Head Pats and a Perfect Deduction
Sea
After an afternoon of anime with Arin, rounded off with a full-course spread of snacks, I said my goodbyes.
"Take care now, dear."
A little while later, Arin's mother walked me all the way home. I couldn't have been more grateful. Of course, Mom did the very same thing whenever Arin came over to our place — but as they say, nothing in this world is owed to you.
"Thank you, Arin's mommy...!"
With both hands folded politely over my tummy, I gave her a deep, formal little bow, and she gave my small wave a gentle one back.
"Oh my, it's nothing, Serin. Hee hee."
Though I thought I caught a so cute~ tacked on right at the end. Surely Arin's mother wouldn't say such a thing to someone who technically counted as an adult now. I didn't hear it. Nope, definitely not.
"Bye-bye, Sewina!!"
When I lifted my gaze after finishing my bow, there stood Arin beside her mother, waving her hand with all her might — bouncing up and down in sheer delight. She'd said she was coming out to see me off, and then she'd seen me off all the way to my front door.
"Bye-bye to you too, Awina!"
I waved back at her, pouring every ounce of my gratitude into it.
"Bye-bye! Sewina."
"Bye-bye! Awina."
"Bai-bai!"
"Yep, yep! Bai-bai!"
And so, with the distance between us growing little by little and our back-and-forth farewells finally exhausted, Arin and her mother disappeared into the elevator before long. They looked like such a warm, harmonious family, every single time I saw them.
In my old life, I wouldn't have known how to put this feeling into words. But I think this is what people mean by "warm and fuzzy."
Today was fun too.
Remembering everything that had happened, a smile spread across my face all on its own.
"Hm hm~ hee hee."
I felt joyful — or should I say it felt like a day well spent? Maybe that was why my steps turned light without my even trying, and there I was, hopping and skipping my way toward my front door, when something suddenly occurred to me.
I glanced back for a moment toward the elevator Arin and her mother had boarded.
Come to think of it, every time I've ever gone over to Arin's place, her mother was the only one home...?
Could it be that Arin didn't have a dad either? The thought drifted through my mind.
….
No. No, no. Saying it like that makes it sound awful!! That's... that's not what I meant at all!!!!
Ughhh. No matter how I turned it over, it sounded wrong...! No, no! Serin is not that kind of bad kid! Really, truly, honestly, I did not mean it in that weird way. Ever since my awakening, it felt like uncontrollable thoughts kept popping into my head, but anyway — for real-real-real, that was not what I meant.
It was simply that, perhaps, my whole way of looking at things had changed. How should I put it — like I was noticing things I'd never seen before?
Because as precisely as I could remember, there wasn't a single trace of anyone else in Arin's home besides Arin and her mother. And the decisive clue was the toothbrushes: there were only three. One decorated with the rabbits Arin adored, one that looked like her mother's, and my own spare toothbrush, which I sometimes brought over to use...!
Which meant there was no toothbrush for any father! It was nothing more than a flawless piece of deduction, built upon perfectly rational logic.
I hadn't erased Arin's father from existence. I had merely surmised that the probability of Arin's father not being around was quite high — that's all it meant.
Ugh, aaah! And saying it like that makes it sound weird again!!!
Nooo! No! Waaah, I don't know anymore! ANYWAY!!!
...I suppose factors like a business trip could account for it, but Arin had never once talked about her father. So maybe, just maybe, my guess really was right.
If that were true, then there'd be no man to stand as the pillar of Arin's household...
The thought left me a little worried. In my experience — to be precise, in the experience of my previous life — the pillar of a household was something a man had to be. At least, that was what I'd been taught.
With no one in Arin's home to serve as the family's pillar the way I could, both Arin and her mother would surely have it very hard. I loved how harmonious their little family was, and so a fear of discord suddenly creeping in began to smolder inside me.
Of course, nothing was confirmed — whether Arin's father existed or not was still shrouded in uncertainty... but if it turned out to be true, I'd simply have to look after Arin even more. And I'd help her mother out too, whenever there was anything I could do. Arin and I were childhood friends, after all. Arin's mother had always been kind to me. Friends are supposed to help each other, and kindness must be repaid. A flawless plan for the future.
Beep-beep-beep.
Having more or less organized my thoughts, I punched the passcode into the front door and stepped inside.
"Who is it?"
The moment I entered, hurried footsteps came pattering from somewhere deep in the house, and — just like last time — my sister peeked her face out past the entryway wall, eyes fixed on the front door. Her guarded expression melted away in an instant the moment she saw me.
"Serin!"
"Yep, yep. Unnie, Serin's home!"
She came bounding up with sparkling eyes, absolutely overflowing with energy. The feel of her was a little different from Arin's. When I wasn't around, Arin was a quiet little thing with a distinctly introverted streak — but no matter how I looked at my sister, I couldn't shake the image of a big, people-loving dog. How to put it... like she trusted people far too easily and would end up falling straight into some bad person's clutches, used or ensnared before she knew it?
...Watching her like this, it worried me a little — as someone who ought to be my Unnie's Unnie. Sigh. My sister was just too naive.
I need to educate her properly, and fast. Somehow or other, she had to start accepting me as an Unnie-like figure — once she did, anything would be possible. What a shame, really. But the important part was that I had no feel for how to actually approach her. How could I get closer to her? A desperately difficult problem. Maybe I should just try everything and see what stuck? For starters....
"Unnie, did you do okay while I was gone?"
I spread both arms wide, walked straight up to her, and hugged her. I remembered hearing somewhere that hugs soothe the heart and bring peace of mind. Beyond that, I liked being hugged by Mom myself — receiving one always lifted my mood and made my love for her bloom. So it only made sense to give my Unnie one too. As far as I knew, girls hugged other girls all the time, and everyone seemed to love it. If my Unnie soaked in my softness like this, wouldn't she naturally come to depend on me?
"Huh? Um, yeah! I did fine!"
At my sudden advance, my sister tilted her head in confusion — but she did hug me back, in some vague, half-committed posture. Well, the two of us had never exactly hugged before. Her hands, at a loss for what to do, finally settled on my back, and a warm, tingling sensation spread across it. Describing the scene honestly, since I was smaller than her, it had ended up looking like she was the one embracing me. In other words, to any outside observer: just a little sister getting hugged by her Unnie.
Great. This was a failure.
"But, Serina, why the sudden hug?"
"Um...."
I didn't exactly have an answer ready. What was I supposed to say? The two of us never hugged, and there'd never been a reason to. Usually it's Mom who does the hugging — what reason would a pair of teeny tiny kids have to wrap their arms around each other? My brain spun at top speed. Hmmm... okay. My sister would believe anything a bad person told her, so wouldn't a suitably plausible excuse do? Something along these lines, maybe...?
"I heard that this is totally normal between sisters!"
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
The instant the lie left my mouth, my heart started hammering. Ugh, what do I do. Maybe I really am too innocent! Getting my heart all aflutter over such a little lie — clearly I was a good person, nothing at all like those bad people.
"Oh, really~?"
"Yep! So I figured I'd give it a try while I was at it."
Thankfully, my sister didn't show the slightest suspicion. If anything, taking my words at face value, her arms tightened around me.
Phew... thank goodness. She let it slide...!
My heart was still pounding away, and something about having lied to my Unnie — and pulled it off — left a faint, prickling sting of guilt. ...And at the same time, a twinge of worry.
My Unnie really did fall for my lie....
Sigh... as I thought, my sister was helpless without me. Which meant I would simply have to teach her well....
...Just as I was steeling that resolve.
Pat.
A strange sensation on the top of my head made me tilt my face up slightly. There was my sister, stroking my hair in long, slow sweeps, her face lit up with delight.
"This is actually pretty nice!"
"Mmmh...."
Strangely enough, it felt wonderful. So warm and cozy that a drowsy, syrupy haze settled over me, like I could drift off right there....
"Unnie... what is this?"
"This? When you did it to me before, it felt really good. So now I'm paying you back...!"
"Ish that so...?"
My Unnie had learned something strange. Head pats are supposed to be something a superior bestows upon an inferior, you know. I'm more of an Unnie than my Unnie is...! A flicker of indignation rose in me — being cast in the role of the little sister stung, somehow. ...But setting that aside, her touch was just like Mom's: it made me want to stay wrapped up in her arms forever, to keep feeling her hand on my head. And so I burrowed deep into my Unnie's embrace and stayed there for a good long while, my eyes slipping shut under her slow, steady strokes.
Mmm... sleepy....
"Unnie... where'sh Mommy...?"
Sea smiled down at Serin, who was squirming and mumbling in her arms. It felt like holding a tiny little rabbit — and maybe that was exactly why.
Sea adored Serin.
People say sisters never get along, but Sea had never once felt anything like that. After all, there she was — toddling this way and that on a body even smaller than Sea's own, glancing anxiously in every direction and crying "Unnie!" the moment she was left alone, insisting she got scared all by herself. No girl alive could possibly hate such an adorable little creature.
And so Sea simply loved Serin. Whatever she did, she was just cute, that was all. On top of that, today she'd gotten extra clingy, too — watching Serin cook up odd little excuses just to throw herself into her arms filled Sea with a sense of fulfillment she couldn't quite explain. Some feeling, still without a name, came bubbling up from somewhere deep inside her heart.
"...Mommy's asleep."
That was why her answer came a beat late.
"Ish that so...?"
But Serin, oblivious to everything, simply mumbled and breathed softly in and out.
Swoo... swoo.
Sea went on stroking Serin's soft hair.
"Mmmh... mmn...."
Serin burrowed deeper into her chest, her little body going slack by degrees. ...Sea copied, as best she could, the very motions she'd learned from Serin herself — the ones that had felt the nicest. Back when Serin had stroked her hair, Sea had felt wonderful, after all.
"So it's Serin's turn to feel good now, hm?"
In the gentlest voice she could manage, Sea whispered softly to the girl drifting off to sleep in her arms.