Why Don't You Make the Twins Your "Girlfriend" Together? Volume 1 Side Story 2
Twin Talk! ② The Person We Both Like…?
“──I’m home~”
As Hikari called out from the entryway, Chikage bustled over to meet her, still in an apron.
“Hey, Hii-chan! You were at the arcade again, weren’t you!?” Chikage scolded, planting her hands on her hips with a ladle still clutched in one hand.
“Just for a little change of pace,” Hikari mumbled.
“A change of pace… Huh? Hii-chan?” Chikage’s expression softened. “What’s wrong? You don’t seem like yourself. Are you okay…?”
Chikage’s concerned question brought Hikari back to reality. She hadn’t even realized how down she looked. All the way home, her mind had been replaying the conversation she’d had with Sakuto at the train station. It was a new, bewildering feeling, leaving her more dazed than depressed, and she didn’t have the energy to just laugh it off.
“I’m not really sure, but… Yeah, I guess I’m okay…”
“Really?”
“Yeah… More importantly, Chii-chan, I’m sorry for how I’ve been acting.”
The sudden, sincere apology only made Chikage worry more. This wasn’t a joke; Hikari looked genuinely remorseful. Sensing the mood was about to turn heavy, Chikage quickly forced a smile.
“Eh? For what? There are so many things you could be sorry for, I don’t know which one you mean…”
“Nahahaha… A lot of things, but I especially feel bad about going to the arcade.”
“I see. So you finally feel bad about it.”
“Yeah… I heard some weird rumors at school today, and it really made me think.”
“Weird rumors…?”
The two sisters moved to the living room and sat on the sofa to talk properly. After Hikari explained the whole situation, a gentle smile appeared on Chikage’s face.
“──I see… So, rumors were spreading that I was the one going to the arcade, huh?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry…”
“No, no, it wasn’t really a rumor about me in the end, so I don’t mind, okay? Besides, I don’t really pay attention to gossip like that anyway.” Chikage chose her words carefully, seeing how down her sister seemed. It had been a while since she’d seen Hikari this dejected.
“Oh, really? In that case, can I start going to the arcade again tomorrow?” Hikari asked, her eyes lighting up.
“…What was that?”
“My sincerest apologies! I deeply regret my actions…” Hikari shrank back from Chikage’s icy glare, knowing all too well how scary her sister could be when she was truly angry.
“So, where did you hear this rumor?”
“Well~ there’s this guy I’ve gotten pretty close with recently,” Hikari said, her cheeks flushing slightly.
“Eh? Really?”
“Uh-huh. We’ve only met, like, twice, but he’s the one who told me.”
The way she spoke of this ‘guy she’s close with’ made it clear he was someone important. Chikage wasn’t proactive about her own love life, but she loved hearing about romance. And this was about Hikari—her sister who’d never given a guy a second glance before. As her younger sister, she was incredibly curious. Who in the world had managed to capture Hii-chan’s heart?
“Hey, what’s he like?”
“Hmm… I guess you could say he’s someone who knows what heartache is?”
“Eh?”
“He’s someone I feel safe around.”
Because he knows what it’s like to be hurt, he can understand how I feel, Hikari thought. That’s what makes me feel so safe. I want to be with him, to connect with him more. Not just understanding with our minds—I want us to connect with our hearts.
“What about you, Chii-chan?”
“Huh…? M-Me!?”
Hit with an unexpected counter-attack, Chikage’s face turned bright red.
“It was someone you met at cram school, right? Since you changed your high school choice just to follow him, I was hoping there’d been some kind of progress by now.”
“Th-There has been… progress… maybe…”
“Eh!? What kind, what kind!?” Hikari leaned in, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
“Umm… I was… hugged?”
It was an accident, though.
“What else, what else!?”
“Umm… He… protected me, and said he couldn’t just leave me alone?”
He’s also the guy whose neck I almost strangled with his own tie, though.
“Why do you keep phrasing everything like a question?”
“Ugh… ‘Facts’ and ‘truth’ aren’t always the same thing… You gotta read between the lines, y’know~…”
“Ah, right… I think I get it. Nahahaha~…”
It seemed things weren’t going as smoothly as Chikage had hoped. On top of that, Hikari figured her sister must have really messed something up along the way.
“I guess I need to try harder, too…” Chikage sighed.
“You’re cute, Hii-chan, so you’ll be fine…”
“You’re the cute one, Chii-chan, so you’ve got this! C’mere, c’mere~!”
With that, Hikari playfully launched herself at Chikage, starting to tickle her.
“St-Stop it~!”
Chikage tried to wriggle away, but a smile spread across her face. Even in high school, her sister was still so handsy. It could be a pain, but Chikage didn’t actually hate it.
Then, suddenly, Hikari’s hands stopped.
“Ah, I know…!”
“…? What is it?”
“The guy I like… he’s probably super popular…”
“And…?”
“He’s such a wonderful person! There have to be other girls who have fallen for him, just like me! So I have to get way, way closer to him, fast!”
Watching the flustered Hikari, Chikage laughed with a hint of exasperation. “I agree that’s important, but how exactly are you planning to get closer?”
“By increasing our skinship fivefold!”
“Don’t do that… You’ll totally creep him out…”
“You think so? Hmm…”
Chikage thought it was ridiculous that Hikari was seriously mulling this over, but a part of her wondered if her sister had a point.
She had previously set a rule for Sakuto, that he could only touch her once they became a couple. Maybe that little tactic had been a mistake. A girl who plays too hard to get might not be that appealing after all.
“You need to lock your guy down soon too, Chii-chan, or someone else is gonna snatch him up!”
“O-Okay! I’ll… I’ll try to double my efforts…!”
──And so, the twins remained blissfully unaware that they were both pining for the very same person.
Join the conversation