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“Shit,” Akito hissed, dropping to his hands and knees on the cold hallway floor. His earbud case fell from his pocket and opened with a crack, sending his earbuds skittering away in opposite directions. With an exasperated huff, he stretched across the hall to gather them back together, glaring at the electrical cord he’d tripped over. It was taped down, so it wasn’t super in the way, but it was raised enough to make him lose his balance. “Motherfucker.” He stood and dusted himself off, tucking his earbuds back into the pocket of his jacket and zipping it up this time, looking for a suitable place to sit down that let him see well through the gym window. His hands sort of hurt, but at least nobody had seen him eat shit and die.
Or not. “Real classy,” Hinomori replied, a judgmental smirk on her face as she leaned casually on the wall next to the water fountain. “This is a place of education, Shinonome. Watch your mouth.”
Akito glared at her, his face flushed with shame. “Fuck you, Hinomori,” he muttered, fiddling with one of his zippers, hoping it made him seem properly unbothered.
“Please. Hinomori was my father,” she replied dryly. “Call me Shiho-san. Or don’t. You’re my age, I’ve seen you before, just Shiho is fine.”
“Wow, you’ve got low standards,” Akito grumbled, glancing down the hallway in case another window had spontaneously appeared to give him a chance to get away from her. No dice. Maybe he could just sit against the door and listen? But that would cause problems if someone wanted to come out for the bathroom or something. What if Ena comes out for the bathroom or something? Shit.
“And you’ve got a hole in your pants,” Hinomori said, looking down her nose to the new tear that had opened across one of Akito’s knees. “What about it?”
Akito tugged the top of the rip down to meet the bottom, covering it with his palm as if that would magically fix it. There wasn’t anywhere else to go, and Hinomori seemed pretty set on not letting him ignore her, so… fine. He’d just change the subject and make her talk about herself until she said something he could make fun of her for, and then they’d be even. “What are you doing out here?”
“I could ask you the same question,” Hinomori replied, meeting Akito’s eyes with raised eyebrows and a careless lilt in her tone that made him want to punch her in the face a little bit. “I’m watching Nee-san’s project.” She gestured toward the window and into the crowd. “The tall one, with the long hair. She’s next. But all the people fuck me up, so I’ve gotta stay out here.” Her apathetic gaze softened, and Akito felt something twist inside him. “I won’t be able to hear, but she’s rehearsed for me enough times that I’ll know exactly what she’s saying. Even the lame ass jokes.”
Her gaze lingered on her sister for a little bit, an affectionate smile on her lips, before she turned her sights back to Akito. “You? Besides tripping over air, of course?”
Akito dropped his eyes to the floor. He hated the way she was looking at him, and there was no real way to explain what he was doing without looking like a creep. “Same thing,” he mumbled. “Watching, uh. Ena.”
“Ena?” she echoed. “You mean your sister?”
Fuck. Akito shrugged, studying his shoelaces. “Yeah.” Hinomori was judging him, he could tell, and he didn’t know what to do about it. How was he supposed to explain that he didn’t really call Ena his sister anymore except alone, inside his head? It had been so long that it didn’t feel right anymore, but he knew it just made him look like a dick, and maybe he was a dick, but not the type of dick to disown his sister or anything . Just… he couldn’t make himself say it. Which was fine, and normal, even. He’d start calling her sister when she started acting like one.
Maybe Ena was waiting for him to start acting like a brother. But was the one who’d ruined everything. She was the one who always started fights and threw insults around. Why should he be the one to fix things? If she was holding out ‘til he started kissing up to her and pretending nothing had ever happened, she’d be waiting for a while.
It didn’t matter anyway. How he felt about Ena didn’t change the fact that here was Little Miss Hinomori who still called her sister Nee-san like a baby, and she was probably wondering what his fucking problem was, and he didn’t have a good explanation, or any real explanation at all.
“Hm,” Hinomori replied, noncommittal as ever. “I think she’s Nee-san’s partner, actually. So I guess we’re gonna be watching ‘em together, considering you’re not going in.” She stared at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to confirm that he was in fact going in and leave her alone in the hallway like she’d intended. He said nothing. Didn’t even move. “Sooo…” she hummed. “Whatcha still doing out here?”
“I’m not going in,” Akito muttered. Somehow Hinomori hadn’t asked a single question that he had the right response to. She was gonna think he was a terrible brother. And she was probably right. Didn’t sneaking around a high school late at night to secretly watch his sister’s event constitute bad brother behaviour? Especially when the sister in question said multiple times that she didn’t want him to go? Akito hesitantly glanced through the window. The crowd was on their feet and clapping, Ena and Shizuku setting up their cue cards at the end of their row. Shit.
He just wanted to support her. To feel like he was doing something right. Even if Ena hated him, he still sort of admired her, and even if she didn’t know it, he wanted to cheer her on. Even if she didn’t let him. But now he felt like a freak. He should’ve quit while he was ahead. Falling in the hallway was his sign to turn back, and he’d ignored it.
He sighed, sinking to the floor with his back against the wall. Hinomori still hadn’t said anything. She was probably ignoring him for being weird as fuck.
“Oh, that’s fine,” Hinomori replied. “Can you still see okay from down there?”
Akito choked in surprise, barely suppressing a cough as he glanced back and forth from the presenters’ table to Hinomori. He hadn’t expected her to be so chill. “Yeah, I— I guess,” he stammered. “Can’t see much of the crowd, but I can see your sister pretty well.”
“Huh. Okay.” Shiho slid to the floor, politely crossing her legs with her hands folding her skirt into her lap, the way she’d been taught as a child and never stopped. Shizuku caught her eye through the window and grinned, fluttering her fingers. Blushing, Shiho waved back, side-eyeing Shinonome to her left. “Why do you look like that?”
“Look like what?” Shinonome grumped. Shiho rolled her eyes. She’d forgotten that teenage boys were so dramatic.
“Like I just killed your dog in front of you, dude,” she said, prodding him in the shoulder. “Lighten up! They’re about to go.”
Shinonome was quiet for a few seconds. “Can your sister see you?” he asked, pulling his hood over his head and pulling the strings tight. “And can you still see my hair?”
The fuck? Shiho leaned over, peering at Shinonome’s shadowed face. “No on the hair. Yes to my sister. She just made eye contact with me, didn’t she?” She narrowed her eyes through the window. “Pretty sure Ena-chan can see me too, if she ever stops looking in that handheld mirror.”
“Great,” Shinonome sighed. “Listen, H— listen, this is gonna sound really weird, but Ena doesn’t exactly want me here.” He raised his eyebrows at Shiho, as if daring her to insult him or something, but she met his gaze steadily and gestured for him to keep talking. “Do you think there’s a way for me to see her without her seeing me?”
Shiho glanced critically between the hallway and the gym. “Maybe, if you move a little that way?” She wasn’t gonna question anything. Shinonome seemed nice enough, and it wasn’t her business whether or not he was technically supposed to be here. Ena would deal with that on her own time if she found out. “Here, I’ll go in and see if I can see you.”
“But the noise,” Akito replied, stopping himself in the middle of reaching towards Hinomori to physically stop her. “Won’t you, like, die or something?”
Hinomori only shrugged. “I can take it. Especially just for a little bit. I’m not gonna call attention to you, I promise. I’ll head in, grab a program, and leave. Not a problem.”
She didn’t give Akito a chance to reply before pushing open one of the doors. He slid even further down the wall, trying to hide under the water fountain. Ena would be so, so mad if she caught him. She’d made it very clear that she didn’t want him around, and he knew she was gonna think he was intentionally pissing her off instead of… whatever he was actually doing… and he’d just end up making things worse. He was good at that. Not so good at making things better.
His heartbeat echoed in his ears as he watched Hinomori walk past the huge window on her way to the stack of programs, greeting a few people on her way in, catching his eye and shaking her head at him so quickly that he wasn’t quite sure if he’d imagined it or not.
He sat, motionless, for a few seconds, before she widened her eyes at him through the window and jerked her head to his left. Taking no chances, Akito slid about a metre down, keeping his eyes fixed on Hinomori in the window. She gave him a subtle nod that he nearly missed before turning and weaving her way back through the crowd like everything was normal.
Thank God. Akito took a deep breath, getting comfortable against the wall. He wasn’t gonna move a centimetre until Ena was done, just to be sure. Maybe he was glad Hinomori was there. If not for her, he would’ve been fucked.
“So,” Hinomori said, plopping down closer to Akito than he would’ve liked. “What’s the story here? You’re good, by the way. I don’t know what they can see from up there, but you also look like the default emo guy in a hoodie, so I think you’re fine. You got an alibi? If you don’t, I can find some way to cover you.”
Akito blinked at her, everything she’d said spinning around in his brain without really making sense at all. “An alibi?” he gulped. “Oh, yeah. An’s got me. We’ve got band practice today.” Ena didn’t talk to An much anyway— at least, Akito thought she didn’t; the mechanics of their weird girl rivalry were hopelessly confusing at best, but either way, An had his back. He was pretty sure she’d also told the rest of the band, just in case, and Kohane and Touya were fully on board.
“Shiraishi An?” Hinomori asked. “Huh. Didn’t know you two were buds.”
Where the Hell had she been the past year? They’d been on TV together, for Christ’s sake.
Akito only shrugged. “Yeah.”
Hinomori was quiet for a moment, watching through the window while Shizuku shuffled her notecards and Ena fiddled with the microphone in her hand. “Your sister’s pretty nice,” she said. “I don’t, like, try to eavesdrop, but you know. She talks about you sometimes.”
Akito’s heart sped up. “She— she does?” he stammered. “I mean. Yeah. As siblings do. Talk about each other.” He bit his tongue, forcing himself to shut up before he could ask another question and make himself look even more desperate. Come on, Hinomori. Change the subject so I can forget this ever happened.
Hinomori met his gaze, steadily, and only nodded.
Fuck.
“What does she say?”
Shiho watched Shizuku elbow Ena in the ribs, pointing over the heads of the crowd to the back window, waving happily at Shiho with her other hand. “Shit,” she hissed, shoving Akito to the side. “Duck!”
Akito froze, letting himself topple sideways and land splayed out on the carpet. He craned his neck, watching Hinomori wave back, almost certainly at her sister. “I thought you said she couldn’t see me!” he spat, staring at the perfectly clean ceiling. “What the hell?”
“I was wrong, I don’t know!” Shiho snapped. “There’s a chance she was just showing me to Ena-chan but it really, really looked like she was pointing at you.” She kept her gaze fixed on Shizuku and Ena, waving even harder, smiling so wide she thought her face might split in half. Through her grin, she growled, “I’m pretending everything’s fine and I didn’t just nearly concuss you on the hallway floor. Sorry, by the way.”
“I’m done. I’m so done.” Akito bit his lip, squeezing his eyes shut, wondering if it might be better to fake his death than deal with whatever Ena was going to do to him after they got home. He could also just die. If he held off on killing himself, Ena would probably be happy to do it for him. “Hinomori…”
“Don’t stress,” Hinomori said, waving even harder. “They can’t come out here until after they’re done. Stay there.”
“Can’t I just go hide somewhere? Or leave?” Akito glared into the fluorescent light, bunching the bottom of his hoodie in one of his fists. “Leaving sounds pretty good.”
“You want to see them, right?” Hinomori asked. “Sit up. Look at me.” She met Akito’s eyes and blinked, slowly, her expression betraying nothing. “You want to watch your sister’s project. If she’s anything like Nee-san she’s been talking about it for months and obviously working hard. She’s put a lot of herself into this. You want to support her.” She shrugged, turning back to the window, and Akito saw something that looked like affection bubble up in her eyes as she watched Shizuku dramatically introduce their presentation. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“But if they can see me—”
“They can’t ,” Hinomori spat. “They’ve got their heads in their cue cards anyway. You’re going to sit right there and watch the damn project, and then as soon as it’s done you’re gonna leave, and I’ve got you if anyone asks, okay? You could be anyone. I can lie.”
Akito squeezed his clasped hands until his fingers were numb. “But Shizuku pointed at me, and Ena…”
“Shinonome,” Hinomori sighed. “I love Shizuku. More than anything. But I will be the first to admit she’s not the brightest bulb.” Akito opened his mouth to reply, but Hinomori stopped him. “Ah. Listen. She’s never met you before. She could point at you saying you were Ena’s brother and you could actually be the President of China or something, she would not be able to tell the difference. Okay?”
Akito nodded, figuring it was in his best interest to shut his trap. Satisfied, Hinomori continued.
“Ena-chan barely even looked anyway. I overreacted.” She glanced over her shoulder. “They’re getting started now and Ena-chan looks way too focused on that PowerPoint to care. I promise you, it’s going to be okay, and if someone asks once you’re out of here I’ll tell ‘em you were… I don’t know, Tenma Tsukasa or someone.”
Shinonome seemed unimpressed. “God, not Tenma ,” he huffed, but he pushed himself a few centimetres down the hallway anyway, back to the water fountain, where he could see.
Shiho raised an eyebrow at him. “Got nothing else to say?”
He rolled his eyes. “Thanks.”
“Hey now,” Shiho teased, trying to keep the smile off her face. “If not for me you would’ve been so busted. Give a girl a little more credit.”
Shinonome muttered something unintelligible into the neckline of his hoodie. Shiho eyed him for a few seconds longer, watching him slump against the wall, head down, eyes dark despite the blinding school lights. He was obnoxious, sure, and proud, and probably more worried than he needed to be. Seriously, Shiho had barely spent any time with Ena-chan at all and even she knew that Ena wasn’t nearly observant enough to even spot Akito, let alone care. And he claimed to be her brother ? Either they never spent any time together at all, or…
Well…
Ena-chan finished the slide she was reading off, passing the mic to Shizuku, and Shiho smiled as Shizuku launched into the exact same overexcited gestures she’d debuted for Shiho in the middle of her bedroom. Idol habits die hard.
Shiho knew every move Shizuku would make for the next few slides, so she didn’t feel too bad about looking away. She turned back to Shinonome.
I’m done. I’m so done.
Shizuku pointed at me, and Ena…
It was probably nothing, but something about the strain in his voice and the chill in his eyes felt deeper than regular sibling mutual annoyance. She thought about the brief encounters she had had with Ena-chan, laying on the couch while Ena and Shizuku chatted in the kitchen.
“How’s your little brother doing? Akito-kun?”
“I mean, he’s… fine, I guess. I don’t know. We don’t talk much.”
“Aww, why not?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Ooh, complicated? Like how?”
“Shizuku… I don’t want to talk about it.”
Sharply, Shinonome turned around and glared at her. “The fuck are you looking at?” he snarled. “You coulda just let me go. I know you probably think I’m creepy or some shit, but… whatever.”
Shiho shrugged. “Nah. Sorry. Just thinking about some things.”
“Well, stop it.” Shinonome turned his back toward Shiho. “Don’t you have to watch your sister or something?”
“Not… really,” Shiho said. “I’m sort of moral support? But I’ve seen it enough already. And I prefer being nosy to being a good sister, sometimes.”
The warmth in Hinomori’s tone was audible even though Akito couldn’t see her. Prissy ass bitch . She was practically gloating, rubbing it in his face that her sister talked to her, her sister showed her things when she was excited about them, her sister wanted her around. He took a deep breath, watching Ena smile and point to blurry graphs, frayed strings at the edge of his hood blocking out slivers of his vision. And there was Hinomori. Watching. Smiling. Waving at Shizuku like she didn’t care, because she didn’t have to care. Because Shizuku tolerated her. More than that, probably— loved her. Shizuku loved her enough to show her the presentation once, twice, maybe more; enough times that Hinomori had the whole thing memorised word for word.
He hadn’t known what Ena was even presenting on until yesterday, and that was because he’d overheard her practising behind a locked bedroom door.
His breath shuddered in his chest. He snuck another look at Ena. He thought about how fast his heart was still beating, how he’d cracked the back of his head on the ground and it ached now, how terrified he’d been for the split second that Hinomori had made it clear he might’ve been spotted from inside the gym.
And Hinomori was just sitting there.
“Hinomori?” he asked, but it hardly came out a whisper. He cleared his throat, closing his eyes against the burn of budding tears. “Um, Shiho?”
Shiho glanced at him for just a second before turning her attention back to Shizuku. “Mm?”
Akito sighed, burying his face in his hoodie.
“What’s it like having a sister that actually likes you?”