My stepmother's burden is my ex-girlfriend.

Page 17

...What if that man finds out about this...?

I will be committing a grave violation of that sibling rule—no room for defense or probation, I will be found guilty on the spot. Then I will have to become that man's sister...and then...and then...

"—Oh, you perverted little sister who stole my stepbrother's underwear. Tell me what you want, and what you want me to do?"

"I...I'm not a pervert...!"

"Oh? You mean stealing underwear or hiding erasers in treasure chests isn't considered perverted? Then what I'm doing is perfectly normal!"

"No, no... Irito-san...!"

"Call me brother! You perverted sister!"

"Brother, brother—oh dear—!"

As the vivid hallucinations began to unfold in a disturbing scene, I abruptly threw off the covers.

If this continues, I'll go crazy! He left behind only a notebook filled with strange entries, and his cause of death remains a mystery!

I don't have time to wait for that guy to fall asleep. I'll go put this thing back where it belongs right now!

I grabbed the horrible boxer shorts and put my feet off the bed.

Just then—

With a click, I heard the door in the next room open.

"…………?"

I strained my ears and heard footsteps coming downstairs.

I glanced at the clock; it was already past midnight. What was he up to in the middle of the night...?

...Perhaps, this is an opportunity?

If he's going to a convenience store or something, there's no better opportunity than this.

In short, let's find out what that man is going to do first...

I stuffed the horrible boxer shorts into my pajama pocket and then quietly walked into the hallway.

I looked down the stairs, but all I saw was darkness, a vast, dark sea filling the space.

Where did he run off to...?

I descended the stairs cautiously, one step at a time. A strong sense of tension made my whole body tense, as if the sink might suddenly emerge from the dark abyss. If that happened, I could simply say I was going to the restroom. I reassured myself with this as I stepped into the first-floor hallway.

There was no one in the living room. The bathroom light was off. And there was no sound of the front door opening.

...So...that means?

There seemed to be someone in the washroom and changing room. I hurriedly fled into the dark living room.

I held my breath and waited there, until the shadow of the water bucket emerged from the darkness.

I peeked out from the living room to see what was happening and saw Shuitou tiptoeing towards the stairs, not daring to make a sound.

Our parents are still relatively new to marriage, so we try not to make any noise at night. Is that why he's walking so quietly, or is there another reason...?

Shuidou's figure slowly... disappeared into the darkness that filled the area above the stairs.

Although I don't know what he was planning to do, this is a good opportunity. If I act now, I'll definitely not be caught by that man.

I tiptoed into the restroom and changing room. It was too dark to see anything, so I turned on the light.

Seeing the brightened, empty space, I breathed a sigh of relief. Now I could finally lift the burden off my shoulders…

—You hateful, gloomy woman sealed deep within my consciousness, I will never let you out again.

As I made this firm vow, I approached the laundry basket next to the washing machine.

"……strangeness?"

At that moment, an ominous premonition surged wildly through my spine.

There were two laundry baskets. My mother, considering that I was a young girl, separated the girls' clothes from the boys' clothes into two baskets.

Among them, the girl's basket...

I stared intently at the top of the pile of clothes, which resembled a demonic altar. The contents there unequivocally hinted at a horrifying truth I didn't want to know.

There's a bra there.

Judging from the style and the size... no matter how you look at it, it's my bra.

"........."

When I take off my clothes and put them in the basket, I always remember to cover my underwear with clothes.

This is, of course, because... I don't want that guy to see it.

The man was the same as me. The thing I have in my hand now was initially buried in my clothes as well.

In our family, no one would openly display their underwear in front of others.

In this case……

So why is my bra displayed so openly on top?

"........."

Without saying a word, I threw the boxer shorts I had brought into the men's laundry basket.

...A pair of underwear slowly drifted down to the top of the pile of clothes.

I remembered something.

Today, when I went to the restroom to do something trivial, the man had just finished showering and came out. Since he was already dressed, nothing happened—but now, thinking back, the moment I appeared, the man's thin shoulders seemed to jump slightly in surprise…?

Then, he seemed to hide his hands behind his back, as if he were hiding something.

"........."

I walked out of the washroom and changing room, walked down the corridor, went up the stairs, walked down the second-floor corridor, and opened the door.

That's not the door to my room.

It's the door to the sink room.

"Huh?... What are you doing? You didn't even knock, it's the middle of the night..."

Mizuto turned to look at me with a surprised expression.

Although he's a guy, his shoulders are rather sloping, which makes him look strangely good in a wool sweater. But inside me, a thousand words were swirling, wanting to unleash a torrent of abuse on his slender frame.

"...Ugh! ~~~ Ugh!"

But... in the end, I couldn't utter a single word.

I had so much to say that my tongue got tied in knots, and my face kept getting hot.

"...Seriously, what's wrong with you? Coming to someone else's room in the middle of the night, blushing all by yourself, what kind of weird behavior is that—"

"—Laundry basket."

It took me a lot of effort to squeeze out those words.

"Go look at the laundry basket. Then you'll understand."

“Eh…”

Shuidou wore an expression as if the end of the world had come.

He probably thought he had been exposed—his expression was quite satisfying to watch, but unfortunately, I had no right to naively gloat.

After I made way, Shuidou dragged his heavy steps out of the room and down the stairs.

Then, in less than half a minute, they rushed back at twice the speed of their outward journey.

"You...! Ah...!"

Mizuto, his face flushed, tried to say something, but nothing came out as a sentence. See? I knew it would turn out like this!

While waiting for him to return, I regained some composure and solemnly announced:

"Let's have a family meeting now."

Neither of us wanted to set foot on the other's turf, so we chose the living room late at night as the meeting place.

Shuidou sat down in the corner of the L-shaped sofa, and I sat down three people away from him.

Seeing his face makes me uneasy, and sitting next to him is out of the question—so this is the only place I can choose.

"...Let's decide whether to attack first or later."

I stared at the TV directly in front of me and said in a low voice.

Mom and the others are sleeping in their dorm room on the first floor—they might not be asleep yet, but they all need to be quiet. We agreed from the beginning that the only rule for this meeting is no shouting.

"...Okay. How do we decide?"

"Let's play rock-paper-scissors in the simplest way."

"Does the winner go first?"

"Of course, the loser goes first."

"...That's true. So, rock-paper-scissors—"

After three ties, I lost.

I'll make the first move.

I started making excuses.

"I had no choice!"

"Don't suddenly start raising your voice, you big idiot!"

Ah, oops.

We peeked down the hallway to check on the dormitory. Mom and the others didn't seem to be awake.

We hurriedly returned to the sofa to continue making excuses.

"...I had no choice. It was another part of me, dormant within me, that did it; the fault lies not with me."

"Could you please come up with a more plausible excuse? Please?"

"I just experienced a momentary atavism, like reverting to a gloomy era...! Normally, I'd rather die than take your underwear...!"

"A gloomy era, huh? It's like you're saying it was normal for you to touch my underwear back in second year of junior high. What gives you the right to say that?"

"ah."

Oh no... Now I have to explain my embarrassing past as a second-year middle school student...!

"...Do we really have to say even that...?"

"We have no choice but to talk. Now that things have come to this, there are no more secrets. Let's thoroughly expose each other's weaknesses."

"Waaaaah...!...You...you can't think I'm disgusting, okay?"

"I already feel disgusted enough, no problem."

"I heard you, okay? You can't take it back...!"

I finally gave up and confessed all my past blasphemous acts.

I told him: In other words, I used to keep everything you gave me, from erasers to coins, in a treasure chest.

What torture this is... to have my dark history, painstakingly sealed away, revealed right in front of me. Couldn't we summon some kind of evil god to descend and bury all of this in darkness?

"...So, perhaps it should be said that my old collecting habit suddenly flared up again..."

I glanced to the side and saw that Mizuto had turned his face away. He covered his mouth with his hand, and his shoulders were trembling slightly.

Ah, this guy...!

"You...you said you wouldn't find me disgusting!"

"No, no...but..."

After stealing a glance at me, Mizuto turned his face away again.

Waaah, waaaah...! Should I feel hurt, ashamed, or angry? Caught in this uncertainty, I panicked and decided to get closer to Mizuta first.

"That's all in the past! That won't happen again!"