Archive of Our Own ^beta

Hinomori Shiho had pondered what was the meaning of her having a sister.

To be fair, she was the younger sister, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say that her birth had intruded upon her sister’s life and not the other way around. But setting their ages aside, she was practically her sister’s guardian, so she had every right to be pondering the meaning of Hinomori Shizuku’s existence!

So, what was the meaning of Shizuku to Shiho? A nuisance, she concluded. If Shiho was not desperately combing Shibuya’s streets for her lost sister after having received a sobbing SOS call from her, she was trying to run away from another monster hug from that clingy idiot. But lately, those occurrences had become increasingly rare. Could her sister’s sense of direction have finally awoken? Wait, no, that was impossible. Her sister might act like a three-year-old, but she was not actually three years old, so it was not as though her sister would magically grow direction selective neurons at her age. The most likely reason for the decreased frequency of her frantic “I don’t know where I am, Shii-chan!” calls was that she was calling someone else to find her instead. Who was it? Momoi-senpai? Kiritani-san? Minori? Or…Tsukasa-san? Ugh! Something did not sit right with Shiho about that last option. Maybe it was because she had a feeling that this issue was connected to why Shizuku was also not clinging to her as often recently. In other words, she was likely clinging to somebody else!

Was her sister dating someone? It would not be a huge surprise, she supposed. Her sister was already twenty, and almost every twenty-year-old was dating someone or trying to find someone to date at any rate.

But please don’t let it be Tsukasa-san, please don’t let it be Tsukasa-san, please…

Shiho shivered at the prospect of having to call that loudmouthed lunatic her “brother-in-law”.

Hearing the sound of a car downstairs, Shiho immediately went down and peeked through the window to see if her sister was back. Yup, that sure was Shizuku sitting in the passenger seat of a humble Cor*lla. No wonder she was not getting lost these days – someone was giving her a ride! And there in the driver’s seat was a familiar face with an unfamiliar haircut that was now shoulder-length instead of the ponytail from Shiho’s memories.

Is that…Asahina-senpai!?

Before Shiho could process the information, she was met with another shocking scene. After removing her seatbelt, her sister leaned over towards Asahina-senpai and left a peck on the corner of her lips!

No…I did not see it wrong, did I? They…They really did just…kiss. Right?

Her sister got out of the car, closed the door, and was now making her way towards the Hinomori home. Shiho had no time to think! She immediately let go of the curtains, darted upstairs, and pretended that nothing had happened after shutting herself into her own room.

It took her about ten minutes to calm down. Once she did, she gave the matter more thought. She had expected that her sister might be dating someone. Now that she knew who it was, should she not be glad that it was not Tsukasa-san? At least if this one worked out, she would have a normal person to call her “sister-in-law” instead of Saki’s crazy brother!

She supposed that she was a bit worried about her sister. After all, she was unfamiliar with Asahina-senpai and was unsure whether the latter would be a good fit for her. She decided to give Ichika a call – the latter was acquainted with Asahina-senpai back in their Miyajo years.

“You want to know more about Asahina-senpai?” came Ichika’s surprised reply after Shiho explained her request over the phone. “Do you need something from her?”

“Not really. It’s…complicated. I’ll tell you about it in the future if it’s okay with the others involved. Can you just tell me if Asahina-senpai is…err…nice? Like, does she have any weird habits or anything? Does she do any shady stuff?”

“Hahaha, not that I know of. Asahina-senpai is kind and reliable. She used to have a perfect attendance record, except during a short period when she missed some classes over family issues in her third year. But I heard those issues have long been resolved. The only thing that changed after she went back to school that year was that she had dropped her plans to study abroad for college, and instead applied to a nursing school here in Tokyo. I’m guessing she still studies there now? Maybe you can ask Shizuku-senpai? I think they were quite close with each other in their third year.”

Third year of high school? Wouldn’t that be almost three years ago? Did it start that long ago, and Shiho never noticed!?

“Err...okay. Thanks. If you think of anything else, please let me know.”

With that, Shiho hung up and pondered some more about the information she had just gathered. By Ichika’s account, Asahina-senpai was a nice person. Shiho herself had heard good things about her from her classmates as well. She supposed there was no reason to be worried then, except…

I wonder if Oneechan is nervous about how we’d view her relationship should we find out. Is that why she hasn’t told us?

With that thought in mind, Shiho made her way down to Shizuku’s room. Unlike Shiho, who was quite pensive at the moment, Shizuku seemed relaxed, humming as she busied herself with dusting her table.

“Hey Oneechan, you have a minute?” Shiho asked.

Shizuku immediately turned to face her. “Shii-chan! Are you here to tell me that dinner is ready? I already had dinner though – I’ve let Mom know – so, don’t wait for me. Enjoy your meal!”

“Err…no, that’s not it.” Shiho invited herself into the room and took a seat beside her sister. “I…I just wanted to talk about…some things.”

“Of course! What would you like to talk about? Oneechan will always be here to listen, alright?”

“Yeah. Umm…you know, lately they’ve been talking about gay marriage. What do you think about it?”

“Isn’t that good? Love is love. It is nice that those who love each other can enjoy the same legal protections as opposite sex couples…ah! Are you trying to come out to me, Shii-chan? Don’t worry, you have my support no matter what your sexuality may be! I’m sure Mom and Dad will support you too!”

“This isn’t about me! It’s about you, dumbass Oneechan!”

“Me?”

“Aren’t you dating Asahina-senpai? She’s a woman. You’re a woman. I’m trying to tell you that I don’t care about that – you can be gayer than a rainbow flag and you’ll still be my Oneechan, okay?”

Shizuku just stared dumbly at Shiho. After blinking twice, she came to an epiphany and cried. “Shii-chan! I’m so happy!”

“DO NOT HUG ME!!!” Shiho screamed, but to no avail – she was already captured by Shizuku and crushed between her arms. “I can’t breathe! Stop! You’re gonna break my ribs!”

Shizuku finally let go. It took a moment before Shiho managed to catch her breath. “So, what are you going to do now, Oneechan? You should be more careful when out with Asahina-senpai – if I can see you two dating, the paparazzi can too. What if this gets on the entertainment news headlines?”

“Ah, it already did!” Shizuku said as she picked up her phone. She poked at the screen for quite a while but finally managed to bring up the pages she wanted to show Shiho. “See? The Mai*ichi and the Asa*i both reported on my blog announcement.”

“You announced this on your blog!?” Goodness gracious! Shiho just had to take her eyes off her sister for a single day and she would manage to pull some crazy shit like this! “Oneechan, you know the consequences, right? Your fans probably won’t be too stoked about seeing you date anybody, let alone another woman. Your career will be affected. Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

Shizuku smiled in response. When she noticed that Shiho was not calming down, she tried to coach the latter on slowing down her breathing. Shiho was not the least bit enthusiastic about following Shizuku’s instructions, but she ended up doing as she was told at Shizuku’s insistence. When she was finally back to normal, Shizuku spoke.

“What does it mean to love someone, Shii-chan?”

“I don’t know. It isn’t like I’m the one dating here. I can only guess that it’s like…wanting to share your happiness with them and to help shoulder their burdens? You’d want to spend time with them, to have a place in your life reserved for them. Something like that?”

Shizuku nodded. “Then, do you think I can do all of this for Mafuyu-chan and still keep our relationship a secret?”

Shiho opened her mouth to argue but found no words to rebuke with. “But…what about your career?” she ended up saying instead.

“I enjoy my career, so I do wish to continue with it if possible. But if I must hide an important part of myself, then I do not think that I can enjoy this job any longer. In which case, what would be the point of continuing? Would I just be working for the money? But there are other ways I can earn an income without compromising my personal integrity, right? So why not change careers instead?”

Shiho had not thought about that. She had only one goal in her life – to become a professional musician. She never considered what she would do if this goal conflicted with other aspects of her life. Would she be able to make a brave decision like her sister had just done?

“Shii-chan, we can’t have everything in life. Sometimes when you gain something, you would have to lose something else in return. During those times, you must keep your eyes on what is most important. It’s like archery,” Shizuku said, holding her left arm forward and pulling her right arm back as though she were drawing an invisible bow, “the conditions might not be perfect. There might be a breeze, or the temperature might make your bowstring tighter or looser. Your own body and mind would not always be at their peak. Still, you make the necessary adjustments and then focus on the target. Empty your doubts and let go. The arrow will strike the place where it should be.”

“Heh…I didn’t know you could be so philosophical, Oneechan,” Shiho answered. Her voice might sound skeptical but she was actually quite impressed by her sister’s calm approach to this incident. Maybe she was the more mature sister after all – Shiho still had much to learn from her.

“Besides, I am optimistic that my fans would be accepting! I would have been doing something wrong if my fanbase is mainly composed of homophobes!”

Shiho chuckled along with her sister. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. What can I say? You’ve already thought it all out yourself. Well, good luck! I’m gonna head over for dinner now.”

With the weight lifted from her shoulders, Shiho’s steps moving out of Shizuku’s room felt lighter than usual. Ah…it was hamburger steak day today, right? She was really looking forward to it, not that she would ever admit that to her sister!

Before taking a seat at the table, Shiho took out her phone and visited her sister’s official blog. Under the post of her relationship announcement, Shiho left an anonymous comment:

“Congratulations. I will always continue supporting you, so please keep fighting courageously for your own happiness.”