Chapter 3.9

“I’m doing it…”

I took the cream and with both hands rubbed it on Akari’s back.

“…nh”

I applied it all over her pure white skin. I felt like I was doing something strange because I could hear her moan. It wasn’t strange I was just applying sunscreen on her back.

But one thing was for sure that… the girls’ skin is so smooth.

I was surprised at how delicate it was compared to my own body… Ahh! that’s not the point!

… These malicious thoughts were popping up in my mind.

“Nyaa…”

This time her moan was different from what I heard earlier.

But then my attention shifted to my hands. It didn’t even take me a second to realize that my hands were caressing her breasts this whole time.

“Whaaaaa! I’m sorry! I didn’t notice it at all!”

I hurriedly took my hands away.

It’s over…! I was thinking about all kinds of weird things and didn’t pay any attention to where I was touching…!

“…”

Then I peeked at Akari, her face was red with embarrassment.

Argh… I messed up.

“Um… I’ve applied the sunscreen on your back.”

I closed the cap and put the cream beside her.

“I’ll buy something to drink.”

After that, I decided to kill time until things cooled down.

“Something like a date?”

When I heard Akari’s suggestion, I remembered once again that the purpose of today was to practice for a date.

However, I feel like we’ve already done a few things like holding hands, feeding each other, etc…

In Akari’s opinion, we had yet to complete the most important event of a date.

“It’s fine with me. What should we do then?”

I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve to date a girl, or even alone with her in a pool. So there’s no way I know what she expects me to do in a situation like this.

So for now I’ll do whatever she wants me to do.

“Let’s see…”

She muttered something while searching through her bag.

What she pulled out was a… Smartphone?

“We didn’t come to the pool before, but now that we’re here… why don’t we take some pictures.”

Pictures… I see!

She was right.

“Okay, let’s ask someone to click some pictures… Ehm…”

I scanned the surroundings to find someone who might be willing to take our picture.

And then.

” … We don’t have to ask someone to take our photos. Just use your in-camera, like this.”

And then she pushed herself close to me…

“Ohh, A-akari, we are… too close…”

“We won’t be in the same photo unless I do so.”

No, I knew what she meant, but…!

Unlike the time when she clung to my arm, this time our faces were incredibly close.

Her long hair occasionally tickled my cheek. We were so close that if I turned around, our lips would touch each other.

“S-so, I’m going to take a picture…”

But it seemed that I wasn’t the only one who was upset.

I had no choice but to stick with her. She wasn’t focused at all. I knew that because her hand that held the smartphone was shaking.

“Ah, Akari. Let me take it.”

I took the phone from her and adjusted the angle.

“Here, well then…”

It was the first time for me to take a picture with her in such proximity, so I was nervous to a certain extent.

But for some reason, at that moment…

“Hmm… let’s see. How’s it?”

We were both smiling as if it was natural, and it was similar to the picture when we were kids.

“Too cute…”

As we were checking the photo, Akari muttered.

I couldn’t hear what she said, but she seemed to be happy.

But one thing that bothers me…

That both of us were in swimsuits. Please don’t frame this picture.

The next thing I noticed that the weather was getting colder.

“Onii-chan, should we go home now?”

Akari asked me while sipping the cold drink I bought earlier.

It was around 4 o’clock and the crowd that was around us had become quite sparse.

Indeed, it was about time for us to leave.

But…

“Sorry, Akari. But there is somewhere I want to go.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Ah, I wanted to go back to the flower garden we saw at lunch.”

“I’m fine with that…”

“Well, let’s get changed.”

With that, I grabbed my luggage and headed for the changing room.

After changing, I met up with her at the exit and walked for ten minutes. We arrived at the bench where we took a break for lunch.

“.. It’s so beautiful.”

The sunset in the floral garden was as beautiful as a work of art.

“I had a lot of fun today.”

We sat down on a bench side by side and Akari began to share her thoughts.

“We had lunch, swimming, and relaxed in this beautiful flower garden together… I’ve kept my distance from you all this time, so I guess you were surprised that we’re spending time like this.”

“…”

“Um, Onii-chan. Would you help me with another date as well?”

“…”

“This time it was the pool, so next for the time…”

“Akari—— I need to talk to you.”

It was the first time I opened my mouth since I came here, though I felt like I was interrupting the conversation.

“About what?”

“Yes. It’s important.”

The truth was, I never intended to tell her.

We grew up without knowing anything about each other. “All that was left in my mind was an old memory.” Kind of.

I thought I’d just keep it to myself and reminisce.

I was hoping that one day Akari’s feelings for me would fade away and she would tell me, “I used to love you Onii-chan.”

But now that Nanami has confessed her feelings to me, I have to face her sincerely.

It couldn’t be helped.

Even so, I just couldn’t leave Akari all alone.

“You know, I knew everything… all about you, Akari.”

In the third year of junior high school, I happened to find an “Onii-chan Notebook” in Akari’s room.

I found out that there were surveillance cameras and microphones installed in my room.

When I wasn’t around, she secretly went through my personal belongings.

She pretended to be uninterested, but sometimes she followed me at school.

And that she was planning to… lock me up.

“The reason I spoke to you in the first place was that I was aware of your plans. I asked Nanami for help by telling a lie, that an acquaintance wants to be friends with you. But the truth was I wanted to stop your plan, so I decided to start by getting close to you.”

The smile that was beaming on her face fade away.

“And then I noticed that you began to talk with me again. So I thought if I kept this up, one day you would give up on your plan and no one would get hurt. That’s what I thought, and I was going to keep it to myself for a long time. But then I thought about… Nanami and I realized that I couldn’t keep doing that forever.”

“…”

“I’m not dating Nanami. But she indeed confessed to me, and now we are… pretending to be together, or something like that. She asked me to take a look at her outside the frame of a childhood friend. That’s why I want to do my best to respond to Nanami’s feelings. Even if I end up rejecting Nanami, I want to give her a sincere reply. That’s how I feel.”

And.

“I’m glad that you like me, you know. If you were annoying I think I would have said so back then in junior high school. But you know, the thing is that we are siblings. And this fact…”

“—It’s not n-normal, right?”

Akari, who was down all this time, mumbled quietly. Say it clearly…

“I’m going home first…”

She hurriedly ran away.

She seemed to understand what I was trying to say.

I thought she also knew that I wouldn’t be able to give her a proper answer.

If I continued to do things half-heartedly, Nanami would be hurt. I thought that’s why I told everything to Akari, but…

I unconditionally hurt her while worrying about Nanami.

“Hmm? That girl… she forgot her bag.”

No matter how delicious food she cooks.

No matter how cute she is.

Even if my heart beats for Akari…

She’ll be my sister in the end.

Even if I don’t go out with Nanami, I still won’t be able to return her feelings.

Even after knowing all this, I wonder why my heart is hurting so much after I saw her crying as she leaves.

“…Ahh”

As soon as she walked away, I saw the marigold flower I had seen at lunch.

I remembered that I was going to look up the meaning of flowers later.

I approached the signboard where the name and meaning were written… Let’s see.

“The meaning of marigolds is… jealousy, sorrow, and despair.”

Strangely enough, it seemed to be perfect for us right now, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

***