Chapter 74 If I Had the Same Painful Past

If I Had the Same Painful Past

“Nii-san, I’m sorry about today. I interrupted the three of you on your way home.”

“Don’t worry. If Shinomiya-san and Aoi-senpai say it’s okay, there’s no reason for me to say no.”

“I see. Thank you anyway.”

I went home and decided to call my brother when we were in the living room to talk.

“Aoi-senpai and Shinomiya-san are both very kind.”

“Yes, they are. They are one of the few people who would call me a friend.”

I somehow managed to walk home with my brother because I forgot my umbrella.

I was wondering why he was late, but actually, I was glad he was late because I was able to convince both of them first and make a little connection with them.

Although they still seem to be suspicious of me.

“So, I wonder if you need anything from me?”

“Well, how did you become friends with them? I don’t want to know how the three of you became friends, but I wonder why those two?”

“Why did I become friends with them?”

After thinking silently for a few minutes, he said,

“We didn’t become friends by choice. Did I become friends with them because of what they said about me? I think it just happened. I still don’t understand what a friend is.”

“I see.”

I think he only befriended them because they said they were his friends.

But, even if I said that my brother and I are family, that we are siblings, he would probably still say…

He thinks of his family as just people who are related by blood.

I made him that way, and it was our family’s fault.

That’s why I want my brother to really think of me as family.

“Is that all that you wanted to ask?”

“Yes, thank you. For listening.”

“No, that’s okay. I’m going back to my room then.”

After saying goodbye to my brother, who quickly leaves the living room, I collapse on the sofa and stare at the ceiling.

The difference between me and them.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and one thing comes to mind.

The one thing the girls and my brother have in common is that they have some kind of painful event in their past.

I don’t know the details, but Shinomiya-san was bullied. And the student council president has something to worry about.

That’s all I know.

I know it’s not polite, and I wonder if my brother would have recognized me as family if I had gone through something painful.

If my brother recognized them as friends because these girls had the same painful experiences as he did, like they had similar fates and a kind of camaraderie, then…