"Onii-chan~ You look handsome with your glasses on.
"No no no no no I do not. Do not flatter me. But I have to say, you would look cuter if your hair would be shorter."
"You think so?"
She fiddled with her partially dyed blond hair as she was thinking hard about what her brother said.
"But I do like my hairstyle now."
"That is just my opinion that I put forward just like you did when you referred to my glasses."
"Well, I will consider it. Not anything I see is the same as what others see."
"That is precisely correct."
The girl took one of many sips from what appeared to be a cocktail. The brother also was holding a glass of the same content.
"I have to say though, even if it is your first time making this type of cocktail, it tastes very good."
"That's maybe because you are an alcoholic."
The vein in her forehead started to show as she raised her voice towards her joking brother.
"This is my first time tasting alcohol!"
"Oi! Don't scream that loud. Oji-san might wake up."
"Whoopsie..."
She covered her mouth instinctively because of the warning he gave her. It was approximately 8:15 p.m. and their uncle would sleep around that time.
His room was downstairs while the siblings each had their own room upstairs.
For now, the sister's room was occupied by both of the siblings.
They were sitting down, on the opposite side of a small, low and round table. They had snacks and glasses placed on there.
"Anyway, thanks for the compliment about the drinks. However, I do think that the alcohol is the main ingredient that is enhancing the taste."
"Where did you find this alcohol? Oji-san would never let us buy some or even stay near them."
"That's understandable because we are minors. But that does not stop our curiosity, right?"
He sneered mischievously as he looked at his sister with mutual understanding.
"Yup." She giggled at his comment.
"By the way,....." The brother leaned near her and whispered as if the walls had ears," I stole it from Oji-san."
"Hahahahaha!!!"
"SSSShhhhhhhhh!!!
It was the alcohol that made her a bit uncontrollable. That is why the brother was having problems maintaining her loudness. Maybe she was not deemed to be an alcoholic.
Oh well, it was their first time so nothing could be said about the future.
"To think that our first time drinking would be stolen from Oji-san himself!" The laughter was still leaking out of her rosy lips.
"Pretty ironic that Oji-san told us to not get near it. In fact, he is an alcoholic himself."
"To that, we get a big toast."
She raised her glass in the air and waited for her brother to do the same. He could not be asked about her talking that loud, but he let his sister off and raised his glass.
"To Oji-san and his alcohol!"
"Cheers!!"
Then, both of them simultaneously drank a considerable amount of cocktails.
*Slams*
Their glasses were brought down to the table and they felt exhilarated after that drink.
"Kheeee!!! That was refreshing!!" The brother did not sound anything like himself.
His sister immediately caught on and confirmed her doubts.
"Are you imitating Oji-san!?"
"How was it?"
"You sounded just like him."
Again, they were having a laughing fit more easily due to the help of the cocktail.
This moment was so novel and thrilling that they forgot all of their current frustrations or trouble that they were having.
*Cough* *Cough*
Talk about the trouble.
There was just someone that ruined their moments together.
"Oh yeah, I forgot we had a guest." The sister glanced to her right.
"A rude one to be honest, what the hell is he thinking about when he is disrupting our small party."
She calmed his brother down and defended the guest by taking the blame.
"Maybe because I made too much noise that he woke up?"
Confused, the brother was a little angry.
"Why are defending him? Is it because you still have a shred of relationship with him?"
She was worried not about the guest, but about his brother getting angry for her.
"It's not that Onii-chan. I know what he has done but I cannot just shake off the moments with him."
".....I understand, then I should help you with that. I will stand by your side and if you can't, then I will do it."
She smiled, "I have no fear when you are here."
To add more to what she wants to say, she tries to make her brother less worried about her.
"Moreover, I don't think I need your help on this one, since I must confront him myself."
"Aww, you have grown so much!"
The brother started to ruffle through her hair, teasing her.
"Oi, don't do that! You are going to damage my hair!"
"Okay Okay, I get it."
He retracted his hands and took another sip from his self-made cocktail.
"Hmmm!....Hmmmm!"
"Fucking Shut Up!!"
He slammed his glass, harder than before.
"So fucking annoying!!!"
".....Hmmm!"
The bloodlust was surreal. Seeing his brother ready to pounce on him, she intervened.
"Wait Onii-chan!"
"What?"
She stood up and declared with confidence.
"I'll shut him up."
".....Oh? You are going to be alright?"
"Absolutely. After all, this cocktail is going to help me."
With a small chuckle, the brother let her do the honours, "I am glad that help you even the smallest bit."
She gave him a thumbs up before veering her gaze towards the 'guest'.
She approached him, with a furious stare that could not be calmed down.
"....Hmmm!!.....Hmmm!!"
The chair that the 'guest' was sitting on, trembled with fear. He wanted to get up but his feet were tied together with the legs of the chair.
He wanted to scream for help but multiple tapes in his mouth were making it difficult for him to do so.
He wanted to get these restraints off but his hands themselves were tied with a rope.
His black eyes drowned in terror while the girl's face came closer to his.
A psychotic grin greeted the 'guest'.
"How should I make you shut up?"
She hovered her right hand in front of his face and only her middle finger was pointed to his one eye.
"Maybe I should poke one out?"
He was sweating profusely. Seeing his reaction, both the brother and the sister had wide grins.
"Hmm!!! Hhmmm!!! Hmm-!!"
Her smile suddenly dropped and she apathetically stated.
"Onii-chan was right. You are fucking annoying."
Her middle finger abruptly drove into his left eye. The minor spurt of blood splashed onto her beautiful face but she was unfazed.
"-HMMMMMM!!!!!...HMMMMMM!!!!!!!-"
She continued driving her finger into his eye socket, her smile gradually becoming wider.
"HMMM!!!!!!-HMMMM!!!!!!!!!!""
"That's a nice reaction, Asahi-kun."
The brother complimented the guest which made his sister burst out of laughter.
Hearing her, the brother also joined her cackling. But that was not the same that they had before.
They were more excited and their laughter filled with no remorse.
They revelled in the guest's suffering.
In this small house, a boy and a girl filled a room with, joy, anguish, pain, anticipation for more and...a little blood.
.............
2 weeks before.
The morning wanted to greet a girl's face but it got blocked by the curtains. So, a boy helped the sunlight intrude the room by sliding off the curtains to one end.
*Whoosh*
".....aaaaaaAAAAAHHH!!...."
The girl hated that kind of waking method and the boy knew that. That's why he did it nonetheless.
"Onii-chan, I fucking hate you!!"
"Good morning to you too."
Her pyjamas were dishevelled and creased by her motion to get up. She looked at her brother with hate as she sat on her bed.
Her brother was wearing an apron while holding a knife.
"Now, what do you want for now. Do you want to take a bath? Or eat breakfast, or....."
He posed cutely and said in a cute manner.
"...Do. You. Want. Me?"
"....Uwa...Gross."
"Thanks for the compliment."
"So immature."
"Anyway, you are a bit late than usual, so get ready. You do not want to be late on the first day, right?"
She checked the time and his brother was right.
"Come down when you are ready."
He left the room so she did her morning routine a little faster. She took a bath, brushed her teeth and wore her school uniform.
It consisted of a white shirt and a pale brown blazer which had a school badge embroidered on its breast pocket.
'Kurume High School.' It wrote below the badge.
As for her skirt, it was red and checkered. As she readied herself, she walked downstairs and saw 2 people in the dining room.
"Ah, Keiko. You woke up late?"
Her uncle was the one that greeted her. He had some grey hair that hid under his black hair. He had wrinkled cheeks and a mature face.
He had a happy expression as he saw the sister, Keiko approaching the table.
"I was nervous about today so I slept late."
"She is lying. She was thinking about her boyfriend."
The brother entered their conversation while preparing the table with breakfast.
"Keiko, you had a boyfriend? You did not tell me?"
"W-Wh? That's not what happened!"
The brother, as usual, teases Keiko and now it was in front of their uncle.
"Yoichi, it's good that you told me. Keiko, someday let's invite him over."
"O-Oji-san! I am telling you, Onii-chan is lying!"
"I know that you don't want to tell me these kinds of things but trust me, I will respect your decision."
Her uncle was now being annoying. Her morning started with a sudden and rough wake up call, and it has gotten more hectic with her brother, Yoichi's teasing tendencies.
Well, the breakfast went peaceful except for the constant nagging from their uncle about Keiko's boyfriend.
""We are going!""
Yoichi and Keiko put on their shoes and signalled their uncle for their departure.
"Take care."
From then on, they walked to the station and caught a train to their school.
"I can't believe that you have done this. Now, Oji-san will frequently bring up that topic. He doesn't even know if it is true or not but he immediately took up your words."
"I am quite the trustworthy guy you know."
Yoichi winked.
"To him yeah. To me, you are now a snitch."
"It just slipped out of my tongue. Teehee, I made a mistake."
He hit his head with his hand and pretended to be dumb.
"Stop trying to act cute. You are not good."
After a 20 minute ride, they finally arrived. They entered through the school main gate where a teacher and 2 senior students were checking on the freshmen.
They were checking their skirt's length, rolled blazer sleeves or inappropriate hairstyles.
"Wow, they are strict." Yoichi pointed them out.
"Will they stop me for my dyed hair?"
Only the end of Keiko's bang was dyed blond. The rest till the root was black. But still, considering how they were surveilling the entrance, it was undetermined if it is acceptable.
"Walk beside me."
Yoichi made her walk shoulder to shoulder so as to minimise her hair's presence.
They walked with rhythm until they reached inside. Luckily, no one stopped them maybe because there were a lot of students entering at that time.
"Phew."
"Say thanks at least."
"That doesn't compensate for all the nagging in the morning."
"Why do you hold grudges? Just forget about that."
"Hmph!"
She was not forgetting.
"Oh well, let's go in and see which class we are in."
There was a board that addresses the class arrangement for all the students.
"They both looked for it with other students that were the same as them.
"Oh, would you look at that?"
To Yoichi's comment, Keiko scanned where he was looking at.
".....*Sigh*...," was Keiko's reaction.
Yoichi's eyes lit up and declared.
"We are in the same class."