The Interrogation of the Slacker Brother

Time rewound to the present.

I abruptly halted my steps.

“Listen closely, question one.”

A voice, clear and melodious like a skylark, yet imbued with boundless tyranny—reminiscent of a tyrannical skylark—rang out.

No human, however, could possibly mistake the two.

“Oh… Ohoh…”

“Why are you in my class?! There’s no way you could have achieved the grades necessary to skip a year, is there?! What exactly are your intentions, transferring into my class?!!”

Then, Ye Sakaki, the rascal, scratched his head in front of me, flashing a shy smile.

“Eh? Wasn’t that question one? Aren’t there three questions?”

“…”

“That’s completely different! Hmph… In any case, you must answer all my questions within three seconds… no, one minute! Don’t even think your intellect can fool me! Otherwise… hmph hmph…”

As always, I delivered a deadly threat to my ‘self-proclaimed brother’ in what I considered a ‘dignified’ tone.

“Uh, well, I just took the normal route. After talking to the teacher, I took an exam and got in…”

“As for grades, isn’t it just a matter of studying hard?”

“As for intentions…”

“S-t-o-p!”

I cut Ye Sakaki off before he could finish.

‘His words replayed in my mind: “As for grades,” he’d said with a dismissive tone. “Isn’t it just,” with an air of indifference, “a matter of studying hard?” The casual remark, surprisingly, held a hint of genuine earnestness.’

‘Would the original me ever say something like that?’

Having an understanding of myself that exceeded a hundred percent, I had experienced my own life from both a first and third-person perspective.

I absolutely refused to believe the nonsense spouted by this ‘me’.

‘I had to expose his lies! If he dared to deceive even me now, how would I ever manage to manipulate him later?’

“Do you truly believe a baseless statement like ‘Oh, my grades are all thanks to diligent studying’ will make me trust you? Don’t think for a second I don’t know that once you climb onto your desk, if your study time exceeds ten minutes, you’ll start spinning your pen. After twenty spins, you’ll invariably stand up under the pretext of ‘thinking things over,’ gaze out the window for thirty seconds, then head to the fridge for ice cream. And when you eat that ice cream, you’ll definitely watch a DVD, using the excuse ‘What’s the point of eating ice cream if you don’t watch anime?’ By the time you finish the DVD, it’ll undoubtedly be one in the morning, and then you’ll absolutely ‘rest early for tomorrow’s lessons’…!”

“But so you wouldn’t leave me behind… little sister… I really did study hard late at night…”

“You should just abandon such futile efforts.”

“Uh… that’s really, quite hurtful… But, little sister…”

“How… how could you possibly know that?!! There’s no way! You weren’t even home then… Could it be… you were spying on your great brother?! Do you even know what I was watching?!!”

“Wasn’t it the ‘Yuriko’s Tutoring’ series?”

“………………….”

“………………………………”

“………………………”

As I watched Ye Sakaki’s somewhat ashen, unwavering gaze of ‘suspicion,’ I felt a flush of warmth creep up my face.

Unable to bear it any longer, I was the first to break.

“Aaaah! So what if I like watching that kind of thing! You scumbag, shut your mouth right now!!”

“…..I’m sorry.”

“Don’t just apologize out of nowhere! You’re making me feel awkward, you idiot!”

“….Then…”

“Just shut up! You…”

Suddenly, something else occurred to me.

“Aaaah!! You bastard! Don’t utter another word and just quietly go home!!”

Basking in a silence reminiscent of an ancient shrine, Ye Sakaki and I finally returned to our rented home.