"Yuta, turn to your left and hold your sister"s hand." Rie looks at the kids through the camera. "Why do you look like you are attending someone"s funeral? Smile. It costs nothing to smile."
The boy and girl are dressed in matching clothes. Even Little Sho is wearing a uniform that this mother got made for him from a costume shop. He is sitting in his father"s lap, watching everything with curious eyes. Certainly, his brother can"t look unhappier. His new elder sister is shy and nervous. But seeing his mother"s happy face, he blinks his round eyes and squeals.
"That"s the spirit, Little Sho." Rie gives him a thumbs up. "See, Yuta, you don"t have half the spirit of your younger brother."
"He"s not the one going to school," Yuta replies, deadpanned. He has no choice, but obey his mother"s words. After all, he"s the one who didn"t want his mother to know about his rebirth. He holds Aerie"s hand. He should treat her nicely. In school, she"s going to be his ally. If he treats her nicely and all, she might come handy in school. She hasn"t opened up to them yet. "Aerie, you might be older than me in number, but I was the eldest child of this family before you came. Also, we will be in the same cla.s.s in school. I cannot accept you as my elder sister. You are going to be my younger sister. You will address me as an elder brother. Of course, Little Sho is the youngest among all. Do you get it?"
The girl gives him a nod, looking at him with her wide soft brown eyes. "Elder brother."
"This is better." Kiyohira agrees. It"s odd to treat Yuta as a middle child. He might be five, but he is mentally way older than Aerie. "Little Aerie, you are going to be pampered by Yuta and you also get to spoil Little Sho."
She wobbles her head furiously. Kiyohira smiles at her. "You are not going to be alone. Yuta will always be beside you."
"Yeah, I am going to show you how to be a big brother." Yuta steps closer to the little girl. "Aerie, I will protect you as your elder brother."
The girl raises her head and meets his eyes. "Elder brother, thank you."
"Don"t thank me for something that"s given." Yuta tells her, "I will protect both you and Little Sho. You are going to be a beautiful lady and he"s going to be an idiotic man. I don"t think that I would be able to relax in the future."
Rie takes this opportunity to click pictures of the kids. "Yuta, Aerie, sit down on the couch with Little Sho. This is going to be your first picture together."
Kiyohira settles Little s...o...b..tween Aerie and Yuta. He goes to his wife"s side and watches the three children smiling at the camera together. "This is perfect."
"I didn"t think that it was ever possible," Rie mumbles to him. "Thanks to Yuta, we got another wonderful gift."
Little Sho pulls Aerie"s sleeve. She turns to look at him and smiles brightly. She bends down and kisses his cheek. When Little s...o...b..bbles to her, she listens to him with a serious expression. Then, she says, "Little Sho, do you want to grow your hair long?"
"Do you understand what he"s saying?" Yuta asks her with furrowed brows.
"I don"t understand him." She answers him, "But he kept slapping my hair. So, I thought he also wants long hair."
"I knew it." Yuta crosses his arms. "He was supposed to be a girl, but he was born as a female accidentally. Aerie, let"s raise him as a girl. We will get baby girl"s clothes when we go shopping next time with Mother."
"Is that all right?" Aerie puckers her forehead, worried.
"It"s all right," Yuta smirks at Little Sho. "We will take a lot of pictures and embarra.s.s him when he grows up."
"That"s not a nice thing to do." Aerie hugs Little Sho protectively. "I won"t let you do this to him."
"Aerie, I am your elder brother. You should listen to me." Yuta scolds her.
"But I am older than you are. I want to be an elder sister. Then, I can stop you from embarra.s.sing Little Sho when he grows up." Aerie looks at him fiercely.
"Father said that I am the older one." Yuta glowers at her. "Then, I am the older one. You are way too younger than I am."
Little Sho claps his hands and lets out a giggle. Seeing his sibling argue is making him happy without a doubt.
"She has a character from your name in her name," Kiyohira tells her with a mildly happy voice. If he had a daughter, he would have done the same.
"I wonder if her parents also thought of her as a blessing." Rie glances at Kiyohira thoughtfully.
"Maybe they could not keep her because of their circ.u.mstances." Kiyohira stares at Aerie arguing with Yuta while s.h.i.+elding Little Sho from Yuta. As much as they know, she"s been abandoned in front of the orphanage"s door when she was around Little Sho"s age. He doesn"t know why her biological parents abandoned her. Honestly, he doesn"t care. From the day she came to their family, she is a Kamiyama. "It seems that she"s going to be a good elder sister to Little Sho."
"Father!" Aerie comes to him with tearful eyes. "I want to be the older one. Otherwise, Yuta would bully Little Sho."
"That"s not happening at all." Yuta climbs on the couch and stands tall. "Father, I can accept going to school, but I will never ever call this pipsqueak my elder sister."
Rie has seen plenty of Yuta"s unreasonable sides by now. She shakes her head at him. Who will believe that this boy is mentally twenty-four?
"Father, if I don"t become older than him, he will embarra.s.s Little Sho in the future." Aerie starts crying. "I don"t want to see Little Sho get hurt."
"There"s no way that I will let that happen." Kiyohira scoops her up. "Even if you become younger than him, you are still Little Sho"s elder sister. You can protect him in your way."
"I can?" Aerie asks him with doubts in her eyes.
"Of course." Rie wipes her tears. "Whenever Yuta tries to bully Little Sho, you can tell us. We will straighten him out. Keep a watch on Yuta and Little Sho when we aren"t around."
"Tch!" Yuta looks down at the bubbly baby lying on the couch. "It looks like you got a knight. However, how long can she keep you safe from me? I will get my hands on you someday."
"No." Aerie yells, "You won"t get to have your hands on him."
"I don"t know why you are against this, Aerie." Yuta tries to reason with his sister. "We must take his embarra.s.sing pictures. We can even blackmail him in the future and make him do anything we want. We will order him around."
"I don"t want to blackmail my little brother." Aerie frowns and looks at her father. "What"s blackmail, Father?"
"Yuta." Rie narrows her eyes. "You are going to change Little Sho"s diapers for the next week."
"Mother, why?" Yuta wraps his arms around himself and shudders. The horrible smell… He had witnessed it once or twice. "What did I do wrong?"
"You are teaching strange things to innocent minds again." Rie holds her head. She"s worried about Aerie and Little Sho now. "Let"s make it fifteen days. Otherwise, you won"t learn."
Cleaning his brother"s p.o.o.p for fifteen days is the worst punishment he has ever received. "Mother, you said that you would always love me more."
"Loving you doesn"t mean that I would let you do and say whatever you want." Rie tells him, "You are the elder brother. They will always look up at you. You shouldn"t teach them strange things."
She also had screwed morals once. But that was in past and she was wrong about a lot of things. She learned her lessons in hard ways. Some things left her with regrets. Some mistakes turned out to be the right decisions while some seemingly right decisions turned out to be horrible mistakes. However, everything taught her something and acc.u.mulated into the person she"s today.
"Yuta, you want to be an ideal brother." Kiyohira stares at him. "This is not how you become a good brother. You shouldn"t teach them how to blackmail someone. I am sure that you know it"s wrong."
Yes, it"s wrong. It"s not that wrong though. He would have teased his brother a little. It"s okay. He will find other ways. Blackmailing is cancelled. Aerie also turned out to be different than he expected her to be. Yuta takes a deep breath. He was the one who wanted siblings so much. He didn"t know it would be this hard. "I will do my best."
Little Sho"s lips tremble. He lets out an annoyed cry. Everyone looks at the baby. Aerie clearly doesn"t understand what"s going on. Rie picks Little Sho up and touches his bottom. She grins at Yuta. "Start doing your best by changing his diaper first."
"Mother, just make me do anything else." Yuta cries. "I don"t want to smell his p.o.o.p."
She gives Little Sho to Yuta and covers her ears, walking away with a smile. Kiyohira laughs. His wife finds strangest ways to straighten their eldest son.