Once Yuumi said those things, Dad made his body dejectedly limp from her response, and then sat back down in the futon. He layed his head again. I sat down too on his opposite side.
"Wow, this kotatsu sure is comfortable," Miku said, sitting down on the side beside me. "This family sure does get along well."
"Really?! Nah, we don't look like it!" Dad said, his spirit suddenly up again.
He denied Miku's words, but he was sure happy that there was no way to tell that he was lying. He enjoyed being flattered.
"Okay, back to my previous question," I said. "Why are you here, Miku? Especially in this strong of a storm?"
"This is gonna sound pretty dumb, but I didn't have anything to do in my house. Despite the storm, Dad had to go to work, Mom is asleep, and my uncle is currently out playing in the rain with a few friends."
"How does that work?"
"I dunno, Uncle's friends are an energetic bunch."
That foreigner looking uncle did look like he was energetic. Heck, he's the only person besides Kentarou and Dad that I've ever seen to have such charisma. He might even pass the both of them.
"Hey, Yuuji," Dad suddenly spoke to dejectedly, his previous tone nowhere to be found. "Was it a mistake for me to play with Yuumi that game where she was a Queen and I was a Knight? I've been receiving nothing but cold responses from her whenever I make a request…"
"I wouldn't say so. If anything, you should be thankful for your actions. Thanks to that, Yuumi is now one of the smartest in our family, and she's been acing every single subjects in her class."
"If it's not rude of me to interrupt," Miku said. "But thanks to your actions, Yuumi and I both became very good friends through our likes in manga and light novels. So like you had just said, you should be grateful that you taught your daughter that game."
"…You know, I haven't looked at it that way. Receiving feedback from a stranger sure does help! Thank you, Yuuji and Miku, for making me realize that my daughter still knows that my actions weren't in vain!"
After a bit, Yuumi came back with four teacups in a tray, placed the tray on top of the kotatsu, and sat on my lap again before taking one for herself.
"Ooh, perfect!" Miku said. "I've got some sweets in here, so this'll go well with the tea."
Miku placed the plastic bag she had with her on the table and spilled out some variety of sweets ranging from chocolates to lollipops.
"I was planning on saving it for dessert, but it might be better in this occasion."
Not even a second passed and Yuumi and Dad was already hoarding a few of the sweets. Some even got dropped in the ground.
I took a chocolate candy and ate it, immediately melting in my mouth. I took a sip from the tea Yuumi prepared before stopping halfway.
"Wait, dessert?" I asked.
Breakfast just passed earlier, and so did lunch. Which means that Miku must be indicating we could've eaten this after dinner, which could only mean one thing.
"Yeah. I'll be sleeping here again," Miku declared without even a hint of hesitation.
Dad dropped the candy that he was about to eat, and instead took a sip from the tea Yuumi prepared. Then he started muttering words to himself.
"Hm, yes, this tea is quite delectable indeed. This might be just one of the most perfect tea that I have ever tasted in my life. Hm, yes, it certainly is quite delectable indeed. The texture and the form and it makes is truly spectacular."
"Dad, you just gave me the normal tea that you always buy, and the form of it isn't even formable. I really think you should calm down," I said.
"Hm? My insanity is still carefully kept in check, my son. I'm most certainly not thinking of questioning you about the story of how she sometimes sleeps here, not at all."
"You're letting off a lot more than you realize."
Thinking about it, I guess it would come as a surprise for my Dad, or any parents, really, that I'm letting a girl sleep my our house without their permission and knowledge. Who knows what explicit things they might be doing.
But Miku and I aren't exactly like that. Sure, we do sleep together almost every time she comes over and stays for the night, but there's nothing else more to that. It's not like Miku likes me or anything.
"The story of why I sometimes sleep here…" Miku repeated Dad's words before coming up with an answer. "I guess the story of why I sleep here is sometimes is because I've taken a liking to your children, Mister Akamatsu."
"…Can you please elaborate that?" Dad asked.
"Well, for starters, I'm quite the otaku like Yuumi-chan myself, so having a friend who has the same interests as me makes me really comfortable. Not only that, but she also has a lot of series that I've always wanted to read."
"That's what you always come in the house for, Miku-chan-senpai," Yuumi said.
That was true. Most of the time, whenever she came to visit, it was either just hanging around in our house after school or reading some manga or light novels.
"Well, that one certainly is true," Miku said as she let out a soft giggle. "As for Yuuji… I'm actually not too sure."
"Hey, you've got a lot to say for my little sister, but not one for your classmate?" I asked.
My objection was just reasonable. After all, I was the first one that she met long before she hung out with Yuumi.
"Don't worry, I'm not saying that there isn't much things to list about the things I like about you. It's more like there's just so many things to list about you that I can't really choose one."
"So you're not gonna say at least just a single thing about me?"
That was fine, to be honest. After all, she already praised my little sister, which was already enough for me.
"I guess whenever you show me how weak you are," Miku said. "You sometimes look like a lost child every time I see you, and for some reason, it just makes me want to help you in any way I can."
If that's what she came up with, then I could probably tell where she got that idea from.
It was just last week, and it all started on Tuesday, May 9. One of my classmates—Rin Satou, who also happens to be Miku's longest friend way back since junior high—requested that I deal with my friend from our school's Literature Club. That friend happened to be Kentarou Matsubara, the person that I beat up last Saturday night.
At first, I was just observing what they were doing there, and it all just seemed pretty fine. Nothing bad was going on, and everything seemed to be in place. They even got along pretty well. There was only a single problem, though.
The president of the club, Akiko Tanaka—who was also the president of the Literature Club in my junior high which I was a member of—hadn't attended the club for a while. The last time they saw her was when they were giving Kentarou a greeting for joining the Literature Club.
When they told me that story, they requested me to call one of Tanaka-senpai's friend—Ayane Matsumoto, whom was also part of the Literature Club with the position of vice president from my junior high and my friend—and lead them to the back of the gym.
That's where everything started. When one of the members of the Literature Club, Yui Hikari, heard Kentarou say something that was rather heart throbbing to Tanaka-senpai, she ran away. By the way, Yui-san likes Kentarou.
And the problem just rose on further and further. Yui-san, despite me being completely unrelated to their business, requested me to try and help her.
"Would you save Akiko-senpai?"
Those were the things that started this.
Of course, that's just one of the problems I had. After the incident of Yui-san running away, way before she made that request, a problem also occured in the school's library with a previous senior—Suzune Satou—that I had back in junior high. It wasn't exactly much, but it weighed a lot in my mind.
That's when it just hit me. I knew deep down that I couldn't fix any of the problems that was happening to me. When Miku just happened to be in the house last week, she noticed my strange behavior, and asked me about it. I told both Miku and my sister my problems, and they suggested to help me with it.
And I guess that's about it. That's the story of what Miku liked about me was whenever I showed her I'm weak. It actually happened after I requested some help from them.
It just happened that Miku was sleeping in our house at the time. It's not exactly proper for students to do this, especially since Miku sleeps in my room, and even in my bed. That's the only time I showed her how pitiful I was.
"So you're saying you just want me to be weak all of the time?" I asked.
"How does that exactly relate from my question? What I'm saying is that I want you to be dependent to me, just like how you want Yuumi to be dependent to you."
Her explanation made a lot more sense now.
"Yuuji," Dad called. "I'm glad that me and your Mom left you for a while. You seem to be doing well."
I didn't know what he implied about that. But for some reason, his tone and attitude felt genuine, which was unusual since he was the type of person who never took things seriously.
Before we knew it, the rain that felt like eternity finally thinned out, and the storm gradually became more and more weaker. It was just enough for someone to take a stroll around with an umbrella—at least, an umbrella that isn't as large as Miku's.
Dad stood up from the kotatsu and then picked up the jacket that he lazily threw on the couch earlier this morning. It was wet earlier, but Yuumi did something to it, and it should be slightly dry now.
"Well, I'll be taking my leave, then," Dad said.
"You're not going to stay the night?" Miku asked. "I doubt your children would want you to leave."
"Nah, not really," I said. "We don't mind him leaving at all even for a bit. He's got his job to do, and he needs that to support us. And besides, if he were to come back, I'd prefer if Mom was with him."
"And so you heard," Dad said. "Although I'd like to stay by their side for just a little bit to eat Yuumi-chan's dinner before leaving, I couldn't do that since I'm tight on time now."
Miku did mention that the storm should let up around the time night rolled in; in other words, it's when dinner is about to start.
"Well, you probably wouldn't want to leave on an empty stomach now, would you Mister Akamatsu?" Miku asked. "In that case…"
Miku opened the large bag that she came here with, and pulled out a clear bag of cookies. Judging from the texture, it didn't look like the ones they sold at the typical store, so I'm guessing Miku made it herself.
"What a nice young lady," Dad said, accepting the cookies. "You'd surely make a fine wife for somebody someday."
After that, Dad just walked out of the living room and out the house. It's probably going to be a while before we see him again. Yuumi and I hoped that she would bring Mom with her soon.
"Wait," I said. "Why do you have cookies inside that bag?"
"Hehe, wanna know why?"
She unzipped the entire bag, turned it upside-down and shook, and out came a lot of homemade sweets. Some rice crackers, more cookies that Dad received, and the only thing that wasn't homemade was the box full of pudding.
"We're going to be having a feast tonight!" Miku shouted.
"A feast? Wait, don't tell me…"
"I'm going to be staying the night again!"
For some reason, she seemed rather excited about it.
***
"Uwah, I'm seeing stars~"
"Miku, get a hold of yourself."
After we finished eating dinner, the storm was finally away, and the temperature of our house began to settle down. Not long after dinner, dessert was underway. There were so many sweets that Miku brought that it took at least an hour to finish. There were still some that was left, but we saved it for just snacks.
There was something unusual that happened while we ate, though. Miku appeared to have been drunk, and upon closer inspection, she was indeed drunk. But not from consuming any alcohol, nor was she even drunk in general.
Miku probably hadn't noticed it before, but she seemed to be hyper whenever he ate too many sweets; in other words, she was sugar high. I was currently carrying Miku to my bed in order for her to rest. She's going to experience a little bit of headache tomorrow, though I'm not too sure. By the way, I got all this info from Yuumi.
I opened the door to my room and laid her in my bed. I was almost used to it by now. Not her getting sugar high, but her sleeping in my bed.
The storm has now passed, and the only weather left outside were some weak rain and winds, enough for a person to not bring an umbrella.
"Huh~? Yuuji, where am I~?" Miku asked in a somewhat cutesy voice that I've never heard before.
"In my bed."
"Hehe, so we're sleeping together again~"
Miku, who's usually so calm and collected, acted like a real adorable dog. To be honest, she was so adorable that I wouldn't mind holding her or vice versa. She's so defenseless that it looked really cute, but I couldn't let the urges win.
"I'll sleep with you later," I said. "I'll clean up downstairs."
Just when I was about to cover her with the blanket, she grabbed my hand and then tugged on my arm. It was also hitting her chest, giving off a soft sensation that I tried to ignore.
"No, sleep with me right now~ Yuumi-chan can handle all of the cleaning~"
"Yeah, exactly, and I'm going downstairs to help her with that."
Despite my argument, she kept tugging on my arm, refusing to let go. She looked like a child not wanting to separate with her parents. I kind of saw myself doing that.
About a few minutes passed. Although her grip softens, whenever I tried pushing her hands off my arm, she makes her grips tighter. At this point, I might as well abandon the idea of helping Yuumi with the cleaning.
"Hey, Yuuji~" she called out.
"Yeah?"
"Remember that time we went to the river as kids~? That was sure fun~ I still want to beat you in stone skipping~"
"I remember all of that, but that didn't really happen, didn't it?"
"No, no, no, it all happened! There's no way it didn't happen! I won't let it not happen!"
"You can't change the past, though…"
I thought we were already over this, but the memory seemed to have attacked Miku once more.
It was weird. That dream that I had in the hospital still lingered in my mind for a bit, and even now, it still hasn't dissipated. Miku's story bothered me a little, but no matter how much I try to remember, that part of my childhood never even happened. I'm not going to turn into some crap like "Oh, I just forgot about it.", because it never actually happened.
"They we're good times, though~" she said.
"…Well, I guess I can't argue with that."
Despite me not exactly having experienced it, in that dream, we both looked like we had a great time. It even makes me wonder if I actually didn't experience that.
"That's why, even if you say that every single memory that we made isn't true, I'm going to disagree with you every single time…"
Miku's voice slowly but surely slowed down every time she spoke.
"Our time in that mountain…the visit to the hot springs…that steamy hot bath…I'll remember all of them…"
After that, she just willingly let go of my arm, which fell to the bed. It felt cold when she released it. I fixed her position and tucked her in bed again.
"…What do you mean by those…?"
With jumbled thoughts swirling through my head, I exited my room.