Though I was spending the night under the same roof with a girl my
age for the first time, I didn't experience any exciting, suggestive scenes like you often saw in romantic comedies aimed at boys. Living with a
stepsister in real life isn't like what you read in those two-dimensional
comic books, just like I said at the beginning.
However, the real reason I was able to sleep without thinking at all
about Ayase must have been because she never once let down her guard
like you might expect someone to do at home. At least not until after I was
unconscious.
The next morning, she was sitting in the living room by the time I got
up, perfectly poised, giving me no chances to get excited, but…
"Good morning," she said. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yep."
"I enjoyed my bath last night. I appreciate you going to the trouble."
…through our exchange, I caught a glimpse of her human warmth—
not the usual Ayase, who was always as cool as a cucumber. Our
relationship wasn't like those comic-book fantasies, but I thought it was
still pretty nice.
No special event, such as accompanying Ayase to school like it was our
new daily routine, occurred that morning.
After learning that she went to Suisei, I had wondered if we might, but
guess what? She calmly suggested that we act like total strangers for the
time being so that people wouldn't gossip about us. There was no denying
that she was right.
Dad and Akiko appeared to have considered this and left us with
different surnames so our situations would stay the same.
If Ayase's name had changed, the resulting paperwork and suspicion
from other students would have been a hassle, so that was a big relief.
Anyway, we left home at different times and went to school separately,
both headed to Suisei Metropolitan High School.
Society was fiercely competitive, and in order to survive in this world,
we needed to achieve results, both academically and in sports. That was
our school's doctrine.
Suisei emphasized results over effort. Turning that around, it meant
you wouldn't get in trouble if you got a part-time job or missed classes as
long as you got good grades. That freedom was what had appealed to me
when I chose this school.
Though I was attending an elite prep school, there wasn't a particular
college I wanted to get into or a big goal I was working toward. I did want
to enroll at a good college, but that wasn't because I was conscientious or
had a positive attitude. On the contrary, all I'd been doing my whole life
was avoiding anything that seemed like a hassle.
Once, when I was in elementary school, I was told to go to a cram
school.
This was before my dad's divorce. The woman who had been my
mother was determined to make me someone better than my dad, with
more influence in society, and tried send me to a famous cram school.
…I started having problems during my trial admission.
It was surprisingly agonizing to be around and study with unfamiliar
kids from other schools, and I actually felt like throwing up. It was the first
time in my life that I realized I was an introvert.
So what did I do, you ask? Well, I studied so hard that I thought I'd
die, and my grades rapidly improved. Now that I was attending a prep
school, my rank was around the middle of the top half of my grade, but
back in junior high, my grades were first-rate.
I didn't do any of this out of ambition, however. My efforts stemmed
from a simple desire to stay away from cram school. It was all just a
reaction—I was fleeing from the pressure I was under to attend those extra
study sessions.
The only reason I was doing part-time work while putting in the effort
to maintain my grades was to show Dad how independent I was. It'd be
annoying if he worried about my future, so once again, I was simply doing
it to avoid hassle.
That was why I had the deepest respect for genuinely conscientious,
positive people who worked hard to achieve their goals. My best friend,
Tomokazu Maru, was just such a person.
"Heya, Asamura."
"Hey, Maru. Did you have morning practice today?"
I was sitting in my classroom, waiting for school to start, when Maru
arrived ten minutes before homeroom and sat heavily in the seat in front of
me.
He wore glasses that made him look smart, and he had short, unruly
hair and a meaty middle. People would take one look at his build and call
him fat, but that wasn't the case. I, too, was surprised when I heard it was
mostly muscle covering his huge body. I later learned that sumo wrestlers'
bodies were also mostly muscle. You really can't judge a person by their
appearance.
"That's a silly question. I always have morning practice," Maru said
with a sour look on his face.
He was on the baseball team—the catcher, as you might guess from his
looks. He was enthusiastic about playing baseball but wasn't too happy
about having to attend practice day in, day out.
"Our baseball team is practically a sweatshop," he continued. "They
expect you to come in early and stay late. There's abuse of power and
seniority, not to mention infighting and jealousy. Merit hardly counts for anything. Frankly, they should call it and hand me the win already."
"You're winning in this scenario?"
"You raise a good point. But unless you truly love the sport, you lose
the moment you join the team. Once you're in, the feeling of total
exhaustion can really grow on you…but I don't expect an outsider like you
to understand."
"Ugh. I could never handle that."
Maru took off his glasses and pulled their case out of his bag. Inside
was another pair, which he took out and put on.
He said one was for sports and the other for schoolwork, and he would
switch depending on what he was doing, as if he were a character in an
RPG. He broke his glasses once during practice and had been carrying
around an extra pair ever since.
"Oh, by the way, how's your new life?" Maru asked out of the blue.
I had told my best friend that my dad was getting remarried and that
my family would be growing.
To be honest, I had barely any friends at school. It came down to how
much trouble I had with meeting new people. After all, I was so antisocial
that cram school had been a nightmare.
But Tomokazu Maru and I had sat near each other since we first
entered high school, and because we were both interested in manga and
anime, we'd talked a lot. Before I knew it, we'd become friends. You may
think it's weird for a jock to be into nerdy stuff, but it happened the other
way around. Maru started the sport after reading a popular baseball manga,
making him an "active geek" rather than an "introverted athlete." He was
the type of nerd who would start going to a gym or get hooked on camping
after seeing an anime on the topic.