Chapter 72 - Volume 5 (2/2)

As I spoke out her name with almost no confidence, Kotone-onee-chan looked lonely for a moment… but then immediately smiled and lifted me up. It was unexpectedly powerful.

“That’s right, it’s Kotone-onee-chan~. Let’s go to bed, Yuzu.”

“……But, I’m not sleepy.”

“Oh well…… but only one picture book, okay.”

Togaki Kotone. My older sister. A third year student attending junior high. 14 years old. She’s got quite the age gap with me.

As you can plainly tell, onee-chan is very kind to me. It seems that it was caused by her lonely childhood, because both father and mother have been busy with their jobs and couldn’t be home much.

There were domestic helpers, but because they weren’t live-in helpers they returned home in the evenings.

Because she was often with her elder brother who was two years older than her alone in this large house, the two of them were very pleased that the number of family members had increased, and a sister with a great age gap, regardless of day or night I was beloved. …… so it seemed.

I’m sorry, but I don’t know for sure because my memory is hazy. Still it is pretty easy to imagine from the current state of affairs.

“Yuzu, I brought you pudding.”

When Kotone onee-chan put away the picture book, another person came into the room to pacify me with pudding.

Togaki Ohba. My onii-chan. A second-year in a private high school. 16 years old.

Errr…… why didn’t you knock? This is a girl’s room, onii-chan.

A five-year-old child really has no privacy.

“Aah, onii-chan, I was going to bring that over later to Yuzu.”

“Well, it’s alright for anyone to do it. Didn’t Kotone buy it?”

“So give me half, and give Yuzu half to eat.”

It was decided that I would eat it before I knew it.

Pudding…… I felt like it had been a long time. Of course, there is no child that hates pudding, so I was very pleased to get it.

Now that I mention it, when I got up, I was given an un-tasty sports drink and tasteless rice gruel but my hunger hasn’t abated at all. I didn’t notice it, but am I really ill?

“Here, Yuzu, say ah~”

“…a, Ah~n”

I was a little embarrassed. It’s because I don’t have the mental age of a five year old or as a younger sister, so even if it’s onii-chan, it’s embarrassing to have a boy that age take care of me.

But I’ll take it.

“……”

“Is it delicious?”

“……Y-yes.”

…… Oh no. What’s this… I can’t taste it?

I thought that my sense of taste had become strange because of my fever, but my fever is already fading, and I can taste the eggs, milk, and sugar properly.

I wonder what I should say……… From the pudding, I could feel the “richness” and “umami” of the egg and the milk. Perhaps the porridge that the helper made was also supposed to be delicious…… Maybe I did something bad by not finishing it and leaving it.

“Would you like to eat ice cream next?”

“If you eat only cold things you’ll ruin your stomach. Onee-chan will make you a hotcake.”

“No! It’s okay. I’m sleepy now that I ate.”

I shook my head at onee-chan’s cheerful proposal. I’m sorry, but any more of this ascetic behavior is impossible for me.

Maybe ice-cream would be a soft sugared ice, but hotcake sounds like it’ll be nothing but the taste of burnt flour.

It seems… I am strange.

I know things and understand things that I shouldn’t. I don’t get hungry. I can’t taste food.

As I laid down on the fancy bed to rest, Kotone onee-chan laid with me until I fell asleep, but she smelled like a very sweet fruit……

I felt for some reason like she was very ‘delicious’………

Author’s Notes:

Next time, let’s head outside.