Chapter 2

As much as I wanted to track down Aoi Kimura and ask her about my mother, in the end I had to find out where the address on the envelope was. It didn't come with directions to get there. By the time I found a set of directions, it was nearly sunset. Fortunately, that day was on a half day, so school was already out for the day. None of my martial arts classes took place that day, either.

The train ride to the address on the envelope lasted about twenty minutes, giving me plenty of time to think about all the questions I wanted to ask. Where did my mother live? What was she like? Why had my parents split up? Had Mom ever married again? Not likely. I hadn't seen any men in the pictures Aoi had sent. Did my brother know anything about me? Possibly...Although the fact that he hadn't shown up in my life meant that either he was forbidden to see me, or that he, like me, had been lied to and still thought he was an only child.

Aoi Kimura lived in a a modest apartment building in a quiet neighborhood, roughly twenty minutes away from my place by train. I walked up to the apartment door trying to keep the butterflies in my stomach to a minimum. What was I so nervous about? No, nervous wasn't quite the right word for it. Excited would be more like it. I was finally going to get some answers. If Aoi still lived there. If she was willing to talk to me...

I shook my head. Those thoughts were getting me nowhere. There was only one way to answer my questions. I lifted my hand and knocked on the door. The next few seconds felt like eternities as I tried to convince myself to wait. Whoever was there had to walk to the door, right? Maybe there was nobody home. Maybe Aoi was off at work, or out visiting friends, or...

The door opened.

I was expecting an older person. Someone who was close enough to my family to take pictures of my brother every year.

I wasn't actually expecting the person who opened the door to actually be my brother.

My first thought was that pictures of Kouichi paled in comparison to the real thing. They didn't show little details such as the way his eyes widened in shock, then flitted nervously around to everything except me, as if he had just realized he was staring. The way his breathing suddenly quickened. How his hand gripped the door harder, as if to reassure himself that he wasn't dreaming.

A million thoughts raced through my head. What was Kouichi doing here? Did he and his mother live with Aoi, or was he just visiting? What did he know about me? Did he know anything? Or was he like I had been until yesterday?

I don't know how long he and I stood there staring at each other, before I finally found my voice.

"I...I'm looking for Aoi Kimura." There, that was a safe enough place to start. The blue eyes widened, and he gasped softly before turning his head away. I saw something in his eyes: sadness, maybe grief. Had something happened to Aoi?

"Does she still live here?"

He nodded, then reluctantly pulled the door open the rest of the way, a clear invitation for me to come in. The apartment was homey, if sparsely furnished. A table in the dining space, which wasn't too far from the kitchen. Beyond that in the living room I saw a beaten-up looking couch with a side table. The walls were covered in framed pictures with the occasional bookshelf rounding everything off. I took my shoes off next to the door, noticing that there was only one other pair of shoes there and that they were my size. Kouichi was alone, then.

"Who are you?"

I turned to see Kouichi staring at me intently.

"Why do you look like me? How do you know Grandma?"

"She's your grandmother?" I couldn't keep the excitement out of my voice. "Do you live with her? Where is she? Where's your mother?"

Kouichi froze before pulling himself together. "Y-You haven't answered my question. Who are you?"

I took a deep breath. Kouichi clearly had no idea who I was. This was going to be awkward.

"You...You'd better sit down, it's...complicated."

He blinked, then moved over to the table in the dining space. He pulled out a chair for me, then sat down in another one. Once we were both seated, I began.

"My name's Kouji Minamoto. I was looking through the attic this morning when I found a box of old pictures and letters my father kept..." I pulled out the baby pictures I had brought with me, the one with the two of us and our parents at a zoo. "I found these..."

Kouichi looked down at the picture and his face paled, eyes widening in shock as he realized the implications.

"You..." His eyes closed and he took a deep breath to steady himself. "...But, why...? Why didn't Mom or Grandma tell me I have a brother?"

"I don't know. Dad didn't tell me, either."

He looked up at me, then down at the picture again.

"I...I knew Mom and Dad were divorced. When I asked Mom about it, she looked so sad that I never asked her again...I asked Grandma about it, but she said that I should ask Mom instead of her..."

"Dad told me that Mom died in a car accident when I was two."

"He what?" Kouichi's eyes shot back up to me. "But, that's..." He cut off abruptly.

"I know. I haven't told Dad that I know yet...If I did, he'd probably try to keep me from meeting you and Mom."

He looked like he wanted to object to that for some reason, but instead went back to looking at the picture.

"Where is Mom? Do you two live here with your grandmother?"

"Mom's at work. Grandma..." He trailed off, and I saw his eyes show that sadness again. His hand subtly clenched into a fist. Not a good sign.

"Is she still alive?" I winced as soon as the words came out of my mouth. If that didn't sound awkward, I would eat my shoes.

"Yeah, she's at the hospital, recovering from pneumonia."

"Oh." What else could I say? Silence loomed over us for a minute. Kouichi's eyes seemed to be glued to the table, and he seemed to be...withdrawing into himself, for lack of a better phrase.

"So, you three live here together?" I asked, more to break the oppressive silence than anything else. Kouichi nodded.

"When does your mother get out of work?"

Kouichi's eyes flicked to a nearby clock on the wall. "Just now. She'll be home soon."

"What does she do?"

"She works at a doctor's office. She's a secretary."

Something about Kouichi's voice sounded a little strange, like this wasn't something he really wanted to talk about. Before I could ask him about it, he got to his feet.

"Would you like something to drink...? We have tea, orange juice, milk..."

"I'll just take some juice, thanks."

Kouichi nodded, then went to a nearby cupboard and pulled out two glasses. As he poured the orange juice, I remembered the pictures that his grandmother had sent. I mentally cursed myself for not bringing any of them.

"Your grandmother sent Dad a bunch of pictures of you growing up...I guess she wanted him to know how you were doing. That's how I got this address. I would have brought them if I'd known you lived here, too." I took the glass of juice Kouichi offered me as he sat down again. I didn't mention that Dad hadn't even looked at those pictures. I didn't think it would be a good idea, considering.

"She sent pictures? I remember her taking some of me reading last year...I'd wondered why she was doing it. Grandma said it was for a project she was working on." A small hint of a shy smile crept onto Kouichi's face. "I thought it was weird that she'd want pictures of me reading like that, but it didn't bother me."

"Maybe she took it because it was something you like to do?" I shrugged. "Dad had letters from some old friends that knew you and Mom, and they said you read a lot."

"Maybe." Kouichi drank down some juice, and I joined him. For a moment, we were both silent again.

"What's Mom like?"

Kouichi put his glass down, and I saw he had that sad look in his eyes again.

"She...She's strong. It's not easy...Mom does everything she can to make sure Grandma and I are happy."

"She must really love you." Would Mom love me like that?

"I know she does." His eyes darkened a bit more, then he changed the subject. "What about you?"

I blinked. "Me?"

"Well, if what you're saying is true, then you're my brother too. I'd like to know more about you."

I paused a bit before answering.

"I live with Dad and my stepmother, Satomi. Dad works at a law firm, Satomi works from home as a computer programmer."

"Really?" Kouichi's eyes stayed glued to the table. "It must be nice having two parents." There was something in his voice. Anger? Jealousy, perhaps? While I didn't consider Satomi a parent, I sympathized with Kouichi. If he was alone like this every day...

"I've also got a dog, a German Shepard. Her name's Raiko."

"That's nice."

It wasn't just me, Kouichi definitely sounded...Like he didn't want to hear it. Was he jealous? Could I blame him if he was? He lived in a small apartment with a mother who worked all day, and a grandmother who was in the hospital. I lived in a two-story house with two parents-if you could call Satomi a parent-and a dog.

"Kouichi, we don't have to talk about my family if it's making you uncomfortable."

"N-no, I'm not uncomfortable. You can keep going." He didn't once look up while he said that.

"You don't sound comfortable." Why had Kouichi brought up the subject in the first place? Was it something to do with the previous suject, his mother? Why would he not want to talk about his mother?

"I told you, I'm fine!" Kouichi snapped with an unexpected vehemence, his eyes now flashing dangerously with anger, and...Sadness?

"Okay, I get it." There was definitely something going on. Possibly something more than mere jealousy. I decided to steer the subject to something safer. "What kind of books do you like to read?"

"Whatever I can get my hands on..." Kouichi's shoulders were starting to relax, and while his eyes were still on the table they no longer had the same combination of sadness and anger. "I like fantasy books the most, but I'll read anything...Even Mom's romance novels. They gave me an award for it at school last year."

"I think that was in one of the pictures your grandmother sent."

He looked up, shyly. "Really?"

"Yeah. I wish I'd brought it with me."

"We have a copy here, too." Kouichi slipped out of his chair and over to a nearby bookshelf. A second later, he came back with a photo album.

"Here..." He opened the book and flipped to a page with the same picture I had seen back at home. "It was the end of the school year, and they were celebrating all the things kids had done...I was the one who had read the most books that year."

"In your class?"

Kouichi's eyes flicked back to the table, but a shy smile grew on his face. "In the whole school."

I stared at him. "I knew you were into books, but that's amazing!"

Kouichi blushed. "It's nothing, just something I do..."

Whatever he would have said after that was cut off by the sound of a key turning in the lock on the door. Kouichi's eyes widened, and I saw the sadness in them again as the door opened.

She was thinner than the pictures I had seen, and a bit paler. Her face was careworn and drawn with exhaustion. Yet, she was still the same mother I had thought was dead for so long.

"...Mom..."