"Haa... Haa, Haa... Haa...", breathing roughly as I held my head.
Instead of collapsing like yesterday, I manage to hold off. Trying to calming myself down always helps me whenever something happens. Concentrating and controlling your breathing can help the circulation of blood flow to your body. Yet, in my case, I need it for my brain as my head is still suffering from pain.
Something surfaced in my head, 'Naoki is the same as you'
Then the pain in my head gradually disappeared.
Staying in a trancelike state when the words of Haru-san surfaced into my head.
Staring down on the wooden floor.
There were so many questions left unanswered.
Thinking about what Haru-san said, those were the only words I could only remember at that time. For some reason, the pain disappeared once I recalled it.
Why did he say that? Naoki is the same as me? Connecting all the dots in my head, I came up with a conclusion. I'm not the only victim of the incident. I don't remember anything that associates with my incident like what happened or what kind of incident I got into.
After contemplating, I stood up while supporting myself with the desk.
But after that, someone knocked on my door, a voice can be heard a tiny little voice calling, "Nii~! Open the door~"
Carrying myself towards the door while swaying left and right, as the dizziness didn't leave in my head.
I slowly grabbed the doorknob, unlocking it, and pulled it.
A little girl with brown amethyst hair color standing with her flabby arms reaching into me.
I carried Asuka into my arms, and asked her, "Why are you awake this early in the morning, hm?", I smiled at her.
"You will disappear again if I don't wake up early...", Asuka replied puffing her cheeks sulking.
Seeing this cute child in my arms, I decided to push away the stuff that I was contemplating earlier and focus my attention on this little one. I could feel myself gradually healing from all the stress that I went through earlier.
I kissed her little forehead and said, "I told you, Nii-chan got something to do yesterday. I'm not going to do that anymore."
"Really...?", Asuka turning her head to me, staring into my eyes innocently.
"Yes.", I smiled.
"Okay!", she replied happily.
"Want to head down?", I asked.
"Yep! Mama is cooking and said we'll be eating earlier because of Shika nee-chan."
Oh yeah, she'll be leaving early because it takes an hour for her to arrive at school. Reminiscing the thing earlier, I could still clearly remember how she lied to me. She told me straight face that I just fell asleep in the house of the Ikeda's.
My eyebrows furrowed.
Is Nee-san the one who caught me when I lost consciousness on the street and bought me here?
Heading downstairs, speak of the devil. I saw my Nee-san fully dressed in her school uniform. Nee-san is wearing a navy-blue coat with the school logo patch on the right side of her chest pairing it with a red ribbon, she's wearing a pearly gray skirt and high sock.
Nee-san's uniform is similar to one we have at our school, although the girls coat is white and their skirts are navy-blue.
She then noticed our arrival, and said, "Oh, you're up, why did you take too long to dress?"
I narrowed my eyes, and said, "Nothing, I just remembered all the stuff yesterday."
Nee-san flinched upon hearing that, "All of it?", she gave me a stern gaze.
"Yeah, but I don't remember any of the conversations.", I replied.
"Is that so...", she held her chin while contemplating.
"So? Are you gonna tell, why you lied to me?", I raised an eyebrow.
"No. You don't need to know."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because I don't want to."
Huh? Why is that?
Is she... Trying to suppress my memories...?
Asuka who's very confused, spoke, "Nii-chan are you guys fighting?"
"Eh? No way. I'm just asking Shika nee-chan some questions.", I said in a gentle and smiled.
"Hmph, why are you so gentle when it comes to her while you're always angry at me.", Nee-san said as she sulks looking at me.
"Because, Asuka is a very good girl who listens to me, right?", I smiled at Asuka.
"Yeah~! I love Nii-chan~!", she said enthusiastically.
"Aww~", adoring Asuka, I rubbed my cheeks against her cheeks to which she giggled, "Hehehe~"
Nee-san looked at the both of us with envy, puffing her cheeks, "Not fair... Muumuu..."
"All right, stop teasing your sister.", Aunt Ayaka said as she approaches me.
"Are you okay? I was worried when I saw you last night.", Aunt Ayaka added.
"Haha, I'm all good Auntie, I slept peacefully.", I replied.
"Haa... That's good, I shouldn't have asked you to do that.", after she said that, she approached and pull my head towards her astonishing melons.
"TSK!", Nee-san said aggravatingly.
My eyes widen, remembering that she often does this when I was a child whenever I'm upset, she would do this to calm me or pamper me.
"Sorry.", Aunt Ayaka said.
"I'm really okay. It's not like something bad happened to me. I would still send them home regardless of whether you told me to do it or not.", I smiled wryly.
"Haaa... My nephew is a natural-born ladykiller...", she leaned her lips towards my forehead and kissed it.
My face flushed in redness. Blinking my eyes a few times, trying to get rid of my embarrassment.
"Alright, I'll just prepare the breakfast", after saying that, she went towards the kitchen.
I sighed, "Haa... What a worrywart.", I can't help but smile.
"Not fair~", Asuka said, she then went ahead kissed my cheeks.
I smiled at Asuka and patted her head, she giggled, "Hehehe~"
Turning my head towards my sister, I saw her fuming in anger while looking at me. She then walks toward me while stomping her feet.
Her hands reached my forehead and started rubbing where Aunt kissed me earlier.
"Hey, stop it.", I gave her a stern look.
"No. Until I remove it."
"You know, Shika-chan, you can just overwrite it.", Aunt Ayaka said in the kitchen.
With what Aunt Ayaka suggested, my sister's eye brightened as she immediately forced her lips on my forehead.
"Thank you, Auntie~.", she thanked Aunt Ayaka.
I was bewildered, looking at my sister I don't know if she really hated Auntie or not. I'm not even surprised by her kissing because she would often do it even in public to which I got used to it. But she thanked Auntie?! Am I seeing things?! My god?!
After kissing me on the forehead, she immediately went to the dining table and sat on the chair.
Trying to walk towards the dining table, suddenly I noticed Asuka staring at my forehead menacingly while puffing her cheeks.
"Asuka? What's wrong?", I asked the tiny bubblehead in my arms.
"Shika nee-chan removed mama's kiss on you.", she said while narrowing her eyes on my forehead.
Eh? That's her problem? This little girl... She really loves her mommy. If she upset by that... Oh... I know what to do.
"Then how about this, just kiss where your mama kissed you so that still counts as her?", I suggested to her.
Upon hearing that, my sister's who's looking at me, furrowing her eyebrows while gritting her teeth.
"OH! Yeah yeah, Asuka will do that!", she delightedly agreed while raising her flabby arms in the sky.
"Okay.", giving her a wide smile.
I leaned my forehead close to her because she can't reach it. Then, Asuka kissed the part Aunt Ayaka and my sister kissed earlier.
With the sound of smooch, my sister's jealousy rose. Meanwhile, Auntie was giggling upon seeing my sister staring at her daughter with jealousy while preparing the food on the table.
"Is that okay now, Asuka?", I asked.
"Yep~! Hehehe~", she giggled.
Seeing this cute little creature in my arms, I can't help myself think how innocent this little girl. At the back of my head, I was thinking of bringing this girl to my school and show her off.
After that, we finally sat at the table, where my sister is sitting beside me. Meanwhile, Asuka was with her mother.
We're currently having some toast with butter on it.
Pretty simple but it's enough to satisfy our stomachs.
We didn't talk during our breakfast and we only ate.
After finishing our breakfast, Aunt Ayaka gave Asuka to me while my sister went upstairs, maybe preparing her bag.
Asuka and I went to the living room and sat on the sofa, she was sitting on my lap where she would often sit.
For the vacant time that I have before school, I bought out my phone from my pocket and opened it. After opening it, I saw the time which is now 6:21 am. Realizing that it was too early, I looked at Asuka who's playing with my left hand once again, I'm holding my phone with my right hand.
She really hated the time where I just mysteriously disappeared yesterday, maybe it's related to his father leaving her. I recalled something about Asuka crying to me about how I just leave her after going to school. Maybe, her father told her about going to work and never came back? That's the only conclusion I could think of. Because she even woke up early, maybe scared of me disappearing again like yesterday.
Nevertheless, I'm not going to leave this little thing. Even after only a week, my fondness for her grew exponentially. I treat her more like a sister than my own sister.
Asuka was joyfully humming to her favorite song. If I remember it was called 'Thousand Feet Up in the Alps'? It was an old nursery rhyme. I don't know if my guess is correct since when was the last time I heard a nursery rhyme?
I don't know why she started humming that then she will play with my hand, like yesterday. It's was the same song she was humming yesterday.
I left Asuka in her own world and unlocked the encrypted password on my phone. There are still no messages from Zeno nor she even read it. Haa... I continued and opened our school forum to check whether there is news from me.
After opening it, my eyes grew wide upon seeing the first thing that is on the first page of the forum— It was me! The time where my own mom stripped my tracksuit on tens of people in public at the administrative main lobby building.
God damn!
There are like 10 to 20 shots of me without my upper clothes! Even with different kinds of view from every surrounding. I didn't know that there are other people who were taking pictures of me at that time, the only people that I saw were the ones who took Asuka's picture before that.
What's worse is the title.
'Unexpected hottie on school?'
Then below that, it says, 'From our sources, the two beautiful people that you are seeing the one who stripped him naked was his mom and behind her was his dad. Both of them are otherworldly beauties, but for their son, we don't know. As to the reason why he hides his face, we don't know, but some said that his face was too godly that it could melt a person's eyes and some said he could be adopted. By the way, this guy's name was Okita Tatsuya the one who became infamous after his clash with the Oye family and currently have a relationship with two otherworld beauties especially when the other one is the princess of the Hatsumi Financial Group who dominated the business world of Japan for years...', I stopped reading midway.
Coughing up blood in my mind while reading this horrendous article about me.
Why do they exaggerate stuff? Wait. Then I saw the username of the one who wrote the article, the username had a group tag on the front which says [News]. Newspaper club? Now, I get why they write this kind of stuff. Understandable.
Then I looked at the comments, but after looking at it for a brief second I immediately left the forum. Because the majority of the comments are all about girl ogling on my body like putting sexual remarks and then some comments are like the usual, hating on me. It's not really new, I've been getting this since yesterday, nothing new.
I just hope that no one will bother me once I got into school...
"Haa...", I sighed.
Even knowing that for some reason I'm not panicking. Like, I've been into this scenario before.
Because of my sigh, Asuka looked up to me with a questioning face.
"Nothing.", I smiled wryly and patter her head.
She then continued playing with my hands and humming her song.
Then, a sound could be heard, the sound of the doorbell.