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“…You have a sister?”
“Seriously, Lily? I talk about her all the time!”
That could very well have been true, but due to the nature of Yoshiko’s ramblings, Riko had learned to tune her out a majority of the time. But, to Yoshiko’s credit, all of this was starting to sound familiar.
Yoshiko (apparently) had one sibling, a younger sister. If Riko recalled correctly, there was a large age difference between the two siblings, something like ten or eleven years, which was probably why none of Aqours had ever met the younger Tsushima sibling. Hell, Riko wasn’t even confident she could remember her name. So when Yoshiko asked if she could babysit little “Yohane”, Riko was more than a little caught off guard.
“Yeah, my mom’s coming as a chaperone on the first-year class trip tomorrow,” Yoshiko explained. “We don’t usually have a sitter on the weekend, so Yohane won’t have anyone to look after her.”
“I-I see…”
Yoshiko could sense Riko’s hesitance. “You totally don’t have to do it if you’re uncomfortable. I know you’re not the best with kids—”
“I-I’m great with kids…!” Riko defended, much to Yoshiko’s amusement, because, let’s face it, the redhead was clearly lying.
“Uh huh, sure. So, will you do it?”
“Y-Yes, of course I’ll do it…!”
. . .
Reality sank in as soon as Riko was left alone—why the hell did she agree to this? She was terrible with kids. She was an only child, never held a babysitting job, hell, she only recently got a pet dog, and leaving Prelude alone just to go to school made her uneasy. And Yoshiko clearly knew all this, which was even more puzzling. With a plethora of other upperclassmen she could call (Dia, Kanan, Chika, You, even Mari—ok, maybe not Mari) why the hell did she pick Riko to watch her kid sister, anyways?
“It’ll be easy,” Yoshiko reassured her the morning of, as she hurriedly shoved items in her backpack. “Yohane is busy right now coloring or something, she’ll probably be at it for like a couple hours, she gets super absorbed into that sort of thing. If she gets bored of that, take her to the playground, or to get ice cream or something, my mom trusts you enough.” Nonchalantly, she tossed Riko the keys to the house. Without allowing the second-year so much as a chance to respond, Yoshiko gave a quick farewell head pat to her sister in the kitchen, her thanks to Riko, and was out the door.
Riko stood awkwardly in the doorway, still trying to process what was going on. She had a ton of questions she had wanted to ask, but by Yoshiko’s trail of smoke, it was obvious she was super late, and had no time to worry about Riko’s insecurities.
Riko finally gathered herself, and walked into the kitchen, where she found the five-year old, who, sat at the kitchen table, was concentrated on a coloring book, as Yoshiko had described. She was the spitting image of Yoshiko, and their mother for that matter (well, duh) right down to the little bun atop her head (was that like a thing in the Tsushima family?). One curious thing to note, were the large jellyfish pajamas she was currently wearing, puffy and iridescent, a dazzling aqua blue. Riko wasn’t the most up to date on children’s fashion, but even she had enough sense to know this probably wasn’t what the average kid was wearing these days.
…She snapped out of her stupor. Exactly how long had she been staring? Introductions were far from Riko’s forte, but if she didn’t approach now, she’d wind up staring at the kid from afar until…well, until Yoshiko got back. She checked her watch—only eight more hours…!
She shook her head vigorously.
C’mon, Riko, you can do this.
“…H-Hello, Y-Yohane-chan…!” Riko timidly eased her way into the kitchen.
The younger girl continued to color, not even so much as an acknowledgment of Riko’s presence. Had she heard her? Perhaps she was ignoring her??
“U-Um, I’m Riko, I’m a friend of your sister’s—”
The child’s sudden laughter cut her off. Yohane continued coloring, giggles all the while.
Riko’s brow furrowed. “W-What’s so funny…?”
Yohane set her crayon down emphatically, holding up her completed picture, “Riko-nee’s hair is the same color as my jellyfish!”
The child’s beaming smile elicited a sigh of relief from the redhead. Her hair did indeed resemble the oddly-colored, somehow polka-dotted jellyfish. Seizing the opening, she pulled up a chair. “D-Do you mind if I color with you?”
Yohane’s eyes lit up, as she carefully ripped out a page of her coloring book. “This one is a flower hat jellyfish!” She handed Riko two crayons, blue and green, “They’re very colorful so you will need more than one!”
“I-Is that so?” Riko grabbed the blue crayon and went to work, Yohane climbing up in her chair to get a good look. Riko may not have been the best artist, but coloring, especially to a five-year-old’s standards, was definitely manageable, and by the look of awe on Yohane’s face, she gathered she was doing a halfway decent job of it.
“Riko-nee! Riko-nee! Color this one next!”
Riko was happy to oblige, and soon she had a growing stack of jellyfish colorings. Finally, she was getting into a good rhythm.
“You really like jellyfish, don’t you, Yohane-chan? Even your pajamas resemble them.”
“Mhm! My mama got these pajamas for me!” She twirled around, and by god if it wasn’t the most adorable thing Riko had ever seen.
“Do you color with your mother and sister too, Yohane-chan?”
The child fell silent, looking somewhat dejectedly down to the floor. Riko entered a state of panic; had she said something wrong? She didn’t know what she’d do if Yohane began to cry.
“Mama and Onee-chan are always busy. Too busy to play with me…”
Now that Riko thought about it, Yoshiko and Yohane did have a single mother, who must be awfully busy with work and providing for her daughters. And Yoshiko was busy with Aqours on top of school and other extracurriculars; Yohane probably saw more of the babysitter than her own family.
Of course, it wasn’t anyone’s fault. But even after spending an hour with Yohane, Riko could tell she was a curious, thoughtful, smart young girl. She wondered if Yoshiko or her mother was able to see that, whether they had a chance to nurture that curiosity beyond just jellyfish pajamas.
An idea popped into her head.
“Yohane-chan?”
“Hm?”
“Have you ever been to the aquarium to see the jellyfish?”
. . .
As expected on a Saturday afternoon, the aquarium was quite crowded. They hadn’t taken five steps into the building before Yohane was tugging at Riko’s sleeve with a whimper. Clearly, she wasn’t the most acclimated to being out in public. Riko hadn’t really accounted for that, especially when letting Yohane wear her jellyfish pajamas out. And not only that, but there was the fact that Riko herself was a teenager, walking around with this clearly unrelated child. What would others think? What would they say? Was paranoia starting to set in, or was she actually starting to feel the stares of the people around them? Her eyes began to dart around. Her palms began to sweat.
…But she wouldn’t let it get to her. She couldn’t let it get to her. She had to be the strong one after all.
Riko squeezed Yohane’s hand, “It’s ok, it’s ok! Look!” She pointed at a jellyfish-shaped sign, “We’re almost there, ok?”
Yohane nodded with a sniffle, as she and Riko weaved their way through the crowd to the much-less-populated jellyfish enclosure.
It was a darker room, compared to the rest of the aquarium, but the fluorescent glow of the numerous tanks made it considerably bright, and all the more enchanting. Riko was relieved to see the fear on Yohane’s face immediately replaced by a look of wonder.
The child ran up to the center tank, pressing her hands and face against the glass, eyes wide with amazement. “Look, Riko-nee! Look! There’s the box jellyfish! Ooh, and the flower hat jelly!”
Riko found herself recognizing a few of the species as the ones Yohane had her color. What she’d initially considered a child’s colorful imagination (or rather, creative liberties when it came to coloring) was starting to manifest itself in the tanks just as vividly as it had on the page. Yohane really did know her jellyfish. It was such a weird feeling. Riko had been to the aquarium a ton of times before, but she’d never really paid that much attention, until now. Perhaps Yohane’s curiosity and enthusiasm were contagious.
“Look here, Yohane-chan,” she pointed to the small inscription in front of the tank. “It seems like these jellyfish are native to North America. You wouldn’t be able to see these anywhere else in Japan.”
“Really?? Cool!”
. . .
The jitters were finally subsiding, replaced by a new-found energy and excitement, as the two made their way around the rest of the aquarium. Yohane was quite captivated, not just by the jellyfish, but by anything and everything, even the scary-looking sharks (her sister’s influence, potentially?). Meanwhile, Riko found herself surprisingly enamored of the sea otters. It was a mental battle just avoiding the gift shop, and the conveniently perched otter plushes at the foot of the store.
There was a ton of stuff to do though, a ton of exhibits to see, a lot more than Riko had initially thought. Of course, she was used to the class field trips to the aquarium, where they’d be on a tight schedule and would only see a fraction of what the aquarium had to offer. One thing she knew they’d have to hit though was the interactive exhibit. She was never one to touch the slimy little manta rays or starfish before, but today she was feeling courageous, and she just knew Yohane would be excited to do it too.
. . .
They were back at the jellyfish exhibit for the third time when the final call came, announcing the aquarium was about to close. Riko made sure to grab a picture of them with Yohane’s favorite jellyfish, not only so Yohane would have a keepsake from the trip to show her family, but so Riko would have one as well.
Riko could only watch with a bittersweet smile, as Yohane waved goodbye to all of her jellyfish friends, promising them she’d be back again soon.
The two of them were the last ones out of the aquarium, greeted by the glimmering Numazu sunset. They’d really spent all afternoon there, huh. At the beginning of the day, Riko had been dreading the whole thing, agonizing over what they'd do for eight whole hours. Now she was wishing she had another eight more hours.
Riko was all ears on the way to the bus stop, as Yohane blissfully recounted all of her favorite exhibits and moments. It certainly appeared like she enjoyed her visit to the aquarium, and Riko couldn’t have been happier.
“Next time you’ll have to bring your sister and mother. You can show them all the cool things you saw today.”
Yohane swung her legs back and forth on the bus stop bench, humming in agreement. “You can come too, Riko-nee! We can be one big family!”
Riko caught herself smiling, “I’d like that…”
“I think Onee-chan would too! She talks a lot about Riko-nee!”
“…D-Does she, now?” Riko was caught off guard by the sudden comment.
“Mhm!” Yohane seemed almost boastful. “She always says how Riko-nee is super nice and super pretty!”
Riko nearly spit out her non-existent drink. “Oh…r-really…?”
“Yep—Oh! The bus is here! The bus is here!”
Of course it is…
. . .
Yohane was back to coloring by the time Yoshiko came home. It probably looked like they’d been at it the whole day, to be honest. It’s not like Riko was in a hurry to spill the beans on their spontaneous trip to the aquarium though. Yoshiko would find out eventually.
“So, how was it? Was Lily nice to you?”
“Mhm! Riko-nee was very nice and we had a lot of fun!"
"Ehh, is that so?" She shot a sly look over to Riko.
"Yep! Can she sleep over tonight??”
Suddenly, Yoshiko looked just as surprised as Riko, their instantaneous blushes mirroring each other, “Eh? Well, I, uh…i-it’s up to her…”
Hm, spending more time with her two favorite Tsushima siblings?
Riko smiled, composing herself, “Sure, I’d love to.”