The Little Sister's Friends Come Over (4)

꒰ঌ The Little Sister's Friends Come Over 4

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A few hours later. I was sitting on the porch, hanging my head in sadness. What happened after that was… well… even though such a huge fuss had been raised, in the end I managed to protect the box. And, while my sister was separated from her friends, I managed to explain to her certain pieces of important information, and also was able to explain to her friends that it had all been an accident (although, whether they believe me or not was a separate issue). But, even after she knew the whole story, my sister's anger did not subside, and she punished me unreasonably.

"Out out out out! Until everyone goes home, don't you dare come into the house! You pervert!"

It seems that, more than the misunderstanding and so forth, the fact that I had touched her chest made her really angry. It's not like I wanted to touch it or something… man, girls are devious, aren't they?

And so… for that reason, I've been sitting out here on the porch in the dusk for over an hour. The living room was right behind me, but the window was locked.

"Thanks for having us over~~." I heard a voice from near the entranceway. Leaning forwards and looking in that direction, I saw the girls gathered near the front door. It seemed that it was time for them to go home.

Dammit, today was pretty terrible. Naruko's friends already had the worst impression of me. I had told them it was all a misunderstanding, but once you're labeled as that 'brute brother who attacked his sister,' you'll have a pretty hard time getting rid of that label. But whatever. Sure, it's true that they're all pretty cute, but I don't care if a bunch of idiot brats hate me… no really, I mean that.

Haah… somehow or other… as all the bad things that happened today accumulated in my mind, I found myself falling into a rare gloomy mood. Well, let's return home then… I stood up from the porch, and still clutching the cardboard box, turned towards the front door that the girls had just left from. And then — suddenly, a blue haired girl came jogging back. She stopped near me, maintaining a decent amount of distance between us.

"Umm… "

"… Yes?"

Hm… this was one of Naruko's friends, wasn't it? What does she want? Did she come back to say something to me?

"Did you need something?" I steeled myself for any ridicule that may come my way, but that wasn't what she had come to do.

"I… wanted to talk to you about that box… "

"Ah… so you want to know what was in the package? I'm sorry, but… " I can't tell you… that's what I tried to say, but she interrupted me with a "no, that's not it."

"I'm not here to interrogate you or anything. Well… of course it's about whatever was inside that box, since it's been bothering me, but… ah, this is becoming a bit too much like an interrogation, isn't it?" She seemed at a bit of a loss of words, but before long she collected herself and spoke up again. "Would it have been bad if Naruko herself had opened the box?"

"Huh?" How did she know? At my puzzled expression, she continued.

"I mean, back there, I don't think you were just trying to harass her or something. You were really desperate… trying really hard. So, I feel there has to be a reason for it…

I see… this girl is pretty soft-hearted. Smiling a bit, I answered her, "Haha… so you mean, there may have been a reason why it would have been bad if I had let Naruko open the box?"

"Yes! I mean, your name was the one on the shipping slip! I was thinking that maybe it was a present for Naruko that you had wanted to give her someday in the future… is that it? So, even though Naruko really didn't like it, you went through all that trouble?

"No, it wasn't like that," I answered honestly. I'm really not that nice of a brother. Even though her guess was a bit off the mark… I was a bit comforted by her words.

"Oh… is that so?" She said that, a bit puzzled. However, having her initial guess refuted, she took it in stride and pulled herself together. "Then, there must have been something else going on, I'm sure of it! What that situation is, I can't say I know. But, please forgive Naru! This might not be something that's appropriate for me to say to you, but that girl can be a bit selfish sometimes."

No, I don't think "a bit" cuts it. It's not "a bit" at all!

She raised her head, and clenching both her hands in what looked like a victory pose, made this claim. "But, I don't think she really hates you!"

"You think so?"

"Definitely, without a doubt! My intuition says so!"

She may be able to come to that conclusion easily, but I really don't agree. That girl hates her brother with a passion. No matter how I look at it, she's reading the situation wrong. But she really is kindhearted… in addition to this though, she may have gotten a terribly wrong impression of my relationship with Naruko. No matter how I looked at it, this cheerful kindhearted girl's guess was completely wrong.

But — "I see. Thanks for your advice. I'll take it to heart." I offered her my honest thanks. She went out of her way to think about my relationship with Naruko and said so many kind things… so more than anything I wanted to at least thank her. I had thought that the people who came over today were all stupid brats, but… hey, what do you know, she's met some good people at school too, hasn't she?

"Ahaha. No no, I also apologize for being so forward." Seemingly embarrassed, she moved her hands around bashfully. I gave her a smile.

"Please… take care of Naruko from here on out as well."

"Of course! We're close friends after all! Ah," the girl clapped her hands together, "I just remembered! I had something I wanted to ask of you…"

With that, she presented me with her cell phone. "We were able to make each other's acquaintance, so… would you want to swap numbers?"

"What kind of numbers?" In retrospect, that was a really stupid response.

"Come on, I mean our email addresses of course! And our phone numbers!"

"You want mine? Why?"

"Do you… not want to?"

"No, I don't mind, I guess… "

Somehow or other, it seems that I've been easily getting quite a few girls's phone numbers lately…

A bit embarrassed, I handed over my own cell phone.

Ping. With the IR communication system, our phone numbers and mail addresses were swapped in an instant.

"Ahah, it's done. Thank you very much." Looking at her cell phone, she seemed happy.

Wh-what… Why does she look so happy? I feel a bit embarrassed.

Taking back my own cell phone, I realized that I still didn't know her name. "I'm Uzumaki Haruto. And you are?"

"Ah, sorry! I forgot to introduce myself… " Lightly tapping herself on the forehead, she seemed a bit embarrassed. "I'm Amesaka Juvia."

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