Volume 1 - CH 31

“I-I can’t believe it…You came all the way here riding a motorcycle…”

“I can’t believe it myself either.”

The Fuyuno family house is surrounded by open fields.

The building is still new, it’s apparently about five years old.

It seems that their mother goes to work every morning before Fuyu goes to school.

Haruta is sitting on the sofa in the living room of the Fuyuno household, wrapped in a blanket that Fuyu brought for him.

The heater is on max and Haruta is drinking hot coffee, but it still doesn’t warm him up.

Haruta didn’t feel cold at all when he was at the warehouse, it’s probably because he was really angry at those middle schoolgirls.

But now, he is trembling of the cold.

“It’s really cold, isn’t it? I’m actually very curious of your motorcycle name, Reizen-go…but I’ll put it off for later.”

“Thanks.”

Reizen-go is now parked in the Fuyuno family’s garage.

Haruta probably should do some maintenance on it later, he rode Reizen-go all the way here after all.

“I’m preparing the bath now, so please wait.”

“Ah, thanks. But…it’s a nice house, isn’t it? It’s kind of calming, I feel relaxed here.”

“Maybe that’s because we brought half of the furniture from there.”

“I see, that makes sense.”

If you look closely, you will see familiar tables and shelves all around the house.

Their mother doesn’t want to spend too much on furniture, so it seems that she used whatever can be used rather than spend money on new furniture.

A beep can be heard from the bathroom.

“Ah, the bath is ready.”

“Yeah sorry, I’ll borrow your bath now.”

“Please go warm up quickly.”

Fuyu’s tone of voice is unusually strong.

She looks more troubled than when she was arguing against those middle schoolgirls earlier.

Haruta enters the changing room and undresses.

Haruta has no change of clothes, so he has to wear the same clothes after taking a bath.

Haruta hangs the towel that Fuyu has given to him on a hanger, hangs his clothes, and went into the bathroom.

Haruta jumps into the bathroom and takes a hot shower.

“Ahh, this feels really nice…”

Haruta has never felt so good taking a shower in his life before.

Anyway, he takes a quick hot shower and then soak in the bathtub.

“Ohh…that’s nice…”

The water is just the right temperature.

It seems that Fuyu has made the bath a little hotter, which is great.

Fuyu can do all the household chores, but she is exquisitely considerate when it comes to Haruta.

She once said ‘Maybe I was born to take care of you, onii-chan’.

Now that they found out that they are not real siblings, the meaning of those words are likely to change.

“But seriously, my body was freezing…”

It seems that Haruta got too careless because it’s still October

In addition to riding through the night wind on a motorcycle all night long, it is usually cold here.

“Onii-chan.”

“……”

The bathroom door opens—Haruta can see Fuyu’s pure white skin.

Fuyu has her long black hair pulled back and she is holding a towel in front of her body.

“Please wait a moment.”

After saying so, Fuyu begins to take a shower.

When she finished taking a shower, she leaves her towel behind, showing off her smooth beautiful back and plump cute small butt—

“Onii-chan leave me some space behind you.”

“…Fuyu.”

Fuyu soak in the bathtub behind Haruta—then she hugs Haruta tightly.

Haruta can feel Fuyu’s ample b*****s pressing against his back—they’re really soft.

“Please don’t look behind you. It’s been a while…it feels kind of embarrassing…”

“A while ago, I could look at your b***s and nipples normally.”

“P-Please don’t say that…!”

Giggling, Fuyu hugs Haruta even tighter.

“I just came to warm onii-chan’s body. You’ve been so reckless for me, I should at least do this much for you…”

“It’s Matsukaze who is reckless. He shouldn’t have come after me, but those girls backed off because he was there. I should thank him later, he really is a good guy. He’s really cool, isn’t he?”

“No, onii-chan is way cooler than Matsukaze-san.”

“…you should thank Matsukaze later, okay?”

“I will thank Matsukaze-san properly later, but it doesn’t change the fact that onii-chan came for me first.”

Fuyu’s body is so warm that it seems to thaw Haruta’s frozen body to the core—

And on top of that, it’s been a while since Haruta felt the softness of Fuyu’s body.

“You used to call me ‘Fuyu-chan’…”

“Eh?”

“I used to call myself ‘Fuyu-chan’ in the past, but onii-chan also used to call me that too. Have you forgotten?”

“…no, I have not.”

Come to think of it, it’s true that Haruta used to call Fuyu by ‘Fuyu-chan’.

It seems that as they grew up, Haruta decided to stop calling her Fuyu-chan because it’s embarrassing.

“I think the reason why I called myself Fuyu-chan in the first place was because that’s what onii-chan used to call me.”

“Yeah, I think so…”

That morning when their parents told them they were divorcing.

Fuyu unconsciously called herself Fuyu-chan that day.

When they were walking at the park at night, Haruta thinks Fuyu wanted to say something to him.

“It made me feel kind of nostalgic and happy.”

“It’s embarrassing. Forget it if you can.”

“But…I think I’ll never be able to forget it. I’ll probably remember it for the rest of my life.”

Fuyu gently put her lips on Haruta’s back.

The touch of Fuyu’s lips feels warm and ticklish.

“Onii-chan, why did you suddenly come all the way here…?”

“Ahh, that’s because…”

Haruta noticed something strange on their daily Line chat.

It’s about Fuyu’s Internet connection.

Haruta explained how he realized that something was wrong with Fuyu.

“But, but…you can’t just ride your motorcycle in the middle of the night without making sure what’s really happening…”

“Yeah, I knew it was reckless…but I guess I wanted to use that as an excuse to see Fuyu, so I did.”

Haruta could’ve just called his mother to find out what’s really happening.

The fact that he just went here recklessly without thinking much about it—seems that Haruta just couldn’t stand to not see Fuyu’s face any longer.

“But to be honest…”

“To be honest?”

Fuyu puts her cheek on Haruta’s back gently.

“I wondered if you really are okay here…whether you are really happy with your life here…whether you have any friends at school or not…”

“What they said is true.”

“Eh?”

“The boys at my school are all after me…so I guess I do have friends? No, I also often run away from them whenever they approach me, so that means I don’t have any friends?”

“Fuyu, you should ask those boys for help when you’re in trouble.”

“Hahaha, that’s right. If I had asked the boys for help, they might have protected me from those girls.”

“In such occasions, you can’t fight them on your own.”

Certainly, due to Fuyu’s attractiveness, taking advantage of the boys would be an easy thing to do, but Fuyu isn’t good when it comes to dealing with boys, Fuyu often becomes nervous when she is talking to them, and on top of that, Fuyu isn’t a kind of person who can just take advantage of someone.

“Yeah, but…”

“What is it?”

“Perhaps it’s my fault too…I kept sending Line messages to onii-chan that it made you worried…but deep within my heart, I actually want onii-chan to come.”

“You aren’t that smart are you, Fuyu?”

“That’s rude!”

Fuyu hugs Haruta from the back tightly.

“Hahaha, my bad. But I’m glad I came here, those girls…”

“They are the people who talked to me right after I transferred here. They were kind of helpful…they seemed to enjoy listening to me about my school life over there and stuff like that…”

“But still, that doesn’t change the fact they’re bothering you…”

“Everyone was so nice to me, but I just can’t get used to living here, and I just can’t seem to fit in…maybe my attitude irritated everyone.”

“But that doesn’t mean it’s okay for Fuyu to hang out with them. They wanted to take photos of you, right?”

“It never occurred to me that I would be a victim of bullying…”

“……”

It hurts for Haruta when he’s told clearly that Fuyu is being bullied.

Haruta regrets he didn’t confront those girls right away just to obtain ‘evidence’. He should’ve just confronted those girls as soon as he knows what they were doing.

Haruta could’ve ease Fuyu’s pain, even just a little.

“At school, the boys just looked those girls bullying me and didn’t say a single word about it…and usually on the way home from school, those girls brought me to that warehouse to bully me, just like earlier…”

“Fuyu, that’s enough.”

“Somewhere along the line, they started to take photos of me…I told them to stop, but they just wouldn’t listen…”

“Why…”

Haruta wanted to say ‘why you didn’t tell me?’ but he stopped himself before he finishes the sentence.

Haruta knows how Fuyu feels.

Haruta is the one person in the world that Fuyu didn’t want to tell about.

Fuyu just didn’t want to worry Haruta. Fuyu knows that if she told him about it, he would come running to her like now.

That’s why—Fuyu endured it in silence all by herself.

“I knew it would turn out like this, I knew that…if onii-chan comes to rescue me, I will be dependent on you. I have to do my best…on my own without onii-chan. I can’t depend on you forever.”

“……”

It seems that Fuyu knows exactly what Haruta was about to say.

“You did a great job Fuyu, but you know…that is not something that you have to endure…you could’ve just asked for help.”

“No onii-chan…I’m still weak…I don’t want to go back to onii-chan with my weak self like this…”

“Go back…?”

“Someday…I will definitely go back to onii-chan. Maybe someday after I graduate high school…but I will definitely go back to you, onii-chan.”

“…odd. I’m planning to bring Fuyu back someday too. Someday, for sure.”

“Even though we’re not related by blood…it seems that we’re thinking the same thing.”

“But I’m your onii-chan. I’ll always come whenever you need me, I’ll always be there for you.”

“Yeah, you came…I didn’t think I’d see onii-chan yet…but you really came…I’m so glad you did…”

Fuyu stuttered on her words as she hugs Haruta from behind.

Haruta wants to turn around and hugs Fuyu back, but he desperately stopped himself.

Fuyu is crying.

Is it because of relief, or is it because of frustration?

Perhaps it’s because of both.

Right now, Fuyu doesn’t want Haruta to see her cry—so Haruta didn’t turn around.

Haruta can feel the warmth of Fuyu’s body as she hugs him from behind.

By now, Haruta’s frozen body has completely warmed up.