I stayed in my room and prepared everything for tomorrow's classes after coming home from Maaya's birthday party. I had my headphones on, listening to some pleasant tunes and music. My gaze may have been looking down at my textbook, but I had been unable to focus for the past few minutes, simply wandering around in my thoughts. I'm just reading sentences, only to forget what I read a moment later. I would be hard-pressed to call this a true study session.
Well, it's Japanese history, so there's technically no need for me to go through the questions before the actual class… Stop, Saki. You shouldn't make excuses like that. My focus was completely gone, so I raised my head. The digital clock next to me read 23:33. Ah, matching digits… Yeah, I don't think I'll be doing any more studying today. It'll only have the opposite effect. I should go take a bath instead.
I gave up on studying and headed to the bath. I drank a glass of water so I didn't have to worry about dehydration and sank into the hot water. When I stretched my arms and legs out, I could feel all the exhaustion slowly melting away from my body. I sighed for the umpteenth time and started grumbling to myself.
"Maaya is just…"
When we met up with Asamura-kun in front of her flat, she whispered some words into my ear. Every time I remember them, my cheeks start to burn up.
'If anything, I wouldn't mind leaving you two youngsters to yourselves, you know?'
I just hope Asamura-kun didn't hear any of that. What kind of birthday party is it if the person being celebrated vanishes midway through, anyway? Geez. I wonder just how much she actually knows or presumes to know. Does she know about my relationship with Asamura-kun? I mean, we are siblings. So it should be a compliment if somebody sees us as being on good terms, and she can keep teasing me about it as much as she wants. She's just as close with her brothers, right?
It's the same principle. It's part of perfectly normal physical contact. If Asamura-kun were the same age as Maaya's younger brother, I could interact with him the same way. I wonder what he was like back then? I'm sure he was just as adorable. I'd squeeze his cheeks and pull on them whenever he gave me a cheeky look… Whose cheeks? Asamura-kun's—Wait, I'm getting lost in my fantasies here.
I shook my head to rid myself of my foul thoughts. What am I thinking? Next topic, next topic. His birthday is in December. Well, so is mine, but his is earlier. Oh, yeah…I need to get a birthday present for him. But my timer rang before I could come up with anything. I usually take baths for 20 minutes, getting out right before I start sweating. The longer I stay in, the more it could dehydrate my skin, after all.
Skincare after drying myself off is just as important. If I leave my skin as-is right after taking a bath, it'll dry out. I finished changing, grabbed all my dirty laundry to put it in my room(since I couldn't keep it in the laundry basket for everyone to see), put a thin jacket on over my nightwear, and went to the living room. I opened up the fridge to grab a cup of cold barley tea and gulped it down.
I heard the sound of the door opening. It turned out to be Mom just getting home from work.
"Oh, you're back early. That's rare."
Since she works as a bartender, she usually only makes it home late at night or in the early morning. In that regard, she's early today.
"Yes, well…"
"Are you not feeling well?"
"Hehe, I'm fine. I'm not sick and don't have a cold, it's just the usual. A bit on the heavy side today," she said and sat on a chair in the living room.
"Ahhh." I guessed what she was referring to and nodded. "It must have been cold, right? Would you like some warm tea?"
"Yes, that would be wonderful."
I turned on the electronic kettle and sat down across from her.
"So you're finally taking a rest when you need it?"
Up to this point, she had continued to work no matter how exhausted or sick she felt. But as of late, she'd always come home early whenever she didn't feel too well. 'Up to this point' is, of course, referring to before she got remarried.
"With Taichi-san, I'm able to get the rest I need." She said while glancing over at the bedroom.
"Because of him?"
"Yes. And I also have you, and you can take care of yourself," She said with a smile.
My inexperience and inability to support her properly had caused her health to deteriorate. If I think about it that way, I couldn't feel more apologetic. But even so, there was no need for that anymore. Now she had the option to rest. She has faith in her family that somebody could support her even if she collapsed. Having somebody to rely on really gives you mental strength, after all.
The kettle notified me that the water was boiling, so I poured some of it into a cup with some caffeine-free black tea and placed it in front of Mom.
"It's not just him. You can always rely on me if something happens."
"Thank you, Saki."
I shook my head. There's still nothing I can do for her. I can't do what step-dad does for her…
"What about dinner?"
"I ate something before coming home, so I'm fine." She smiled and turned on the TV.
I heard some random noise, probably from a variety show. A bit after that, I looked over, and orange lights were flickering everywhere in the stores shown in the footage, and there was some sort of performer walking around. It seems to be a special report on Halloween.
"Oh yeah, about Halloween…"
"Yeah?"
Watching TV seemed to have jogged something in Mom's memory, and she spoke up.
"At first, Taichi-san and I were planning on heading out somewhere and having dinner together. It technically is a festival, after all."
Only in the West, though. However, with Halloween going on, Mom said she probably wouldn't be back until morning since she'll be busy at work.
"Is Halloween that important of an event?"
I just saw it as an opportunity for all the costume lovers to go all out at least once a year.
"Taichi-san wants us to celebrate together. But with December coming up, I said we'd be better off celebrating then. We plan on taking time off for Christmas, so we can celebrate that and your birthdays together."
"Okay, got it." I nodded in understanding.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing at all."
So we'll be together for Christmas. That thought alone made me smile. I can't deny it. But it's not just that. Finally, from this year on, we can celebrate it as an actual family.