Let us turn the clock back a little.
The sky was already faintly bright. The sunlight filtering through the curtains was a little dazzling.
Zhong Xinya rubbed her eyes and vaguely climbed out of the covers.
“Mmn~~ Ahh~~ Oof.”
Yawning cutely, Zhong Xinya stretched, and before she knew it she almost fell back into the warm, tempting covers that invited one to fall.
“This won’t do.” The little girl patted her cheeks to wake herself up a bit more.
“Xinya still has to prepare Big Brother’s bento.”
“But of course, the first thing after getting up is still……..”
She tiptoed out of her room and lightly walked to the door opposite hers. She gave the doorknob a gentle twist. With a soft Click, the door opened a small crack.
As expected, it still wasn’t locked. She had heard that after boys enter high school they generally start paying more attention to privacy and begin distancing themselves from their little sisters or something.
But her own big brother seemed to have no such thoughts at all. Well, that made sense. Big Brother wasn’t an ordinary boy to begin with~~
Zhong Xinya proudly puffed out her completely flat chest that was extremely popular in this world, though she didn’t know what there was to be proud of about Big Brother’s room not being locked.
“No, this isn’t the time for sentimentality. Getting the proper business done is more important.”
The little girl, who was already much taller than last year, cat-stepped quietly into Zhong Siji’s room. The room’s decorations remained as simple and tidy as always.
There were no cute plushies, no pink decorations, and of course none of the cosmetics or face masks that ordinary boys in puberty would have.
The saying goes that men dress up for those who please them.
Not having cosmetics meant Big Brother hadn’t gotten a girlfriend yet, right?
Although she very much hoped Big Brother could make friends and live a lively high school life, something like a girlfriend should still be left alone after all.
“All girlfriends are the enemies of little sisters.”
This line came from the light novel classic popular among little-sister fans, My Big Brother Might Just Be This Cute.
Zhong Xinya wholeheartedly agreed with it.
After all, if he got a girlfriend, she wouldn’t be able to monopolize this sleeping face anymore………….
Zhong Xinya held her breath and gently gathered her still-untidy long hair behind her head so that it wouldn’t brush against Zhong Siji when she bent down and disturb his rest.
People often said that keeping long hair as a girl was too flashy and individualistic, but……….
“Wow, Xinya, your hair is so long and beautiful. When you grow up you’ll definitely be a long-haired beauty who captivates thousands of boys.”
Idiot Big Brother. “Long-haired beauty” is a phrase used to describe boys no matter how you look at it, right?
And what “captivates thousands of boys”? The mainstream aesthetic for boys right now should be short hair, right?
Although there are popular long-haired girls too, no matter how you think about it, it still counts as a relatively niche preference.
Big Brother this idiot really will say anything to make his little sister happy. Please, as a boy, could you be a little more delicate?
Hmph~~ But as a little sister I should still understand Big Brother’s hard work~~ Besides, I also quite like keeping long hair myself. It’s just a little more troublesome when washing it.
Carrying a certain excited feeling, Zhong Xinya slowly bent down and approached that still-sleeping face on the bed.
The brows and eyes that were always tightly furrowed on ordinary days had completely relaxed.
Those sharp eyes that didn’t look like a boy’s were tightly closed at this moment, and the facial lines that usually looked somewhat resolute also appeared much softer.
This boy who was always complained about by the neighborhood for being born the wrong gender looked no different from an ordinary boy when he was asleep.
Zhong Xinya couldn’t help smiling silently. But when she began to gaze at Zhong Siji’s brows and eyes, her smile gradually froze.
“As expected, we don’t look alike at all.” Zhong Xinya murmured in her heart.
When she was little, some mischievous children would often come bully her, saying that she and Big Brother didn’t look alike at all and weren’t siblings in the first place, that Zhong Xinya had been picked up from a trash can.
Every time she would be bullied by those kids until she cried loudly and ran to Big Brother to complain.
And Big Brother would always comfort her first, then go fight those kids with a swollen, angry face, often ending up covered in bruises and injuries.
Thinking about it now, perhaps Big Brother’s personality that was so different from ordinary boys came from that.
And that was also why he couldn’t make any close friends.
Moreover, after entering Taogu he had never talked about school matters again. Although he rarely talked about them before either.
Zhong Xinya had once hated it very much. She hated those scum who had nothing better to do and obtained pleasure by trampling on others.
She hated them for beating Big Brother until he was covered in injuries.
She also hated herself for always being unable to stop running to Big Brother to cry and then only being able to watch him fight.
To the point that she even hated… the fact that she didn’t look like Big Brother itself.
If she and Big Brother had looked very similar, those things in the past wouldn’t have happened, right?
But recently, she had started not thinking that way anymore.
“If it were before, I would definitely think I had gone crazy for thinking that it was better that I didn’t look like Big Brother.”
Zhong Xinya brought her face closer and closer to Zhong Siji’s face.
To be precise, her lips were getting closer and closer to her big brother’s lips.
“But what’s incredible is that this is exactly what I think now. If I told Big Brother, would he dislike me?”
The distance between their lips was now only a hair’s breadth, but that distance only lasted for an instant. Zhong Xinya straightened up again.
“He shouldn’t. No, he definitely wouldn’t. After all, we have to stay together forever.”
“I’ll leave this for a more atmospheric moment. Good morning, Big Brother~~”
All the words only stayed in her heart, yet Zhong Xinya somehow felt that they had all been conveyed to the other person.
“Oh, right. Today’s bento will be the one Big Brother likes the most.”
***
Time returned to the present.
“Yazi, you look really happy today. Did you pick up money?”
“Don’t call me Yazi. And where do I look happy?”
While Zhong Siji was on the rooftop conducting a series of discussions with the two living treasures about the bitter melon snatching problem, far away at Sakura and Middle School, Zhong Xinya was also chatting relaxedly with her friend.
“If you’re not happy, why are you smiling the same way my big sister does? If it’s not because you picked up money, then is it because of……. a man?”
“Go away go away go away go away. I’m not like you, thinking about men all day like a female monkey in heat.”
“Wow! Too much! I was just showing concern for you. Do you have to say it so harshly! I’m going to cry, you know. Uuuuuuu~~”
“Alright alright, stop pretending. I’ll just tell you. My big brother is going to start making bentos for me, you know.”
“Tsk…….. Just that little thing, and you’re this happy? Still as big-brother-obsessed as ever. Those boys who admire you should really see what you look like right now.”
“Doesn’t matter. If you go tell them, you’d actually be doing me a huge favor.”
“Then forget it. After all, that fake, pretentious look of yours is still pretty entertaining.”
Xinya’s lively friend suddenly started shaking her head again.
“Do you think advancing in school brings some weird hormones? Not only is your big brother going to make bentos for you, my big sister who almost never interacts with boys suddenly has a boy she likes too? I saw it this morning. Tall and handsome, the type that clearly wouldn’t look at my big sister, but they were actually chatting while walking to school together?”
“Oh oh, is that so? How incredible.”
It’s not the same thing at all, is it? Forget it. Better not pay attention to her…
The girl ignored her best friend who kept chattering nonstop beside her and looked toward the endless blue sky in the distance.
Big Brother… what is he doing right now?
Without Xinya by his side he must be very lonely, right?
It would be great if Big Brother could make some friends today…