New Home / 新しい家

With the car parked by the street and the luggage next to the car, all three of us walked towards the entrance. I grabbed the keys inside my pocket and opened the door.

“Mother, we’re here!”

Only my mother was at home, as my father was still working at that time of day. While I waited for her to greet us, Natsuko was contemplating the first floor.

“Your house looks really nice.”

Yes, that was her. Still talking fluently with no hiccups. It seems the new student was now comfortable with my presence. Unfortunately, as a stranger—also known as my mother—got near the entrance hall, she chickened out.

“Where is yo—”

She intended to say, “Where is your room?”, but was caught off-guard by someone else, trying to hide her face.

My mother welcomed us to the house.

“Oh, hello! Welcome, teacher Miyazaki.”

“Thanks. I’m here to drop these two. That is, if you’re okay with it, of course!”

“Ah, I’m aware," she directed her gaze towards Natsuko, "And you must be Akira Natsuko. Nice to meet you.”

“Y-Yes. Nice to meet you,” she uttered hesitantly, unprepared for the greeting from my mother, even though it was obvious such a thing was bound to happen.

“Well, I’m sure everyone else knows each other by now, so, if you want, you can sit on the couch over there,” my mother pointed at the living room.

However, someone could not afford to stay.

“Unfortunately, I can’t stick around as I have a meeting to attend. Goodbye! We’ll see each other at your next English class.”

“Bye teacher.”

“Oh, you’re leaving already, how unfortunate. Thanks for the help!”

“No, I only did what was necessary!”

The door had now been closed, which allowed the excursion to commence. But not before a side quest.

“Do any of you want to drink water? I’ll get a glass for Natsuko in case she wants to.”

“I was about to do that, but shouldn’t we show her around the house first?”

“That can wait. Natsuko, are you thirsty?”

A question targeted at the only cisgender teenage girl in the household. She nodded in affirmation. Therefore, the adult grabbed two glasses and filled them with water to the very top.

“There you go, both of you.”

No thanks were vocalized. Make no mistakes though, we were thankful for the glass of water. Right as I finished drinking, I checked if she was ready to meet her new home.

“Say, want to have a look around? That is, once you’ve finished—”

She opened the water tap again and replenished her own glass. That girl truly was thirsty. Surprised, I desperately attempted to find words, eventually choosing to remain silent until she gave any more signs.

Only then, after two full glasses, did she announce her intentions to get to know the residence.

“We can go now.”

“Alright. So, this division here is our kitchen. It’s where we eat our daily meals since this is where the main table is.”

“Yes.”

I then turned left, with my first stop being the place we all use to relax on the couch, be it to watch TV, use your laptop, or simply use your mobile device while lying there in an extremely uncomfortable position.

“This is the living room. There’s a last-generation TV, a large couch, and our aquarium in the corner over there.”

“Wow… you have an OLED TV!”

How did she even know it was OLED in the first place?

“Seriously? That’s the highlight of this division for you? What about this awesome couch?"

“Meh, it’s alright. Oh, I almost missed it! You have an aquarium?”

For someone usually shy, she was acting pretty lively right now.

“I mentioned it seconds ago as we entered this room,” I remarked, disappointed.

“Ahh I’m so sorry, I didn’t hear it. Not that your voice wasn’t loud enough, I was just distracted.”

“Anyway, this floor’s bathroom is between the kitchen and the living room. We have another one upstairs.”

“Mhm.”

“The rest of it is on the second floor.”

With that said, I climbed the stairs all the way to the top. My guest trailed along behind me.

“I assume this is where the bedrooms are.”

“Yeah. And we have a third unoccupied one ready for you.”

“That one spare bedroom really proved useful, huh. Is there any reason for this house to have three bedrooms? It doesn’t make much sense as one of them was unused for so long.”

“Good question. Back when they had me, my parents were expecting a sister too, but I never got one, hence the empty room.”

“I see. Well, now you kind of have a sister.”

“I’d rather not think of you that way. Though, to be honest, I always wanted one myself. So having you here is like a small dream come true. Still, I prefer to think of you as a friend rather than a sister, if you get what I mean.”

“Yeah. I’m glad I helped you fulfill that dream.”

I too wanted to fulfill a dream of her own in return, but I couldn’t. Everyone has dreams, I simply was not aware of hers yet.

The tour had not met its end yet, so we continued.

“Down there are our bedrooms.”

I pointed towards the two doors ahead roughly two meters away from each other.

“And lastly, the bathroom and my parents’ bedroom are on your right and on your left respectively.”

“Ah, alright. Thanks for showing me around, Ishida.”

“I only did what anyone in my position should.”

“But you did it so well! I almost thought you were a salesperson desperately trying to convince me to buy a house.”

“I can’t tell if that’s a good or a bad thing.”

“Huh? I meant it in a good way! As I just referred, you did it well.”

“Yes, yes, I got it now, I swear. On another note, we should really bring your stuff up here, so you can unpack everything.”

“Aaahhh, I forgot, sorry.”

With the expedition over, we rushed to get her luggage standing in the entrance hallway, downstairs. Noticing this, my mother reminded me of a basic rule of this very house.

“Yuki! Don’t run inside! The same applies to Natsuko as well!”

“I know!”

We went back upstairs, now carrying the luggage. I dropped the two luggage bags I carried by my bedroom door and opened the door of Natsuko’s new room. She stared at it for a bit before speaking.

“Alright, let’s get to work!”

The next hour boiled down to both of us giving a new life to that previously unused room. Once our work was done, we shook hands.

“Phew, this was tiring. Say, do you like my room?”

“Yes. I noticed you brought your manga and light novel collection, you seem like a woman of culture as well.”

“As… well?”

My mouth briefly outsped my brain. It took me a mere fraction of a second to realize I had gone too far. I messed up.

I tried to cover it by recognizing it as a mistake, but I knew she was aware of my attempt to hide something.

“Ah, crap, I wanted to say person, but m-my mouth moved faster than my mind!”

“Oh, thanks for clarifying.”

“Why did I do that?”, I wondered. In all these years, I never slipped up this bad in a conversation with other people. It was no coincidence. Could it be that I felt way more at ease with her than with anyone else?

It was now dinner time. During all that time, Natsuko and I mostly talked about trivial matters, such as the wi-fi password or how to close and open the window blinds.

Someone opened the door and stepped into the entrance hall, pumping out a low orotund voice.

“Darling, I’m home!”

“Oh, Ryūga, welcome! Sit over here after taking off your jacket. Ah,” she had almost forgotten, “you two, it’s dinner time!”

“We’re coming!”

It marked the first time we spoke in unison. That was by no means perfect harmony, but for a first time, it was considerably better than any of my attempts to play a violin piece at first sight—I wasn’t particularly good at memorizing.

Once all four members of our family—yes, I am counting Natsuko—were by the table, ready to grab our forks and knives, my father took advantage of the opportunity and greeted our guest.

“Natsuko, nice to meet you! I’m not sure if Yuki told you, but my name is Ryūga Ishida, the father of the young lad next to you.”

“N-Nice to meet you. I knew already.”

“Are you enjoying things around here? Obviously, if you ever need anything, just ask us. We promised your English teacher we’d take you in and treat you as our daughter. How’s the room?”

“I-It’s nice.”

“That’s good to hear!”

“Father, we should be eating. You can talk with her afterward.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t mind him, we can talk more later,” he whispered, revealing at last why he mysteriously sat next to the new girl. I stared at him with a disapproving look, briefly wondering if he had regressed in age.

With that out of the way, the path was cleared for the last daily meal.

As it is tradition across Japan, we celebrated the start with a cheerful “Thanks for the meal!”.