A Pretty Girl Has Her First Kiss Stolen By an Equally Handsome Classmate - Episode 4.19

November 19 (Friday)

“Shizuku, you’re not going to leave your mom behind, right?”

Cold sweat ran down her face as she jolted awake. Next to her, Kaede Wakamatsu, who had been leaning on the bed, looked up at her in surprise.

“What’s wrong? Did you have a bad dream?”

“…Not really…”

Those words from her mother had weighed on her heart for a long time.

Now that it was just the two of them, Shizuku knew she was the only one who could support her mom. If she left her, her mother would be all alone. If she didn’t stay close, her mother would have to face everything by herself. That’s what she believed.

“How are things with your mom lately?”

Kaede closed the book she had probably been reading and asked a sharp question.

“I’m not really sure.”

“You haven’t been talking much?”

“I’m too scared to bring up my sister…”

She didn’t want to see her mother clinging to her like she did that day.

“Is it hard to talk to her?”

How was her mom lately?

Until Kaede asked, Shizuku hadn’t realized how little serious conversation she’d had with her mother. They still greeted each other and said goodbye—but she had avoided the topic of her sister completely.

“Hmm… I guess I’ve been avoiding her.”

“Why?”

“…There’s something she said that I can’t stop thinking about.”

She spoke honestly, without hiding anything.

Kaede listened with a serious look. Having someone who truly thinks about things with you—it’s something Shizuku had come to deeply appreciate.

“That’s why… I don’t want to see my mom like that again.”

She spoke softly, staring at the floor.

“You know what I think?” Kaede said in a calm tone.

Shizuku looked up. Their eyes met, and Kaede gave her a gentle smile.

“I don’t think your mom meant anything bad. I think she just wanted you to be there with her.”

“Huh?”

“Like how you were before…”

Shizuku remembered the time when Kaede used to come over to bring her class handouts.

How had she acted toward Shizuku back then?

“You don’t have to be sad with her or anything.”

Kaede scratched her head as she leaned against the bed.

“Well, maybe she did lean on you a little too much back then.”

She seemed to be choosing her words carefully.

“But hey, it’s been a whole year, right?”

Kaede glanced over at the calendar. It really had been a year since her sister left home.

“Your mom must’ve changed too by now.”

“…You think so?”

“I know so. Enough time has passed.”

Kaede turned to face Shizuku directly.

“Come here, Shizuku.”

She opened her arms and gently hugged her. “It’s okay,” she said in a calm, clear voice.

Strangely enough, it sounded like the truth.

“…About my sister,”

While having dinner with her mom, Shizuku finally brought up the topic of her sister.

She nervously glanced at her mother sitting beside her, but her face didn’t show any signs of pain. Her mother put down her chopsticks and looked at her with serious eyes.

“Is it okay if I ask what happened with her?”

“Are you okay with it, Shizuku?”

“Me? I think I’m okay now…”

They stared at each other, both trying to read what the other was really feeling.

Seeing how alike they were made them both smile a little.

“So I was just worrying for nothing, huh,” her mother said with a laugh.

Shizuku felt relieved. Her mother’s eyes no longer had that same sadness from before.

Maybe it was Shizuku herself who had been avoiding her mother all along. She silently thanked Kaede Wakamatsu for giving her the chance to face her mom. Kaede was someone who always helped guide her—a truly special person.

“I don’t know exactly where Suguru is now…”

“But I do know she’s safe, and someone’s letting her stay with them.”

This new information shocked Shizuku.

“She sent me a letter. So I decided not to force anything anymore.”

“…A letter came?”

“She’s just like you, Shizuku. Serious and kind.”

Shizuku remembered her sister always cooking for the family after school. Even on weekends, she hardly ever went out—she stayed home and took care of the house from morning to night.

In the first semester of her college freshman year, Suguru Mizuhara had taken the maximum number of classes. But after summer break, she submitted a leave of absence and took a year off. The reason given was volunteer work and other personal projects.

Then, starting in October this year, she had chosen only on-demand classes for the second semester. On-demand meant learning from materials prepared by professors and submitting assignments for credit—no need to attend classes or appear online. Shizuku didn’t know what kind of negotiation her sister had made, but it seemed the university didn’t force her and their mother to meet.

“I decided to wait until she comes back on her own.”

Her mother smiled. That desperate mother from before, reaching out to her daughter, was no longer there.

—

Her sister still wasn’t home.

But bit by bit, their unusual life was starting to return to something closer to normal.

Shizuku could feel it.

And for the first time in a while, she could see a more peaceful future.