Chapter 42: Chapter 6
24th of September (Thursday) – Ayase Saki
'I'm taking a detour on the way back from work, so I'll be home late—'
Why am I worried about letting a 'read' notification appear on a LINE message I've received? The instant this message from Asamura-kun popped up on my locked phone screen, I could feel my heart racing. It's Yomiuri-senpai. I only needed to read the initial part of the message, but I already knew. He's heading out somewhere with that senior. If I open the message, it'll send him the 'read' notification, which basically would be a justification for him having fun somewhere with her, and since I couldn't decide on what to do about it, a few minutes had passed and I was still glaring at my phone screen. Honestly, it's ludicrous, and I'm well aware of that.
Where could you find a younger sister, a second year in high school, who is this bothered by what her older brother is doing when he's not with her? But if I actually read it, then I can't just say 'You're pretty late today,' and I also can't use the convenient excuse 'Sorry, I didn't see your message.'
"I'm such an idiot."
Acting this way isn't fair at all. This type of manipulative behavior is what I despise the most. When jealousy is involved, it lowers a human's intelligence to grade school level, or even lower. It's wrong for me to feel this way. I'm supposed to be his younger sister. While looking at the dinner on the dining table, I let out another sigh.
I set up today's dinner with dishes that should help with summer fatigue. For the main dish, I prepared keema curry, which basically uses minced meat. As for spices, I relied on ginger, garlic, and red pepper, as well as some cumin. Said cumin is quite docile but superb. After all, they've been using it since ancient Egypt as a natural scent. Of course, with a long history comes odd superstitions, so when I saw the phrase 'Add cumin to a rice dish in order to avoid your beloved one from losing interest in you', I found myself thinking of it as some form of bug repellant. I used a spoon to scoop up some of the keema curry. The scent drifting up from it caused me to blink a bit before I put it in my mouth.
"Urk, spicy…"
I know I'm not good with spicy stuff, so what am I doing? It was so spicy that I even teared up. Seriously, what is wrong with me? My heart is going crazy. I recalled the conversation I had with Maaya at school today.
'How can you always be so energetic, Maaya? Can you just forget all your troubles?'
There's no person in the world who never worries about anything. That's why I wanted to know how she manages to never show it. However, Maaya's response couldn't have thrown me off more.
'Just do something!'
'D-Do what exactly?'
'Anything new!'
She raised one finger and then added another one.
'Or, do something you've never done before, and really bite into it!'
According to what Maaya told me, the second you are troubled by something, or you start worrying about something, your thoughts end up stuck in a loop. You come to a mental standstill, not progressing anywhere at all.
'That's why you force yourself to walk forward!'
What a positive mindset. I couldn't help but admire her. Of course, I think she's probably wrong, but… something new, huh? I don't want to stay like this, with my thoughts spinning in circles. Just like Maaya said, I should break out of my shell this weekend.
But… it's about time for Step-dad to come home. I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. I guess I could go ahead and prepare his portion. I put some salad on a plate and warmed up the soup and curry. I wonder if Asamura-kun is going to eat dinner. Just from the preview, I can't figure anything out about the rest of his message… Maybe he said something about eating out?
I should just go ahead and prepare dinner for him either way, and leave him a note that says 'If it's too spicy, please use the soft-boiled egg in the fridge'. Once that was done, I headed to my room. I need to get some more studying done for tomorrow. I put on my headphones, focused on the music, and worked on my studies. The studies with which I haven't made much progress lately.
Not to mention that tomorrow are our parent-teacher meetings.
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