"Elder brother, who was that woman earlier?" Kamiyama Takeshi asks, curious. His elder brother looks like someone who has been forced to eat a hundred lemons by someone.
However, Takeshi wasn't the one who heard her cursing his recently deceased parents. If he had heard her, his face would have had no better expression.
Kamiyama Kiyohira drinks a glass of cold water to calm himself down. His father and step-mother died in an accident on foreign soil, and it hasn't been a long time since they died.
How dare she curse them like that?
His biological mother died while giving birth to him. His stepmother worked in his father's company as his secretary. That woman seduced him and got herself pregnant. She divorced her first husband and married his father.
He never liked his stepmother; they always kept a distance from each other.
However, his relationship with his younger brother is not bad. He loves his younger brother Takeshi and cares for him.
Takeshi isn't anything like his stepmother.
Takeuchi Rie isn't anything like her stepmother either. When he saw her at the funeral, he noticed that her long dark hair was unwashed, her lips were dry, and her skin was too pale. She also ran like a clumsy dog. Takeuchi Rie looked like she just woke up and ran to attend the funeral.
Who comes to pay respect to the dead like this? There wasn't respect either. She cursed his father and stepmother. She also cursed him and Takeshi to rot with genital diseases.
"She's your mother's first child from her first marriage," His grandmother answers Takeshi's question when Kiyohira doesn't speak a word.
"What?!" Takeshi's eyes become big and round, "She's our stepsister?"
Sister? Kiyohira's face contorts in anger. He will never accept a sister like her. He doesn't share a drop of blood with her anyway. He will keep his innocent younger brother from a woman who curses like that.
"Yes, she is." Grandmother Kamiyama takes a sip of her tea. Her heart is still weeping for her dead son. Shintaro and Hitomi, they died together. Takeshi is only seventeen, and he is still in high school. Though Kiyohira is mature and outstanding, he isn't married yet.
"She should have talked to us, even once." Takeshi sighs. "She never contacted us. Why is that? We are also her family, aren't we?"
"No!" Kiyohira snaps. Her cursing words keep ringing in his mind's ear. It infuriates him to the core.
Takeshi and Grandmother Kamiyama are startled by Kiyohira's loud outburst.
"A woman like her is not a part of this family."
Kiyohira stands up and leaves the table.
No one is allowed to curse his family like that.
************************
"Done!" I tap the final key and my work is complete. I mail the files to my client. I am a freelance programmer and work on these projects at home.
I don't have to commute to work every day and deal with people. The world calls me a Hikikomori. They are not wrong. I am a Hikikomori and I love my life just the way it is.
Without a doubt, my life is perfect.
Suddenly, the doorbell rings. I frown. Now, who is here? I didn't order anything. I ignore it and browse the latest updates of my favourite shoujo manga.
"So handsome~" I kiss the screen when I see the digital cover art of my favourite male character, Sakurano Kazu. I am not interested in 3-Dimensional men. I am happy with my 2D love. Nobody is perfect like 2D men.
Kiyohira Kamiyama's face suddenly pops in my head like unwanted internet popups. I wrap my arms around me and shudder. What a scary man he is! He can freeze souls with those eyes.
The doorbell rings again. Who cares? I start reading the latest chapter of my favourite shoujo manga. Sakurano Kazu is heartbroken upon seeing Enri bring bento for Arakawa Yoshi. It seems that she has feelings for Arakawa. At this rate, my favourite ML will end up being alone.
It's not such a bad thing! My love. My Kazu, I am here for you. Just come out of the manga and make love to me.
The doorbell is still ringing? One of these days, I will break my own doorbell. These pesky humans do not go away so easily.
"WHO IS IT?!" I yell.
"Are you, Miss Takeuchi?" I hear a man's voice. I don't recognise the voice. I open the door a little and peek.
"Who are you?" I ask him.
"Is your name Takeuchi Rie?" He replies.
"Yes." I narrow my eyes on him. He has an ordinary look, wearing casual jeans and a black shirt. He scribbles down something in his small diary and looks up at me.
"Are you Kamiyama Hitomi's only daughter?"
I slammed the door to his face.
"Miss Takeuchi, is it true that your mother cheated on your father?"
I went to my kitchen. I need coffee.
"Miss Takeuchi, did your father divorce your mother because she got pregnant with Kamiyama Shintaro's child?"
No, I need alcohol.
"How does it feel to be abandoned by both your parents, Miss Takeuchi? Is this why you're living a life like this? Do you feel that your parents and Kamiyama Shintaro have wronged you?"
I feel the final cord snap inside my mind. I took long strides towards the door and open it.
"Kamiyama Hitomi and Kamiyama Shintaro are human wastes," I yell at him. "I have nothing more to say. Get out of here; else, I will call the cops."
I close the door and lean my back against and drop to the floor. I wrap my arms around my knees. This is shit. She's already dead, but people won't leave me alone.
As a child, going to elementary school wasn't easy. Nobody liked to talk to me. The gossips didn't stop. My father wouldn't look at me. He even doubted I was his biological child. My grandparents had a hard time because nobody would let them forget. Then, my father suddenly married my mother's best friend and left the country.
I was alone. Everyone pointed their fingers at me. I kept going to school because my grandparents didn't want me to drop out. After some time, it stopped. But I didn't forget.
I hate the Kamiyama Family the most.