Thanks to reconciling his differences with Kougi, Kichi’s life did remain normal going forward. He was glad about how things turned out, but it wasn’t perfect either. The main issue being what to do about his sister.

What she dropped on him that night was a major bombshell. He had never been confessed to before and the boy never once imagined the first time being from his sister. How was he supposed to answer that? Not only was he uncertain if it were normal, but this was far from normal.

They were siblings. It was wrong for them to hold romantic feelings for each other. The two already knew this, so he was not sure how she managed to do that for him. Kichi wouldn’t say he was anything special. Sure, they had spent more time with each other than with anyone else, but that was normal for siblings. Otherwise you’d see that happening much more often.

It didn’t matter either way. All that did matter is he was a boy stuck in this position. Though did it really affect either of them much? From the way Kougi had been acting since that night. She seemed to pretend as if she never confessed to him in the first place. As if the event never occurred or that she was joking about it the whole time. Maybe that latter part was correct, but he still had the image in his mind about the way she held him. The way she looked when he gave her that kiss on the cheek.

Furthermore, how could he actually do something like that? Kichi wasn’t sure on what he felt. His mind told him that he should just outright reject without a second thought. They were siblings. Yet at the same time, he didn’t want to close the door on that outcome despite its forbidden nature. That kiss he gave her was a sign of his mixed feelings on the matter. That he still had no answer for her.

“Hey, you all right?” Chuuya’s words broke the boy out of the trance he found himself in.

“Huh?” For a moment, it took some time for Kichi to regain his bearings. “Yeah, of course I am.” He responded after realizing he was at school. “What makes you ask that?”

“Well classes ended about five minutes ago and you’re still sitting here.” He told him. Kichi looked around the classroom to see that it was mostly empty now. The only people here were these two and Aoi who was standing up in front talking with their teacher.

He couldn’t believe he somehow didn’t notice the first time he looked around. When the boy saw the lack of students, he thought it was the morning and they were about to start class soon.

“Right sorry.” He got up and hastily put everything in his bag. “I was just thinking about some stuff.”

“Well as long as you don’t accidentally walk into the road while thinking those things. I can go home now.” Despite them being close friends since elementary, the pair didn’t live close to each other. So they never walked home together unless they had planned on hanging out or had to work on a project together. “See ya. Don’t get yourself killed without me.”

“Okay, I’ll see you later.” Kichi rolled his eyes from his friend’s seemingly non caring nature. Though to be fair, it wasn’t like he knew about what was really going on. There was no possible way that he would ever consider telling even his best friend that he was struggling on his feelings with his sister. That would probably lead to a wedge between their relationship because of how weird it was. Or even worse, it would lead to him being made fun of.

After that boy left, Kichi had planned on heading out right after him. That was when he noticed Aoi all alone after she had finished her talk with the teacher. The girl had a bunch of papers in her hand as she headed to her desk. “You staying after school or something?” He asked, pausing right at the doorway.

“You dumb or something?” She replied in snide fashion. “I had to get extra work because Airi missed class today.”

“Airi missed class today?” He was shocked to hear that news. The boy really did blur out everything that happened around him today.

“Yes, she wasn’t here all day.” Aoi responded, looking at him like he was an idiot. “Airi was sick, so I just needed to get the things she needed to keep up in school.” She planned on heading right home and staying there, but Kichi had an idea he barely bothered to think about.

“Do you want to hang out?” He asked her, stopping the girl from leaving. “I mean, you can drop off that stuff at your place. But maybe after that we could… Go somewhere?” For the first time, Kichi had actually asked a girl to spend time with him. While Aoi was not the person he ever considered having the honor of being that. There weren’t many options for him anyway.

“I don’t know about that.” She answered. “It’ll just be the two of us. So I can’t imagine why you’d want that.” Considering the way she acted towards him since the day they met. Aoi thought a boy would be crazy to be interested in a girl like her. That had been how things had worked at their old school. So she wondered what made this boy so different.

“I just felt like it.” He told her. The truth was he was not certain if walking home with his sister like he always did was a good time for that now. In a sense, he was simply using this girl to run away from his problems. That made him feel bad, but at the same time he knew that it was what he needed to do for now. At some point he have to confront these emotions, but the boy simply wasn’t ready yet. “If you want to say no though, I understand.”

“…” He walked away, taking her silence as a quiet rejection. Then in sudden fashion, Aoi grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. “Fine, I’ll do it.” She knew her sister would want her to do this. That Airi would want her to try new things and risks without any support. This was an important decision to make and she hoped that it was one where she could trust him.

“Oh... Good.” It took him a moment for the realization to set in. The boy took out his phone and prepared to send a message to Kougi telling her that he wouldn’t be walking home with her today. After he had written the contents of the message, he paused looking at the words. There was hesitation as he contemplated if this was the right thing to do. However as he hit send, Kichi knew that there would be no going back on this choice.

“I guess we can just go wherever you want to go.” She said as they walked out of school. While Aoi would’ve preferred to not have to lug around her bag for the rest of the day. It wouldn’t be enough of a hindrance for her to take a detour back home first. “Let me guess though, you don’t have a clue on where we’re going, do you?”

“Of course I do.” He replied, but then shortly had to admit this to be the case. “Okay fine, I don’t. But surely there’s somewhere you’re interested in going to.”

“I’m supposed to be trusting the local here.” Aoi gave him a retort and looked around. She began to regret her decision on joining him on a day like today. It was beautiful indeed, she couldn’t deny that. With the sun shining down with no clouds in sight. However even on days like this, she would normally be holed up in her room doing things she liked doing. Public spaces were not her preference, so the girl didn’t have any places she liked going to. “Why don’t you flip your stupid coin then?”

“Oh, so now you want to use it.” He remarked as he reached into his pocket. “Okay how about this? Heads, we go to the left.” He pointed towards the direction where plenty of people were walking towards. It was where most of the stores and cafes were located, so it would provide plenty of options for them to stumble into. “Tails, we go to the right.” The other side was much less inviting. There were few people and it seemed dreary despite being a mid June day.

“I think we already know which way we want to go.” She commented as he tossed up the coin. “Obviously we’re going-”

“Right.” He finished her sentence as he saw the coin landed tails. Though it was not the word she would’ve chosen. “Okay, let’s go.” Kichi walked first, leading the way for them. Aoi sighed, while she didn’t want to go in this direction. She had no other choice but to follow him.