Yuzuki walked over behind Kizuna. She was wearing a plain long dress with a light-colored knit cardigan draped over it.
She nodded slightly to Qiluo and Rei in greeting, mentioning that Kizuna had almost turned the entire tent area upside down looking for them, and there had been no stopping her.
“Sis! Don't expose me like that!” Kizuna finally let go. Just as she turned around to argue with her sister, her peripheral vision caught two familiar figures walking over from the other side.
“Kirishima-senpai! Kurokawa-san! Over here, over here!” Kizuna stood on her tiptoes to wave at them. Half of her body was still draped over Qiluo, her chin resting on Qiluo's shoulder, with absolutely no intention of letting go.
Yuki walked over, her eyes landing on Kizuna's arms wrapped around Qiluo's neck. She remained silent for quite a while. It wasn't until Kizuna proactively looked up and waved at her that she gave a slight nod in response.
Shizuru followed behind Yuki. Nuomi was perched on her shoulder, its two tails swaying lazily.
In her hand, she carried a small paper bag containing a late-night snack she had just bought from the yakisoba stall.
Rei stood up and waved to them. She picked up her coat from the empty bench beside her and held it in her arms, freeing up two seats. “I thought you'd all gone home. Didn't you say you were leaving early, Kirishima-senpai?”
“Well... I wanted to see the bonfire, and also—” Shizuru sat down on the bench, placing the paper bag on her lap. “I felt like it would be a bit of a waste to just go back like this.”
Yuki stood beside Qiluo.
Kizuna had been sharing her tragic defeat at the stalls with Rei. Feeling Yuki's gaze, her arms stiffened slightly, but she still didn't take them off Qiluo's shoulders.
However, Yuzuki Asakura, who had been quietly watching the whole thing from the side, begged to differ.
It was glaringly obvious that Kurokawa-san was not very pleased.
Even though Yuki hadn't said anything, Kizuna really needed to learn how to read the room instead of always acting like a child.
“Kizu—Kizuna.” Yuzuki reached out, grabbed her sister by the back of her collar, and gently lifted her off Qiluo.
Kizuna was pulled up onto her tiptoes, protesting, “Sis, what are you doing?”
Yuzuki set her down by her side, casually smoothing out her messy hair. Lowering her voice, she said to her sister, “Didn't you say you wanted to scoop goldfish? If we don't go now, the stall is going to close.”
“When did I ever say—” Kizuna started, but catching her sister's brook-no-argument eyes, she quietly swallowed the rest of her sentence.
She let go and took half a step toward her sister, though her fingers still hooked onto the edge of Qiluo's sleeve.
Yuzuki nodded slightly to Qiluo, a faint, almost imperceptible look of apology in her eyes. Then, wrapping an arm around her sister's shoulders, she guided her toward the goldfish scooping stall.
Kizuna kept looking back as they walked. After a few steps, she silently mouthed, “I'll be right back,” to Qiluo, only to receive a gentle swat on the back of her head from Yuzuki.
“Sis—” Kizuna muttered as her sister guided her forward. After a few steps, she finally couldn't help but speak up. “Why did you drag me away just now? I'm not a kid anymore. I know what Kurokawa-san meant. It's not like I'm trying to steal her away.”
Yuzuki let go of her sister's shoulders and stopped in a relatively quiet corner near the goldfish stall.
The stall owner was packing up, preparing to close. The last few goldfish were swimming around in plastic bags.
She turned her head to look at her sister, whose puffed-up cheeks practically had the words “I am unhappy” written all over them. She suddenly reached out and gently poked her puffed cheek with her fingertip.
“Sis, it's been two days. What do you think of Tian Gong-san?”
“Don't think I don't know. You've been secretly observing her behind my back at school these past two days too.”
Kizuna took a paper scoop from the stall owner and squatted in front of the last goldfish stall that hadn't closed yet.
There weren't many goldfish left in the pool. She held the scoop with a serious posture, but the paper net hovered over the water's surface for quite a while without actually dipping in.
Yuzuki stood behind her, holding a cotton candy she had just bought from the crepe stall. Taking a bite, she said slowly, “She isn't the type of person you can read at a glance.”
“So you have a bad impression of her?” Kizuna looked up, nearly dropping the paper scoop.
“It's not bad,” Yuzuki replied, looking down at her squatted sister.
The small night light on the stall illuminated the expectation in Kizuna's eyes, laying it bare.
Ever since her sister had come home on the first day talking about Qiluo Tian Gong, she had been curious about the name.
When she first met her, she hadn't expected that she was also the same person she had run into at the vending machine.
“She is very composed and gentle. She isn't the type to talk a lot, but every word she says is exactly what you need to hear.”
Kizuna gently lowered the paper net into the water, slowly tracking the tail of a red goldfish.
“Tian Gong-san is just that kind of person. Even when meeting her for the first time, she feels incredibly familiar, as if we've known each other for ages.”
Leaning against a nearby lamppost, Yuzuki slowly added, “She is very nice, but she's also very dangerous.”
Kizuna's hand trembled, causing the paper net to tear right down the middle, and the goldfish slipped away through the rip.
She set the scoop down and turned to look at her sister, her brow furrowing with a protective edge to her tone. “How is she dangerous?”
“It's not the kind of danger you're thinking of,” Yuzuki said, squatting down to look her sister in the eye. “People like her make others want to draw close to them, trust them, and pour out their hearts without even realizing it. If you get used to having her around, and then one day she's suddenly gone, you won't know what to do with yourself.”
She reached out, took the torn paper net from Kizuna's hand, set it aside, and handed her a fresh one. “That's where her danger lies. It's not that she will harm anyone, but that she has already become important enough to influence you, yet she might not even know just how important she is.”
Kizuna stared at the goldfish in the pool for a moment, then suddenly stood up. She placed the paper net gently on the stall counter and said to the owner, “Thank you, but I'm fine.”
Who is my sister to analyze the person I like so calmly?
What about her? Doesn't she have anyone she likes?
She's busy all day with performances and agency work, and when she gets home, she just slumps on the couch scrolling through her phone. Her only reason for leaving the house is to buy coffee from the convenience store.
If she keeps this up, isn't she going to grow old and die alone?
No way!
“Sis,” she said, walking up to Yuzuki and looking at her with her hands clasped behind her back. “You just said Tian Gong-san is dangerous because she makes people want to get close to her without realizing it. But what about you?”
Yuzuki was just about to put back the net her sister had left behind, and her hand froze mid-air.
“What about me?”
“Don't you have anyone you want to get close to?”
Kizuna leaned half a step closer, a spark gleaming in her eyes that Yuzuki knew all too well.
Yuzuki instinctively took half a step back, her lower back pressing against the edge of the goldfish-scooping stall's table.
Rate on N.U.
