This might sound way too obvious, but I liked vacation.
Back in my elementary school days, I didn’t have a phone to carry around, and our home computer wasn’t that great, plus we didn’t have a game console either.
Honestly, other than playing outside with the kids in the afternoon, there wasn’t much to do, but still, it was nice.
First of all, there was no need to wake up forcibly in the morning. My parents did wake me and my sister up for breakfast, but I could just go back to sleep after eating.
As the vacation went on, my parents stopped insisting on waking us up and just said they made breakfast before leaving.
Since most of my friends were the kids living nearby, it was just fine to play with my sister and neighborhood friends. We’d sometimes watch kids playing games at the small arcade in front of the supermarket or share snacks and ice cream with my sister for just 500 won.
There was a stream flowing near our house, so we played in the water too. Looking back, even though I lived in Seoul, it felt like I was doing stuff country kids would do. I’d catch a bunch of loaches by the stream, chase after cicadas, and even climb mountains.
Well, not all Seouls are the same.
Tokyo is similar. Actually, saying “not all Tokyos are the same” might fit Tokyo even better.
That’s because Tokyo is “Tokyo Metropolis.” It might use different kanji from Gyeonggi-do’s ‘do,’ but nonetheless, it feels like a higher concept than ‘city.’ The farther you get from downtown Tokyo, the more farming areas you see, and the buildings get shorter. In a way, it’s like bundling together Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon as where I lived in my previous life.
In that sense, if you asked me what kind of place I live in, I’d say “downtown.”
Not to mention, it’s pretty amazing that the small apartment where Kaga-mi and I live is not far from the school I go to. Although it feels more like an area filled with empty offices during the day than a flashy shopping district.
Even if we do call it downtown, there’s a huge difference between places where tall buildings are packed together and places where people actually live. If we go to a densely packed residential area, there might as well be a two-story small apartment where Kaga-mi and I live.
Not everyone living in the middle of a city resides in large, spacious houses. There’s obviously a demand for this.
Even if the place looks a bit old, well, I guess it’s cleaner than the place we used to live before.
Anyway, back to talking about vacation.
In my previous life, I had my sister with me, so my parents seemed a bit more relaxed mentally, but Kaga-mi in this world was not like that at all.
“Where do you like to go, Koto Ne? Harumi’s house? Yuuki’s house?”
Kaga-mi asked me while making eye contact.
“……”
As I squinted and puffed out my cheeks, Kaga-mi looked a bit flustered.
“Why, why do you look like that? Did Mom do something wrong?”
Although Kaga-mi’s face was cute as she asked that, I was slightly annoyed—not for that reason.
Between Harumi and Yuuki, I hold the older sibling position, sort of. Of course, Harumi’s and my birthdays are sooner, and I’m the shortest among us three, but still, I’m the calmest and most level-headed personality-wise.
I can also handle things that the two kids find scary.
But it seems Kaga-mi doesn’t see me that way, probably because she hasn’t directly witnessed me being like that, thinking of me as more of a younger sibling to Harumi and Yuuki.
I get it, really.
No matter how much I say it directly, I’m still an elementary school student. Especially since I just started school barely a year ago, I’m like a chick that just hatched.
If I take the lead with the two kids, it would just come off as exaggerated bragging typical of a kid.
In reality, every time I chatter away, Kaga-mi just looks happy, resting her chin in her hands and smiling.
“I can also be alone.”
When I said that, Kaga-mi’s eyes widened.
Is this really such a big deal?
Harumi, Yuuki, and I regularly hung around our neighborhood. Harumi would go insect collecting, swinging her net around, and I’d help her pull cicadas out of it.
These days, Harumi can even catch cicadas herself. Yuuki still can’t, though.
We carried a bunch of coins to buy drinks and took breaks in cool places.
Ironically, I ended up knowing the area around Harumi and Yuuki’s place better than where Kaga-mi and I lived.
I don’t mind that. I understand the notion of being treated like a little kid.
But sometimes, I also want to be alone.
“……”
Um.
Feeling the awkward silence, I seriously pondered whether I had already entered my puberty phase.
Not quite, but still.
What can I say?
It’s not so much wanting to be alone, but hey, it’s vacation, right?
Even if I go out in the afternoon, I want something, you know? I don’t exactly have a specific plan in mind or anything.
Once I looked directly at Kaga-mi, she lowered her hands from her shoulders and thought seriously.
“Can you be alone?”
Some might think it’s child abuse to leave a seven-year-old home alone. That perception was a bit lighter until the ’90s.
Even though I’m somewhat starting to differentiate things, I could easily get myself into trouble. Like climbing on top of something stacked, or turning on the gas stove and forgetting about it.
I get Kaga-mi’s worries.
“Yeah.”
I nodded and said.
No matter how much I’m Kaga-mi’s only family and her reason for living, I think she might have caught on to the fact that I’m a bit smarter than other kids.
“Me… uh.”
But Kaga-mi seemed unable to fully accept my wish.
“Is that a no?”
“That’s… I’m sorry.”
“……Okay.”
I nodded.
Pushing harder here might not be the best for Kaga-mi’s mental state. I just wanted to say it once; I had no intention to hurt her feelings.
I leaned closer to Kaga-mi, who then pulled me in and patted my head.
“Well then, in the third grade. You can be home alone starting in the third grade.”
“Third grade.”
“Yeah, from that time.”
That’s two more years, huh?
Well, that’s no problem.
I nodded in Kaga-mi’s embrace.
I could hear her exhale a light sigh above my head. She looked relieved.
“Well then, whose house are we going to today?”
“Harumi’s.”
“Okay, I’ll take you to Harumi’s.”
With Kaga-mi’s voice sounding lighter, my mood lightened a bit too.
……Looks like I wasn’t the only one scared that our relationship might change.
*
Still, there’s one thing I can definitely say is good about going to Harumi’s house.
Harumi’s house has air conditioning.
“So refreshing~”
For some reason, Harumi, who had been awake since morning, took me directly to Yuuki’s house as soon as we arrived at her place.
Then she dragged Yuuki out, and after wandering around the neighborhood, we returned home around lunchtime.
I didn’t hear why Harumi was in such a good mood. Yuuki, who had been dragged out from the morning, was sitting next to me in the spot where the air conditioning blow was the strongest, blinking in dazed silence.
Even when we had banana for dessert, Harumi didn’t share anything interesting, so I figured I’d ask first.
“Hey, Harumi. You’ve been awake since this morning, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
Usually, Harumi would get up about an hour after I arrive. At first, she’d wake up as soon as I came over, but now she seems to think it’s so natural that her wake-up time keeps getting pushed back.
“Is there a reason? Like, did you go to bed early yesterday or something?”
“Ah.”
Harumi’s expression froze for a moment as she munched on a piece of banana that had been lightly frozen in the freezer.
I could see a half-chewed piece of banana peeking out from her open mouth.
“That’s right!”
She managed to shout without spitting out the banana.
Realizing that she still had banana in her mouth, Harumi quickly chewed it and swallowed before saying, “Yuuki, Koto Ne!”
“Yeah?”
“Uh-huh.”
Yuuki, suddenly called out loudly, flinched and returned the banana to the tray. No, that’s not it. I picked up the fork still stuck in that banana and fed it to Yuuki while looking at Harumi.
With a confident attitude, Harumi had her hands perched on her hips.
“Let’s go to the beach, the beach!”
Aha.
So that was the reason.
Maybe she had a chat with Fukuda-san about this or realized there was already a plan set up just yesterday.
It seems that she was waiting for me since early this morning, having woken up with excitement after realizing she had completely forgotten about it.
The beach, huh.
I turned to Yuuki, whose eyes were sparkling. It seemed he had also forgotten about the banana in his mouth.
Hmm.
I wondered if Kaga-mi could go with us.
I found myself unnecessarily worrying about that.
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