Chapter 29: Kurose Hisaki’s younger brother

Hisaki didn’t know how long she had been lying on Rinna’s chest. About ten minutes. Or maybe longer.

She only knew that a long time had passed—long enough for her to notice that Rinna’s breathing had slowed from the earlier faster rhythm to a steady, even rise and fall.

Her heartbeat had also slowed, from about eighty-something beats per minute to sixty-something.

Hisaki closed her eyes and counted for a moment, confirmed the number, then stored it in that folder in her brain labeled “Rinna’s Physical Data.” Rinna was asleep.

Hisaki gently lifted her head from Rinna’s chest. Her movements were extremely light and slow.

Her black hair slid off Rinna’s collarbone, the ends brushing against the collar of Rinna’s nightgown, making a faint rustling sound. She raised her head and looked at Rinna’s sleeping face.

Morning light filtered through the gaps in the shoji paper, spilling onto the side of Rinna’s face. Sleeping Rinna was a little different from awake Rinna… When awake, Rinna’s expression was always gentle and soft, but there was a slight tension hidden between her brows.

But sleeping Rinna had no defenses at all. The furrow between her brows—the one Hisaki had massaged so many times that it had slowly relaxed—was now completely smooth.

Her lips were slightly parted, revealing the edges of her front teeth, white as small porcelain pieces soaked in milk. Her eyelashes lay quietly, each one casting a very fine shadow on her eyelids.

Because of her period, her cheeks had a trace more color than usual, and the shade of her lips was also a bit deeper, no longer that worrying stark white. Her breathing was light, so light that the folds of the blanket barely moved.

‘Beautiful.’

Hisaki’s lips moved silently, no sound coming out. Those two words were spoken to herself. It was that kind of murmur—she had seen this so many times, but every time she saw it, she thought, ‘How can she be so beautiful?’

Then she lowered her head, brushed a strand of black hair that had fallen by her ear, and tucked it behind her ear. Her body leaned forward slightly, her palm pressing into the mattress beside Rinna’s pillow, the mattress sinking into a slight curve.

Her face slowly, slowly drew closer to Rinna’s sleeping face. Rinna’s lips came into view closer and closer, clearer and clearer. It was that very faint pink, a little darker than usual but still very pale.

The lower lip was slightly thicker than the upper lip… she had noticed that detail yesterday in the hot spring, and now in the morning light she could see it even more clearly.

There was a very fine lip line on the surface of her lips, and with her lips slightly open, one could see the gap between her two front teeth, probably less than a millimeter.

‘Kiss her.’

These two words echoed in Hisaki’s mind. Not in the form of language, but in a more direct way… like her body was speaking, bypassing the brain and directly commanding her to lean forward a little more, lower, a little closer.

‘Force.’

Her heart began to race in her chest—not the kind of fast from the hot spring, but the kind where she could clearly count each beat. Her palms started to sweat.

She clenched the hand supporting herself on the mattress, her fingernail creating a very fine crease in the sheet. The distance grew closer. 20 centimeters, 10 centimeters, 5 centimeters.

She could feel Rinna’s breath landing on her own lips, warm, with a faint, indescribable scent from her mouth that smelled very comforting. Her vision focused only on Rinna’s lips.

The thoughts about ‘Should I?’ ‘Is this right?’ ‘Will she hate me?’ were all shoved to the back of her mind. 3 centimeters. 2 centimeters. 1 centimeter. Just as she was about to kiss her…

knock knock knock.

The door was knocked on.

Hisaki’s body shot up. The hand supporting her on the mattress pushed too hard, creating a deep wrinkle in the sheet. The mattress bounced, causing the edge of the blanket to shake slightly.

Her first reaction was not to look at the door. It was to look down at Rinna. Rinna was still asleep. Disturbed by the vibration, her brow furrowed slightly, her lips pressed together, then she turned her face a little to the side, and her breathing steadied again.

Hisaki let out a sigh of relief. As that breath left her lungs, her shoulders slumped 2 centimeters. The tension in the back of her neck also relaxed, but her heart was still racing… not from fear, but from annoyance. She turned her head and stared at the door.

Her dark brown eyes looked very dark from this angle, the corners of her eyes slightly raised—not red from being startled, but the irritation of having a quiet moment disturbed.

‘Who is it.’

She had been… so close… just a little more… and she would have kissed her. Only about 1 centimeter away. Their breaths had even mingled.

Hisaki sat by the bed for three seconds. In those three seconds, she forced her heartbeat from fast to slow, lowered the heat on her face, and suppressed the anger that was about to burst from her throat.

She lowered her head, gently brushed aside a few white strands of hair that had fallen on Rinna’s forehead. Her fingers slid up from the brow bone, pushing the bangs back one by one, revealing Rinna’s smooth, fair forehead.

Then she leaned down and lightly pressed her lips to Rinna’s forehead. Very light and quick. Her lips stayed on the skin of her forehead for less than a second, then immediately withdrew. Then she stood up, barefoot on the tatami, without even putting on shoes.

Her steps were light, but her speed was fast. She crossed the distance from the bed to the door in about three seconds. Then she slid the door open, her movements light but fast, just wide enough to poke her face out through the gap.

Outside the door stood a person. Hisaki looked down. The person standing at the door, whose height only reached about her chin, had long silver-white hair tied into twin tails that hung over her shoulders, the ends slightly curled outward.

She wore a pure white little dress, the hem just above the knees, a small bow tied at the back of her waist, and the lace trim of the collar sat neatly at the collar over a flat chest.

Her bangs were clipped to the sides with two white barrettes, revealing a small face with delicate features—slender eyebrows, very light amber eyes, even lighter than Rinna’s eye color.

She had applied a thin layer of lip balm, giving a slight glossy sheen in the dim light of the hallway.

‘A girl?’

Those two words popped into Hisaki’s mind first. Then her gaze moved down a little, landing on the person’s neck… An Adam’s apple. Very small, partially hidden by the lace-trimmed collar, but if you looked carefully, you could still see it. Hisaki’s mouth twitched slightly.

She took a deep breath, one hand supporting the door frame, the other covering half her face.

Her fingers slid down from her forehead, covering her eyes, then slid down to her chin, pulling it into an unpleasant curve. Her brow furrowed, her mouth pulled into a wry expression, a “here we go again” look on her face.

“Sister… Father said to come get you and Sister Bai Lai for breakfast.”

The person outside the door—more accurately, the boy outside the door—spoke. The voice was a boy’s pre-pubescent treble, not yet fully deepened, but deliberately gentle.

This person was none other than the eldest son of the Kurose family, a twelve-year-old middle school student, Hisaki’s younger brother… Hei Lai Qi.