[After waking up, you underwent an investigation by the Japanese police. Although your wife's body had not been found, there was no doubt that she was no longer in this world.]
[You spent an entire week at the place where your wife passed away, sitting in silence.]
[On the eighth day, you stopped going to the seaside and spent two days arranging a simple funeral for your wife.]
[The funeral was attended only by you and the Isshiki family.]
[On the tenth day, you picked up your briefcase and left the house.]
[Mr. and Mrs. Isshiki were overjoyed, thinking you were beginning to recover from your grief and were ready to get back to work.]
[But they were mistaken. That afternoon, you came home carrying a large cardboard box.]
[The box contained some personal items from your workplace, and you had officially resigned from your job.]
[You repeatedly assured the Isshiki couple that you wouldn't do anything foolish.]
[You just wanted to take some time off due to the recent events, and then move back to your own apartment to live alone.]
[Iroha visited you almost every day. As time passed, she noticed that the cigarettes and alcohol you had previously given up had started to reappear in your room.]
[Your bedside ashtray was filled with cigarette butts, and the coffee table in the living room was stacked with empty beer bottles.]
[Every day, she would tidy up your apartment, but it was to no avail; the place would return to its disheveled state the following day.]
[Since your resignation, you spoke very little and mostly reeked of alcohol. Even if Iroha tried to engage you in conversation, she received no meaningful responses.]
[However, she took some solace in the fact that you still ate the meals she prepared for you. That was the only thing that brought her comfort.]
[Three months later, you lay drunk in bed, while Iroha, quietly tidying up the living room, was suddenly called over by you. You asked her to bring your seal the next day.]
[Iroha was glad that you, who had been silent for so long, spoke to her, but she did not understand why you suddenly needed the seal.]
[She cautiously asked for the reason, but you did not answer and instead turned over in bed, curling up.]
[Iroha felt a pang of sadness. She wished for the confident and composed older brother she once knew, but she understood that such thoughts were unrealistic.]
[She covered you with a blanket, turned up the air conditioning in the room, tidied up briefly, and then left.]
[The next day, when she arrived with the seal, you handed her several documents and asked her to stamp them.]
[Iroha took the documents and saw that they were all related to the transfer of real estate assets—four properties in total!]
[The suddenness of it all did not surprise her. She had sensed that something like this might happen after she went home the night before.]
[Iroha shook her head. She refused to stamp the documents and did not return home that day. Instead, she called her mother to have her bring her personal items and clothes.]
[First-person perspective…]
It was just after 3 PM when Mrs. Isshiki received her daughter's call and hurried back home. After packing clothes, she went to Iroha's apartment.
She pressed the doorbell, and Iroha answered the door.
"Mom, thank you for coming."
Iroha took the bag from her mother's hands.
"What's going on? You sounded so urgent on the phone. Did something happen to your brother, Chisato?"
Mrs. Isshiki tried to enter the apartment, but her daughter stopped her.
"It's nothing."
Iroha forced a smile that seemed to say everything was fine. She didn't want her parents to worry.
"I just suddenly felt that staying here for a few days and keeping him company might be nice."
"Really nothing's wrong?"
"Yes, really. If something were wrong, I'd call you immediately."
Iroha closed the door.
The apartment was quiet again.
Is it really nothing...?
Iroha's smile faded as she thought about her mother.
She placed the bag in the guest room and carefully opened Chisato's bedroom door.
The bedroom curtains were drawn tightly, letting no light in. The room was dark and gloomy, illuminated only by the flickering light of the desktop computer.
Chisato was sitting at the desk, staring blankly at the movie on the screen, looking as lifeless as an elderly person, with no trace of vitality.
This was why Iroha had been avoiding letting her parents meet Chisato directly during this time.
His condition had lasted for so long that it was impossible to feel reassured.
She had naively thought that Chisato's situation might improve with time.
But she was wrong. Everyone's heart has a threshold, and once it's surpassed, one can't rely on oneself to get through it.
Today, he had prepared transfer contracts for his assets.
This absolutely unusual behavior set off alarm bells in Iroha's mind.
The image of her sister-in-law's leap still haunted her, and she wouldn't allow her beloved brother to make any more foolish decisions.
"Chisato."
Iroha slowly approached and stood beside Chisato.
Chisato did not react. The light from the computer screen illuminated his face. He hadn't groomed himself for a while; his bangs covered his eyes, and his chin was unkempt.
Iroha was used to his lack of response. She continued speaking, trying to maintain a smile.
"For dinner tonight, I'll make some pork rib soup with corn, which you really like. Please have a bit, okay?"
Chisato slowly closed his eyes and parted his lips.
"...Go home, Iroha."
"I'm not going home. It's not free at home, and Dad scolds me for staying up late. It's more free here."
Iroha tried to sound casual, hoping to dispel the suffocating atmosphere in the room with her energetic voice.
"By the way, we haven't played games in a long time. Why don't you play a game with me tonight? After all, you don't have much to do right now."
Chisato looked at Iroha, who had moved closer and was clinging to his arm with a coquettish expression.
For a moment, it was as if he had returned to the past.
He hesitated for a moment before giving a slight nod.
Iroha struggled to hold back her tears.
This was the first time in a long while that Chisato had directly agreed to her request.
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