I Can Distinguish the Twin Sister - Chapter 16

　I soon realized that it was the scene of a dream.

　The view in front of me is a mixture of black and white. It was as if I had stepped into a television set that was being shown in black and white.

( This is… )

　The place looked familiar.

　It was the department store that my mother and I visited more than ten years ago, although it seems to have been remodeled and lost its original appearance now.

( …………… )

　I approach the building slowly, looking up at it silently.

　All the other passers-by pass by without noticing me, and some of them even pass through my body.

　I don’t feel the bump, and I don’t feel the passage ―I am truly cut off from this world.

( Is it the source of my nostalgic feeling…? Of course, I have this thought, but at the same time, I can’t help but think it’s just an assumption ―a strange feeling.)

　If I was mumbling to myself in the real world, I’d be a creepy guy… but as I said before, I’m alone in this world now, so there’s no problem.

( Let’s go… )

　I enter the building.

　I can’t pick up the products, but I find it an interesting experience to see that the products are labeled as they were more than a decade ago.

　It’s unusual for me to realize that I’m dreaming in this way, but it’s not a bad feeling.

　I kept walking, looking around, and I found them.

[ I’m Akito! Hnng ! Hmn ! Hnnn ! ]

[ ……….. ]

　There was an idiot kid… who was so silly and looked like a madman.

　In front of the two sobbing people, there was a silly kid who was moving and bending his body absurdly in a desperate attempt to make them laugh.

( What are you doing…. )

　Silly, so stupid….it’s embarrassing.

　Why am I embarrassed? I’m sure it’s obvious ―that’s definitely me in the past, and I know that the two people I’m trying to stop crying are the kids in the picture.

( …Ah, yes, that’s right )

　Slowly… I start to remember as if unraveling.

　That’s how I met those two ―I’m sure that for those kids, I’m their first acquaintance since I go to a different kindergarten from them.

　Therefore, I must be an idiot and a suspicious guy to them.

　I should be, but the result is unexpected.

[ …fufu ]

[ ahaha! ]

　They’re laughing.

　It seems that the sudden eccentricity of bending over was enough to make them let down their guard. Well, he would be a complete jerk if he did that at my age now, but back then, it made those kids laugh.

( So… we started seeing each other from time to time. Once a week, every time I went shopping… and then we started playing in the park or something… )

　I’ve said this many times, but something doesn’t mean right… somehow the memory has flashed through my mind.

　The exchange at the department store ended, and the scene switched to the three of them playing together in the park, including me.

( …here )

　This park is the place where I tried to climb a tree to get my school bag.

　It’s different from that tree, but it’s still very funny to see the three of us sitting with our backs against a big tree.

　They don’t seem at all concerned about their backs getting dirty because they are children.

[ How do you recognize us, Aki-kun? ]

[ Yes, yeah. I was wondering that too! ]

[ What? Well, I wonder why. ]

　Aki-kun, and we’re…

　When we were kids, our voices were basically high, and some kids’ voices couldn’t be recognized as boy or girl, but… this voice was definitely a girl’s.

　The girls in the picture, even now, look like boys, but in my dream, I’m sure they are girls.

( Oh… how could I have forgotten )

　Really, I wonder how I forgot.

　Even though we were in different kindergartens, there were two people I was close to ―as I saw earlier, our meeting was really a coincidence, and we gradually became friends, and we never went to each other’s houses, but we saw each other more and more often.

[ How do I know… I really don’t know! But I do! Ri-chan and Yo-chan! I’ll never make a mistake! ]

[ ….hehe~ ]

[ Akkun is the best! ]

　The past me… is a very articulate guy, I thought, and the exchange in front of me was very nostalgic and made me smile.

　Not only me but also the adults around us were looking at us smiling, and it may be presumptuous of me to say so, but our exchange seemed to have the power to make the people around us smile.

[ Oh, by the way, I’ve been thinking. I’m going to move out… soon, so I might not see you for a while. ]

[ …what? ]

[ …you can’t meet me? ]

　Then the scenery changed again.

　The two of them looked sad and seemed to be talking less, while I didn’t seem to be thinking much about it.

(…I guess they felt that close to me. Of course, I can’t remember everything, but I know that those two treated me as a really important friend… a close friend with whom they felt at ease. And I genuinely thought of them in the same way.)

　Did I recognize them as girls back then?

　I don’t think I was treating them like girls, but this is a big hint for me…

　Ri-chan and Yo-chan. That was the name that resonated in my brain.

　To the two of them who seemed to be saying that it was hard to say goodbye, the past me continued with more words.

[ So wherever you are, I’ll find you! Well, I don’t know when we’ll see each other again. But I’ll come back to see you both! ]

　That’s… how I left them.

　It must have been a kind of promise between us… but apparently, it was sunk in a sea of deep memories because of the remarkable change of environment from elementary school to junior high school.

[ Aki-kun… ]

[ Akkun… ]

　To be honest, I have not been able to identify those two girls.

　But the nostalgic part that I felt from this memory and the dream scene is common, and there is a high probability that it is more than enough.

( I wonder if I am somehow hoping that this is the hidden truth with them )

　What do I want… No, I didn’t need to think about it.

　If I made a promise, I’d make good on it ―I’ll come back to see them again… and I can’t make a mistake on that promise.

　Of course, this is just a dream, and I may not remember it when I wake up.

　If anything, my dream may have shown me a too-good-to-be-true view ―but still.

[ We’ll see each other again, won’t we? ]

[ I’ll hate you if I don’t see you, okay? ]

[ Hehe! I promise! ]

　It’s just a promise made by a small child.

　Maybe there are people who think I am a fool for being too affected by my childhood memories of the past ―but as long as my body remembers them, Can’t I think they’re important?

　My little figure disappeared right in front of me, and the two of them were left behind.

[ Aki-kun… ]

[ Akkun… ]

　It was inevitable, but I wanted to tell the dream me not to leave them while whispering my name sadly like that.

　I haven’t found out their names yet, but I still have a premonition.

“…Hey? “

　Then I realized.

　I realized that I could speak out of my mouth and that my body had become young.

　I walk slowly over to the girls, who continue to stare at my missing place, wondering what the hell is going on.

“Both of you.”

” …what? “

” …uh? “

　As soon as they turned around, everything took on color.

　The world was black and white before, but now light shone through, and all beings took on color… That’s when I woke up.

* * *

“…… is it a miracle that I can remember anything? “

　I whispered to myself after I woke up.

　I remember not only most of the content of the dream but also that I could remember some of the important things, I thought as I picked up the picture I had brought to my room again.

“Ri-chan…Yo-chan, huh?”

　The last piece is still missing as to who these girls are.

　Ri-chan and Yo-chan are definitely names that can be connected to Rin’ne-san or Yomi-san if you only look at the initials.

　Even if that is true, the blank time between us was more than ten years before …… I thought there was no way we could have had such a fateful encounter, but now I am more eager to see them again than I am expecting it.

[ What are you talking about, anyway? ]

[ I think you have the wrong person. ]

　I was afraid of what they would say something like that, but it’s okay to at least check, right?

“…let’s go check it out.”

　I’m a simpleton, it seems.

　It’s Sunday, so I’m free to spend the day as I please, but after a quick word with my mother and father, I leave the house.

　The destination is, of course, the place where the department store used to be.

“… it has changed, hasn’t it?”

　Even if the building itself remains the same, the appearance of the building changes after a decade.

　Chuckling at such a natural thing, I found the back of the building as if I had been led to it.

“Ah… “

　Two familiar backs were in front of me.

　They looked up at the building and didn’t move, or so it seemed, but they both turned around at the same time and rolled their eyes at me.

　I looked at them and felt a clear connection with the girls from my old memories.