Prologue

"I'm getting re-married, Kaede-kun."

"Huh...?"

My father Reiji told me he was getting remarried on that peculiar Saturday afternoon.

Our conversation didn’t have the weight you’d expect from something that could reshape a family. There was no trembling voice and no dramatic buildup. It was the squeak of a bolt of a car engine being turned by a wrench and the quiet hum of birds outside of the garage.

But exactly, what should I feel about it?

I remember the days that he told me the strangest of things, from getting promoted to a managerial position, to buying a new car, or playing the same video game I really liked—but neither of which could get a strong reaction from me.

And here, standing across the sunlit garage, I'm asking myself that question.

Am I supposed to be happy? Flabbergasted? Annoyed? I can't determine which.

So in behalf of my own confusion, I just muttered the words "I just hope that I won't have a step-sibling."

Of course, who else wanted to deal with multiple people at once? I already envisioned myself having a hard time adjusting to my stepmother, a woman, of all genders, with no shared history at all, taking over my life, duties and expectations.

"Of course you'll have!" he said cheerfully, wrench still in hand. "Mind you, she's about your age, and I heard that she's really, really beautiful!"

My brows knit.

"By 'she', you mean it would be a stepsister, right?"

"Yes! She's like an exact copy from Misaki-san, except younger."

"Oh..." My mind reeled around his words.

I glanced up from my cup of tea at hand. My old man's eyes didn’t quite meet mine, but the faint curl at the corners of his lips gave him away. That wasn’t just a polite smile.

It was something that'll make him the happiest man in the world.

And for me, that was what I've been looking for—the kind I hadn’t seen in years, or since my biological mother left.

And somehow, seeing that made me finally feel something.

A positive reaction? Yes. Who would've missed the moment seeing a parent, who survived cheating and two years of penance, this energetic and happy?

"So...do you approve?"

"What else could weigh down on my approval? That ear-to-ear grin of yours alone could force my acceptance."

It was my way of saying go ahead.

I mean, if he's truly happy, then I'm cheering him on. I don't even need to ask where he met her, or what circumstances led them to fall for each other. The statement that they love each other to consider marriage is enough.

"Ah, I'm really thankful, Kaede-kun. I really might cry if you said you're looking forward to~"

"I'm not interested in seeing my father cry again."

Hearing that, he cleared his throat and sobered himself from the weird expression he was just wearing earlier.

"Your stepsister is a bit younger than you, by the way. Three weeks—that makes her an little sister."

A little sister.

The words sounded foreign in my head. I tried to picture it—someone at home other than my father, someone who might call me “Onii-chan,” someone who might borrow my things without asking and complain about the bathroom being occupied.

The image is vague—vague like trying to remember the face of someone I’d only met in a dream.

I’d lived sixteen years without siblings. I had no older brother to follow, no younger sister to protect either. In middle school, I had friends, so many of them, but after that unfortunate incident, they vanished like smoke in the wind. Since then, I’ve lived in a world reduced to two people: myself and my old man.

And if I’m being honest, most days, I'm wishing that it'll stay that way. I'm content that my father was finally living the life that he wanted. He's finally rising up on the ladder, and I'm content that my colleagues at my part-time job in the convenience store are treating me well.

It was so far from what we were two years ago.

My name is Fujimiya Kaede, your average loner, sixteen years old, first-year student at Meishin Private Academy.

It’s not the kind of school that makes headlines, but it’s respectable enough to make people tilt their heads and say, “Ah, that’s a good school!" or "I heard that students there perform well."

For me, it’s just another place where people will talk behind my back if I give them the chance.

Two years ago, I learned some truths most people don’t realize until they’re older:

First—your name can be erased in a single day and rewritten into something you don't recognize.

Second—people will believe whatever entertains them most. If that's an issue, much better. Social negative bias, if that's what you call it.

Third—truth is a luxury you can’t afford once your name is tainted.

And lastly—the people closest to you are the ones who can hurt you the most.

Especially women.

It’s not that I hate them. Hatred still means you care or you're attached. Don't give a damn, and you're safe.

So this “new life” my father was so happy about? It didn't worry me. After all, it's a human mechanism to adjust to new environments, and as for me, I’ll do what I always did: keep my distance, smile when I have to (or told to) and stay quiet when I can.

And by staying quiet, I could have left this story untold. But I can't—this story is somewhat a special case.

No, I'm not being seduced by my stepsister or the other way around. It's not something out of manga and light novels.

This is reality, and there's no "Onii-chan" fantasy here.

How should I name this—an unscrupulous coincidence?

It's because my new little sister was the one who caused my family's downfall two years ago.

And the two of us stepsiblings were the only ones who knew about it.