I really don't want to be reborn.

There will be many problems, but these are all entirely personal actions.

"If you don't let playing games interfere with your studies, then it's perfectly normal to me, because I play games myself, so there's nothing funny about it."

Next to his desk were more than a dozen game disc cases, filled with materials he needed. Of course, there were also many books on the table; he preferred reading to playing games.

Hearing him say that, his sister's eyes lit up: "Is that what you think? Really? Do you think the games I play are normal?"

"It's just a game featuring younger sister characters, isn't that pretty common?"

Is it really true?

Kyosuke was silent for a moment, then answered very seriously, "I said it's true, are you deaf?"

Oops!

We agreed to be more patient!

But for some reason, he always felt a flame burning in his heart when he was with Kirino.

As he prepared to apologize, Kirino nodded happily, completely oblivious to her brother's attitude: "...Is that so? I see, so that's what you think..."

Kyosuke closed his eyes, sensing that the guy seemed to have misunderstood something.

Yes, Kirino misunderstood something. She thought her brother was also an otaku—but Kyosuke wasn't really an otaku. Liking to write doesn't make him an otaku, and even when he played games, it was to find inspiration for his writing.

She felt a warm glow inside. She took a sip of hot water, and a gentle, soothing sensation slowly moved down her throat to her stomach, then spread from her stomach to every corner of her body.

This warmth is something lost and then regained.

My brother has always cared about me.

What is possession? It is the ability to easily regain what you have lost.

At this time, she felt that Kasumigaoka Utaha was full of flaws.

What's so great about that cold woman? Apart from sharing a love of reading and writing with Kyosuke, they're completely incompatible, she's been thinking that way since last year.

Ultimately, she was just a lonely, pitiful creature. Without her brother, she didn't even have a friend to talk to!

Kirino's thoughts were incredibly sour.

She herself knew what that sour taste was called.

If you don't make an effort or take action, but instead focus on the other party's weaknesses, you'll only end up being despicable yourself.

This is called jealousy.

The girl jumped up, ran back to her room, grabbed her laptop, and dashed back into Kyosuke's room. She took the pink DVD, "Let's Fall in Love with My Sister," and prepared to start watching.

Kyosuke Kosaka looked at her strangely: "What are you doing?"

"Let's play together! Let me tell you about this game—"

"I refuse."

My hands, which were fiddling with the computer, seemed frozen, suspended in the air. The warmth that had just risen in my heart sank into the water, lost and regained, only to be lost again.

She raised her head in resentment and anger, glaring at him: "Why?"

Kyosuke Kosaka looked directly into those round eyes: "What are you doing right now?"

His sister's anger was extinguished by his calm gaze, and she said in a low voice, "Please... play with me just once."

The tone was so weak it seemed like a hallucination.

"The way you begged me just now sounded like you were threatening me. Fine, I don't mind if you play any games, but that doesn't mean I like playing them myself."

He turned around and shut down the computer: "Go to sleep early, you have class tomorrow. Take this CD back with you, don't let your parents see it."

Kirino bit her lip as she walked out of his room, her mind filled with the words she had glimpsed in the chat window on the computer screen.

"In the spring fields, you are walking alone when a cute little bear comes towards you, its fur as soft as velvet, its eyes round and bulging..."

That's Haruki Murakami, that's "Norwegian Wood".

That's about love.

"What a terrible love story..."

------

Chapter Twelve: No one should live too hard.

“I know she’s stupid, frivolous, and empty-headed, yet I love her.”

“I know she’s naive, vulgar, and irrational, yet I love her.”

"I know she's a bit of a goofball, but I love her."

The three consecutive exclamations made passersby turn around in surprise and stare at the high school boy and girl strolling along the street.

It's the weekend, and there are quite a few high school students on the street.

That man wasn't anything special. Apart from lacking the flamboyant demeanor typical of his age, he really didn't have anything particularly remarkable about him.

She was far less noticeable than the girl beside him.

The main theme is black, with long hair held in place by a white headband. Her bright red eyes are surprisingly aloof, giving her a youthful and innocent look.

"Kosaka-kun..."

Kasumigaoka Utaha sighed softly: "I'm sure of one thing, the 'she' you mentioned in what seems to be a quote from Maugham should refer to your sister, right?"

"Who else could it be but her?"

He made a helpless expression, as if he hadn't disciplined his younger sister well: "This is my problem."

"Yes, that is indeed your problem."

"..."

Eh?

Kasumigaoka calmly said, "You've overlooked the mindset of female junior high school students. You probably don't know that in recent years, the group that dislikes otaku and the like has been female junior high school students the most."

Kyosuke genuinely didn't know, and he didn't bother to explore the reasons behind this social phenomenon, because it was meaningless to him.

"So that's how it is. I was indeed thinking too simply."

Playing games is indeed a completely personal matter and it's not illegal, but middle school girls hate it, and Kirino is not only a middle school girl, but almost all of her friends are also middle school girls.

She was the most popular girl at school, admired by many girls. She was excellent in both character and academics, and perfect in every way, but she didn't dare to share her hobbies with others, not even mentioning them.

What kind of feelings does Kirino have during her turbulent adolescence?

After she accidentally discovered her little secret, she was filled with fear and anxiety, afraid that her parents would find out and that she would look down on her.

So she has remained silent.

If making a sound is dangerous, then remain silent.

If you feel powerless to shine, then curl up in a corner.

But... that doesn't mean that idiot will get used to the darkness; she certainly doesn't think staying at home is a sin.

Kyosuke Kosaka felt a slight pang of regret.

In particular, the girl next to him pointed out incisively: "The only mistake humans make is a lack of patience. They use seemingly plausible stakes to enclose seemingly plausible things. Kousaka-kun, I've always wanted to say this, you lack patience with your sister."

He remained silent, and the two walked quietly for a long time before he finally let out a long sigh: "You're right. She's been very obedient since she was little, but I don't know when she started to become disobedient and unruly. I felt that there was a big problem between Kirino and me."

"She started to be indifferent to me, so I started to be indifferent to her too. Indifference is a two-way street. We started to drift apart, and I became less and less patient with her."

After mailing out the completed first volume of the manuscript, they argued over whether to choose a coffee shop or a movie theater, but ultimately chose the third option—a bookstore—without prior agreement.

The cashiers in the bookstore are actually quite good-looking.

"On another note, why do you like staying at home, Kasumigaoka-kun? You read novels, play games, watch anime, and even read adult doujinshi."

"Yes, I just like it, it started in junior high school."

Kyosuke turned the page: "But you just said that middle school girls all hate those kinds of things, right?"

The girl smiled: "Because I don't dislike it, I don't care if others dislike it, and I don't care if others know I don't dislike it, so..."

So she was always all alone during junior high school.

It's easy to understand why Kousaka Kyosuke didn't dwell on the issue; he simply remarked on her attitude towards life: "A strong will, a strong woman."

It was solitude, not conformity, that made her stand out.

"Why should I care? Because I live neither in the past nor in the future; I only live in the present, and that's what interests me. If you could stay in the present forever, you would be the happiest person."

She had barely finished speaking when she noticed that Kosaka's face looked extremely pale, and asked in surprise, "What's wrong with you? Did you get fed shit by some short passage in the book?"

"...How vulgar the language is."

Kyosuke Kosaka asked a very serious question: "If you could live in the past forever, reliving a certain period of time over and over again, retaining all the memories and endlessly looping through it, what would you do?"

Kasumigaoka thought about it seriously and finally gave her answer: "I will use this inspiration in the book, even as a side story."

…………

Before going home in the afternoon, he went to the supermarket to buy some ingredients. He felt guilty and prepared to cook something his sister liked to eat.

His cooking skills are slightly better than his mother's.

And Ms. Kirino Kousaka's cooking skills are—how should I put it, to put it mildly, they are quite extraordinary, the kind of cooking that you'll never forget...everlasting.

"Didn't Kirino used to really like eating saury...?"

"Hmm, and a little bit of carbonated drink, I need to perk myself up."

I don't know when it started, but many things now have an expiration date on them: drinks expire, saury expires, and even cling film expires.

What in this world never expires?

"Of course it does! Mom's stewed potatoes and meat will never expire. Even if Mom gets too old to walk, the taste will never change."

In the kitchen, Jia Nai's mother smiled and avoided her son's sad and sharp questions as the two began to cook.

"Saury!"

"Yes, I remember it was Kirino who liked it."

"Oh my, Kyosuke and Kirino-chan finally made up? That was so hard!"