The place I lived in was a room in a ten-story apartment building not far from Harukiās house.
In the countryside, I used to live in a one-story wooden house. Now, I lived in a concrete reinforced apartment.
My front door in the countryside was always carelessly left open, but now, the entrance of my apartment is equipped with an automatic lock.
There are so many differences between the countryside and the city, and I often get lost. I still canāt seem to get the hang of it.
[Iām home]
[Welcome back, Onii] (TN: Himeko refers her brother as āOniiā)
[Himeko, I can see something from here]
[Hm? You want to see it?]
[Iām telling you because I donāt want to see it]
[Then donāt look at it]
[Geez]
In the living room of my house on the sixth floor, my sister greeted me with an unmotivated voice.
She has shy eyes, brightly dyed hair with loose perm, and a school uniform that has been worn down to the point of being innapropriate.
My sister, Himeko, is a girl who cares about fashion.
I personally think that sheās pretty cute, even though sheās my sister. But right now, sheās lying on the sofa with her skirt rolled up. She has a very disappointing appearance. Even I frowned at her.
(Haaā¦Theyāre really similar huhā¦ Haruki and Himeko )
I couldnāt help but to compare the image of my childhood friend with the image of my sister in front of me, and let out a sigh.
Iām sure that Iām the only one who can see her like this.
āIām sure that Iām the only one who can see her like thisā, I thought for the second time.
[Himeko, whereās dad?]
[Hospital, heās going to visit mom]
[I see, what about dinner?]
[Please make it, Onii. Iām kind of busy right now]
[Fine]
Himeko was impatiently playing with her phone. After a few moments, I could hear her groaning, āHmm, I remembered that even before I came here, I had been gasping for air, not wanting to be considered as a country bumpkin.ā
Iām sure that sheās been asked lots of questions, just like me. I guess she must have been doing lots of research for it.
[Why donāt you just say that youāre a country bumpkin from the start?]
[Onii, shut up!]
Himeko had a bit of a tendency to be vain. There were a few times when she made mistakes.
I turned my gaze from my sister to the fridge, trying to search for ingredients to cook.
(Letās seeā¦ Leftover pork from the special sale, white onion, green pepper, chinese cabbage, and shiitake mushroom...)
This afternoon, I only ate cobbled bread for lunch, so Iām currently in the mood to eat something heavy.
I decided to cook for todayās dinner. So I might as well tell the steps to you.
First, cut the pork into small pieces, marinate it in a sauce made of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Then, add potato starch and sesame oil.
In the meantime, chop up the vegetables. The amount of the vegetables is fairly loose, as Iām also using most of the ingredients in the fridge. After that, I made a mixture of oyster sauce, bean sauce, soy sauce, and sake.
Lastly, just stir-fry the ingredients, add the seasoning, and voila, youāll get a chinjao lose! (TN: You can search for it on google)
Serve it with some instant miso soup and freshly cooked rice and dinner is done!
[Himeko, dinnerās ready]
[Okayā¦ wait, wow.]
[What is it?]
[Youāre still cooking the same old stuff for dinner arenāt you, Onii?]
[Well, itās a normal dish, isnāt it?]
[Yes, it is]
In the countryside, where entertainment was rare, people would gather at someoneās place for a party.
I used to be invited to make snacks, whatās better is that I got some pocket money from that. Inevitably, my set of menu was biased towards these foods.
[Letās dig in!]
[Go on]
[Mnn~, as expected, Itās better to eat this with rice. Oh yeah, do you know, Onii?]
[Hm?]
[When I first went to school, I noticed this butā¦ Thereās no coin rice mill near hereā¦]
[Say what?]
[But I found one, uhhhā¦ 10 minutes walk from here, thereās oneĀ coin rice mill]
[Is thatā¦ Is that really the nearest one?!]
Both of us are horrified by the difference between the countryside of Tsukinose and the city we moved to.
Not only me, but my younger sister seems to be having a hard time with the gap between our locations.
[Anyway, what happened?]
[What?]
[Something good happened to you right, Onii?]
[How did you know?]
[Youāve been smirking this whole time]
[Eh?]
When my sister pointed it out, I noticed that for the first time that my cheeks were relaxed.
If anything, I was so happy that I got to see my childhood friend Haruki again that it showed on my face.
So I naturally smiled.
[I met Harukiā¦ at school]
[Oh my god, you met Haru-chan?] (TN: I guess our MC is the only one who misunderstood Harukiās gender)
[Whatās more is that, Iām sitting next to her]
[Wow, How does Haru-chan look now?]
[You see...]
I think about my childhood friend, whom I met again today.
In the past, she always wore shorts, a shirt, and a hat. Her clothes were always muddy and she had scratches all over her body.
But now, she has lustrous hair that reaches all the way down to her back and white skin without a single blemish, let alone a scratch. At first glance, she looks like a neat and pretty Yamato Nadeshiko (TN: I explained this before, right?)
But her mischievous smile made me think that she was the same as she was back then.
[She hasnāt changed at all. She evenĀ remembered the āloanā system we had]
[Oh I see, I wish I could meet her]
[I think sheās getting stronger than before. Maybe sheās evolving from a monkey to a gorilla]
[Ahaha, whatās that?]
After that, we both talk about our childhood friend, Haruki. All kinds of memories come flooding back.
I also remembered my loans to her.
That time when the size of the ice cream I divided in half was uneven.
When we competed to catch the most cicadas.
When we competed in a game, just like today.
By using this āloanā system, weāve managed to accumulate lots of memories.
That day, when the end of summer came.
The day when I thought our promise would forever collapse.
We entwined our pinkies to make the promise that we were still alive.
We used to be the same height, but now, weāre different...
The hands that used to be the same size are now different...
Although the speed of our steps was the same, there was a difference between our stride length...
Such differences have appeared between us while weāve been apart.
But Iām sure, these differences wonāt bother my relationship with her.
The relationship that I thought was over, was about to begin again as the summer draws closer.