Side Story 2: Mia’s Apology

With the village’s relocation decided, all of us—myself, Mia, included—were scrambling through the packing.

In circumstances like these, using the chance to get closer to Alde was, of course, completely out of the question…

But still… Yuinas is finally, actually away…

Chances like this don’t come along often. Yuinas is with Alde practically around the clock. Which—they’re siblings, so it can’t be helped, but…

…Wait. Siblings or not, they’re both well past the age for it. Can it really not be helped?

No, but…

Still—trying to catch Alde’s eye right now doesn’t feel fair.

Never mind Yuinas—somehow, I feel guilty toward Her Highness…

(And thinking like this, constantly, is exactly my problem…)

I sighed over the boxes I was sorting in the archive.

At the end of the day, Yuinas and Her Highness are just my excuses for never making a move.

I know that much.

Which is why I want a pretext. At least that.

Some pretext that lets me sit and talk with Alde, even in the middle of all this…

(Oh—that’s it…!)

It came back to me right there.

With everything that happened, I never actually apologized to Alde for standing him up on our Christmas dinner!

So if I use that as my pretext… no—of course the wish to apologize is there in full measure; it just also happens to double as a pretext, is all…

Besides, a bare “sorry I stood you up?” would hardly do.

And since what I’d skipped out on was a dinner—I can’t exactly serve the kind of food nobles eat, but…

…home cooking, made with my whole heart, might make up for at least a little of it.

And busy as the move keeps us, evenings should still be free.

(…Yes. That’s it. That’s the plan…!)

I glanced around.

Naavin was helping sort the archive, so I figured I’d tell him I was stepping out for a bit…

That’s when, for some reason, the goosebumps hit.

“………?!”

I looked around.

Apart from Naavin sorting boxes in the distance, not a soul.

But I heard myself murmur anyway.

“Wh-what…?”

As though someone had been watching me…

But when I checked the doorway—no presence. Nobody.

(J-just my imagination, right…?)

And yet somehow it felt like leaving this spot would be a bad idea…

That going to see Alde right now, especially, would be…

…a spectacularly bad idea!

(Wh-why, though… Is it the guilty conscience after all…?)

But inviting a friend to dinner—Alde, who I’d like to think is more than that, but who for now is a friend—is a perfectly normal thing to do…

(Oh—of course. In that case!)

Unable to scrub off that sense of danger, I remembered: communication magic.

Her Highness did instruct me to have Alde drill it over and over—two birds, one stone.

Besides, over communication magic, none of that strange foreboding. Why that is, I never did work out.

And so, by communication magic, I secured my dinner appointment with Alde.

* * *

That night, I—Alde—had come calling at Mia’s place.

Something about wanting to apologize over the dinner business.

She really didn’t need to worry about it—same old dead-earnest Mia, I thought—but with no reason to refuse, I decided to accept the hospitality.

“Huh? Where’s your old man?”

The living room held nobody but Mia. Who answered from the kitchen counter.

“Dad’s out at the village meeting today. He’ll be late, I think.”

“Ah… right, somebody did mention a meeting.”

The circulating notice board came around to our house too. My old man should be attending.

While I was recalling as much, Mia said,

“Yep—so sit back and relax.”

“Let me help with something.”

“It’s fine. Today’s supposed to be my apology, after all.”

“You really don’t have to worry about that. Besides, sitting idle makes me antsy.”

“Really? Then… could you carry the dishes over?”

So I stepped into the kitchen and picked up the dishes.

Which is when my eyes met Mia’s—apron and all. Her cheeks were red, for some reason.

She was making stew, by the look of it—must be the heat coming off the pot.

Flushed like that, Mia murmured,

“Y-you know… somehow, doing this…”

“Doing this what?”

“N-no! Nothing!”

“…?”

Head tilted, I set the table anyway.

Doing this—what about it?

It’s not like Mia would ever say “doing this feels like feeding a dog.”

…Tisli might, though.

Prep wrapped up along those lines, and Mia carried over the beef stew and the rest of the spread.

“Whoa… look at this feast.”

“Heh heh. It’s been ages since I got to cook for you, Alde. I may have gone overboard.”

“Ages…? Has it been?”

“It has. You did move out of the village, you know.”

“Ah… guess that’s true. Too busy to feel it, maybe.”

“I felt it plenty. You being gone…”

“Why?”

“………No reason.”

…For some reason—

—Mia’s mood seemed to tip a few degrees off level…

But the smile came right back.

“Anyway—eat, before it gets cold.”

“R-right… then, thanks for the meal.”

Inwardly, I wiped my brow.

If this had been Tisli, it would’ve felt like she was about to get seriously upset—but this is Mia, whose big selling point is her kindness.

Seems it was my imagination after all.

Whoa, not good, not good… ever since meeting Tisli, I feel like I’ve gotten kinda wary of women.

That temperament is a Tisli exclusive. They’re not all like that.

If they were all like that… way too terrifying.

Thinking such thoughts, I took a spoonful of the beef stew.

“Oh, man… that’s Mia for you. Delicious.”

“Heh heh. Thanks.”

If Tisli had made this, it would taste of exactly one thing: salt—

—I mean, somehow it’s been nothing but Tisli in my head, hasn’t it?

Right as I noticed—out of nowhere, inside my head: rrrriiing…

“Whoa-oh?!”

It jumped out of my mouth, and Mia startled—”Wh-what’s wrong?”

“Ah… communication magic…”

“Still not used to it, I see.”

“Y-yeah… sorry, give me a second.”

And I answered—out loud, before I could stop myself: “Hello?”

Big brother! Let’s chat again today!

“………Oh, great. Yuinas.”

Yuinas, on the line.

Hearing that mutter of mine, Mia seemed to tense a little.

Well—Yuinas is rough on Mia, no way around it… Even with no direct line between them, the name alone puts Mia on edge, apparently.

Whatever. For Mia’s benefit, I’ll keep taking this call out loud.

“Hey, Yuinas—you can’t call every single night.”

Whaat? Why not? It’s this convenient—calling every night is only natural.

“How is it natural? Communication magic isn’t something people get to use casually in the first place.”

True, true… though if it ever did go casual, couples would positively wear it out, don’t you think?

“All the more reason today’s call ends here.”

Why?!

“Because we’re brother and sister.”

Siblings, couples—same difference!

“All the difference in the world!”

………

“If you get it, then I’m hanging up, okay?”

………Hold on, big brother?

“What.”

Aren’t you awfully quick to rush me off today?

“Rush you? Meaning what?”

Normally you grumble and groan and keep me company anyway. But today you’re winding things up strangely fast, aren’t you.

“I’m in the middle of dinner.”

With whom?

With Mia—

—I swallowed the words with zero room to spare.

“…With the folks and Shiba, obviously.”

Hmmm… I see…

“So I’m hanging up. In exchange, tomorrow I’m all yours.”

………Fine. Forget it.

And Yuinas cut the line from her end.

Huh? Since when does she fold that easily?

I was mid-head-tilt when—

—across the table, Mia went “Hmmm,” groaning.

* * *

So the call is over—the thought had barely crossed my mind—mine, Mia’s—when:

Rrrriiing…

A bell chimed inside my head.

Hence the groan.

“Hmm, hmmm… that’s Yuinas for you…”

“What’s up?”

“From that call just now—I think she’s figured out you’re having dinner with me.”

“Seriously?!”

“Probably…”

I couldn’t hear Yuinas’s side, so the details escaped me—but she must have read it off Alde’s little tells…

Or not so much figured it out as placed her bet, maybe.

Either way—unlike Alde, that girl’s instincts are frightening. Are they really related…?

“No help for it… I’ll see what I can do.”

“R-right… sorry about this.”

“It’s completely fine.”

Because… if I want a future beside Alde…

…she is someone I absolutely have to win over…!

So I braced myself and took the call—out loud, the same as Alde had.

“Hello?”

Mia? It’s me—Yuinas.

“Yuinas? How rare… no—a first, isn’t it? You, calling me.”

Careful not to give anything away, I pretended to be surprised. Over voice alone, even Yuinas shouldn’t be able to see through me that easily.

Yuinas answered in her usual sulky voice.

Well… I suppose.

“I’m glad, though. You, reaching out to me. Or—is something the matter?”

It’s not a problem or anything.

“Then are you offering to chat with me?”

How did you get there?!

“Well—no problem to report, and yet you called me. So…”

Th-that’s…!

For a little while, Yuinas clammed up.

Calling on impulse got her this far—but the part that comes after, she clearly never planned.

Or maybe she simply believed my opening act.

Then Yuinas mumbled,

I just wondered how the village is doing. That’s all.

“The village? I’d have thought you got all that from Alde.”

I do… but I figured I’d hear it from you too, just to be sure.

“Oh, I see! Of course I’ll fill you in. Ah—then let’s do this properly; I’ll brew some coffee. And bring out the tea snacks, and—”

Ah—no no, kidding! Forget it, forget the whole thing!!

Yuinas cut me right off.

Never mind! Big brother’s version was plenty!

“Aww… don’t be like that. Talk with me a little.”

I said never mind!

“Then—I was about to take my bath, so I won’t be answering calls for a while. Is that all right?”

Perfectly all right!

“Honestly… so cold. You’re the one who called me, you know.”

Call it a moment of weakness! I’m hanging up now!

“Okay, okay. But if anything ever comes up, call me anytime, all right?”

If anything comes up, that is!

And with that, Yuinas cut the line.

“Phew…”

I let out a long breath.

“How’d it go?”

Alde asked it looking downright timid, and I gave him a wry smile.

“It’s fine. She doesn’t know.”

“Good…”

And Alde breathed his own sigh of relief.

“She gets awfully cranky about me being around you. You saved me there.”

“Mm, well… it is partly my fault, after all.”

He knows she gets cranky—so how does the reason why never once cross his mind…? I was a little exasperated.

To be fair, they’re siblings; maybe the thought has nowhere to come from. But with Alde it’s like this in every direction…

My confession, for one, seems to have slipped his mind entirely.

I did say I don’t need an answer, but—

—I also said “remember it,” didn’t I?

Which is why I suddenly felt like being a little mean.

“But look at us—now we have a secret from Yuinas.”

“A secret? I mean, technically, but—dinner with a friend is hardly—”

“Hmmm… a friend, am I?”

My eyes narrowed all on their own.

Alde blinked at me, blank.

“Eh? You’re not?”

“Maybe not, hm?”

“Whaat?! I’ve been thinking of you as a friend this whole time!”

Well… of course you have.

To Alde, the idea of more than friends wouldn’t occur in a hundred years.

I know that. Of course I know that.

I know it, but—

—calling the girl who confessed to you a “friend”? Really?

“Hmmm… I see. So Alde thinks of me as a friend.”

“Y-yeah…? And you’re saying… you don’t?”

“Maybe I don’t, hm?”

“Y-you don’t…?”

Alde deflated, just noticeably.

And watching him deflate, I couldn’t hold anything against him—

—which is probably why I fell for him.

“Then… what do you think of me, Mia?”

It came out exactly like an insecure boyfriend’s line, and the laugh escaped before I could stop it.

“Wh-what’s so funny?”

“Sorry, sorry—I just thought, once in a while, this isn’t so bad.”

My clowning finally landed, apparently—Alde looked miffed.

“What… you were teasing me?”

“Let’s see… half teasing.”

“Half? Then what’s the other half supposed to be?”

“Want to hear it?”

I let a knowing smile show.

Alde nodded—with a small grimace attached.

So I told him, sunny as anything:

“The friend who matters to me more than anyone—that’s what I think you are.”

What kind of face Alde made, hearing that—

—that, I felt, was mine alone.

(And that’s that.)

• Previous
• Next