I was laying on my bed and then the next thing I knew was, it was already morning. The thing that happened yesterday was as blurry as a forgotten dream to me, but for some reason, I couldn't get the words "you shouldn't be having fun" out of my head.
I got out of my room, and there she was, getting out of the room next to mine. I couldn't get myself to look at her straightly, and for some reason, my feet started trembling having in her presence.
"G-good morning…"
I greeted her as my voice also started to tremble.
"Don't talk to me as if nothing happened!"
I managed to take a glance on her face and all can see were immense anger drawn onto her face.
"I-I'm sorry…"
My tears started to form on my eyelids but I managed to hold it out when my phone rang its notification sound. I opened it and saw a single lined message coming from him, it was "See you at school, Iroha!". He was quite energetic, even in messages.
"Tsk."
She turned her back on me but I can still feel her anger emanating from her. I don't even know her or why she has that anger built up upon me but I know one thing for sure, it's that she was special to me.
"W-who are you?"
I asked with my trembling voice.
"Who am I?"
She turned on my direction and I saw the expression on her face, it was filled with anger along with a shy of sorrow with it.
"Who am I, you say?"
She approached me, teary eyed.
"You can't even remember your dear sister?"
"I'm sorry…."
"Why…. Why the hell are you still living?!"
Tears has welled up in my eyes. Hearing her words of wanting me to die had engraved in me. I had no idea what happened or why she has that kind of anger towards me, but I can't even get angry at her, or to be exact, I don't even know what is the feeling of getting angry towards a person.
I caught a glance of her face as I looked up, it was filled with tears. Tears that is unusual for a person to show to the person it despises.
With that said, I walked, and walked, away from her as I hear the cranking of the wooden floor of the house. Just as I imagined, she came back to the room beside mine.
With that said, I tried my best to hide the gloomier than the gloomy look I always give off and continued my day as if it was a normal one. I had eaten my breakfast, wore my school uniform, and said goodbye to the portraits of my parents. I hadn't seen uncle the whole morning so I just assumed that he came to work early.
As I stepped out of the door, the red hue of the leaves that was falling one by one on its tree had filled my view of sight. It was a marvelous sight to be seen, just like how the cherry blossoms falling on its tree. The wind was also starting to get cooler.
Walking through the nearly leafless trees of the neighborhood, I saw a familiar person standing on an intersection of streets. She started waving at me and as a response, I raised my hand slightly without shaking it. As the view of her face slowly got details as I walked towards the intersection, I had immediately identified her. She was Mizuki, the person who can rival the smile of her brother.
"Good morning! Iroha-nee!"
Hearing her voice had slightly pulled me out of the abyss I was standing in.
"Uhm… Good morning…"
"Ah! Are you crying? Did you cry?"
Somewhat like reading my mind, she placed her head in a point blank range to mine. Even though what she said is true, I decided to hide it with the words, "No, I did not."
"Oh, is that so!"
She smiled brightly, just like her brother. But I sensed a feeling of doubt in her words.
We continued on walking through the red hued leaves and trees that had almost no leaves. We didn't have a conversation between us but a smile was drawn all over her face. After about thirty minutes of walking, we had reached the school gate with an arc about the incoming cultural festival of our school.
As we entered through the arc, it feels like my heart was cleansed from any worries regarding the scene I had experience earlier this morning. I looked at her and saw her grinning from ear to ear, somewhat something had caught her eyes.
"Hey, Iroha-nee, do you know remember what is mochi?"
The name truly sounds familiar and an image of a soft, sticky type of food had crossed my mind, but I wasn't sure what that really is so I just answered with a word "No.".
A somewhat like disappointed expression had drawn on her face, but immediately smiled widely right after. It was a weird trait for the both of them siblings to have.
"Have you eaten breakfast?"
"It wasn't very filling, but I had bread."
"I haven't eaten. Is it fine if we get something?"
I thought that there wasn't any particular issue with that, so I assented. She grinned and started to head towards her destination. I was thinking that we were headed to the oden shop, but we arrived in a stall with a colorful banner with the texts "Mochi��.
"Mo-chi?"
"Yes! Mochi! The pleasant, sticky texture of mochi will fill your desires in one bite!"
I held the hand of the girl that was describing the mochis lined up on the display, and looked at her with an embarrassed look. The people that was peacefully walking through the path had stopped their tracks and looked at her.
"K-keep it down…"
After making a face that said she had finally noticed the sudden change of the atmosphere, she plunged her head onto my shoulders as if trying to hide her face to those people, that had peace ruptured. I guess, even the most energetic person also feels ashamed like this.
After burrowing her face onto my shoulders for a minute, she had regained her energetic self and lead the way into the make-shift store. The store was outfitted in a modern Japanese-styled store, with tatami as floors and chabudai as its table, it had reminded me of the images I used to search before coming back here. The spacious room had three other groups of customers apart from us. There was a family, a student couple and a group of four girls who were heartily engaged in raucous chatter. We sat down at the table by the window.
Soon, a gentle looking girl in dress arrived and took our orders.
"Two daifuku-mochi and if you had tea, I'll get two."
After taking our orders, the girl smiled as she left to arrange our orders.
Reflecting my look to the people, it seemed that it had a lot more people in the school than yesterday and it was just still early in the morning.
"Sorry for the wait!"
And before I could assert that we hadn't waited at all, two plates with daifuku-mochi on them, as well as two cups of green tea had been placed on our table.
I picked up the round and dotted mochi that seemed to be not that popular in the store. And as I bit into it, the sweetness, together with the red bean paste as its filling, filled my mouth. At that first bite, I fell in love with it entirely.
"Doesn't it taste great? We used to eat these, along with my brother in our place before…"
Speaking of which, I had never seen him the whole morning. I wonder where he is now.
"Oh, is that so?"
I continued on munching the sticky delicacy as I looked on the crowded school grounds on the window. After finishing the mochi that the both of us were eating, we continued our journey out of the room.
When we left the store, she received a flyer from the same girl who took us our orders. I took a glance on it and its contents were the programs that will be held for the day.
The number of people at the school had increased since the morning. In the midst of students and their accompaniment making their day as good as it is, we walked leisurely. I noticed that most of these people walked faster than my normal pace. Maybe I'm just a slow walker from the start.
After walking a relatively long path, we had reached an empty bench and sat on it. For the most part, we didn't talk about anything while walking and only a smile can only be seen on her face. But that smile had dissipated as soon as our bottoms had contact to the hard wood of the bench.
With an appearance different from how it was until now, she looked at me straight in the eye.
"Hey, Iroha-nee. You know what? I hate doctors."
Surprised, just as a normal person would be after hearing that statement, I asked her "why?".
"It's not that I hate them for what they are doing, in fact I am grateful of them but putting an expiration date on a person's lifespan just like a perishable meal is what I hate. I just…. hate them."
I don't really know much about medical science, but even with that, I agreed with her opinion. I heard from somewhere that in this world, rather than curing terminal illnesses, treatment is focused on helping people to live with them instead. Living a life with a sooner expiration date is not what you call living at all, that's what came to my mind at that time.
"I'm sorry for that! Do you want some ice cream, Iroha-nee? I saw a stall there, selling it."
The girl, whose mood had become unusually good for some reason, stood up and wore her usual smile once again. I nodded as a response.
She took off immediately while I stayed on the bench I was sitting on.
While admiring the reddish hue of the trees and feeling the cold wind of autumn, I heard a faint voice saying, "You're as lonely as ever…". I turned my back and saw a familiar face, it was my sister whose name is one of the memories I have forgotten.
".…I'm sorry."
Even though I was curious at her presence here, I couldn't get the courage to ask her. We still haven't had a proper conversation at all since the day we met, but I really wanted to invite her to enjoy this day together.
end