It had been a while since I’d stood in front of the doors to the house.

I took a deep breath and unlocked the gate, slipping through the crack. The garden was a well maintained as ever. Before I could even knock at the front door it burst open, an excited looking lady of the house waving me inside.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I sighed. She’d really taken to being my mother in the past few years. Once everybody got over the… weirdness, it was like any other happy family in town. I was eternally thankful to her and Gorou for taking me in when I needed it.  Him and Reina were waiting for me in the dining room. Reina couldn’t help herself. She leapt out of her chair and gave me a big hug.

“I haven’t been away for that long.”

“Longer than you’ve ever been away before,” she mumbled.

“That’s what happens when we go to different Universities.”

We settled down and had a meal together for the first time in ages. Reina had let her hair grow out even more than before. It was really long. I, on the other hand, had decided to cut it short the first chance I got. I’d never say it to anyone else but I enjoyed mixing up my hairstyle every so often.

Dad was beside himself with happiness at having a full house again, “How’s it going over there? Are you settling in to the city?”

“Made some new friends, the work is pretty tough.”

“I’m sure it’ll be no problem – you’ve a bit of me in you.”

“I wonder sometimes.” I felt a little bad about leaving the house empty. But we all had to grow up eventually. What kind of responsible adult would I be if I leeched off my parent’s goodwill for the rest of my life? “What about you Reina?”

She smiled, “I’ve made a lot of friends too.”

“You’re probably showing everyone up…”

“Not that much, I only finished second in my year on the last exam.”

“Not that much?”

Gorou laughed, “Am I sensing a sibling rivalry here?”

I shook my head, “Studying music and politics are two entirely different things. Not to mention that we have to work in teams.”

“You can’t fly solo all the time, when I was learning to paint I worked with other people constantly. Or maybe that album you released is getting to your head?”

I blushed, “Don’t mention that! It’s so embarrassing!”

Mom covered her mouth, “But it’s lovely! We have it on the radio nearly every day.” I buried my head in my hands and tried to disappear into the furniture. All of the money did go to Shinsuke in the end. The first chance he got, he was out of that house and on his own. “What happened to your clubmates in the end?”

“I don’t know exactly, but we’re having a little reunion later. I’m sure we’ll bully all the answers out of each other in time.”

“Yo!”

“Johnny, you haven’t changed a bit.” He really hadn’t. He was wearing the exact same kind of crap that he wore back in school.

He pointed at himself as if he didn’t believe it, “Me? I like the new haircut – rebellious.”

I smoothed it down, the wind was strong. “It’s trendy. Rebellious would be dying it bright pink and spiking it.” I took a spot next to him against the wall. “How’s Kashiwagi? You still working together?”

“Yep. It’s been going great. I got to backup a big act last week. They were really impressed with me, might be a full-time spot in it for me.”

“You’ll get there one day rock star, you can be the most famous part-time shop worker in the country.”

He scoffed and looked away, “Boss keeps giving me shit about my hair.”

“Does it even need to be like that?” I smirked, “Can’t you just go normal until you land a proper spot?”

“No way! Presentation is half of the job! And not all of us are blessed with natural good looks like you.”

“And a family that can send me to University.”

“Don’t remind me, lucky bastard.”

It took ten minutes for the next merry member of our sordid band to arrive. Kei rounded the corner and waved, “Hey!” He was wearing a sports jacket and ripped jeans. He’d bleached the tips of his hair, old school for sure. Johnny gave him a fist bump and patted him on the back. “I’m not late?”

“That’s a first, only one left to go.”

Just as Johnny finished his sentence, the last man arrived. Shinsuke, looking very embarrassed to be the only one dressed somewhat smartly. He ducked his head down, “Aw man.” Johnny and Kei laughed at his expense and ribbed him a little.

“Look at Mister Salaryman over here.”

“I am a salaryman. Why am I the only one here who grew up?”

“Hey, I’m going to university right now. These two don’t have an excuse though.”

We filed into the designated meeting location, a local bar that Johnny had always been obsessed with going into. We were all at the age where we could drink, legally. I hadn’t spent much of my time partying at University, I was usually too busy. We snatched a booth at the back corner. It was a cosy little place.

“It feels like an age since I last saw all of you.”

“You look a lot more confident Shinsuke.”

“Uh-huh. Getting out of the house did a lot of work for me. I thought I was in real trouble when my exam results came in, but that money you made get me a down payment on an apartment, and then I landed a job so I could support myself. They’ve been looking after me, showing me the ropes.” Shinsuke laid his phone out on the table, it was vibrating, “Mom” was sprawled across the screen.

“She’s seriously calling you right now?” Kei frowned.

“They never stopped. I told them that I needed my own space, but they’re keeping at it. I had to get a different phone to take into work with me.”

“Assholes.”

“You get used to it. I’ve probably been keeping them at an arm’s length for long enough, but I still don’t feel like calling them back, or anything else.”

“Screw ‘em,” Johnny declared, “You don’t owe them a thing dude.”

I nodded, “Nobody’s expecting you to go running back to them now. You’re a fully-grown man, you can make your own decisions.”

“It’s tough. Sometimes I nearly crack and come out with all of these apologies.”

“It’s hard to hate family. Even when they do something wrong to you. You need to hold the line, maybe they’ll realize that they’re the ones who need to swallow some hard truths about the way they treated you.”

“That’s the plan.”

Johnny turned to me, “Miyako, Kashiwagi is desperate to get you back for another album.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah! I mean, business has been great ever since – he’s climbing the ladder, steadily. More appearances, more bookings, bigger names…”

“I highly doubt it’ll make a splash the second time around. My five minutes of fame are well and truly over.” My social media pages were pretty big and the more dedicated followers still took my word as gospel, but that wouldn’t push many copies of a full priced album.

“You’re like… a properly trained musician, right? At least it’ll sound really good.”

“I’ll think about it. It’ll be hard to find the time. And we’d have to get the band back together, maybe with a new name?”

“There was nothing wrong with Seifuku,” Johnny chuckled.

“We’re not in high school anymore.”

“So? When since did that stop anyone?”

Kei slapped the table, “I’d be down.”

Shinsuke looked to the bar out of the corner of his eye, “If you’re asking, as long as it doesn’t take up too much time.”

“And Johnny can sing on it,” I concluded.

“No way. Listen, I realized how much I stunk years ago.”

“Aw come on.”

“No, I’m being serious. You’re a way better frontman than I am!”

Kei stood up, “Here they go again with this… I’m going to go order some drinks. I think we’ll need them.” Johnny pushed me aside and slipped out to follow him.

Shinsuke laughed, “It’s like we never left.” He waited until the other two were out of earshot, “Had any more divine intervention?”

“No. I don’t think I need it.”

“I always kept wondering, why didn’t that happen to me? Not to make light of what was up with you, but…”

“We both had our own problems – but even gods can’t bend rules, apparently. He told me a lot of bull, I don’t know if any of it was true. We have free will, so he can’t just snap his fingers and fix everything for us. Even when he did it for me there was a lot for me to think about.”

“So?”

“I think in the end, help only matters when we accept it. We kinda’ forced you into the whole album thing, and sprung the money on you too.”

“But I appreciate it, I was being really stupid. I’d be in real trouble if I just stuck around the house and let them… you know, do that to me. Now I’ve got my own place, a job, I can start doing what I really want to do.”

Johnny and Kei came back, each with a pair of beers in their hands, “What’s with all the serious chat? Let’s drink.”

“You look so excited about this,” Shinsuke rolled his eyes. “Serious talk is the reason we’re here, we haven’t seen each other in ages. When was the last time we were all in the same place together?”

I thought back to that last meeting, “A few months after graduation. After that Johnny was always flaking on us.”

“Hey! You moved out of town, don’t go blaming it on me.”

“I still come back now and then, I get holidays too.”

We got pretty drunk. Maybe a bit too much. I nearly choked Johnny out after he decided to ask me about my love life. That was something I hadn’t figured out for myself yet. I was a bit nervous about the idea, I’d been so focused on wanting what I had, that I didn’t think about it. Did I like men or women? Did I even like other people that way?

I had to take it as it came, we all did.

DWS

I decided to keep things simple for this last chapter. Thank you very much to all of the people who got this far, I hope you enjoyed the story. There are a lot of things I'd like to do with Impossible Sister, but I won't bore you with an overlong breakdown of everything wrong with it. The last chapter of anything is a time to reflect on what you could do better next time. I might come back to this and re-edit it for a release on Amazon, who knows.

But for now, that's the end!