Days with My Stepsister, Vol. 3 by Ghost Mikawa and Hiten

Author:Ghost Mikawa and Hiten
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yen On

 AUGUST 25 (TUESDAY)

After I woke up, I lay in bed thinking.

Had I made a mistake?

“Probably.”

I said it to the ceiling, and with no one to hear me, my answer came echoing back down at me.

I turned over and checked the time. It was already noon, but I was still tired. I’d stayed up thinking the night before and wasn’t able to get much sleep.

How was I supposed to overcome Ayase’s stubbornness and get her to relax?

Stubborn… Yeah, that was it. She was determined—hardheaded even.

And that made her fragile.

Having lived with her for two months, I felt I’d gotten to know her somewhat. Now that I saw her almost every day at work, I was learning even more.

I figured she probably thought about things like this:

Children take the things they receive for granted, and because of that, they take more than they give. As a child, Ayase would ask her mom to buy her ice cream and take her to the pool. She was an average kid who simply took without giving. And that was perfectly natural.

But Ayase didn’t agree with that, and that was the big issue.

Because of her family situation, she quit acting like a kid around the end of elementary school. She could no longer allow herself to be a child.

Society, for her, was based on give-and-take, and she’d decided to give more than she took.

Maybe she’d developed that policy because she felt guilty for always “taking” as a child—back when her mother had been struggling all alone. (Or at least, that was how Ayase saw it.)

Ayase wanted to grow up quickly and reduce the burden on her mom. For her, the time she’d spent “taking” as a child was shameful. She believed her childish selfishness had worsened the burden on Akiko.

How ironic.

Akiko had said herself that she wished Ayase had been able to spend more time as a carefree kid.

Thinking about it all made my heart feel heavy. Both Akiko and Ayase were thinking of each other, but they were working at cross-purposes.

The mother wanted her daughter to remain a child for a little longer.

The daughter wanted to grow up.

Their wishes contradicted each other.

Back then, they couldn’t talk it out and come to a compromise, since Ayase had still been a child. Perhaps now that Ayase was older, they could manage it, but…

Ayase had started walking up the steps to adulthood while suppressing her own desires. She was shouldering her childhood like a debt she owed her mother, desperate to pay it back as fast as she could. All that had created the Ayase I knew, who blamed herself for everything.

That was why she couldn’t relax—why she couldn’t forget her responsibilities and just have fun.

She couldn’t even forgive herself for wanting to go to the pool.

“I don’t have time for it. I really don’t.”

She’d spoken with the same cool look she always wore, but I’d sensed a hint of desperation behind her words. That was why I couldn’t say anything back.

If only I’d done something clever like a character in a novel or been more dramatic about it—maybe then she would have changed her mind.

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