He arrived home after the days of his date with Kotoko, any afternoon.
The airs of spring were approaching and the fresh winds of winter moved away from the epithelial proximity.
He placed his shoes on the shelf where they accommodated the shoes of each of his family, to put on the slippers he used to use when he was in the comforts of his home.
"Welcome, Onii-chan." His mother whistled smiling, he nodded blankly, as always.
"Onii-chan" His brother greeted him by looking up from the ground where he was doing homework.
Since Kotoko had moved out of his home, his brother started to do the homework in the living room instead of doing it in his room, since even if he didn't admit it, he felt lonely. And in solitude doing the homework wasn't given much to Yuuki, on the contrary, he took twice as much as being accompanied.
Naoki could say the same.
He felt lonely most of the time, even when he was with his family at the two meals of the day he shared with them, or even when his mother told him stories of how he had done on the day. It didn't matter how many things he was told and how many people were in the same existential space as him, because he would always feel alone.
He was a lonely man, and meaningless.
But, there was only one person in his life who gave a meaning to that life without having it, and that person had moved out of his house indefinitely.
He loved Kotoko, and he loved her very much, but that wasn't enough to make her stay in his home because he never rebelled her, for being a coward.
Only with Kotoko did he feel accompanied, like a man with meaning and completeness; He felt happy to live, and blessed with life. His life made sense when she was by his side.
Nothing was worth to him than her company.
With a sigh he dropped on the living room sofa, pounding his weight to fall straight into the seat. Rendered after having had a strenuous day of homework and studies.
He huffed annoyed, knowing that he hated engineering and was not happy in that angry career that did not provide him with the challenge he found in medicine.
"How was your day, Onii-chan?" His mother asked, bringing a cup of tea and tea bags of her choice. He accepted it pleased to have a drink that would relax his throat and with it, his entire body. He really felt glimpsed and heavy.
"Good" He replied immediately, indifferent to everything.
"Yuuki, today, invited Kotoko-chan to the house" She notified him with a sly expression. "And of course she accepted!"
"What?" His voice came stoic, something his mother didn't like very much. He saw her tense at his apparent indifference.
"Apparently he dialed her cell phone." She inquired, raising an eyebrow in modesty, glancing at her youngest son, who, fortunately, didn't pretend indifference or disturbance from the comments made by his mother.
"We keep in touch through social networks" He admitted, rolling his eyes. "Mom, don't try to spy on our conversations because I won't tell you which social networks that Baka uses to communicate" He warned.
"And what are you talking about?" His mother asked anxiously for information. "If I can know" She added in mock indignation.
"I won't tell you," he grumbled.
As far as Irie Naoki was concerned, he was thoughtful, remembering previously his last meeting with Kotoko. He seriously regretted his recklessness, having been too selfish could have cost him dearly.
He acknowledged behaving like an idiot, but it was worse, because he had made her cry. What would be a pleasant night between the two of them ended in a painful confession on her part when she told him events of her past, events that didn't please him, but that nevertheless were part of her life.
But he didn't forgive himself for making Kotoko cry. Watching her tears fade, her voice breaking, her eyes saddening and clouding, her body trembling, and above, cornering her. He, by all means, was an idiot, a reverend idiot!
But much to his regret, he had to face his mistake and keep trying to win Kotoko's heart regardless of the price and the time he managed to do it.
His mother approached him, making him return to himself momentarily.
"She'll arrive later so you better be nice to her." She ordered changing her expression to a severe one. "Because she comes with a plan to stay with us again!" She screamed that last sentence with infusion. "She said she probably gives us the date she lives with us again"
What? Kotoko will come to the house? I haven't heard such good news like that in a while.
Truly? Naoki was petrified of emotion. He wanted to smile and celebrate it at four winds, but he wouldn't do it in front of his family, not even crazy!
He hadn't received good news for a long time.
After six in the afternoon, the bell rang.
His mother immediately shot out to the door to open it, while he and his brother were still in the living room hanging out as Kotoko arrived; he was too happy to hide it from the whole body, so if he neglected a little he could appreciate the brightness that his eyes reflected from close up.
His gray eyes shone, the product of the illusion of seeing the girl he loved sincerely with his heart. There was no explanation more elaborate than that.
"Hello family!" Kotoko appeared, exclaiming in joy from the entrance, spreading her arms, smiling brightly. Naoki's heart skipped a beat.
"Baka" Yuuki greeted her, showing his frown. "Did you bring what I asked for?"
"Of course!" She affirmed, nodding in affirmation. "I brought everything." She smiled.
"Kotoko-chan, take a seat." His mother offered her in great interest to hear her recent anecdotes, which, as always, were entertaining. "How was your way back?"
"It was fine" She replied, sitting on the mint green sofa that faced the opposite side of where Naoki was sitting. "By the way." She glanced at him. "Hi Naoki-kun, how are you?"
His throat got stuck, so talking to him cost him a job.
"Good." He simply responded, directing his attention to Kotoko's features and his well-being.
She looked healthy, vivacious and as cute as she was known. His hands came alive by brushing the tips of his fingers on his bare skin, so loose and visible so he could feel it.
His desires consumed him alive, aroused in him irregular behaviors of his behavior, but that in broad strokes, were not illicit acts of a young man of his age; rather, they were normal behaviors for a nineteen year old young man.
"Glad to know" Kotoko said, clapping her hands. "These days when I was preparing for the beauty contest, when I pass by the campus I see you training tennis and I am always impressed to see you"
"That's right, Onii-chan" His mother uttered enthusiastically. "It's impossible to beat him in tennis"
"I've seen him" Kotoko said. "And he makes tennis look like a simple sport." She opened her eyes wide, amazed. "Every time he hits the ball with the racket he looks like a titan" She made a gesture of great admiration for her person.
"Baka, don't tell me you like Onii-chan," Yuuki interjected, moody.
"What?" Kotoko blushed and jumped back on the couch. "I didn't say that!"
"I didn't invite you home to declare your love for Onii-chan" He said, staring at her. Did he see in his brother's gaze, jealousy?
All he needed was for his brother to be fixed in Kotoko from head to toe.
"What's wrong with Kotoko-chan falling in love with Onii-chan?" His mother claimed, hands clasped at her waist, folding her eyebrows.
"I didn't say anything," Kotoko spoke awkwardly.
"Me neither," Naoki complained, feeling the stinging penetrate her palate in a bitter and twisted sensation in relation to Kotoko's supposed rejection. "Don't talk about me like I'm not here" He closed his eyes as a headache invaded him.
"Well, changing the subject," Kotoko replied, laughing nervously with her hand behind the back of her neck. "I brought what Yuuki-kun asked me"
"Good to know that your stubbornness did not interfere in these cases," Yuuki said sarcastically. "If not, it would have been a disgrace if you didn't bring the movies I asked for"
"But I brought them." She boasted angrily. "And here they are" She opened the backpack, from the second zipper taking out one of the two compartments that formed it, rectangular contents, which Naoki assumed were the films that Yuuki asked for.
She took out three films, a cassette and circular figures, one red and the other blue. "With what do we start with?"
"Uh! Kotoko-chan" His mother exclaimed, sticking both hands on her cheeks in amazement. She stopped, looking at her strangely.
"What's up, Oba-sama?"
"I haven't seen that movie in years!" She gave a high-pitched shriek of emotion.
"What?" Kotoko had covered her ears, narrowing one eye, stunned. "What movie have you not seen?"
"That one!" He aimed at the air without a specific point, to which Kotoko separated the three films between his two hands so that she could tell him what he meant.
"Tell me" she commented peacefully. "What is the one you haven't seen for years?"
"Grease!" She replied, bouncing from the couch until standing; They saw her run in circles around the living room. Kotoko smiled amusedly, while Naoki admired her like an idiot from her seat, putting her hands in her pockets fighting her feelings so as not to imprison her in her arms in front of her family.
"Ah! I figured you'd say that" Kotoko said agreeing. "In fact, this movie was asked by Yuuki-kun, I originally didn't have it in my collection, so I bought it at a movie store in Shibuya district before coming here."
"Yuuki!" Mrs. Irie exclaimed in amazement with her youngest son; he colored his cheeks, completely flushed and somewhat annoyed at Kotoko's imprudence. The aforementioned, as she was well known, had not noticed her intrusion, so Naoki simply watched her glimpsed and lacking words to describe how beautiful that woman could become even when she was doing a racket.
"Baka!" Yuuki scolded her dismissively. "Why did you have to open your mouth!" He threw the book in her face, to which she replied, dodging it with his head.
"Do you think you can harm me with a silly elementary book?" She expressed in sarcasm, arching her left eyebrow.
"You'll see! Baka!" Yuuki challenged her, sticking his tongue out while lowering the lower part of his eyelids with a finger towards his. "You don't win me even in ingenuity" He smiled smugly.
"Oh yeah?" She inquired, standing up.
"Yes!" Yuuki followed, twisting the step, as Kotoko advanced on tiptoes with her legs apart.
"Children don't fight," Mrs. Irie intervened, but it was useless because both boys were facing each other in a challenging gesture.
"Mother," Naoki said seriously. "I don't think it's a good idea to intervene."
"Onii-chan" His mother snapped, pouting.
"I will teach you a lesson by opening your mouth so much" He warned, pointing his finger at her.
"No way I don't talk" She said sarcastically. "You would have to take my voice away so I can't speak anymore." She looked in, stealthily approaching Yuuki, who was still receding with his legs reeling in his own footsteps, while Kotoko moved forward unchanged. "Or you should teach me not to open my mouth so much" She articulated gesturing.
"Don't be so annoying, Baka!" The boy uttered, claiming her.
"Annoying, me? Won't you be the annoying one? "She inquired mockingly. "Who knows!" In that, Naoki saw that Kotoko pulled the bag where the circular figures were inside behind her denim pants. He frowned, lost in what was happening.
Kotoko took a sudden leap with both feet, throwing a red ball to his brother's face, watching his brother uselessly try to cover himself.
The ball bounced on the floor.
His mother let out another squeak from her mouth, in which Kotoko leaned back in triumph, but she didn't celebrate it completely because she ducked on her back when she saw that Yuuki took the red ball and returned it with his jaw clenched and a growl escaping from his twisted lips.
"You need more experience to beat me!" Kotoko sang, dodging the wrathful attacks of his younger brother, who in vain tried to hit Kotoko with the ball.
"Baka!"
Naoki laughed watching the exchange between his brother and Kotoko gracefully, where they both fought to win the game. A rather strange game, but a game at last.
His mother, on the other hand, tried by all means to calm them in case of causing any destruction in the room, but nevertheless, there was not a break and not an injured in the game.
"Stop running so much, Baka!" Yuuki shouted, throwing two balls of the two different colors that Kotoko had brought; she dodged them, first raising one leg where she spent a bounce and the other had the need to jump, and when she jumped she went on her mouth in the armchair of the room where he stood. He held his breath, watching her lightly brush the skin of his right arm with her left one.
Both skins brushed each other in a matter of seconds, and her black hair managed to penetrate his nostrils, leaving him stunned immediately.
That moment he felt it in slow motion, so slow that he could only consider it as if he had witnessed a movie, only that the only difference was that he was witnessed in the act.
He suppressed the smile that escaped his lips when he felt her so close, despite having her at home.
"Kotoko-chan!" His mother hystered hysterically, when Kotoko's body slammed into the living room floor, smashing her face with the wood of the floor. There was a rumble. "You're good?"
Naoki, still livid, paled when he heard the rumble near him; He looked down, and Kotoko was lying on the floor, millimeters from touching his leg, part of his skin as well.
He moved his altered leg from being so close to feeling that sensation penetrate his body.
"Aha" She assured, raising her thumb with her right hand.
"Baka, don't be so disastrous!" Yuuki grumbled, crossing his arms, as if boasting. "You almost ruin the decoration of the house"
"Oh" She rose suddenly, showing her red face because of the blow. "I'm sorry, Oba-sama, it wasn't my intention to cause damage because of my imprudence" She apologized, embarrassed.
"Oh no! Don't worry about it" His mother replied, putting the innocent gesture (same as Naoki hated for coming out so perfect, even in situations like this) "You didn't cause any damage"
"But, I could have caused one." She reiterated with wide eyes.
"No, but what do you say?" His mother dissuaded with her hand, leaving aside the game they had. "You know this is your home, and it always will be." She smiled kindly at Kotoko, who returned the gesture.
"Thank you, Oba-sama" She said. "I really miss living with you"
"And why don't you come back?" She suggested, putting a hand on Kotoko's hair, sliding it sideways. She looked down in thoughtful air. "Is there any other specific reason why you don't want to come back?"
"No." She shook her head.
"Oh!" He exclaimed in surprise. "Don't tell me it's about Onii-chan!"
"Me, what?" Naoki intervened, annoyed. He was not to blame that Kotoko had wanted to move.
"Naoki-kun?" Kotoko looked up, alarmed. "No! He has nothing to do with it"
"Mother, don't say weird assumptions" Naoki scolded her in an annoyed tone.
"You always treat her badly," her mother complained indignantly. "You ignore her every time she comes to the house and you don't care what happens to her."
Sorry? He doesn't care about Kotoko? The stinging he had felt on the palate resurfaced fervently, however, he must stand firm against the apparent accusations of which his mother made him a part.
"What's more, you didn't even ask her to come back to the house" His mother continued. "To help her take exams, I have to force you to do it because you don't want to help her or on your own; what have I done to have such a child?"
"Oba-sama, stop it!" Kotoko meddled among them, focusing more next to Naoki, who was about to burst out of anger listening to his mother tell him such lies. "It's not anyone's fault that I wanted to move" She said, extending both arms to separate them. Naoki felt her so close to him, although he couldn't touch her freely, while his mother was on pause, babbling and machining things for herself. "Don't worry, I'll solve it." She whispered to Naoki, looking at him sideways.
"Thanks" He whispered back. "Even if I didn't ask for your help"
"Kotoko-chan, you're too kind to forgive Onii-chan" His mother stressed, not before giving him a stern look.
"He has nothing to do with it" Kotoko snapped defensively. "This is not related to my leaving the house" She explained, moving her arms defensively.
"Let me scold my son," Mrs. Irie asked, frowning, pouting.
"No!" Kotoko prevented it, rightly. "In no way I will allow that!"
"Kotoko-chan!" His mother sighed in frustration.
"No, Oba-sama." She denied with her right hand with her index finger stopped. "Let's take it easy, this all started with a ball game, please calm down." She asked, nodding her head slightly, looking at both with reproach. "It was just a game, you don't have to take it personally."
It was true, it had only been a childish game that between them they took very much to heart, and they should not have time to make conjectures.
He possibly just behaved like an idiot in front of Kotoko.
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P.S. Another chapter uploaded! It's long, because I was inspired by the plot here and I also wanted the relationship between Yuuki and Kotoko to be fraternal, as it should be, although Naoki doesn't see it that way, thanks to his jealousy.