Chapter 165 - Feigning Ignorance

"Big bro, you want to get beaten up?"

"What did I do?" Suzuki Aki was seriously shocked by her reaction which made Ara roll her eyes. 

"You're seriously asking that? Are you an idiot?"

Aki looked offended. "Ya! I just told you earlier I'm dumb, right?" he countered and she sighed and patted his shoulder to comfort him.

"I now understand how real that is," she told him, making Aki stop.

"Did… Did I just get insulted?"

Ara gave him one last pat before leaning against the railing of the gazebo. "Big bro, if you like her, you have to let her know. It's useless to hang onto a very old promise of a toddler. You're worse than an idiot if you do that."

"Is there something worse than an idiot," Aki grumbled.

"There is."

"What?"

"My low EQ older brother," Ara deadpanned.

The low EQ brother was shocked. "Y-you –" 

He really wanted to say more to scold her for calling him stupid, but he changed his mind. He already realized he's totally an idiot when it came to Chiaki.

"It's not that I didn't tell her okay? It's just that whenever I try to, she kept thinking I was joking. She would pat me on the head and be on her merry way," Aki confessed, a frustrated sigh escaping his lips followed his words.

Ah…

Ara realized that the dense one must be Asou Chiaki and not her brother. 

Oh well…

"If that's the case then you should be more aggressive in your approach then, big bro. If you push her hard, there's no way she would still not know that it's her you want, right?"

"Ooooh…"Aki's eyes squinted at her. "Are you teaching me now about my love life little sister?"

Ara laughed. "But if you've been confessing many times and she still doesn't get it then it means it's not working right?"

Aki shrugged. "Actually, it's not that it isn't working. I feel she knows but decided to ignore it."

It was not Ara's turn to look horrified. "Oh dear, did you get rejected?"

"I didn't okay? At least not in words."

Looking forlorn, Ara now understood what might have happened between her brother and Chiaki. When she called her brother's secretary last night and asked her about Aki's girlfriend, she sounded so startled or nervous as if she was hiding something from her. She thought Chiaki knew who the girl was but didn't want to tell her because Aki didn't want to tell anyone. But as it turned out…

As it turned out, Ara felt that Chiaki somewhat knew that she was the girl Aki was referring to but chose to be ignorant. Why?

Ara patted her brother's arm again. She felt a bit sorry for him now that she knew what was going on in his love life.

Asou Chiaki was a great girl – someone she actually thought would be nice to have as her sister-in-law. She was cool, attentive, thoughtful, and very protective and loyal to those she cared about. Since her brother and she became classmates in pre-school, she was like her older brother's best friend. However, it seemed that even if she was a great friend and sister, she didn't want to be the girlfriend.

Attending a semi-private school made Ara understand why. Basically, if she were someone who didn't grow up a princess, her circumstances with Kou would have been the same as Chiaki's and Aki's right now.

That's right.

Ara felt that the reason why Chiaki was veering away from her brother romantically was that she was thinking that her world and Aki's were not the same. She came from a very normal family, while the Suzukis were rich. Aside from being in a normal family, Chiaki even was the breadwinner of her family now which included her, her widowed mother and Taka, her late sister's baby whom she adopted as her own.

So, basically, anyone who would marry her would also have to accept her mother and her orphaned nephew. They're like a package – and Chiaki might be thinking that Aki shouldn't be with someone with so much baggage as her.

As someone who was at the top of the business world, the secretary must be thinking that Suzuki Aki deserved someone better, someone, whom he would be proud to present to everyone. He needed someone with a good background, family, and education – totally unlike Asou Chiaki even if she and Aki attended the same schools. The secretary must be worried Aki would face a backlash from society if he chose to be with her – or so what Ara surmised Chiaki thought.

At least, if that was the case then Chiaki, in her own stupid way really cared about her brother, Ara concluded as she sighed heavily in exhaustion.

"What's wrong?"

Ara shook her head. "Nothing. I'm just thinking that society's so picky and strict."

"Well, we need an invisible scaffold that sets the behavior of everyone so that all of us can function in a harmonious and productive way." Aki then looked sad, and Ara had an inkling her brother also knew why he was somewhat kept being rejected. "Even if in turn it smothers people's dreams and love because it would look bad."

A sarcastic laugh escaped Aki's lips after that, and Ara could empathize with him completely.

"Do you want your little sister to help you out?" she asked him good-naturedly.

She was being serious though. After her marriage registration to Kou tomorrow, she would be busy with her exams. But after that, she would have more free time as they didn't have to do a lot of things at school before graduation day. If her brother wished it, she would gladly try and get them together.

She would spend time with Chikai to make the other understand that her brother's feelings were real and that she didn't have to worry about what would people say. After all, Ara also had a similar circumstance. Even if the Suzukis were rich, her level was still not the same as the Koutaishidenka's. The only problem was that nobody would and could say anything against the Homura House about her marriage to Kou.

"But when I do, you have to be aggressive okay?"she reminded her brother again who shook his head at her.

"What are you talking about? Aggressive this, aggressive that – is that what you learned from your husband?" Aki looked displeased and Ara laughed.

"No way! Kou's a total gentleman."

Well, not always, but Ara wouldn't tell him that. Then, she remembered her wicked thought earlier before dinner and she sighed dreamily, recalling how handsome her fiancé was in the kimono. "Actually, I think, he's the one whose chastity's in danger…"