Gimai Seikatsu

I stayed in my room and prepared everything for tomorrow’s classes after coming home from Maaya’s birthday party. I had my headphones on, listening to some pleasant tunes and music. My gaze may have been looking down at my textbook, but I had been unable to focus for the past few minutes, simply wandering around in my thoughts. I’m just reading sentences, only to forget what I read a moment later. I would be hard-pressed to call this a true study session.

Well, it’s Japanese history, so there’s technically no need for me to go through the questions before the actual class… Stop, Saki. You shouldn’t make excuses like that. My focus was completely gone, so I raised my head. The digital clock next to me read 23:33. Ah, matching digits… Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be doing any more studying today. It’ll only have the opposite effect. I should go take a bath instead.

I gave up on studying and headed to the bath. I drank a glass of water so I didn’t have to worry about dehydration and sank into the hot water. When I stretched my arms and legs out, I could feel all the exhaustion slowly melting away from my body. I sighed for the umpteenth time and started grumbling to myself.

“Maaya is just…”

When we met up with Asamura-kun in front of her flat, she whispered some words into my ear. Every time I remember them, my cheeks start to burn up.

‘If anything, I wouldn’t mind leaving you two youngsters to yourselves, you know?’

I just hope Asamura-kun didn’t hear any of that. What kind of birthday party is it if the person being celebrated vanishes midway through, anyway? Geez. I wonder just how much she actually knows or presumes to know. Does she know about my relationship with Asamura-kun? I mean, we are siblings. So it should be a compliment if somebody sees us as being on good terms, and she can keep teasing me about it as much as she wants. She’s just as close with her brothers, right?

It’s the same principle. It’s part of perfectly normal physical contact. If Asamura-kun were the same age as Maaya’s younger brother, I could interact with him the same way. I wonder what he was like back then? I’m sure he was just as adorable. I’d squeeze his cheeks and pull on them whenever he gave me a cheeky look… Whose cheeks? Asamura-kun’s—Wait, I’m getting lost in my fantasies here.

I shook my head to rid myself of my foul thoughts. What am I thinking? Next topic, next topic. His birthday is in December. Well, so is mine, but his is earlier. Oh, yeah…I need to get a birthday present for him. But my timer rang before I could come up with anything. I usually take baths for 20 minutes, getting out right before I start sweating. The longer I stay in, the more it could dehydrate my skin, after all.