That’s How We Started Living Together

As third-year high school students, we spend most of our time studying. When we get home, we are welcomed by piles of past exam papers. In our spare time, we practise our English and Japanese vocabulary. Our school also opens early for us to allow us to do independent study in the classroom.

With Karou’s club being put on hold for a week, she and I were able to walk to school together. It was a regular occasion for us to walk to school together, and truthfully, it was always nice when we could do so.

Today, Karou looked a little paler than usual. Her footing was also odd, and her voice was a bit scruffy.

“Are you okay, Karou? You look a bit pale today.”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“Did you get enough sleep last night?”

“No.”

My urge to hit her on the head overcame me.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“You stayed up all night playing video games, didn’t you?”

“No…”

“Don’t lie to me, woman!”

She screamed like she was in a horror movie, about to be killed by the murderer.

“Take it easy today, okay?”

“Yes. I will.”

Karou got worse during the day. Being in the same class allowed me to supervise her, and I could tell she wasn’t doing well due to the fact that she looked like she had lost her bearings. That’s when I heard a loud thud. Karou had collapsed from her chair. I rushed to her side as soon as I saw her lying on the floor.

“Karou!”

She was breathing heavily, and her temperature was quite high. It was evident she was ill, so with the teacher’s permission, I brought her to the nurse’s office. Sensei confirmed that she was suffering from a fever and needed to rest in the office for a bit. She sent me back to class, assuring me that she would be fine.

During break time, I returned to check on Karou. I found her sleeping like a newborn baby; it was somewhat adorable.

“She’s cute when she’s sleeping, right?”

I turned around to see Sensei in the doorway.

“We’d best be quiet so that we don’t wake her up.”

“Right.”

“You seem to care a lot about this girl. Is she special to you?”

“Yeah. We’ve been friends since childhood. Our parents were close, so whenever they came over, she would always accompany them just so she could see me and play with me. I always enjoyed the time we spent together. I still do. We looked after one another. I protected her, and she protected me. She’s family to me.”

“It sounds like you really care about one another. That’s admirable.”

“Thank you.”

When school ended, I collected Karou from the nurse’s office and headed home. Sensei offered to call a taxi to bring us home, but I insisted against it and assured her we would be fine. The journey from school to home wasn’t too long, but due to the school being on a hill, the steepness was a major problem for poor me, who was assisting Karou. But I managed to make my way down it without falling over once.

Eventually, we made it to our house. It was a large modern Japanese house in comparison to the other houses on the street (I wouldn’t classify it as a mansion, though). It once belonged to my parents, but when they passed away in a plane crash, I inherited the house and their fortune. When I reached the door, I realised that my key was still in my bag, but luckily, Karou had hers in her pocket. Taking the key out of her pocket, I unlocked the door and helped her inside. 

Following the trend of acting like a parent, I had to remove her shoes. I first brought her to the shrine, which had pictures of my parents and her parents framed on it, and greeted them. After a long struggle, I managed to bring her to her room and lay her on her bed.

“Hey, Karou. Karou! You can change yourself, right?”

She groaned, which I assumed was a ‘yes’. She then began to remove her uniform.

“Hey! At least wait for me to leave the room first!”

I left the room and waited for her to finish changing. While I waited, I decided to contact my sister, who had not yet returned.

“Hello. This is Reiko. Sorry, but I can’t answer the phone right now. I’m probably having too much fun. Just leave a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

“Ugh. She’s always like this.”

I decided to send her a message.

“I’m home now. Karou got sick, but she’s resting now. Let me know when you’re coming back.”

After the deaths of my parents, my sister became very depressed and began caring less about her career in physics. It led to her becoming an alcoholic and constantly going to nightclubs. She would always arrive late and reek of alcohol. Recently, she had tried giving up on drinking due to the fact that she blamed herself for not paying attention when I nearly died since she was at the bar buying an alcoholic beverage. But after failing her driving test a third time, she began to drink again. Nevertheless, when she was sober, she would still prioritise us since we were her only family left. I didn’t appreciate her smelling like alcohol all the time, but I was grateful to have a caring sister at home.

“I’m finished!” Karou finally yelled

I entered the room again and tucked her into her blanket. Her loose red hair was scattered around on the pillow, so I gently fixed it.

“Get some rest.”

As I was about to leave, I felt a cold hand grab me by the wrist.

“Can you stay with me for a bit? Please.”

How could I ever refuse those adorable kitten eyes?

I slowly sat down by her side and held onto her soft hand. Ever since her parents died in the same plane crash, she had trouble falling asleep. Sometimes, she would ask me to hold her hand as she fell asleep; apparently, holding my hand was comforting to her.

“Sozen…”

“Yes?”

“Promise me you won’t leave me.”

There was a sense of innocence and fragility in her voice when she said that. It reminded me of when we were children. There was a time when she was sad after losing her favourite plushie, so I had to comfort her. The tone of her voice was similar to that time.

“I promise.”

We were orphans. Besides my older sister, both of us had no other family. We only had each other.