Book 5: Short Story
Crossword Days with my Step Sister
Winter was quickly approaching, even on this average Sunday afternoon. Since I had no shift at work and all my homework was already done, I figured I might as well drink some coffee in the living room, so I made my way over there. Upon doing so, I was greeted by the sight of Ayase-san standing in the corner of the room, mumbling something to herself. She must’ve been very focused, as she didn’t even seem to notice my arrival. Honestly, I felt a bit scared, even. Eventually, she turned around to look at me.
“What does a step-sister have, but not two sisters? Nine letters.”
“Huh? Uhh, that’s a bit too out of the blue for me.”
I was bewildered, to say the least, but then I spotted Ayase-san glaring down at a box of sweets, muttering what sounded like several random words. Finally, she turned the box around to show me.
“I’m working on this crossword puzzle.”
I could see a normal crossword puzzle drawn on the underside of the box. It’s not uncommon for these sorts of things to be on packaging, probably as a well-intentioned bonus for entertainment. So then, everything she’s been mumbling about would be referring to…
“Are you asking me for help with it?”
“Yep. I’m stuck on horizontal three. Look.”
I see, that makes a lot more sense. What was the prompt again?
“What does a step-sister have, but sisters don’t? Nine letters.”
Since she had asked me directly, I guess she can’t complain about me making guesses. So I did.
“Restraint.”
“Hm?”
“It’d be nine letters, and a step-sister would definitely show restraint, no?” I said.
“Ahhh! Restraint… Oops, nope. Doesn’t fit.”
Dang.
“It says it’s gotta have an N at the end of the word.”
Ahhh, I see. But that makes it even more confusing. Ayase-san looked up at the ceiling with a pensive look. She really likes to ruminate on these sorts of questions when she can’t find the answer, huh? Her competitive personality really shows at times like these.
“Erm, Ayase-san, why don’t you sit down for now?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.”
She hadn’t even realized that she was still standing up. What impressive focus she has.
“I was just going to throw this away after I finished eating all the sweets, but this caught my eye,” she said.
“Have you solved every other question?”
“Only the horizontal number three is left.”
When I looked at the puzzle, I saw that she hadn’t even filled out the other empty spaces. She was probably figuring out the missing lines in her head. What an impressive memory she’s got. It makes sense that she only is lacking a bit at school when it comes to modern Japanese.
“How about ‘companion,’ then?”
I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“Hm? Ah, wait, no. That’d be something the sisters have instead.”
“You’re right, my bad.”
“Something the step-sister has… something the step-sister has… ‘Timidness’? No, there’s no way she would have that.”
Oh really now?
“Not to mention that it doesn’t have an N at the end…”
“I wonder why they emphasized the ‘sisters’ part of it.” I commented on something that had been bugging me.
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“I mean, the opposite of a step-sister would be a blood-related sister, right? Yet they chose the word ‘sisters’ instead.”
“Wha…? Ah, you’re right. I completely missed that part.”
Think, Yuuta. What’s the important distinguishing factor between a blood-related sister and sisters…What is the difference?
“Ah!”
“Huh? What’s up?”
“I know. It’s ‘seclusion’. As a step-sister, you’d generally be a bit more secluded from your family, and you have your own private space. In contrast to that, sisters share just about everything, oftentimes even their room.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Ayase-san sighed in relief and let her upper body slump onto the table. “I was so fixated on the ‘step-sister’ part that that important detail completely slipped my mind!”
“Now, now, it’s okay…Would you like some coffee?”
Since Ayase-san had worked so hard, I decided to brew her some comfy hot coffee. With a faint glimmer of bashfulness, she responded back with “Thanks.”
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