Friday night.
After taking a bath, I was reading an information magazine in my workroom.
Pirorin⪠Pirorinâª
I picked up the phone to find it was my sister, Aina, a first-year middle school student.
âHey, Bro, are you alive?â
âI just came back from the dead.â
âReally!? You were dead just now!?â
âIâm sorry. I havenât prepared anything beyond this.â
âI like that. Thatâs a good way to drop it.â
You havenât changed at all in the way you hit me with all your energy from the very first moment.
Even though we were not related by blood, she was the complete opposite of me.
âSo what are your requirements?â
âThe day after tomorrow, Sunday, is your day off, right?â
âYeah, I plan to stay home and relax.â
âThen letâs go on a date with Yuika-san to the âYuru-chara Exhibitionâ!â
(T/N: Yuru-chara- Yuru-chara (Japanese: ãããã£ã©, Hepburn: yuru kyara) is a Japanese term for a category of mascot characters; usually created to promote a place or region, event, organisation or business.)
It was an event that gathered mascots from all over Japan, and popular characters from picture books, anime, and other popular local mascots appeared.
Apparently, a major advertising agency was involved.
But that was not the problem with Ainaâs story.
ââ¦Why are we talking about me and Yuika going on a date?â
âNow, now The meeting is at the station building where there is a café we went in together before. The time is 10:30 a.m. See you there!â
âHey! Hey!â
She decided to go on a one-sided date with me and hung up on me unilaterally.
Yuika and Aina were otaku friends and got along very well.
The problem was that for some reason, Aina was always plotting to make me and Yuika a couple.
She had always been a bit pushy, but lately sheâs been particularly aggressive, which was troublesome.
Pirorin⪠Pirorinâª
The phone rang again.
This time it was Yuika.
Perhaps she heard Ainaâs story and contacted me to confirm it.
âGood evening, Onii-sanâ
âYo, Yuikaâ
âI just got a call from Aina-chan, and I heard that she was going with you on Sunday, so I called youâ¦â
I knew it.
Man, I donât mind if itâs just me, but it would be a nuisance if Yuika got involved as well.
âIâm sorry. My sister said selfish things.â
âNo, itâs okay. I was going to go to the Yuru-chara exhibition anyway.â
âMan, sheâs been acting like this lately.â
âI think itâs Aina-chanâs way of expressing her love for her brother.â
âWho knowsâ¦â
Then, Yuika started thinking âHmm~â
âHey. Since Aina-chan told us this, letâs do something like a date.â
As one would expect, I was surprised by this statement.
I quickly responded.
âNo-no⦠Wonât it be bad if you and I were to go on a date?â
âNo way weâre doing it for real. Weâre just gonna stroll on a date course, in that case, itâs not a date.â
âHowâs that different from a date?â
âWhen we both believe that itâs not a date, it wonât be a date, right? I guess so.â
Does it really work that way?
In my opinion, that was already considered as a date, but now I couldnât really negate that it was only a stroll and not a date when the people involved didnât have that intention.
Hmm. Well, okay
I got caught up in what my sister said.
It may sound like a grand way to atone, but I will do something to make her happy as a token of my gratitude for her daily support.
âBut I donât really know what youâre talking about when you say âdate course.â â
âThatâs okay. I didnât expect it from the beginning.â
âIsnât that too harsh?â
Suddenly Yuikaâs voice became distant, and I could hear that she was operating something while on call.
Perhaps she was on call while checking information on her phone.
âFor now, letâs go to the observation deck and have some sweets. I donât think we can miss them.â
âHmm? Wait a minute.â
âSit down.â
âKuhn⦠thatâs not it.â
âJust go along with itâ
She said it with vigor.
âI donât mean that. I can understand an observation deck as a date course, but why sweets?â
âIsnât that normal?â
âReally?â
Am I sensing something strange?
The observation deck was probably the most popular spot when it came to date courses.
But sweets were not a spot, just something to stop by and eat.
I think it was strange to make it the goal of a date.
Is this what you call a gap in values between generations? â¦â¦
Then Yuika asked curiously.
âI mean, if weâre going out, why arenât we eating sweets?â
âYou can get them at any convenience store.â
âNot that kind. â¦. Haa~ â¦, I forgot. Itâs Onii-san we are talking about. â¦â
You make it sound like I am some kind of special creature.
âI canât help it. Iâll teach you the secrets of sweets on Sunday.â
âI ⦠donât have that much of a sweet toothâ¦â
âJust go with itâ
Saying this, Yuika hung up the phone.
By chance, we ended up deciding on doing something date-like, but I still didnât know where high school girls stand on the idea of sweets.
Well, what should I do? â¦