Interlude 1
“Oh no. I messed up…”
Closing the door behind her with both hands, Yuuri lamented in a voice tormented by guilt.
Her heart pounded wildly, and an unpleasant sweat trickled down her back. She was fully aware that she was doing something wrong, breathing heavily with huffs and puffs.
And no wonder—Yuuri was clutching a set of pajamas in her other hand.
They weren’t hers.
They belonged to her brother.
Seeing them tossed into the washing machine after his bath, she had somehow ended up bringing them back to her room before she even realized it.
―No, no! I’ll return them right away! I just wanted to take a quick look, that’s all!
Making excuses to herself, she spread out the pajamas she had pilfered from her brother. They were larger than she expected.
“This is Onii-chan’s pajama…”
Knowing it was wrong, she brought her face closer.
―It smells like Onii-chan…
Feeling that, she couldn’t hold back and buried her face in the pajamas.
They were soft and comforting.
She recalled her childhood, when her brother had carried her on his back after she was teased to tears about her hair.
Even though she knew her life would be over if any family member saw her like this, she couldn’t resist this devilish temptation.
Next, she slipped her arms into the sleeves.
“Wow, it’s so baggy…”
She hadn’t thought there was much height difference between her and her brother, but pajamas were made to be loose. Because of that, her hands were completely hidden in the sleeves.
“Hehe, it’s so big.”
She twirled around the room, dancing—then snapped back to reality.
―What am I doing?!
This was definitely something she shouldn’t be doing.
Finally regaining her senses, she carefully folded the pajamas. Just as she grabbed them to return them and reached for the door…
“Mahito, everyone’s done with the bath, so can you run the washing machine?”
“Sure!”
She jumped at the sound of her mother and brother’s voices.
It seemed they were planning to run the washing machine tonight.
―If I take it back now, I’ll get caught!
She could’ve tossed them into the washing machine to cover her tracks, but now her brother was the one running it. If she went now, she’d definitely run into him.
There was no way she could come up with an excuse for wandering around at night hugging her brother’s pajamas.
Yuuri stuffed the pajamas into her dresser for now and dived into bed as if escaping reality.
―Tomorrow! I’ll return them tomorrow, and it’ll be fine…!
That day, shaken by the wrong she’d done and thrilled by the fact that her brother’s pajamas were in her dresser, she couldn’t sleep until morning.
And so, missing the chance to return them, she would eventually lose all memories of her brother.
