15.

Why? WHY?!? Why does it have to be this way? Why is it so hard to be normal like others? Like Nagira-senpai, Ashihara-san, and Sasaki-senpai...
Was it a mistake? To...become intimate with Bro?

Kana snaps back to reality as strong arms embrace her.

"Kana..." he says quietly, almost like a whisper. He squeezer her harder. "What's wrong? Why are you crying like that?"

"..." Kana can only let herself sink into his arms.
After awhile, she manages to stop her tears.

"Was your first day at school too much?" he asks as he wipes her tears with his hands. "You can take a day off if you're not feeling it." He finally loosens his grip and looks at her face.

"Bro..." He doesn't understand why I'm crying. School was good. It's not school. It's not. It's...you, Bro. It's you...

Taka, still fishing for answers, decides to keep pressing her.
"Is it because...I'm going out with my friends?" He tries to look into her eyes but she won't make eye contact. "Kana, I know that you don't like to be alone but..."

Suddenly, Kana takes a step back.
His last words were like a dagger piercing her fragile heart.
I was so alone in the hospital...I've been keeping this inside for so long. I have to stop myself from hurting . I have to ask him...

"Bro..." She manages to build up her last reserves of resolve for the final spurt. "Why..are we like this?"

Taka, taken aback with the unexpected question, furrows his brows.
"Huh? Like what?"

"I mean us. What are we?"

"Us? We're..." Taka wavers as he struggles to search his own soul for the answer. "We're family, Kana. You're my little sister."

Kana, dissatisfied with his answer, and noticing Taka's hesitation, takes a harder line.
"Just family? We did...something...we shouldn't have done."

"Kana" --

Beep beep beep. Taka's alarm on his watch goes off, signaling the approach of his meeting.

"Oh..." Taka looks at his watch then back to Kana. "I...have to go now."

Taka rushes off from the house, his face flustered. Having set his watch alarm purposely several minutes before the actual meeting time, he slows down as he nears the train station.

Bro...Who was that girl from the afternoon? Her heart starts to pound harder as she wonders, Is he going on a date with that same girl tonight??

16.

The TV is on, and the gameshow host is asking one of the celebrities how much jello she thinks it would take to fill a bathtub.

"Do you mean in cups, or litres...?" the young woman asks, and giggles helplessly. She's a C-list actress who's appeared in some D-grade TV dramas recently.

"Litres, of course," the host says, turning to the audience and raising his eyebrows comically. The audience members laugh obligingly, and the actress laughs along as well. "Now, come on, Hara-san. Give me an answer."

"I don't even know how big a litre is!" Hara-san confesses, and the audience laughs again.

"Well, let's see!" The host gestures dramatically, and the TV switches angles to show the curtain raising on a bath full of red jello. "Now, you weigh how much, Hara-san?"

"I can't tell you that!" More laughter.

Kyoko is only half-watching the game show while she finishes off the rest of last night's curry. She cooked rice and sliced up a tomato to go with it; now she's just sitting on the floor, absent-mindedly spooning the food into her mouth, her mind elsewhere.

Hara-san has long dark hair. It falls straight and flat, like Kana-san's. She has a slender figure, too - as displayed when Hara-san starts taking off her clothes at the host's suggestion, revealing a bright multi-coloured swimsuit underneath.

"We're going to measure how much of the jello falls out of the bathtub when you get in!" the host says gleefully.

"Ara," Kyoko murmurs to herself, as the swimsuit reminds her of something. We have physical education tomorrow. I wonder if Kana-san has the proper uniform yet?

She tries to shake the thought away, but it clings to the back of her mind with annoying persistence. Kana-san only started school today, after all. And, from what Kana-san said about her poor health recently, maybe she won't even want to take part in the class tomorrow.

Still, Kyoko finds herself getting up and moving to her chest of drawers. She looks through the drawers, one by one, until she finds what she was looking for - a white t-shirt and a pair of bloomers that she outgrew a year or so ago. They might be a bit big on Kana-san, but...

Kyoko smiles. She closes the drawer again and folds the two items of clothing neatly before tucking them into her satchel for tomorrow.

"Ahh! You didn't tell me you weigh so much, Hara-san!" the host cries, with exaggerated alarm.

"Don't tell everyone!" Hara-san laughs as she climbs out of the bathtub, covered with jello.

Kyoko laughs too as she sits down and continues eating her dinner.