Chapter 387: The Long-Awaited Date
Chapter 387: The Long-Awaited Date
He decided to splurge for once and took a taxi home. When he reached the stairs, he rushed up them as fast as he could.
Breathless and in a hurry, he pushed the door open. However, the scene inside was not what Himekoji had expected.
No sound of people, no lights turned on. Everything was pitch black and felt empty.
No one home?
Well, it made sense. Without him, their main cook, around dinner time, those girls must have been starving. Probably couldn’t take it anymore and went out together to find food?
Even though he thought this, habit made him call out anyway.
“I’m back.”
He expected no answer.
But the result was—
“Eh? Onii-chan?! Welcome home!”
From the inner room came his younger sister’s surprised and delighted cry.
Akiko shuffled out of the bedroom wearing slippers. Her eyes instantly lit up when she saw Himekoji, sparkling like little stars. She threw herself at Himekoji in a flying tackle.
Just a moment ago, Himekoji had been desperate to see his sister. But now, he was completely flustered and overwhelmed by her enthusiastic hug.
But then, it was just like Akiko, always so full of life and energy.
Thanks to her.
The instant Akiko hugged him, Himekoji felt all his exhaustion from the whole day vanish. His mind and body suddenly felt much lighter.
Honestly, he enjoyed such a hug.
But he was a guy, and often, because of pride, he couldn’t say what he really felt.
The saying “only their bodies are honest” fit Himekoji perfectly.
So his feigned annoyance came naturally—
“Ahem… let go, let go, Akiko. You’re such a big girl now. What do you think you look like, always clinging to me like this?”
“Uu… no, I won’t! I thought that awful woman had tricked you, and that you wouldn’t come back!” Akiko clung even tighter despite his protests.
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
Himekoji was completely confused.
“That livestream was so infuriating!”
“Livestream?”
Alright, he finally understood…
“You’re actually bringing that up!”
Pretending to be angry, Himekoji flicked his sister’s fair forehead, but he held back most of his force. It looked intimidating but actually felt like nothing more than a light tap when it landed on Akiko’s skin.
Only his tone remained the usual fake annoyance.
“Been sneaking around lately, haven’t you? And definitely not up to any good!”
“What do you mean not good? What’s not good about it? I even won the gold prize! Isn’t that awesome?”
Himekoji was clearly talking about Even An Older Brother With Love Has Problems Doesn’t He?.
Hearing this, Akiko pouted, looking extremely dissatisfied, and began arguing righteously.
That was the result of her hard work for so long!
Even though the original draft for the light novel Even An Older Brother With Love Has Problems Doesn’t He? came from the “Brother Complex System,” Akiko had disliked how many female characters in the story were involved with the brother. Driven by jealousy, she casually waved her hand and started drastically reworking the story.
What should they say? That newbies are monsters? Or that sister complexes are monsters?
Anyhow, on her first attempt at writing, having no experience, Akiko managed, fueled by sheer passion, to turn a harem-romance comedy into what looked like a light novel but was actually a long love letter – an “Anti-Brother Noble Phantasm”.
And the quality of this love letter was truly astonishingly high!
She beat out numerous strong competitors and snatched first place at the Fujisawa Light Novel Contest. Her achievement spoke for itself.
“G-Gold Prize…”
Hearing that, Himekoji’s face twitched uncontrollably.
“Hmph! Yeah, the Gold Prize! I won the Gold Prize! Even you, Onii-chan, haven’t won that before, right? Isn’t that good enough?”
She proudly emphasized it several times in a row.
Akiko finally let go of Himekoji. Instead, she put her hands on her hips, lifted her chin high, looking triumphant. It was like she had “Praise me now!” written all over her face.
Though this look of seeking praise was very cute…
However!
Himekoji absolutely would not praise her!
He frowned and gave his bratty sister a knock on the head.
“Wasn’t good enough? Wasn’t good enough? No! It was too good! I actually wished you’d written something worse!”
If it were worse, she wouldn’t have won the prize. No prize meant no publishing deal. No publishing deal meant the “The Sweet Daily Life of Himekoji Siblings” wouldn’t be seen by so many people…
“Argh! I’m going crazy!”
The thought that this high-quality “Brother Complex” masterpiece written by his little sister might eventually be passed around countless readers, and even had a high chance of being seen by people they knew, gave Himekoji a splitting headache.
The embarrassment was unbearable!
“What are you talking about, Onii-chan? Other big brothers always want their little sisters to be really successful. You’re strange…”
“Because you’re already successful enough! Too successful! Way too successful! Sigh!”
But saying this now was useless. Akiko’s masterpiece had already debuted at major bookstores yesterday.
Though there was a faint glimmer of pride mixed in, Himekoji would never admit being proud of his sister. And that tiny bit of pride was insignificant compared to the overwhelming embarrassment.
“Alright, alright, let’s not talk about this. Haven’t you eaten yet?”
His stomach rumbled in protest, prompting Himekoji to change the subject.
“Ah! I’ll go heat it up! I didn’t touch any of the food at all, waiting to have dinner with you, Onii-chan!”
She emphasized the last part strongly. To earn her brother’s praise, Akiko was constantly scheming with little tricks.
But such little schemes weren’t annoying at all.
He hadn’t expected Akiko to have already made dinner and waited for him, letting it all go cold…
That really wasn’t right.
“You should eat by yourself next time. No need to wait for me on purpose.”
Saying this, Himekoji shook his head, quickly moving ahead of his sister to take over the task.
“Let me handle reheating the food.”
“No need, no need! You worked outside all day, Onii-chan. Just sit down and rest when you get home! The kitchen is a woman’s territory! Men work outside, women inside! Cooking is a wife’s job!”
“Hearing that makes it impossible for me to hand it over.”
How could Himekoji let his sister solidify this “wife” act?
So, this loving pair of siblings began fighting over this small matter.
They each grasped one side of the bowl, neither willing to let go.
But Akiko was, after all, a girl. How could she match Himekoji’s strength?
Seeing that all the cold rice and dishes were about to be snatched away by Himekoji, Akiko panicked and resorted to her teeth.
“Owwww!” The girl turned into a small dog, biting down on Himekoji’s wrist.
“Ouch!”
How could Himekoji have expected this move?
Stunned by the pain, he let go. Because Akiko had bitten him, she didn’t have a firm hold on the bowl either. In the blink of an eye, both the bowl and its contents fell and scattered on the floor.
The carefully prepared dinner became a feast for the floor.
“Huh? Mmm…”
Seeing he’d caused trouble, Akiko immediately skillfully blinked her watery eyes, putting on a pitiful expression.
“You! Sigh…”
Looking at his sister like this, Himekoji didn’t know whether to scold her or not.
“Onii-chan, it was my fault. Punish me! Punish me hard!”
But then Akiko, as if struck by inspiration, delivered this line. She closed her eyes, accepting her fate, offering her neck.
“Molest me or force me – it’s all up to you!”
“I would never do that sort of thing!”
Himekoji rolled his eyes, thoroughly exasperated.
“Then spank me! Onii-chan, harder! Harder!”
When one trick failed, she tried another. Akiko quickly turned around, seemingly shy but actually resolute, sticking her bottom out towards Himekoji. The next second, she was even about to pull her skirt down…
“I-I wouldn’t do that kind of thing either!”
Himekoji hastily raised his hands to stop her, firmly grabbing her skirt, barely avoiding a test of ethics and humanity.
“By the way, where are Shiina and Aoyama?”
Afraid his sister might create some other strange problem, Himekoji quickly changed the subject.
“They both went out. Nanami went to her part-time job. It seemed Editor Iida had something to discuss with Mashiro.”
“Oh, really?”
No wonder they hadn’t shown up despite all the noise.
“Well, clean this up, and then let’s go eat out.”
Seeing the mess on the floor, Himekoji suggested.
“Just the two of us?”
His sister suddenly got excited upon hearing this.
“Of course. Who else is there?”
Himekoji could only smile wryly and shake his head.
“Really? Yay! A long-awaited date! A long-awaited world just for the two of us!”
“It’s not a date…”
Seeing his sister dance around happily, Himekoji didn’t want to dampen her mood and only muttered this quietly.
But thinking about it, recently, because of Nanami, Mashiro, or other messy reasons, he really had neglected his little sister quite a bit.
Being this kind of big brother… really wasn’t that responsible.