I Can Distinguish the Twin Sister - Chapter 4

“I’m home.”

“Welcome home.”

I came home later than expected, probably because I had been playing with Yoshiki and Masashi today.

My father hadn’t come home yet, but my mother had already started to prepare dinner.

After I went to my room and put down my luggage, I decided to ask my mother about something that had been bothering me before I went to the bathtub.

“Listen, Mom.”

“What’s wrong? ”

“I was over here in kindergarten, remember? ”

“That’s right.”

“Do you remember what happened then? ”

” …what’s going on?

Mom looked at me, wondering what was going on, but I crossed my arms and closed her eyes as if remembering the old days, as if this was important because it was about her son.

“You were in kindergarten, but that was over ten years ago… I might remember if I’m still young, but I’m not young anymore.”

“You’re still young, Mom.”

“Thank you♪.”

If being called young makes you so happy, your son will say so again and again.

“Right, photos! I want to see the photos! ”

“Ah, yeah, right.”

However, finding the album with the pictures took me a long time.

I thought it was impossible because I couldn’t find it, and when she told me to go to the bathroom, I gave up halfway.

But when I got out of the bath, a miracle was waiting for me.

“There it is! It was hiding in the back.”

“Ohh…”

“But what happened all of a sudden? You never asked me about your kindergarten days before.”

“Just a little bit.”

I said and opened up the album.

( …I feel like I’m being creepy like I’m expecting something.)

Well, maybe I’m expecting a little.

Then my mother checked on me occasionally, and I looked through the photos in the album, but I didn’t find anything that caught my attention.

I felt like I could remember a little bit of those days, and I remembered the guys I was reasonably close to, but… it was mostly boys, not girls.

“…Uh? ”

Amidst all this, a photo in the album that was just about to end caught my eye.

Two boys in short sleeves and shorts with similar faces surrounded me in the center, but like the other pictures, I couldn’t remember anything about them.

“Mom, do you remember these two? ”

“Hmm? … Ah, this one! ”

“Do you recognize them? ”

“I don’t know! ”

… Alright, I almost said a swear word, but I managed to hold it in.

Wiping her hands on her apron, she sat down next to me, looked at the picture, and opened her mouth.

“Where is this place to begin with? …It’s not a kindergarten. It’s probably a department store somewhere. It looks like some old building… I don’t know about this. It’s either me or dad who took the picture.”

“…it’s more than 10 years old. I guess it’s hard to remember.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I mean, these two, they’re stuck with you. They must like you.”

“I wonder what they’re doing right now.”

“I don’t know. Maybe they go to high school together with you?　Maybe Yoshiki or Masashi? ”

“I don’t think so.”

“Right, I don’t think so. They can’t be this cute.”

You say that a lot, don’t you?

Anyway, I looked at the past photos, but there were no photos of the girls I thought were them, which negates the emotional reunion that is so often seen in novels.

“So, why the photos? ”

” …Today, a girl asked me if I had ever met her.”

“Pick up? ”

“I said the same thing. Mom is a lot like me.”

“It’s not surprising. We have the same blood.”

(TN: Pick up, as in ‘Someone tried to pick him/her up at a bar.’)

I guess that’s true. Mom and I laughed at each other.

“I’m home!”

Then my father came home.

After Mom and Dad took a bath, the three of us had dinner together, but Dad looked at the photo album on the desk and asked her what was going on.

“Akito told me today that a girl asked him if he had met her in the past. So he pulled out some photos from kindergarten.”

“Oh, and did you find the girl you wanted? ”

“No, and he’s disappointed.”

“Ha-ha-ha, that’s too bad.”

Well, even if there was such a miracle, I don’t think it would make any difference.

I don’t remember anything at all, and even if the fact was hidden, I couldn’t remember it just by looking at the picture.

Of course, I remembered some things even such a long time ago, but… again, my memory is also very limited.

“Thanks for the food.”

When I returned to my room after dinner, I had already forgotten about Rin’ne-san’s words and the past as if they were unimportant.

It was then that I received a message on my phone from Yoshiki.

“……? ”

It was not unusual for him to send me a message at this hour, but when I looked at it to see what it said, I found…

[ Look at this character! Isn’t this character dangerous? ]

The text was attached with a picture of a girl.

It was a picture of a stylish girl in a maid’s outfit from some anime, and she was posing in a cute pose, and she was indeed pretty.

I am not a geek like Yoshiki, but I often read manga and other things at his house, so I can somewhat understand his feelings.

” ‘She’s cute…’ well, let’s go to bed.”

I’m sorry, Yoshiki. I’m already sleepy now.

Without waiting for his reply, I went to sleep right after that.

* * *

It was a place I don’t remember.

Running around away from my parents, I was just a little kid with a really small body, unlike now that I am a high school student.

Two little children were crying in front of me.

“Mommy…where are you? ”

“… uwaa…! ”

It seemed like a nostalgic scene.

I wanted them to stop crying somehow, but they didn’t seem to know what to do with a stranger.

What did I think in my dream? I suddenly started to bend down my body in front of them.

Of course, I would have been dazzled if I had witnessed such foolish behavior. But they certainly laughed at me.

“…What is this scene―”

It made me feel strangely nostalgic… Then the view in front of me changed with a bang.

“……What? ”

I found myself back in my room and realized that I was dreaming.

A dream of my childhood that I don’t remember… maybe it was because I decided to look into the past based on Rin’ne-san’s words yesterday.

I thought that I was just an idiot in the past when I suddenly started bending over for someone I didn’t know, but I didn’t think too much about it because it was a dream, and I didn’t know if it was true or not.

“I don’t know… I’m so embarrassed that I had a dream like a wish just because Rin’ne-san said something about bending over.”

I muttered, then got out of bed and started getting ready for school.

I had gone to school a little earlier the day before, but today I met up with Yoshiki and Masashi on the way, so I was later than yesterday.

By the time I arrived at the classroom, most of the students had arrived at school, and the Aragaki sisters were naturally surrounded by their friends.

“……? ”

In the midst of all this, I felt Yomi-san’s eyes on me again.

She stared at me for a while but then quickly turned her gaze away to go back to her conversation with her friends.

( Rin’ne-san mentioned something…. or did she talk about it from the looks of it? )

I thought she might say something about my comment about her sister… but my prediction turned out to be right during the lunch break.

As usual, I was on my way back to the bathroom after lunch.

I saw Yomi-san crossing her arms in front of the classroom.

“Oh, he’s back.”

“…me? ”

Yomi-san nodded, and I knew why she wanted to see me.