"Hmm? You woke up early today Onii-chan."
It was a Sunday, and since I woke up unusually early today, my little sister called out to me.
"Yeah, it's because I have something today."
"You're wearing your uniform, is it school? But it's Sunday."
"No, it's a school information session. I was somehow forced into helping out."
"Eh, is that the one at the town's cultural hall?"
"Yeah, it is."
"If that's the case, I'm going to that today too."
"Eh!"
I unconsciously let out a loud voice at Yui's words. Brushing her teeth besides me, Yui shows an amused smile.
"I see~ Onii-chan will be there~. I'm looking forward to it~"
Dammit, she's making fun of me. It was unexpected for Yui to also be coming. It shouldn't be anything to worry about, but when my family is there it makes me a little bit more nervous.
Wait a minute.
"Didn't you already decide on our school? Then you shouldn't need to go."
"My friend invited me since they said it's kind of hard to go alone. Besides, I also want to see if I can try for even better school."
"Really? Even better schools? Have your really become that smart?"
Even if I'm saying this myself, I would say that our school, Touyama, is already pretty reputable as it is. An even better school would mean like Oumi High School, or the best school in our region: Anzen High School.
Adding on to that, if you're looking at Oumi, they only accept middle schoolers for science and math at the same level that Anzen does… If that's the case, you need about 250 on the mock tests. I feel like I last heard that Yui scored around 180…
"Well, I did get that smart."
"What score did you have for the test?"
"182."
"It didn't change at all!"
This girl… with that score, how did she expect to get accepted by Oumi or Anzen.
"Besides, with a score of 182, it might be dangerous even for our school."
My highest score in middle school was 246 and I averaged around 230. If I tried hard, I could have chosen to try for Anzen, but since it wasn't guaranteed, I dropped my level by one. Our school wants people who have at the very least a 200. It's still summer vacation, but 182 might be pretty hard.
"I already know that. That's why I'm trying really hard right now."
The face that Yui had right now was so serious that it was as if she wasn't just joking earlier. It was a look more serious than I had ever seen before.
"…"
That's right, this girl is also a student. Of course she would be serious.
"Do your best, Yui."
I felt that saying something like this to Yui, who was already working hard was a somewhat rude, but I couldn't find anything else to say. Then, Yui faced towards me with a smile and gave me her response.
"Yeah, I'll do my best! Onii-chan as well, do your best today!"
"Yeah!"
I was really unmotivated today, but after hearing Yui's words, I was able to get a little bit of energy back. After that, the two of us decided to take the train together as we were going to the same place.
Touyama Cultural Hall.
Concerts or musical competitions are frequently held here, making it the best cultural facility in town. When I was in elementary school, I came here once for a school music recital.
However, I haven't come here at all recently. I never expected to come here ever again, so coming here like this is really unexpected. While scrunching my face, I wait at the designated meeting spot near the entrance.
By the way, Mamiko is coming today as well. Since there was supposed to be a girl and a guy from each school, it seems that Mamiko took the spot of the other girl that was supposed to come originally. Really, how desperate was she?
"Then, Onii-chan, I need to go this way since my friend is already waiting for me it seems. Good luck."
Then, Yui walked off into the facility. Seeing her like that, I could really feel that Yui had changed a lot. After Yui had confessed to me, our relationship did not completely change, in the end, there was no difference now when compared to before the confession.
However, it feels like there's a slight distance between us. After all, we stopped going shopping together, and the amount of time we talk at home has lessened. Yui is now doing exams for high school, but still, something has changed about her. This is a little weird but I feel a little sad at the change in her, but the same time I'm also happy about it.
After seeing Yui disappear, I return my eyes to my smartphone. Then, a message came in from Mamiko saying, [Are you here already?]. Today, Mamiko didn't come buy train but by car instead, so we came separately.
[I'm here. I'm near the entrance.]
[Got it! I'll be there in about 5 more minutes!]
After looking at Mamiko's reply, I go back to playing the app game I was playing before. The game was a card game that I've been playing for about a year now. It's not a game that I play as seriously as Human Beast Wars, but I play it sometimes just to lightly pass my free time.
"Hmm? Isn't that Setsu?"
Then, a voice stopped my hand that was playing the game. When I look up, I see my middle school classmate, Ueno, who I last saw at the train station.
"Hey, Ueno. It's been a while, what's up?"
"I came for the school information session. I'm representing our high school you see."
"Same here."
"Eh, Setsu as well? That's surprising! You didn't seem to be the type to do something like this."
"I didn't want to do it if I could. However, there was no one else that could do it."
"Ah~ Don't mind, don't mind."
When she told me that I didn't look like the type of person do to something like this, Ueno scrunched up her face a bit, but afterwards, quickly smiled and gave me a pat on the back.
This type of skinship hasn't changed at all. Don't you have a boyfriend? Is it alright to do this? If I was him I wouldn't want you to be doing this.
"Ueno, as usual, you like doing this type of thing don't you."
Ueno is a pretty aggressive person just like she seems, the type of person to take care of things that other people don't really want to do. That type of passionate personality of hers shined brightly to me, and probably caused me to fall in love with her back then. My character is the exact opposite after all.
"Yup. Speaking in front of a lot of people is something I quite like after all."
"Really… I can't seem to think the same way…"
"You too, after doing it a few times, you'll enjoy it! For sure!"
Ueno encouraged me with a smile. After seeing her a few times now, it seems that she hasn't changed at all from her middle school days.
"Ah, that's right! I've been meaning to ask, but what happened with your girlfriend after that? Did you guys break up?"
She's most likely talking about what happened on the train last time. The time where Mamiko saw us talking and got a little bit mad.
"… She was pretty angry."
"Of course~. If I did that, my boyfriend would get mad too."
"However, I'm relieved since we didn't break up."
"Yay! That's good!"
"Yeah, that's why I'm trying to not be alone with other girls as much."
"Ooh! That's the way to go~ "
Well, I didn't want to make Mamiko sad after all.
"However, is the current situation alright? I mean, you're talking to me alone right now, right?"
"Ah."
Now that she mentions it, that's true. To be honest, I kind of stopped thinking about it when I saw Ueno so I didn't even notice. No, why am I such a forgetful person? Luckily, Mamiko hasn't come yet, so it should be fine if I just leave now.
"Yoshiki-kun?"
I was just thinking that when I heard Mamiko call out to me with a dark smile. Well~ I've seen this kind of development before, but…
I guess, I haven't reflected enough on my actions