CH 41

Thunder

Mikoto-san was stunned.

Bad timing.

I wonder what Mikoto-san thought when she saw Kaho hugging and kissing me.

She must have misunderstood.

Mikoto-san looked at us sadly, and her eyes spilled large tears.

“After all…, there is no place for me anywhere.”

After saying that, Mikoto-san wiped away her tears and opened the front door once more with great force.

Then she ran away.

It was already quite late, and it was raining heavily outside.

I wondered where she was going.

I rushed outside to stop her, but Kaho grabbed my arm.

“Are you going after Mikoto-san?”

“I don’t have a choice but to do so.”

“Is Mikoto-san more important than me?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Even if I told Haruto that I love you, you would still go after Mikoto-san?”

I looked at Kaho seriously.

With a blush on her face, Kaho held her shoulders with both arms.

“I’m Haruto’s older sister, so I’ve been suppressing my feelings for a long time. It would have been better if we had just been childhood friends.”

I don’t think it’s possible that my father is Kaho’s father.

It’s true that Kaho’s mother and my father were close in the past.

They were more than just friends from school, they were also childhood friends.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t believe that my father, who was so gentle, had an affair and became Kaho’s father.

Anyway, it seems that Kaho dumped me because she is related to me.

Whether it is true or not, I don’t know.

What I do know for sure is that Kaho really liked me.

Oh my God.

I thought.

“You should have told me earlier.”

“I can’t say this. I can’t say this. But when I saw Haruto and Mikoto-san getting along so well, I couldn’t stand it anymore.  So … don’t go after Mikoto-san.”

“I have no intention of weighing Kaho and Mikoto-san.”

“But you have to choose Haruto. Surely, someday.”

“I’m sure, someday. I’m going after Mikoto-san for now. I said I would stand by her. Mikoto-san said she’s going to move to a dormitory in Tokyo.”

Kaho gasped.

I briefly explained the situation to Kaho.

“If that’s what Mikoto-san really wants, I think it’s fine, but it’s probably not that…”

“I also … think so. She seems to like Haruto a lot. I don’t think she’ll voluntarily move out of here.”

I nodded and put on my shoes at the door.

Then I looked back at Kaho.

“There must be some mistake to think that Kaho and I are sister and brother. So we’ll investigate it together next time.”

Kaho’s eyes widened and she nodded.

“I’ll be waiting for you.”

I opened the front door and walked out.

The drains in the hallway of the apartment were clogged and beginning to fill with water.

The rain was getting worse, and for a moment there was a flash of light in the pitch-black sky.

Without a moment’s pause, a terrible sound rang out.

It was thunder.

I thought about where Mikoto-san would go.

Where would Mikoto-san go?

School? A nearby park? A pharmacy? A bookstore?

But it was none of those things, and I found Mizoto-san right away.

On the slope just outside the apartment, Mikoto-san was crouched down, shivering.

Without an umbrella, Mikoto-san shrunk her body like a frightened girl.

She was covering her ears with both hands.

I bent down and gently held her shoulders from behind to protect her from the rain.

She jerked and looked back at me.

“Akihara-kun?”

“What are you doing sitting here? You’ll catch a cold.”

“Thunder… I’m scared.”

Mikoto-san looked up at me with teary eyes.

I thought to myself, “She’s surprisingly scared.”

I thought she was cute because she had a different appearance from usual.

I whispered to her as gently as I could.

“It’s okay. Don’t be afraid.”

“The way you say it, it sounds like I’m being treated like a child… But Akihara-kun’s body is very warm.”

Mikoto-san sighed with relief.

I smiled at her.

“Let’s go back to our home. Then there will be no thunder, no other threats to Mikoto-san, nothing.”

“But there is Sasaki-san. Akihara-kun and Sasaki-san really had feelings for each other. I’m so stupid. Akihara-kun was so kind to me that I got all excited by myself and let myself pretend to be his girlfriend… Everything, it was just a nuisance to Akihara-kun, wasn’t it?”

“It’s not a nuisance to me.”

“Liar.”

“I said I wanted to be with Mikoto-san. It was not a lie. I was having a lot of fun pretending to be your boyfriend.”

Mikoto-san opened her eyes wide.

I explained the situation with Kaho.

The reason she dumped me was because she thought of me as her blood brother.

That Kaho suddenly acted like that because she was jealous of Mikoto-san.

Mikoto-san shook her head in disbelief.

“Sasaki-san is jealous of me?”

“Because from a third party’s point of view, I and Mikoto-san looked like a perfect couple.”

Mikoto-san looked surprised, then smiled weakly.

“That might make me a little … happy.”

“So… it’s not like me and Kaho are dating. I wasn’t cheating on Mikoto-san.”

“Um… is that true that Akihara-kun and Sasaki-san are sister and brother?”

“I don’t know what Kaho is basing that on, but I’m thinking there must be some kind of misunderstanding.”

“If it is a misunderstanding and you are not … blood siblings, and the misunderstanding is cleared up, will Akihara-kun go out with Sasaki-san?”

I thought about it, then answered.

“I don’t know. I’ve always liked Kaho, but I’m not sure if I still do.”

“Is there someone else you like?”

“Someone I might like?”

“Sakurai-san?”

I shook my head.

It’s not Yuki.

I still didn’t have the courage to say that I might like the person in front of me.

I might like Mikoto-san.