I couldn't believe what I had just heard. I was too stunned.

"Sister?" I asked, as if I had misheard.

"Yes, why?"

"Because this is my house."

Deep down, even though I had understood perfectly, I still hoped I was wrong and had misunderstood. I hoped that out of the blue he would tell me he was joking. But that didn't happen.

"So we'll be neighbors. Interesting situation," the boy said, vaguely thoughtful.

"NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT," I said, annoyed, raising my voice.

This whole situation full of coincidences was truly incredible. Only at that moment did a very important and simple thing occur to me: we still hadn't introduced ourselves.

Leaving aside the day before at the hospital, today, even though we had spent the entire day together, we had never bothered with it. Maybe this happened because our "relationship" was so insignificant that neither of us had a reason to call the other by name.

"Sorry, could you tell me your name?" Given the situation, I decided to ask without hesitation.

"Ah, right, how clumsy of me—we never introduced ourselves. I'm Nakagawa Yuto."

They had the same surname, so they really were brother and sister.

But even if I had known beforehand, I would never have thought of such a combination. There are many people who share the same surname even if they're not related.

"And you?" he asked.

"Maeda Ayame."

"Well, I see you already know each other," said Nakagawa-san, surprised.

"Your aunt and I had just met and were getting to know each other."

"That's true. Actually, an idea came to me too. Why don't you come eat at our place tonight?" my aunt asked the two of them. "And you get along with her brother too," she said, turning to me.

"'Get along' doesn't seem like the right term, but I want to get to know Nakagawa-san better."

"How acidic of you. Don't I fall into the category of people you want to know? I'm much nicer than this," Yuto-kun said with disappointment.

"Wow, if this is your baseline level, I can't imagine what the evolved version must be like."

"Anyway, to avoid confusion between me and my sister, you can call me by my first name."

"Yes, that would be better. You can call me by my first name too," Chika-san confirmed.

"Okay. You can call me by my first name too, Chika-san," I said.

"And what about me?" Yuto-kun asked.

"Fine, but only because I'm calling you by your first name and it would sound strange if I were the only one doing it. But don't get too familiar."

"It's better than nothing."

"Come on, go upstairs and let's start preparing food for tonight," my aunt said.

So we all went up the stairs and entered our apartment.

We started setting everything up for dinner together. While my aunt prepared the food, I set about setting the table.

"I want to help too. It's my way of thanking you for the invitation!" the girl exclaimed before starting to help my aunt with the dinner preparations.

"I want to do something too. Tell me what I can do," Yuto-kun said.

"You could help Ayame set the table," my aunt suggested.

"Sure."

"That's fine. But first, could you show me where the bathroom is? I'd like to wash my hands."

"At the end of the hallway."

But he never came back from the bathroom, and I ended up setting the table by myself, without his help. I saw this as rude behavior, not so much toward me as toward my aunt, since she had hosted him in her home. Besides, he was the one who offered to help; I didn't understand why he had disappeared.

I went toward the bathroom to check if something had happened, but the bathroom door was open and the light was off, so he wasn't there.

However, I noticed a light coming from under the door of the room across the hall. The problem was that it was my room.

He couldn't have actually entered my room to snoop around. No sane person would think of entering the room of someone they just met, especially a girl's, without permission. I pushed the door open and entered the room to check. I found him sitting on the bed, looking toward the bookshelf.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?" I shouted a moment later, angry.

He flinched and jumped to his feet from the fright. "Sorry, I was looking for the bathroom, but I accidentally ended up in your room and saw the books. You know, we have more or less the same taste. Most of the books you have here, I have too."

"Really?"

"Yes. Just a few days ago I bought the latest release of this series. Ironically, before we moved, someone gave me one for the trip."

The latest volume of that series had come out a few weeks ago, but I didn't want to spend money to buy it, and it hadn't been uploaded to any website yet.

Chika-san had told me that morning, while I was helping her pick up the books, that her brother and I had very similar tastes, only I didn't know who he was yet. He didn't seem like the type who read similar books. Not that they were overly complicated, but they were usually love stories or dramas—books that few boys liked to read.

"To make it up to you, I'll give it to you as a gift."

He really wanted to win me over with the book! He was convinced that by doing so, I would forgive him and not be too upset about the gesture.

I'm not someone who can be easily bought, and I certainly didn't want to let him win, but...

"Fine. Let's say that if you give it to me, I'm willing to forgive you for entering a girl's room without permission."

...I wanted that book too much.

"Kids, food's ready!" my aunt shouted from the kitchen. We all sat down at the table, all five of us, and started eating.

"There's something Chika-san and I were wondering about. How did you already know each other?" my aunt asked curiously.

I knew it might seem strange from the outside. Two neighbors who had already met within twenty-four hours of one of them moving in was too big a coincidence. The certain thing was that I could never tell the real reason for our meeting. For my aunt, the accident had turned out to be just bad luck.

If the sister had known the whole story, she would never have asked this question.

Most likely, she too was in the dark about everything. I had to answer somehow, even if it meant lying.

"Well... by chan..." I was about to improvise an explanation when Yuto-kun, sitting across from me, briefly met my gaze and started speaking, his deep voice overlapping mine.

"We met by chance today at a phone store."

That answer only confirmed my hypothesis: not even the sister knew the truth, and given the speed of his response, he didn't want her to find out either.

"Ah, so did you end up buying a new phone?" my aunt asked me.

"No, because someone started arguing and we got kicked out of the store," I said, shooting a resentful glance at Yuto-kun.

"I knew you'd blame me," he stated calmly, fiddling with a fork.

"Why, did your phone break? Is that why you weren't answering calls?" Chika-san said to her brother.

"Yes," he said simply.

"Don't worry, I have a couple of old phones you can take. Ayame-san, consider it a way for me to apologize for my brother's behavior."

"As if she didn't start running in the store too," Yuto-kun muttered.

"And for school? What do you plan to do?" my aunt asked Yuto-kun.

"I was planning to enroll in the same school as my cousin who lives in the city, but since it's too far from home, I decided to enroll in the school nearby."

That day never ceased to surprise me. This was yet another discovery I made that day...

"You enrolled in my same school?" I asked, stunned.

"Oh, given the proximity, I suspected you attended it too. That means we'll go to school together in the morning. I expect you to welcome me well at school," he said, snickering.

"I can't believe it!"

The dinner continued calmly, talking about this and that to get to know each other a little better. As for me, I kept brooding over the news and coincidences of that day.

At the end of the evening, after finishing dinner and saying our goodbyes, Yuto-kun and Chika-san headed to their apartment. My aunt and I were finishing cleaning the kitchen when she suddenly turned to me.

"Aunt, what is it?" I asked, seeing that she wasn't speaking.

"We had a nice evening," she said.

"True, it's been a while since we had this kind of vitality in the house. But I know you—it's not just that."

"It's just that you have difficulty relating to other people, especially those your age. I felt relieved seeing you talk animatedly with Yuto-kun, even if you don't get along very well. Go take a bath; I'll handle this."

Only once I was immersed in the bathtub did I start to relax. I thought back to my aunt's words and how even I couldn't give an actual explanation for my behavior. Usually I would have thought twice before behaving so lively with other people, yet this time it came naturally to me.

Strangely, I had been more lively with Yuto-kun, whom I liked less than his sister. Plus, now, besides having him as a neighbor, I would also see him at school.

Despite this series of situations that had led us to know each other, I certainly wasn't going to change my lifestyle. Not that I loved being alone, but I had learned not to trust others much, and I preferred to continue like this until graduation.

His company was also exhausting. For one reason or another, we always ended up touching sore spots or throwing jabs at each other, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

He didn't seem like a bad person, but as I said, being too lively and noisy, he wasn't exactly the type I would have preferred. Plus, every time I saw his face, I remembered the conversation we had in the hospital. Maybe that's why it came naturally to me to be a bit on the defensive in his presence.

But I have to admit that during dinner, I had perceived a cheerfulness that I hadn't felt in the house for a while. Not that I didn't have fun with my aunt, but excluding Hiro, who was a child, it was just her and me.

My aunt's lifestyle is peculiar. She always works and almost never has time for family; the little free time she has, she uses to rest. She usually leaves the house early in the morning and comes back late in the evening. Today she had come back early, surely because she wanted to see how I was doing after the accident.

Now that I thought about it, I hadn't felt this much vitality since... since... my family... well, it's better to talk about that another time.

Soaking in the hot water, I thought back to everything that had happened, and after taking stock, I only then noticed a big flaw that, with all the twists and turns of that day, I hadn't paid much attention to. If the two siblings had only moved in today and Chika-san had arrived here for the first time this morning, how did Yuto-kun happen to be here the day before, that is, the day of the accident?

Maybe there was an explanation, but since it wasn't my business, I decided to set aside my observation.

-Meanwhile, at Yuto and Chika's house-

I was sitting on a chair at the kitchen table when I heard my sister's voice.

"Yuto, I found the phones. Let's see if they turn on." She also sat down on a chair nearby. I tried turning them on to see if they worked, and both started up without too many problems.

"Perfect. You take one, and we'll give the other to Ayame."

"Okay. I'll give it to her when I go to school next week."

"Excited about this new beginning? Try to get along with your classmates. If something doesn't sit right with you, don't put your hand in it like you did at your old school. I don't want you getting into trouble," she said, smiling at me.

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine."

"Okay. Just try not to overdo it."

"Well, I'm going to take a bath and then go to bed," I said, yawning.

"Oh, listen. At dinner I didn't bring up the topic. I don't know what kind of relationship you have with Ayame-san, even though from your bickering I got the impression that you enjoy being around her. I wanted to ask if by any chance you told her the real reason why we moved, or if you intended to tell her anyway. I worry about you; you've never had many friends, and I'd like you to have someone your age to talk to."

"No, and I don't think I'll tell her. I don't want this thing to become known or to become a burden on others."