Volume 1
Chapter 3-1
Shinkurou had never used an alarm clock. When he was younger, his mother or his older sister would wake him up. Later, Ginko took over this role. Since there always was someone to wake him up, he never needed an alarm clock. It was not until Shinkurou started living alone that he quickly came to realize the joy of waking up to the voice of another person, as well as the sense of security derived from entrusting his life to someone else. After losing that, he was not inclined to use a machine as a subst.i.tute but endeavored to wake himself up instead. This had caused him to be late numerous times, but before long, he had grown accustomed to it. Nowadays, he would naturally wake up around the same time every day. An adverse affect of this habit was that whenever someone woke him at a time other than when he would usually wake up, he would be groggy for a period of time.
Today was one of those days. Someone knocked on Shinkurou’s door and he immediately opened his eyes. However, being still half asleep, Shinkurou looked at his clock and saw that it was only six in the morning. He had yet to fully come to his senses.
“Shinkurou, are you still sleeping?”
“Where’ve I heard this cheerful voice before? Ah, it’s probably Yuno,” said Shinkurou as he let out a yawn. Shinkurou tried to get out from underneath his futon but curled back up instead because of the cold air that had filled his room. It was a winter morning and it was still freezing at this hour. Shinkurou hesitated before turning on his electric stove or unlocking his door , before hearing Yuno speak again.
“Shinkurou, are you still sleeping?”
“Yes, I just woke up.”
“Then I’m coming in.”
You’re full of energy from early in the morning as always.
As Shinkurou thought this to himself in a state of drowsiness, he let out another yawn. Yuno had a duplicate key to his apartment and would occasionally come to visit. She would clean his room and help out in various ways that would make others envious of Shinkurou. You don’t have to help me so much, thought Shinkurou. However, he was happy that she visited and did not regard her visits as an annoyance.
“Sorry for disturbing you.”
As the door opened, Shinkurou saw that Yuno was holding her school bag in one hand and a plastic bag containing groceries in the other. Shinkurou thought that Yuno would continue with the usual, Good morning, Shinkurou; so why then did she stop by the door and stood there, speechless? Yuno seemed to tense up as she stared straight ahead.
“…What’s wrong, Yuno?”
She did not answer.
Upon further observation, Shinkurou noticed that rather than staring at him, Yuno was staring behind him.
Curious, Shinkurou turned around.
At that instant, Shinkurou’s brain stopped working.
A pure and angelic sleeping visage. Small slender arms stretching out from underneath a futon. Murasaki was there, sleeping completely naked.
As if trying to hide what was behind him, Shinkurou spread his arms out in front of Yuno and swung them about.
“Yu–Yuno, about this, you see–!”
“Disgusting.”
“No, it’s not like that! It’s nothing like–”
“Disgusting.”
“Listen to me! This–”
“…Shinkurou, why are you making so much noise so early in the morning?”
Murasaki had woken up due to the commotion. Still wrapped in her futon, Murasaki sat up and looked at Shinkurou as she rubbed her eyes. Then, she noticed Yuno.
Murasaki’s and Yuno’s gazes met.
At almost exactly the same time, the two spoke.
“Shinkurou, who is this woman?”
“Shinkurou, who is this?”
Shinkurou stared at them and was at a loss for words.
In the tense atmosphere that filled the room, Murasaki made the first move.
“I shack up with Shinkurou!”
“Y–You shack up…?!”
Shinkurou was in disbelief at what Murasaki had just said. He frantically tried to clear things up with Yuno.
“It’s not true, it’s not true! It’s completely not true!”
“Not true? In the manga I borrowed from Tamaki, a man and a woman cohabitating was referred to as shacking up”
“That makes you sound like a freeloader!”
“Freeloader?”
Yuno ignored Murasaki and began to tremble in silence.
“…Shinkurou, do you like small children like her?”
Shinkurou searched for the right words to explain everything but it was all in vain due to him being too fl.u.s.tered.
Yuno began to falter and learned against a wall, then said with a grief stricken expression:
“It can’t be, I never thought the day would come when I would have to ask such a thing… This is why I was against you living by yourself. All it would do was to draw you into the vices of the secular world and cause you to break the hearts of young maidens; start making numerous bad friends; roam the streets at night; spend nights dancing at clubs; bleach your hair and start listening to rock and roll as you ride through the streets at night on your first motorcycle!”
“No, um…”
“Shinkurou, sit over there!”
Shinkurou obediently sat down in seiza position where Yuno pointed. It was a rule in the Houzuki family that when one was being scolded, they were supposed to sit that way.
Yuno placed her hands on her hips and looked down at Shinkurou.
“Is everything fine? This is how we used to have to sit when we were seven isn’t–”
Shinkurou did not know how to handle Yuno once she became like this. However, Murasaki did not seem to care and asked Yuno a question.
“So, who are you?”
“You introduce yourself first.”
Murasaki being rude to an elder is one thing but Yuno is also being immature, thought Shinkurou.
The two exchanged looks again and then introduced themselves at the same time.
“My name is Murasaki Kuhouin.”
“I’m Yuno Houzuki.”
“Houzuki?”
“Kuhouin?”
The two came to a stop with the same look of astonishment on their faces, as if Shinkurou was the only one who did not understand the situation at hand. Both of them then turned towards him and gave him stern stares.
“Explain this, Shinkurou.”
“Shinkurou, please explain this.”
Shinkurou had no choice but to simply nod.