"Look... like I said. There’s nothing strange about it, and she’s not doing anything wrong."
"……Eh?"
"E-Eh…"
Their gazes converged on the boy as he stated his conviction once more. He spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. All three of them looked to him, silently asking for an explanation.
"She’s jealous because Yuri-senpai took away the brother she loves, and she started a part-time job to escape that awkward environment—I’m asking what exactly is so wrong with that motive. You two started dating and ended up neglecting your sister, and because of that, your sister is trying to gain some independence. Both of those are perfectly natural things in this world, aren’t they?"
"But... our feelings have nothing to do with that."
"T-That’s right. We truly care about Mina-san—"
"Seniors, just how old do you think Ichinose-san is right now?"
"Eh……"
His voice held a slight edge of displeasure. Mina knew this tone. Although she couldn't quite grasp his true intentions, that voice had undeniably been the thing that changed her path once before. If not for him, she might still be doing nothing but wandering aimlessly, no matter where she was. It was still intimidating, though.
"She’s already in high school. Doesn’t Ichinose-san have the right to grow up?"
"Gr-Grow up...?"
"Can someone work hard just for the sake of running away? Whether it was because her beloved brother was taken or because she was driven by jealousy, Ichinose-san is suppressing her own feelings and steeling herself. No matter how much she struggles with it, she’s walking this path so she can congratulate you two for real. Are you planning to rob her of that opportunity?"
"W-We didn’t mean to……"
"Senior... it’s not my place to tell you to let go of your sister. But isn’t the idea that 'it’s only natural for my sister to always be by my side' just wrong? If your sister moves on from her brother, does that mean you can’t all laugh together anymore? That’s not how it works, is it?"
"………"
Those words pierced Mina’s heart as well. She had been aware of it herself. The idea that her beloved brother should always be by her side was selfish.
But even so, she hadn't been able to accept it. That was why, even though she knew she was in the wrong, Mina had turned her eyes away from reality and started a part-time job. There was no way Wataru, who was standing by her side now, hadn't realized that. If she were wrong, he would normally have corrected her. Just why? How could he—?
"If I may speak from the position of her senior at work... I think it’s too early to decide Ichinose-san’s future right here and now. For the sake of everyone’s future, I believe you should wait until Ichinose-san can explain what she wants to do in her own words."
"…………"
A compromise. Wataru, who was nothing more than a third party, proposed a middle ground. At the very least, his final words both took a side and didn't. In essence, he had passed the buck back to them—because that was how it truly should be. Besides, if she quit so easily, it would be a huge headache for the secondhand bookstore.
The two seniors, both two years older than them, were able to digest the meaning behind his words. They finally began to consider that the situation might not just be a childish squabble.
"Mina is trying to grow up." At the very least, those words carried significant weight. Both for her brother and for the girl who wished to become her sister.
◆
"Mina, let’s go home for today. Yuri-chan, I’m sorry for dragging you into this."
"No, it’s fine."
The two of them stood side-by-side, drawing close to each other. Mina didn't feel like following them. Besides, there were still things weighing on her mind.
"……P-Please, go on ahead."
"Eh……"
When she told him to go home first, her brother looked back with a pained expression. Seeing that, a sharp pang pricked the depths of Mina’s chest. But it wasn't as bad as before. Even if her brother was sad, he had someone there to support him.
Standing at the end of that gaze, Yuri seemed to realize something as she looked at Mina. She pulled on her boyfriend's arm and headed toward the stairs. She clearly had her own thoughts on the matter. Mina felt a surge of gratitude toward her for taking her brother away without hesitation.
"………Well, I guess it’s impossible to follow along after that."
"Ugh……… yes."
There were two reasons she hadn't followed. She didn't want to be a nuisance, and she wanted to hurl the questions that had piled up in her heart at the boy who was now sitting slumped over with an exhausted face.
He didn't ask why Mina had stayed behind. Come to think of it, he was always sensitive to such subtleties; whenever she was flustered, he seemed to grasp her true intentions. Mina didn't know if that was simply due to their working relationship. She just didn't understand why he hadn't blamed her, even though he could see right through the guilt running wild in her chest.
"U-Um……"
"Hmm?"
"Why……"
She had to know why he had taken her side.
She was certain she had been in the wrong. She held ugly emotions and lacked the courage to state her case, able only to hiss and intimidate like a small animal. Normally, he would have scolded her, following her brother's lead.
Not everything Sajou Wataru said had been an exact representation of Mina's feelings. She had never even thought about "congratulating those two for real." Rather, she had wondered where she was supposed to go after running away from her brother by hiding in her job. It felt as if he had handed her a new card she didn't have and used it to light the path ahead.
"I... I was in the wrong, wasn't I……?"
"Well, I mean, we’re not at work right now. I don't really care whether you're right or wrong. As long as you know the answer yourself, isn't that enough?"
"Eh……"
Whether she was wrong or not was none of his business. She was shaken by his blunt honesty. She couldn't believe these were the words of the person who had been so strict with her at the shop. She pleaded with her eyes, wondering what had brought on this change of heart.
"I told you earlier, I’ve been thinking about it since we got here. It’s not exactly an unusual story for a brother to get a girlfriend and for the sister to start pulling away. If that’s the case, I decided to judge based on what I’ve seen as your senior at the job."
The things he had seen. Just what kind of things were they? Was it the day she started the job? How she had caused immense trouble with her helplessness? How she had exposed her pathetic side and made him go through so much trouble just to reach this point?
"That outburst earlier was just me putting some likely-sounding words together. I managed to talk them down and buy some time. Of course, I said it because I believed it, but that’s not really what I wanted to tell you."
Then what was it? At the bottom of Mina Ichinose’s heart, an "expectation" she thought she had discarded began to surface. She was afraid to know the answer, but at the same time, she felt a desperate urge to hear it. She wanted to know the true feelings of her senior at work—someone she found difficult to deal with, yet had ended up relying on.
"Ichinose-san, you started this job with the intent to 'properly keep going,' didn't you? Before I knew that, I was just surprised... but after I found out, I realized there was a weight of your own behind each and every one of your actions."
No way.
She never thought he would feel that way. She had assumed he still saw her as a nuisance. She thought he was mocking her in his heart. She never imagined he would consider her efforts like that.
"Your brother came to take you back. He said you should quit. Maybe, technically, that would be the 'right' thing to do. But then, what exactly has Ichinose-san been working so hard for in that shop until now?"
"Ah……"
That was right. If she had accepted those comforting words, everything would have been for nothing. If she were coddled now, she would just go back to the way she was. She would have spent her days without ever reaching a resolution, trapped in a relationship where she did nothing but worry about her brother and his girlfriend forever.
"You got scolded. You apologized. You were rebuked. Even if it was nothing but unpleasant things, Ichinose-san, you’ve become able to look customers in the eye when serving them. And though it’s only occasionally, you’ve started making suggestions to me. I’ve been watching that by your side the whole time. Ichinose-san, you have certainly worked hard this past month."
"Ah───"
The boy continued. He said that he had only intervened because he himself couldn't accept it. That he had stood by her side to assert the existence of "Mina Ichinose" by giving in to his own emotions. That this past month had by no means been in vain.
That he didn't want the junior he had mentored to be taken away so easily.
"There’s no way I could ever accept all of that going to waste."
In the end, the boy had made her cry again.