HaruNaru ♪♪♪ Love Is a Comedy

In our house, dinner happened at seven o'clock sharp. If you weren't at the dinner table at seven, then you weren't going to be eating dinner there at all that day.

It was six forty-five. Scratching my head, I left my room and went down the stairs. But, I suddenly stopped mid-descent. Right beneath my eyes, I saw the figure of Naruko around the entryway.

Ah, so she came back. Now that I think about it, Naruko's curfew was 6:30 pm. Setting aside whether that time was too early or too late, it seemed that she honored her curfew.

Today, Naruko had on a black and orange striped T-shirt, as well as a black something that looked like a mix between shorts and a skirt. I don't really know, but it looked like something of the Sesi brand. If she were called a fashion model, then everyone would probably believe it. Pretty cute, isn't she? But I didn't really want to approach her. Because she seemed to hate me, it was probably best that we keep our distance from each other. But no matter how often I repeated that to myself, it wasn't like we could stop being brother and sister. I just have to deal with it, I guess. So I waited there on the stairs for her to go to dinner.

Hm? But this was quite weird. The living room door was right next to her, but she did not head towards the living room, and instead just stood in the entryway looking dazed. What exactly is she doing? Well, I didn't want to look like an idiot just standing there, so I descended the rest of the stairs. I stood in front of the living room door, my hand on the knob. Suddenly, I turned my head.

"Something wrong?"

"Huh?"

Whoa, what an intense stare…

Dammit. Knowing this type of thing would happen, why did I have to open my mouth? Am I an idiot?

"It's nothing." Clicking my tongue, I turned the living room door knob forcefully.

On the dining room table was tonight's dinner of curry and miso soup that I had made (Mom and Naruko can't cook, so I'm one who's in charge of cooking in this house). This room where we gathered to have our meals functioned as a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen, so it had no dividers and was very spacious. My sister and I sat down in empty seats, directly across from our mother. The newscaster on the television chattered away about overseas exports as well as other current events. My mother was chewing some pickled vegetables. Her name is Uzumaki Kushina. From her appearances, Mom looked like a 20 years old woman despite her age who's already in late 30s. My sister was very silent. In this family, my sister was fundamentally unsociable. Silently eating her meal like that, I thought she really looked like our late father… incidentally, I've been told that I take more after my mother. Our family's dining room was also a typical, normal family table, and for that I was grateful.

Eating my curry silently, I looked for an opening to enact my plan. It was, of course, a plan to identify the owner of the DVD. Although, it isn't as complicated as I make it sound. It was a simple plan with no twists and turns. In a word, because pure logic would not get me anywhere at that point, now that all the suspects were gathered in one place, I could fish for the culprit a bit.

And then, there was the opportunity I was looking for. Draining my clam miso soup, I spoke to no-one in particular. "I'm going to the convenience store after dinner. Does anybody need anything?"

"Ah? Then please buy me some of the new Haagen Daaz ice cream. The seasonal one."

"Sure." After this conversation with Mom, I nonchalantly started talking again. "Oh right. One of my friends has recently gotten into some girl's anime. Umm… I think it was a zodiac girl something, or something like that."

"What's this, so suddenly?" At my bait, the first response I got came again from Mom. Could it really be that…

"Well it's nothing, just that he thought it was interesting and recommended it. I was wondering if I should give it a try…"

"Eh, that sounds like something an otaku would do, doesn't it? Come on, I learned about this kind of thing from the media. It would be bad if you turned into something like that, wouldn't it?"

Honestly this stuff generally doesn't leave a good impression, does it? For me, I don't really care what hobbies other people choose to take up. After all, it has nothing to do with me. But, objecting to my parent's words would be really annoying, so I just responded with a noncommittal "uh-huh."

Well, I guess Mom is not the culprit after all. She never faltered at all at my comments. I'm speaking, of course, about the owner of the DVD. So then… by process of elimination… the only one left is… I discreetly glanced at Naruko out of my peripheral vision. Naruko was intensely biting her lip. She had stiffened with all her might, to the point where the tips of the chopsticks she was holding were trembling.

Wha—?… Could this mean…

"… What's wrong, Naruko?" Mom called softly to Naruko upon detecting her unease.

"Nothing… thanks for the meal."

Naruko, looking quite annoyed, rose from the table and briskly walked out of the room. She closed the door with a loud "bang!" I heard the "dan, dan, dan, dan, dan" of her footsteps going up the stairs. The two of us left at the table were dumbfounded.

"… What's gotten into her today?"

"Wh… who knows…" I appropriately answered to my obviously dumbfounded mother. But honestly, I had no idea what had just happened either. What did she get angry at?

Something was said in the previous exchange between Mom and me that really made her angry. Maybe she was the real culprit, and realized exactly what I was doing, but that would be all the more stranger. Normally, Naruko would never get so agitated and be so easily caught red-handed by me. So, why did this happen? Naruko, I don't understand you at all.

But… Naruko's behavior was anything but usual… I also have to take into account that she definitely reacted to my comments. Of course, this wasn't definitive proof that she was the culprit, but at the very least, this heightened my suspicions that the DVD belonged to a family member… but could it possibly be, that the Zodiac Angel Heartfilia DVD I picked up in the entryway belongs to… my sister?

If I assumed that… a lot of things would make sense. The time she dropped the item was probably the time she bumped into me earlier in the evening. At that time, when the contents of her bag spilled out, this thing may have fallen into the crevice between the shoebox and the wall. And then, she went out and realized that this item was missing. And, this also explains why she seemed like she was looking for something in the entryway right before dinner. Continuing along these lines, if my theory about the mismatched DVDs was correct, then Naruko meant to bring Zodiac Angel Heartfilia with her and not Loving my Little Sister.

But still. I can't even begin to imagine why she had to bring this with her when she went out. I thought that she was just going to hang out with friends, and there's no reason for a girl who's going to a mixer like that to bring an anime DVD, is there? I mean, she definitely was going to meet with her friends… I just don't understand. For one, until this day I could not imagine Naruko ever having to do with children's anime. Was I wrong? Is the owner really Naruko? That's impossible, isn't it? It's nice that I came up with this theory of Naruko's guilt, but so far in my heart I was still less than half convinced. Well, for now, let's see if we can set a little trap.

"Thanks for the meal." Having finished my meal, I left the dining room table. I stopped by my room to grab my wallet. Stopping in front of my sister's room, in a forced tone, I spoke, "Alright. Time to go to the convenience store."

I have no acting ability, do I? Well, whatever. It's not like I thought this was going to work. Instead of a trap, this was turning into some clownish sideshow. With a "dan, dan, dan," I went down the stairs. With a "bang," I left the house and shut the door. Leaving the house, I walked towards the convenience store. Rounding the corner, however, instead of going towards the convenience store, I walked along a different path that led me to the back of the house.

What exactly was I planning to do? Well, I guess I was trying to think from the perspective of the culprit. If Naruko was really the culprit, then she probably already knew that I had her DVD. So, then… if I were in Naruko's position, what would I do? Well, she would definitely want to take the DVD when I'm not looking, and then feign innocence… that's the only thing she could do. Naruko was obviously in a strange mood earlier. She lost her cool. And in that state… when I left she may have finally reached the end of her patience and started looking for her DVD in my room. I mean, the chances of this ploy working were pretty low, but I wanted to try something rather simple.

Ahh, as I expected, it's not good is it… or wait… could it be…

I went in through the kitchen door at the back of the house, and sneaked quietly up the stairs. And then, I forcefully threw open the door to my room. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?!"

"Ah!" In the middle of the room, Naruko was crawling on all fours. At my entrance, she paled and swiftly turned her head in my direction.

"I asked you, what are you doing?!"

"I-It's nothing. D-Don't worry about it," Naruko shuttered, with her behind still facing me. She seemed nervous, and her breathing was uneven.

"How is it fine? Freely walking into another person's room and looking around… what would you think if the same thing happened to you?" And also, of all places, wasn't where she was sticking her hand where I kept all my Icha-Icha books?

Instilling my words with a sense of inexpressible anger, I had spoken calmly.

Without speaking, Naruko turned away. Maybe it was from anger, but she began to blush. Then, without a word, she slowly stood up and walked this way.

"Out of my way."

"No. Answer my question, what were you doing here?"

"I said out of my way!"

"Don't play dumb. You were looking for this, weren't you!"

While she glared intensely at me at point blank range, I slowly took out the Zodiac Angel Heartfilia DVD case which I had hidden under my shirt. Naruko's response was quite dramatic.

"T-That's?!" Naruko threw an intensely threatening glare my way, and reached out for the case, but I skillfully evade her hand.

With an excessive look of triumph on my face, I beat my palm against the back of the DVD case. "Hm. So this really was yours, wasn't it?"

"N-No, there's no way that could be mine!" She spoke in a clearly displeased voice and obviously did not want to continue this conversation. Hey, hey, at least make an attempt to make your words and actions consistent, then.

"It isn't yours? I picked this up in the entryway this evening. Isn't it something you dropped when you bumped into me?"

"Definitely wrong… it's not mine… th… that kind of otaku thing… there's no reason I'd watch something like that."

She's completely set on denying it, isn't she? We're not going to get anywhere like this.

"Well, if you weren't looking for this, what exactly were you doing in my room?"

"Well, that is… that is… "

"That's what? What is it?"

Upon my prodding, Naruko once again fell into silence. Her shoulders shaking pitiably, she bit her lip and cast her eyes downwards. It was obvious that my questioning had left her incredibly embarrassed. For example, imagine if someone you hated came up to you and said "Hey, this ero book, it's yours, right? Haha!" that would be horrendous; it would be so embarrassing that you'd want to die.

"… Tch." Her glare was cruel, and her cold hostility struck me… dammit. Why does she have to glare at me so hatefully?

"Hey." I casually held out the DVD case to Naruko. My sister looked up at me with hatred gleaming in her eyes. "This is something important, isn't it? I'll return it, so please accept it."

"B-But, it's not mi—"

"Then take it and throw it away."

"Wha—?" Naruko looked up at me with a puzzled expression. What's with that look? It wasn't like there was any reason I should continue teasing her like this. I was only curious who this DVD belonged to, and now I know that. Why would I want to keep going back and forth like this with her? I didn't reveal these thoughts to Naruko, but I chose my next words to ease the tension.

"My bad. It was a misunderstanding. I know now that this doesn't belong to you. I don't know who it belongs to, but it somehow found its way to me. I'm apologizing, and then please, won't you throw this away for me?"

After I had made that attempt to calm the situation down, Naruko suddenly spoke. "… Uh… i-it's okay. Whatever." With that, she took the DVD case from me.

I stepped to the side, and Naruko opened my door and walked out of my room. I advanced into the center of my room. Geez, that was so unexpected! How many years has it been since I've spoken with my sister like this? I'm so tired…

Falling into my bed with a thud, I stared up at the ceiling. And then, my sister's voice appeared, even though I had thought she had left the room long ago.

"… H-Hey?"

"Huh?" She's still here? How annoying, can't you just leave?

When I turned my eyes on her, I saw that she was shyly looking at me. She wore a charming facial expression that I would have never expected her to normally have.

W-What is this? What's going on?

"What?" I asked, feeling a bit uneasy.

"… Do you… do you think it's strange?"

"What is?"

"That is… okay, this is just hypothetical… it's like this. If I… really owned that DVD… I'm asking you, is that strange?"

"Not really? It's not that strange, is it?" I answered. I wanted to get her out of my room as quickly as possible, and if I didn't answer like that she would just get angry again.

Geez, why did she still want to fight over this? Didn't I return the DVD to her to protect her pride and avoid conflict? After all, her clumsiness is what caused this problem in the first place… she should be thanking me, why is she still so resentful?

"You… really think that?"

"Yeah. Whatever hobbies you might have, I definitely wouldn't make fun of you for it." Because it really has nothing to do with me.

"Really"

"You're stubborn, aren't you? Yes, really. Believe me please." I chose my words a bit carelessly, but somehow or other Naruko seemed to be satisfied with my response.

"I see… alright." Nodding her head repetitively, and holding Zodiac Angel Heartfilia with almost religious fervor, she ran out of the room.

Why did this scene evoke such a sense of nostalgia in me? I feel like something like this has happened in the past long ago… but I've forgotten what.

"… She could have at least shut the door." Grumbling, I collapsed into my bed, facing skyward.