"Wow, that's so sweet of you," said Narasaka. "Your father is so
pleased."
"Maaya, you aren't my father!"
It sounded like Ayase usually used polite language with Maaya, but
she'd slipped up just now.
"It took so long for you to call me by my first name, too."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"I've already forgotten."
"Well, I remember!"
"You can erase it from your memory."
"No way!"
Narasaka looked pleased, but I didn't think it was because Ayase was
being casual with her. It seemed to me like she was happy that Ayase was
revealing her true self.
Some people liked to show off how tight they were with their friends
by being rude to them, taking casual closeness too far. But rudeness was
rudeness, whether you were friends or not.
Ayase and I had agreed to keep calling each other by our surnames, as
we did at school. That was because we didn't have any negative feelings
about continuing to address each other politely, despite the fact that we
had agreed to dispense with formal language.
Narasaka seemed like someone who would understand that.
No, maybe I was wrong. How could I know that about her? This was
the first time we'd spoken to each other. But at the same time, if she was
the type to misunderstand our situation, I didn't think Ayase would have
made friends with her or invited her to our house. That's how I saw it
anyway. As I said before, you can understand a lot through observation
and thought.
"Anyway!" said Narasaka. "Nice to meet you, Big Brother!"
"B-Brother?"
Hadn't she called me Asamura a moment ago? Her sudden chummy
attitude was making me reconsider what I'd just thought about her.
"Don't be shy, Big Brother!"
"Uh, I'm not your brother…"
"Oh, come on, we're practically family now. You can call me Maaya,
too."
"I'm not sure I'm ready for that. And family? I'm Ayase's stepbrother,not yours."
"Don't sweat the small stuff, Big Brother! It's nice being called that,
isn't it?"
"Not really."
Some people might feel that way, but not me. Though, hearing "Big
Brother" repeated in Narasaka's sweet voice was a little like having a tiny
animal take a liking to me.
At any rate, Narasaka was bolder than I'd thought. She hadn't seemed
the type to start pestering her friend's brother.
"…Stop it…," a faint voice said. Ayase had her head down like she
was under attack. "…It's embarrassing."
"Speak up!" said Narasaka. "I can't hear you!"
"I said, stop it! It's embarrassing! I get shivers down my spine
whenever you say, 'Big Brother.' Please stop calling him that!"
"Oh, wow. You didn't even last as long as he did."
Oh, so that was it.
"You were just teasing me to get a rise out of Ayase, weren't you?" I
asked.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Bingo!" Narasaka replied.
"Don't bingo me," I said.
I wished she wouldn't point at me with that serious look on her face.
Or rather, she shouldn't point at people in the first place. It was rude.
"Okay, I'll hold off on making fun of you for now, Big Brother."
"Hold off on it forever. Please."
"Aw, that's no fun. Come on, Saki, try calling him Big Brother. On the
count of three—"
"Never!" she cried.
"But getting a stepbrother is such a fun life event. You should use it
wisely."
"Stop making it sound like I drew a card from the Game of Life…
Now what are you doing?"
Narasaka was opening the gym bag she'd slid under the table and
pulling something out.
"Here we go. Let's play a game!"
"You brought a game console?" said Ayase.
"Narasaka," I scolded. "You aren't supposed to take games to
school…"
"It's not against the rules to bring them," she replied. "We just can't play them."
I didn't see a difference between taking games to school and playing
them, but according to Narasaka, it was fine as long as you didn't get it out
during class. She said she'd even checked with a teacher, which impressed
me. It appeared that Suisei High gave students more freedom than I'd
thought.
The console she'd pulled out was the newest model everyone was
talking about.
"Saki, you said you didn't have this."
"I don't."
"That's why I wanted to play with you," Narasaka said, pointing to the
fifty-inch LCD screen facing the couch. "Can I connect it to your TV?"
"…I don't see why not."
"It has games we can play together. Oh, do you guys have Wi-Fi?"
Ayase eyed me. She was asking if she could give Narasaka the
password.
I had given it to her when she first moved in. Nowadays, this was like a
ritual that everyone performed when they handed someone a key to their
house. I nodded.
Ayase wrote down the password and gave it to Narasaka, who quickly
set up the game system and returned to the couch.
"Do you want to play with us?" she asked, turning to me.
She pulled more objects out of her bag. There were two—no, three
controllers. Was one of them for me? I recalled what Maru had said about
Narasaka being considerate. Maybe she'd been planning to have me join in
from the outset.
I made eye contact with Ayase again, asking her what to do.
"Well, it still hasn't stopped raining," she said, "so we might as well.
Feel free to jump in, Asamura."
Ayase slid over to the end of the couch and made room for me.
"Oh-ho. So Saki wants to sit next to her big brother, I see."
"Never mind," said Ayase, sliding back to where she'd been sitting
before. "Make room for him on your side, will you?"
"He can sit between us," said Narasaka. "How's that, Asamura? You'll
have a beauty on each arm!"
"I'd prefer to sit at the end…"
"Uh-uh," said Narasaka. "It's nonnegotiable."
"Seems a little weird for you to be grabbing on to our couch like you own it," Ayase muttered, looking exasperatedly at her friend, who was
gripping the opposite armrest with all her might.
"Okay, okay. I'll sit wherever you want me to sit," I said.
Without much choice, I plopped down in the middle.
It wasn't a big couch. Three people could barely squeeze in. We hadn't
needed anything bigger, since it had always been just my dad and me.
At any rate, you could hardly expect me to stay calm, seated between
two girls who were both the subject of gossip throughout my school. I
might do my best to put on a neutral face, but there was a limit to my
endurance.
"Mm, Asamura, you smell lovely fresh out of the bath," commented
Narasaka. "I guess it's your shampoo. Saki must use the same kind."
"Of course I don't," said Ayase. "Use your common sense."
I didn't know it was common sense to use a different shampoo from
your brother. Come to think of it, it had never even occurred to me to use a
different shampoo or bodywash from Dad. I'd have to be more careful
when I went shopping. Ayase seemed to have read my mind, however.
"I can buy stuff for myself. I'm not a little kid."
The way she paid attention and was quick to reassure me really made
my life easier.