"What are you smiling about?"
Just as Tsushima Kagami was rejoicing that he had finally found a way to save Mrs. Shimizu.
Yukinoshita Shizuku had just finished running the bathwater and returned from the bathroom to the living room.
She happened to catch Tsushima Kagami chuckling to himself.
"Nothing, I just suddenly thought of something funny."
Yukinoshita Shizuku merely nodded, not pressing him further.
Then she continued.
"The bath's ready, you go first."
Now that a solution to his problem had presented itself, Tsushima Kagami felt a great deal lighter—and also a bit tired.
So he stood up and stretched lazily.
"Then I'll take my bath first today."
With that, Tsushima Kagami returned to his room, grabbed a change of clothes, and headed to the bathroom.
The steam in the bathroom hadn't yet dissipated, and a layer of white fog clung to the mirror.
Hot water poured down from the showerhead. Tsushima Kagami stood beneath the stream, eyes closed, letting the hot water cascade over the top of his head.
It ran down along his neck, shoulders, and back, washing away the exhaustion and chill accumulated over the entire day.
He squeezed out some shampoo, worked it into a lather in his palms, and was just about to rub it into his hair when he heard the sound of the bathroom door sliding open.
"Shizuku?"
Tsushima Kagami's hand froze in midair.
He asked tentatively.
Then, just as he was about to turn around to see what was going on—
"Don't look back."
Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice came from behind him.
Yukinoshita Shizuku was wrapped in nothing but a single bath towel.
Her hair was piled up high, and her cheeks were slightly flushed.
Leaving that jade-white neck, those exquisitely sensual collarbones, and that deeply valleyed northern hemisphere fully bared without the slightest reserve.
Even so, she clutched the towel in front of her with a hint of awkwardness and said softly.
"I'll get embarrassed."
Tsushima Kagami, who had been about to turn around, went still upon hearing her say that.
Then, instead of continuing to turn his head, he turned it back the other way.
So you know how to be embarrassed too?
You just walk straight in like that, as if I'm the one who won't get embarrassed.
Tsushima Kagami thought to himself.
But out loud, he still said with a smile.
"I get it, this is just a normal brother-sister relationship!"
Tsushima Kagami parroted back the line Yukinoshita Shizuku loved to say to him most.
What he couldn't see was that, behind him, Yukinoshita Shizuku actually rolled her eyes at him.
"Since when do siblings this grown-up still bathe together?"
"This isn't normal at all!"
Tsushima Kagami was inwardly startled—why was she going off-script today?
So he continued to ask.
"Then why did you come in..."
"I just wanted to help scrub your back."
"Don't read too much into it."
"Why would you come barging in without a word just to scrub my back?"
Tsushima Kagami asked, still with his back to Yukinoshita Shizuku.
"It's just that you seemed off during the day."
"I wanted to help you ease some of that fatigue."
Yukinoshita Shizuku explained.
Tsushima Kagami rubbed the shampoo he'd squeezed into his palm earlier directly onto his head, working it in.
Then he laughed.
"Thank you."
"But I don't like having my back scrubbed."
"I'm about to soak in the tub anyway."
"You can head out now."
After hearing this, Yukinoshita Shizuku didn't leave—instead she walked right up behind him.
She picked up a scrubbing towel from the basin beside them.
And tapped it directly against Tsushima Kagami's back.
"Quit nagging."
"A sister scrubbing her little brother's back is a perfectly normal brother-sister relationship."
"Didn't you just say it wasn't normal at all a moment ago?"
Astonished by how quickly Yukinoshita Shizuku had flipped her stance, Tsushima Kagami instinctively wanted to turn around and question her with a look.
Only to have Yukinoshita Shizuku press down with both hands and shove him back into position.
"Bathing together is bathing together. Back-scrubbing is back-scrubbing."
"I see."
Tsushima Kagami rinsed the lather off his head, then shut off the water.
After drying his head with a towel.
He finally reached over to the rack beside him and grabbed a bath towel.
Wrapped it around his waist and tied it off.
He walked over to the little stool in the corner of the bathroom and sat down.
Turning his back toward Yukinoshita Shizuku, he placed both hands on his knees and drew in a deep breath.
"Go ahead."
Then he heard the sound of bare feet padding across the wet tiles.
And the faint sound of the towel's edge brushing as she crouched down.
The moment the scrubbing towel touched his back.
He could feel that her fingertips still carried the cool touch of the cold air from outside.
Just like that, so gently, as though wiping down something fragile.
Across his back, starting from the shoulders, slowly, circle by circle, moving downward.
"Kagami."
"Mm."
"Your butt is pretty pale and perky."
Tsushima Kagami nearly slid off the little stool.
Immediately his face turned into that husky-dog-pointing meme.
"Hey."
"That's sexual harassment!"
"Then go call the police."
There was a trace of laughter in Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice, but her hands didn't stop moving.
She kept scrubbing at the same unhurried pace.
The scrubbing towel drew circles across his back, from shoulder blade to waistline, from spine to his sides.
Her technique couldn't be called professional.
But Tsushima Kagami thought that having someone scrub his back for once actually felt pretty nice.
Just as Tsushima Kagami was enjoying Yukinoshita Shizuku's service with his eyes closed.
Her voice rang out again.
"I think Nayotake is really pitiful."
Tsushima Kagami's back stiffened slightly.
His eyes slowly opened again, and finally he nodded.
"I think so too."
"I think Nayotake is really strong."
"I think so too."
"I think Nayotake is very cute."
"I think so too."
After Tsushima Kagami said this, he felt the pressure on his back grow a few degrees heavier.
"I think Nayotake seems to like you."
"I think s—"
Tsushima Kagami forcibly swallowed the last word, like stuffing a bomb about to explode back down his throat.
"What are you saying?"
He was just about to turn his head when Yukinoshita Shizuku's hands straightened him again.
"I told you not to look back."
"How did you come to that conclusion?"
Tsushima Kagami asked with his back to Yukinoshita Shizuku.
"Woman's intuition."
Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice sounded the same as usual, nothing out of the ordinary.
But the pressure of the scrubbing towel on his back grew a little heavier again.
"A woman's intuition isn't accurate at all."
"Is that so?"
"It is."
"Then why did you answer so smoothly?"
"Because there's something wrong with the way you ask your questions."
"You almost got me to blurt it out."
"See, you get moments like this too, right?"
"It's not like I'm some naive greenhorn."
The scrubbing towel began moving again, the pressure a little lighter than before, the rhythm slowing down too.
Tsushima Kagami could tell that Yukinoshita Shizuku was probably snickering behind his back right now.
"If..."
Her voice rang out again.
"If one day, Nayotake's mother really passes away."
"Then she'll truly be all alone."
"No family, no one to lean on, nothing at all."
"By then..."
She paused for a moment.
"The only person she can rely on might be you."
The steam in the bathroom slowly faded, and the air turned a bit cold.
"Why not you, Shizuku?"
"After all, you and Nayotake are the ones with the closest relationship."
Tsushima Kagami suddenly countered.
"Because the one who's always been helping Nayotake is you, Kagami."
"And I can't help Nayotake with anything at all."
Tsushima Kagami sat on the little stool, his back to her, silent for a while.
Only then did he speak again.
"Don't talk nonsense."
"Mrs. Shimizu is going to be just fine."
"I'm only saying 'if.'"
"Just hypothetically?"
"What would you do?"
At this point, Yukinoshita Shizuku leaned her head in beside his and looked at him.
Tsushima Kagami fell silent for a moment.
"Hypothetically speaking."
Tsushima Kagami stroked his chin.
And glanced at Yukinoshita Shizuku, who was leaning in front of him staring intently into his eyes.
"I would care for her with the utmost attentiveness, look after her, love her."
"I would take her out to reconnect with this world all over again."
"Let her know there are still many things in this world worth living for."
"Let her heart fill with hope for life once more."
Tsushima Kagami felt the scrubbing towel on his back come to a complete stop.
Then Tsushima Kagami continued.
"And then find someone to dismember me and dump the pieces in front of her."
"Pfft."
Yukinoshita Shizuku couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
She laughed several times before recovering.
"How can you still say something like that at a time like this?"
After saying that, she gave a light pinch to Tsushima Kagami's arm.
"Ow, ow, ow!"
"Weren't you the one who told me to hypothesize?"
Tsushima Kagami reached over to rub his arm, grumbling.
"Well, don't you think it's kind of inappropriate to talk about this sort of thing at a time like this?"
"Fair enough."
Then Yukinoshita Shizuku tossed the scrubbing towel onto his back and stood up.
Tsushima Kagami heard the sound of her bare feet stepping away across the water-slicked tiles as she rose.
"Why'd you stop scrubbing again?"
Tsushima Kagami asked.
"Scrubbing tired me out."
"Go soak in the tub."
Yukinoshita Shizuku said, standing at the doorway.
After she finished speaking, Tsushima Kagami heard the sound of the bathroom door closing.
Leaving him alone, sitting on the little stool, the touch of the scrubbing towel and the warmth of her fingers still lingering on his back.
Tsushima Kagami sat there, dazed for a while.
How utterly baffling!
Early the next morning.
Tsushima Kagami woke up and, still half-asleep, wandered out of his room.
From the kitchen came the sound of a spatula clanging against a pan, along with the bubbling of miso soup coming to a boil.
"Awake?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice came from over in the kitchen.
"Morning."
Tsushima Kagami answered.
He walked over to the washbasin, squeezed out some toothpaste, and started brushing his teeth.
After he'd finished brushing, washed his face, and run his hands through his hair to smooth it out, he finally walked back to the living room.
Breakfast for two was already laid out on the dining table.
Miso soup, tamagoyaki, rice, pickled radish, and a small dish of natto.
Yukinoshita Shizuku sat on the other side of the table, holding a bowl of miso soup, sipping it in small mouthfuls.
Today she wore a light gray sweater.
Her hair was tied into a low ponytail, revealing her fair neck.
"Are you going to the hospital today?"
"Mm."
Tsushima Kagami sat down across from her and picked up his chopsticks.
"Let's go check on how things are."
"What about you?"
"I'm going too."
Yukinoshita Shizuku picked up a piece of pickled radish and put it in her mouth.
"Nayotake's there all alone, I can't stop worrying about her."
"I plan to stay at the hospital and keep her company until I go back to Chiba."
Tsushima Kagami didn't say much, just nodded as he ate his breakfast.
The two of them ate quietly.
After finishing breakfast, the two of them tidied up a bit.
Once they'd changed clothes, they headed out together.
Ever since the snow that had fallen in the early hours of yesterday, Tokyo's sky was much clearer than it had been the past few days.
Most of the snow on the streets had already melted, leaving only some grayish-white heaps lingering in the shaded corners.
When they arrived at the hospital, the two went straight to the intensive care ward of the inpatient department.
The corridor was filled with the smell of disinfectant.
Occasionally a few nurses hurried past pushing medicine carts.
From time to time the sound of a call bell rang out.
The two of them arrived at Mrs. Shimizu's ward.
____
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