1
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"Shouta, is it really okay?" Sara walked beside Shouta, both walking down the stairs of the aquarium.
"Yeah, I don't mind at all!"
It was too late even if Shouta wasn't okay with it, the escalator was already going down and it doesn't want to follow only one person's request.
Sara's gaze was glued to Shouta. She wore a face of concern. Even though Shouta had already said that it was fine to go to the aquarium, Sara was still worried about Shouta's decisions.
—That gaze made Shouta ask her a question.
"By the way, do you have a favorite fish?"
"Hm? Fish?"
"Yeah"
Her eyes were now looking forward, now walking on a concrete floor, no longer riding the escalator. —Shouta almost tripped when his feet collided with the bottom of the escalator.
—He has been awake for more than he should have last night. He was doing his daily rethinking about his story, and Sara was there to help too.
Back to Shouta's question about fish, Sara was thinking as she looked around to find the fish she had in her mind.
There were many types of fish that Sara could see in the aquarium, even the big fishes were there to be viewed and probably preserved. Sara took a closer look at them and the name plates that are built in front of the tanks.
The way she moved around, looking at all the fish reminded Shouta of a day where he was going to the aquarium with Mia—his little sister. Sara was moving like his little sister and her expression was changing more than before, filled with life and color.
Cute…
Everyone in the room agreed. All of them were admiring the cuteness overload from Sara.
She was just like a little sister character from a Shoujo manga. Shouta has definitely read some of them and knows all of the types of characters in it.
"Hm…" her voice sounded disappointed as she walked back to Shouta. "They don't have it here…"
"What is the name of the fish anyways?"
"I forgot…"
Oh, so that's why she looked everywhere.
It was for that reason, Sara ran around the whole first section of the aquarium just to find the fish that she likes. All the while Shouta was following behind her, acting like her bodyguard or something.
The attire Sara Fujiwara was wearing made her look more young. And thanks to Mia's makeup skills, Sara's appearance didn't match her age and her personality—
"Ah, Sara. Let me show you my fish"
Shouta said as he ran in the direction of the open area of the aquarium. Sara followed behind him as soon as she heard that Shouta was about to show her his favorite fish.
The moment Sara stepped foot outside of the building, she was splashed by sprinkles of water.
"—huh? Is this the…?"
"Yeah, it's the dolphin show"
"So… is this the animal you like? why?"
"They're just wonderful"
He said as a dolphin flew and danced in the air, until gravity pulled it down again. The two of them were far enough to not get hit by the big wave of water, only sprinkles of it.
"Magnificent and beautiful… that's more like it"
"..."
"So, what do you want to do now?"
"Eh, me?"
"Yeah"
"Ah… Ice—"
"Ice cream?"
"Yeah, the same one like our first date"
"Alright!"
.
2
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Shouta let out a long sigh as he and Sara walked out of the aquarium. The reason for the long sigh was rather annoying. He had forgotten his phone at his house. Now he can't contact anyone. Sara, on the other hand, carried her flip phone.
"Hey Sara, can I borrow your—"
The next few words stopped inside his throat because he remembered that he doesn't remember any of his family member's phone number, even his house.
But…
"Did you happen to save Mia's phone number?"
"Yes, I do"
"Can I borrow your phone for a moment?"
They were walking across the road, passing in front of small cars and other vehicles that were stopping because of the red light and pedestrians walking across the road they were driving on.
"Here"
Sara gave her phone to Shouta as the two of them stopped in front of a restaurant.
Shouta pressed the small buttons of the flip phone, trying to find Mia's number. But Shouta was having a hard time using the phone itself and Sara had to help him navigate the phone itself.
And for five minutes, Shouta was teached by Sara on how to use a phone that he will never use again in his life.
"Here, Mia's number"
"Ohh… so that's how"
The phone clicked and started ringing.
.
Mia Kazehaya was doing her homework in her room with the lights off and the windows closed with curtains. It was cold inside, so she wore her lime sweater to keep her body warm.
Sitting in front of her desk, her laptop was placed beside her and her phone was charging beside her bed which was at the very corner of her room.
Before she did her homework, she walked to the nearest mini market to her house and bought many chocolates. It was her brother's birthday after all, and she wanted to give him something that he loves.
As she was about to sharpen her pencil with a pencil sharpener attached to her table, the table beside her bed shook and her phone almost fell to the ground but Mia was fast and grabbed the phone before it could touch the ground.
The screen of the phone turned on and it showed that Sara was calling her.
"Hello?"
Mia answered the phone, greeting the person on the other end.
"Ah, Mia"
"Brother? Are you with Sara-san right now?"
"Yeah, I'm going out with her right now. Say, Mia, can you check my room?"
"For what exactly?"
"Can you check my room for my phone? Because I'm not carrying it right now. Just to check if it's there"
"Alright, I'll check it right away! Don't hang up!"
"I won't I won't"
While still holding her phone close to her ear, Mia walked out of her room and ran upstairs. Once reaching the second floor, she turned left to Shouta's room and opened his door.
A faint sound of a vacuum getting closer as the door opened, she realized that someone was cleaning her brother's room. No one else in the house, other than Yamamoto Kaede, uses the vacuum to clean the rooms.
—And it was also clear whose job was to clean the whole house.
"Uhm, excuse me"
Mia slowly opened the door ajar, knocking it to grab the maid's attention.
"Ah, yes? What is it that you need, Miss Mia?"
Kaede said as she turned off the vacuum and set it aside, putting it against the wall.
"Can I come in?"
"Of course you can, but please do mind the dust over there"
"Yeah"
Entering the room, Mia walked around near her brother's bed and table, looking at sheets of paper on the table and on top of the bed. And on top of the table, on the sheets of papers, there was Shouta's phone.
"Hello? Brother?"
"———"
Her ears only heard the sound of her surroundings, there was no other sound. She looked at her phone, checking if she was still in the call.
"..."
The screen showed that the call between Sara's phone and hers has been cut off by another caller.
Mia sighed.
.
Shouta was cutted out from the call and another person called Sara's phone. He immediately gave back Sara's phone and told her to sit down for a moment.
"We've been walking for a while, it's making me tired"
"..."
"Oh, there's a bench over there!"
"..."
"Let's go there"
"Okay"
The bench was rather far from where they were. It was about half a mile from them, Shouta would rather sit on the sidewalk rather than walk half a mile just to sit on a possibly uncomfortable sitting place.
Shouta stopped and watched as Sara mindlessly walked past him. Before she passed him, he caught a good shot of her face.
"—?"
The bright sunny face that she had a few minutes earlier had disappeared, and now, there was only her usual cold, dead face. But this one seemed rather colder than her usual one.
"Sara!"
Shouta grabbed Sara by the shoulder, turning her back away from him and then facing him with her eyes.
"What is it?"
"Who's that calling you?"
"..."
Sara was hesitant for a moment. But only for a moment, she looked at her phone and then went back to Shouta.
"Father"
Suddenly, a wave of flashbacks hit Shouta in the back of his mind.
The word father reminded him of the fifth volume that Sara had written. And he remembered that the backstory of the main heroine has resemblance to the author herself.
"I have to go back home"
"Can…"
Sara continued to walk, now in the opposite direction of Shouta.
"Goodbye"
"——Waaait!!!!!"