The sound of the rain outside the window rustled softly. The patter of water droplets on green leaves was like a rapid drumbeat, forming a harmonious sonata with the tinkling of raindrops from the windowsill falling into the puddles below.
Inside the magus's workshop in the mountains, the aroma of coffee lingered in the air. Aozaki Touko was writing and drawing on a manuscript paper on the desk, occasionally glancing at the boy sleeping soundly on a nearby sofa, a faint smile on her lips.
But the smile on the girl's face did not last long. Her delicate, slender brows furrowed slightly. As the sound of light footsteps in the corridor grew closer and closer, a hint of helplessness appeared between her brows.
And sure enough, a few seconds later, the wooden sliding door of the workshop was pulled open with a sowhat rough whoosh, followed by a voice full of vitality and youthful energy.
"Ah, I knew it! I just knew..."
The girl who opened the sliding door was wearing a dark sailor uniform. The chest beneath her red necktie swelled into a fine curve. Although she was just at the age of transitioning from a girl to a young woman, she already possessed so exquisite curves.
Her long chestnut hair fell softly to her slender waist. Beneath the pleated skirt that covered her perky bottom, a pair of long, fair legs were encased in black thigh-high stockings. The tips of the round-toed uniform leather shoes on her feet tapped lightly on the ground, as if to shake off the rainwater that had accidentally gotten inside.
Aozaki Aoko held the doorfra with one hand and a red umbrella that was still dripping with water in the other. Upon seeing the boy lying on the sofa, a flash of delight crossed her deep blue eyes, and she subconsciously cried out.
But almost imdiately, the "hushing" look from the black-haired girl inside the workshop and the sound of the boy's steady, long breaths made her understand the situation. She couldn't help but lower her voice and finish the sentence she had started earlier, as if talking to herself.
"...you'd be here."
Leaning the red umbrella against the door outside, Aozaki Aoko gently closed the door, lightened her steps, and slowly walked over to a small stool by the sofa. Not at all like a lady, she sat down directly, propped her elbows on her thighs, and rested her chin in one hand. After watching the boy's peaceful sleeping face for a while, the corners of her lips curled up slightly.
Then, as if noticing sothing, she said softly.
"Isn't it a bit dangerous to sleep with glasses on...?"
Although she was a little curious as to why the boy was wearing glasses, Aozaki Aoko did not ask at this ti. She guessed that it was surely so strange gadget her older sister, Aozaki Touko, had co up with to solve the boy's blindness.
Gently removing the glasses from the boy's small face, folding them, and placing them aside, Aozaki Aoko then noticed that the boy, who was curled up, was also holding a ball of yarn and an unfinished glove in his arms.
The girl blinked in confusion. After a mont's hesitation, she picked up a small wad of paper from the side and gently tossed it at the black-haired girl not far away. To her surprise, it hit her right on the head, causing Aoko's face to instantly show an expression of "Oops."
Aozaki Touko, who had been calculating so complex magical formulas, was disturbed by this and her brow furrowed subconsciously. But rembering that the boy was still sound asleep, she just took a slight deep breath, turned her head, and cast a questioning gaze at the apologetic Aozaki Aoko.
Aozaki Aoko put her hands together in a silent apology. A mont later, she pointed at the unfinished glove in the boy's arms, her long-lashed eyes blinking lively, as if asking, "What is this?"
Not expecting her little sister to ask such a trivial question, Aozaki Touko initially intended to ignore her. But as if thinking of sothing, a hint of amusent flashed in her eyes. She casually picked up a blank piece of manuscript paper from her side and began to write on it with a flourish.
Then she held it up, showing the contents to her sister.
—[Your birthday present.]
Aozaki Aoko was stunned for a mont, then a look of annoyance imdiately appeared on her pretty face, and she glanced at her sister with so resentnt.
It wasn't that she disliked the birthday present the boy was preparing to give her next month, but she was rather distressed that she had found out about it in advance.
Now, what on earth was she supposed to do to act out that sense of surprise upon receiving a gift for the first ti?
At the thought of this question, Aozaki Aoko felt a slight headache, and it was all the fault of the black-haired girl who was now laughing silently.
As always, her personality is just a little bit hateable...
Looking speechlessly at Aozaki Touko, whose mood seed to have returned to normal, Aoko sighed softly, then turned her gaze back to the boy. She reached out with her fair fingers and gently pressed them against the boy's supple, white cheek, tilting her head slightly as she pondered with so annoyance how she should "perform" when the ti ca.
Speaking of which, she never used to have this kind of worry.
When did her relationship with the boy beco so close?
Her thoughts couldn't help but drift away as mories of the past flashed through the girl's mind.
As the youngest daughter of the Aozaki family, Aoko had been doted upon by everyone around her since birth.
Although born into a prestigious magus family, it was sowhat regrettable that her aptitude was only judged to be diocre. But it was precisely for this reason that Aoko didn't have to bear any special expectations and could fully enjoy her own life.
"After all, troubleso things like inheriting True Magic can be left to my older sister. I just need to live a normal life."
With this mindset, under the doting love of her parents and the care of her occasionally mischievous older sister, the girl grew up carefree.
Until one day, when she was five years old, her grandfather, who had always stayed in the mountains, suddenly ca down to their ho, holding a blind infant boy in his arms before her parents.
"From today on, you will raise this child. As for his na... let's call him 'Rin'."
With that, the old man left, without explaining where the infant had co from. And her parents, after a brief mont of confusion and bewildernt, ultimately followed the old man's instructions and adopted the baby boy.
From then on, the girl nad Aozaki Aoko had a little brother.
At that ti, however, Aoko neither liked nor disliked the boy.
Although he was her brother, they had no blood relation.
And though she felt sympathy for the boy's congenital blindness, at the sa ti, the affection from her parents, which had once been solely hers as the most pampered child, was now shared with the boy by at least half. For the young Aoko at the ti, it was impossible not to feel a sense of loss.
Therefore, even if she didn't want to admit it, there was indeed a trace of rejection in the girl's heart.
It was for this reason that the distance between Aoko and the boy at that ti was neither particularly close nor deliberately distant, as if they were maintaining a certain interval, like familiar strangers, without paying too much attention to each other.
The real change probably happened in the winter of that one year.
On that day, a heavy snow fell.
Aoko, who was in the sixth grade, stood at the exit of her school building, carrying her schoolbag, watching as parent after parent braved the snowstorm to pick up their children.
But Aoko knew that her parents were away on business, and her sister, who always stayed in her workshop in the mountains, would not co down just for sothing like this. After all, she was almost 12 years old at the ti; it was ti she learned to walk ho from school by herself.
But for so reason, Aoko inexplicably waited at the school building for over an hour. It was only when almost all the students had left and a passing teacher offered to take her ho that she hurriedly waved her hands, opened her umbrella, and ran out of the school gate.
It was a considerable distance from the elentary school in the city to her ho in the suburban mountains, and it required passing through four train stations. Although the train was a convenient ans of transport, it still took so ti to walk to the nearest station.
Aoko held her umbrella, paying slight attention to the road conditions around her. She looked down at a smooth pebble she had happened to find, kicking it forward intermittently as she walked slowly, and before she knew it, she had arrived near the station.
What she hadn't expected, however, was that as soon as she reached the station, she saw a small figure huddled on an open-air bench at the platform.
The young boy was wearing a white down jacket, his head bowed as he huddled into a small ball on the bench. Perhaps because of the cold, the boy was wearing a considerable amount of clothing, and his outermost jacket was puffed up. Combined with the white scarf around his neck and the crimson umbrella covered in snow leaning against his shoulder, he looked just like a glutinous rice ball sprinkled with fruit powder.
Aoko blinked in confusion, not understanding why the boy was here. She couldn't help but look at Aozaki Touko, who was standing beside the boy, seemingly admiring the scenery. But her sister just nodded at her and didn't say much.
It was clear that waiting for her here was not Touko's idea, but rely the boy's request.
For safety reasons, Aozaki Touko had accompanied her young brother, taking the ti and effort to leave her mountain workshop and co to this place.
But even though she had figured this out, Aoko still didn't understand why the boy would do this, because even as siblings, their relationship was not that close.
But before she could think it over, as if hearing her familiar footsteps in the snow, the boy, whose small head had been nodding off in sleep, suddenly woke up and murmured drowsily.
"Sister?"
A few seconds later, the boy, now slowly waking up, got off the bench with so delight. A pure smile was on his small face, and while holding the umbrella that seed a little too large for his body, he began to run carefully toward her general direction at a pace that was neither fast nor slow.
"Sister!"
Hearing the boy's call, Aoko couldn't help but be stunned for a mont. Seeing the boy's breath turn into white puffs of air, his little red face filled with a look of welco and anticipation, in that instant, a strange feeling inexplicably rose in her heart.
But the boy's eyes were, after all, impaired. Even if he ran as carefully as possible, he inevitably slipped on his way, and his small body fell forward involuntarily.
And at that mont, Aoko subconsciously rushed forward and caught the boy's body. Looking at the boy who had fallen into her arms, after gently shaking his head, he looked up at her and smiled.
"Sister, let's go ho."
In that second, Aoko couldn't help but feel that her past self had been a bit foolish.
Why had it taken her until now to discover that such an adorable creature existed in the world?
The girl's heart uncontrollably sped up a little in that second, realizing for the first ti that the boy's existence might be a kind of luck for her.
And from then on, her relationship with the boy gradually beca closer, and has remained so to this day.
As if woken by the sound of the rain outside the window, or perhaps because of the girl's fingers gently pressing on his cheek, Aozaki Rin slowly opened his eyes and murmured in so confusion.
"Sister?"
"Ah, sorry, did I wake you up by accident, Rin?"
Aozaki Aoko quickly withdrew her hand. But to her surprise, the boy just sat up slightly, hugged her, and buried his small face in her abdon.
"Rin?"
Feeling a certain dampness from the boy's face, the girl beca a little flustered and patted the boy's head, asking with concern.
"What's wrong, Rin?"
"...It's nothing."
The boy gently shook his head, left the girl's embrace, and sat up straight.
A single teardrop slipped from the corner of his eye, rolling down his cheek and falling to the floor.
He spoke softly, as if to himself.
"...I just feel like I had a sad dream."
-------
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