A lot of people, when they are young, think that they have a lot of friends. As they are older, however, they experience hardships that make it difficult for them to be as kind and trusting as they were when they were younger. This makes it much harder to make friends.

In my time at middle school, I was forced to accept a troubling reality. Rather than it simply being difficult to make true friends, I came to the conclusion that most people are never able to make real friendships. That is, without having it forced on them in the form of a spouse or a sibling. And, even in those cases, there are a lot of instances where things never work out.

"Hitoshi, why don't you head home early today?"

"I don't mind working a little longer, big sister."

"It's fine. The shop closes in a little while anyway, and it's your first day of school tomorrow, right?"

"…"

However, I am very fortunate. I have an elder sister, Himiko, who is very kind to me. She turned down arts scholarship to run our father's convenience store. I owed her a lot.

As I was about to leave, my sister hugged me from behind.

"B-big sister, you can't do this kind of thing in public!"

"So, it's fine if we are alone."

"N-no. That's not-"

Big sister laughed and I felt my face heat up. But, then she suddenly turned more serious.

"…Hitoshi, are you still worried about what happened in middle school."

"No, I don't care about that."

"Do you think… that you are ready to make some new friends?"

Big sister watched me closely. She knew this is a sensitive topic for me. Father's accident happened in the first year of middle school and I faced a lot of bulling because of it. But, that was nothing compared to what my sister went through. Thinking back on it, I was very selfish.

"Yeah. I'm sorry for worrying you so much, big sister."

"What would I be doing if not worrying about my cute little brother?"

Big sister rubbed her cheek against mine. So, embarrassing.

"Maybe get a boyfriend?"