Chapter 58: Chapter 6
21st of October (Wednesday) – Ayase Saki
I stayed in my room and prepared everything for tomorrow's classes after coming ho from Maaya's birthday party. I had my headphones on, listening to so pleasant tunes and music. My gaze may have been looking down at my textbook, but I had been unable to focus for the past few minutes, simply wandering around in my thoughts. I'm just reading sentences, only to forget what I read a mont later. I would be hard-pressed to call this a true study session.
Well, it's Japanese history, so there's technically no need for to go through the questions before the actual class… Stop, Saki. You shouldn't make excuses like that. My focus was completely gone, so I raised my head. The digital clock next to read 23:33. Ah, matching digits… Yeah, I don't think I'll be doing any more studying today. It'll only have the opposite effect. I should go take a bath instead.
I gave up on studying and headed to the bath. I drank a glass of water so I didn't have to worry about dehydration and sank into the hot water. When I stretched my arms and legs out, I could feel all the exhaustion slowly lting away from my body. I sighed for the umpteenth ti and started grumbling to myself.
"Maaya is just…"
When we t up with Asamura-kun in front of her flat, she whispered so words into my ear. Every ti I rember them, my cheeks start to burn up.
'If anything, I wouldn't mind leaving you two youngsters to yourselves, you know?'
I just hope Asamura-kun didn't hear any of that. What kind of birthday party is it if the person being celebrated vanishes midway through, anyway? Geez. I wonder just how much she actually knows or presus to know. Does she know about my relationship with Asamura-kun? I an, we are siblings. So it should be a complint if sobody sees us as being on good terms, and she can keep teasing about it as much as she wants. She's just as close with her brothers, right?
It's the sa principle. It's part of perfectly normal physical contact. If Asamura-kun were the sa age as Maaya's younger brother, I could interact with him the sa way. I wonder what he was like back then? I'm sure he was just as adorable. I'd squeeze his cheeks and pull on them whenever he gave a cheeky look… Whose cheeks? Asamura-kun's—Wait, I'm getting lost in my fantasies here.
I shook my head to rid myself of my foul thoughts. What am I thinking? Next topic, next topic. His birthday is in December. Well, so is mine, but his is earlier. Oh, yeah…I need to get a birthday present for him. But my tir rang before I could co up with anything. I usually take baths for 20 minutes, getting out right before I start sweating. The longer I stay in, the more it could dehydrate my skin, after all.
Skincare after drying myself off is just as important. If I leave my skin as-is right after taking a bath, it'll dry out. I finished changing, grabbed all my dirty laundry to put it in my room(since I couldn't keep it in the laundry basket for everyone to see), put a thin jacket on over my nightwear, and went to the living room. I opened up the fridge to grab a cup of cold barley tea and gulped it down.
I heard the sound of the door opening. It turned out to be Mom just getting ho from work.
"Oh, you're back early. That's rare."
Since she works as a bartender, she usually only makes it ho late at night or in the early morning. In that regard, she's early today.
"Yes, well…"
"Are you not feeling well?"
"Hehe, I'm fine. I'm not sick and don't have a cold, it's just the usual. A bit on the heavy side today," she said and sat on a chair in the living room.
"Ahhh." I guessed what she was referring to and nodded. "It must have been cold, right? Would you like so warm tea?"
"Yes, that would be wonderful."
I turned on the electronic kettle and sat down across from her.
"So you're finally taking a rest when you need it?"
Up to this point, she had continued to work no matter how exhausted or sick she felt. But as of late, she'd always co ho early whenever she didn't feel too well. 'Up to this point' is, of course, referring to before she got remarried.
"With Taichi-san, I'm able to get the rest I need." She said while glancing over at the bedroom.
"Because of him?"
"Yes. And I also have you, and you can take care of yourself," She said with a smile.
My inexperience and inability to support her properly had caused her health to deteriorate. If I think about it that way, I couldn't feel more apologetic. But even so, there was no need for that anymore. Now she had the option to rest. She has faith in her family that sobody could support her even if she collapsed. Having sobody to rely on really gives you ntal strength, after all.
The kettle notified that the water was boiling, so I poured so of it into a cup with so caffeine-free black tea and placed it in front of Mom.
"It's not just him. You can always rely on if sothing happens."
"Thank you, Saki."
I shook my head. There's still nothing I can do for her. I can't do what step-dad does for her…
"What about dinner?"
"I ate sothing before coming ho, so I'm fine." She smiled and turned on the TV.
I heard so random noise, probably from a variety show. A bit after that, I looked over, and orange lights were flickering everywhere in the stores shown in the footage, and there was so sort of perforr walking around. It seems to be a special report on Halloween.
"Oh yeah, about Halloween…"
"Yeah?"
Watching TV seed to have jogged sothing in Mom's mory, and she spoke up.
"At first, Taichi-san and I were planning on heading out sowhere and having dinner together. It technically is a festival, after all."
Only in the West, though. However, with Halloween going on, Mom said she probably wouldn't be back until morning since she'll be busy at work.
"Is Halloween that important of an event?"
I just saw it as an opportunity for all the costu lovers to go all out at least once a year.
"Taichi-san wants us to celebrate together. But with December coming up, I said we'd be better off celebrating then. We plan on taking ti off for Christmas, so we can celebrate that and your birthdays together."
"Okay, got it." I nodded in understanding.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing at all."
So we'll be together for Christmas. That thought alone made smile. I can't deny it. But it's not just that. Finally, from this year on, we can celebrate it as an actual family.
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