings and forget Takumi—”

“That’s not it.” I said.

I said with a smile and a light tone.

“You’re completely wrong. My objective from the start was always to get them closer. Just that. I’m not interested in Taku-nii that way.”

“…”

Satoya-san looked at me suspiciously, so I sighed and continued.

“Well… I’m also a woman… So I’d be lying if I said I had never felt conscious of Taku-nii as a member of the opposite sex, but… the feelings I have for him are not romantic, but rather the kind you feel for your family.”

‘After all’

I said, shrinking my shoulders.

“He already rejected me a long time ago.”

9 years ago…

“When Miu becomes big, I will marry Taku-nii!”

When I was six, without feeling any sort of embarrassment, but with a serious heart, I told Taku-nii that I loved him.

Most adults would probably overlook a kid telling them something like this. It’s better to give a vague and affirmative answer to not bother the kid. In fact, it would be crazy to answer seriously.

But…

“I-I’m sorry, Miu-chan.”

Taku-nii who was 11 at the time, seriously bowed in apology to the proposal that the 6 year old me had made.

“I’m happy that you want to marry me. I’m very happy, but… I’m sorry, I can’t marry you…” He said, feeling really apologetic. “I like Ayako mama.”

He blushed from embarrassment, but his eyes were extremely serious.

I blinked a few times.

“Taku-nii… likes mama?”

“…Yes.”

“I see…”

“Yes… I was to marry Ayako mama one day.”

He continued with his love lines as if he had lost control over his own mouth.

“I understand that it’s impossible now… but when I grow up and become a respectable adult worthy of Ayako mama, I’ll confess my love to her.”

“…”

“That’s why… I’m sorry. I’m really happy for your feelings, but I can’t marry you, Miu-chan…” Said Taku-nii with way an outrageous amount of honesty.

He rejected a 6 year old girl’s innocent proposal with total seriousness and honesty.

And I, frankly, wasn’t very bothered by it.

I was simply surprised and shocked.

But little by little, I started to understand the meaning of his words…

“Then, is Taku-nii going to marry mama?”

“…If it’s possible, I would like to. O-Of course, I don’t know how Ayako mama would feel about it. I don’t know if she’s interested in a man younger than her, even after 10 years of knowing each other…”

“Then… if mama and Taku-nii get married… Taku-nii will become my papa?!” Asked 6 year old me.

Without holding back the excitement.

“Y-Yes… That’s right.” Taku-nii nodded while embarrassed. “If Ayako mama and I get married, I’ll become your new papa, and the three of us will live just like a normal family.”

“I like that! It’s better like that!” I yelled out happily and excitedly. “I would be much happier if Taku-nii became my dad instead of my husband!”

That… was no lie, it was the complete truth.

I said it from the bottom of my heart.

In that moment… I really thought that.

The future where mom and Taku-nii got married and I lived as their daughter, for some reason, seemed like a more wonderful future than the one where I married Taku-nii.

My dear brother and my dear mother would become my family.

I’d be with them and would have the best parents for me.

Such a future looked like the happiest to me…

“Do you best, Taku-nii! Make sure to marry mama! Miu will support you!”

“Thank you. W-Well… there is still a long time for that to happen. At the very least, I don’t think Ayako mama will take me seriously until I’m over 20 years old.”

“I know! I’ll rewrite my wish!”

I grabbed the frame from the table.

“Taku-nii, help me take this off! I have to make a new drawing!”

“Eh… B-But it’s already properly drawn…”

“Don’t worry! I’ll draw it on the back!”

“No, but… W-Wait a moment, Miu-chan! Uhm… T-This has to be kept a secret from Ayako mama!”

“Eh? Why?”

“…Just because. Please, keep it a secret. It will be a secret between us.”

“A secret between us… Fine. Okay! I won’t tell anything to mama!”

“Please, promise me.”

“Yes, I promise! You also have to promise me! When you become big, you have to marry mama!”

“…Yes, I promise.”

And thus, we traded promises.

Our marriage promise.

For the promise that Taku-nii would marry mom.

After that, we took out the drawing from the frame. I made a new drawing on the backside and wrote a new wish while he taught me how to write it.

My new wish.

A dream for the future, an innocent wish… and our promise.

When I finished writing it, I turned it around so you couldn’t see the back and placed it back on the frame.

So that mom wouldn’t find out.

On my way home after separating from Satoya-san in the cafeteria…

I took out my phone on the way.

“Ah, hello, Taku-nii?”

“Something the matter?”

“Nothing serious. I just wanted to tell you something.” I said. “My ‘pretend I like you’ strategy to provoke mom… I’m putting a stop to it.”

“…”

“It didn’t go as well as I thought it would, plus I’m getting tired of it, so I’m dropping it.”

“…You’re doing things out of the blue again.”

“Huh? You don’t sound too happy. I thought you’d be happier… Ah, could it be you’re sad? So you did like to be loved by a high schooler after all, even if it was just play pretend.”

“I’m simply amazed at your selfishness…”

“Ahaha, I see.” After a happy laugh and a brief pause, I said, “Taku-nii… Thank you.”

“I don’t remember doing anything that would make you thank me, though.”

“Yeah, that’s it. Thank you for not doing anything.”

Taku-nii weirdly enough had not done anything these last few days.

Maybe I’m not the best person to say this… But I think that I exaggerated a lot this time. I didn’t do anything but make mom and Taku-nii nervous.

But… Taku-nii didn’t stop me.

He didn’t even try to persuade or question me.

He simply stared at me in silence, while I thought and moved on my own…

“You believed in me and watched me carefully, right?”

“…Not really. I simply thought it would be bothersome to deal with you, so I simply let you do as you pleased.”

“You’re not honest at all.” I laughed. “Well, anyways… my plan ends here.”

And as if trying to emphasize that, I said:

“I won’t do anything weird anymore, so don’t worry.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Besides… It’s probably not necessary anymore.” I added with a low voice.

“Huh? What was that?”

“Nothing.” I said and took a deep breath. “Taku-nii, I hope you can marry mom as soon as possible.”

“…You… Ah… Well, yeah…” He said embarrassed but couldn’t deny it.

“You promised, so make sure to do your part.”

“…I’ll try.”

“Fufufu, good luck, future dad~.” I teased him and ended the call.

My heart felt calm, fresh and happy.

While I walked home, a small breeze blew.

A warm and slightly fresh breeze surrounded me.

When I looked up, I saw the blue summer sky that extended infinitely.

I don’t know if heaven exists or not, but…

If my deceased mother and father are really there, they’re probably looking at me with kind smiles on their faces, as if they’re relieved. For some reason, I thought that.

Miu Katsuragi.

15 years old.

I lost my parents when I was very young and everyone called me a “poor girl” and thought I was unhappy, but…

I have a mother that I love, and there’s a man that really loves her too.

And he also loves me and really wants to love me as his daughter.

I have a father and a mother that both love me, and I love them, of course.

♥

Knock knock.

Even thought there was no one there, I called out the door anyways.

I went inside the room and stored the washed clothes in Miu’s closet.

And when I was about to go out, I saw a framed drawing in the wall.

“…”

I couldn’t help but smile.

I felt as if I was brimming with happiness.

Yesterday, Miu showed me the backside of the drawing.

The true wish the laid hidden behind the frame.

The promise the young Miu made with her heart and that she treasured for so long.

Since there was no point hiding it anymore, she turned the drawing around.

It was reversible, a trump card in a certain way.

“I wish that mama and Taku-nii get married so the 3 of us can become a family.”

In the drawing, there were Takkun and I smiling, with a Miu a bit smaller than us between us.

The 3 of us were holding hands.

This is the dream that Miu had wished for since she was 6.

The promise she has been longing for since a long time ago.

When I looked at the drawing… several emotions dwelled up inside me.

I felt happy and embarrassed, as if I had been played.

Miu and Takkun and been living with this promise since they were young.

Keeping it all these years like a valuable treasure while she kept it hidden from me.

When I thought about my daughter, all kinds of feelings mixed up and I felt sad, but…

“…Thank you, Miu.”

The words that came out of my mouth were those of gratitude.

Thank you.

Thank you for being my daughter.

Thank you very much for wishing me happiness.

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