Chapter 37: Ephnel and Yanase Naoto

Yukina studied the girl’s face carefully.

Her features were soft and dignified, serene and quiet. A faint light reflected in her lustrous eyes.

Her eyelashes were long and slightly curled, lightly catching the thin rays of sunlight.

She was incredibly striking, beautiful to the point of being intimidating.

This was probably Ephnel’s true appearance.

Although she was only a little taller than Yukina, she gave off a reliable intuition.

Just as Canary had said, to exude such a sense of pressure, the girl was undoubtedly older than her.

Yukina looked at the girl before her, and besides being astonished by Ephnel’s beauty, she also felt a strange sense of illusion.

“Do I look familiar?”

Yukina nodded subconsciously.

Looking into the girl’s eyes, Yukina felt for no reason that she had seen her somewhere before.

After all, a person as beautiful as this girl would naturally leave an impression after just one meeting.

Perhaps she had met this version of Ephnel at some point, so of course she would seem familiar.

But that was clearly not what Ephnel meant.

“Then how about a little more…”

The girl took off her earring, skillfully tied up her hair, and then covered the sides of her hair with her hand, deliberately leaving only her facial features and a sliver of her bangs visible.

Her dark eyes looked directly at Yukina.

“Yukina, how about now? Can you recognize me.”

The girl called her name, her voice suddenly changing from clear to deep.

An incredibly familiar face, and a voice she would never forget.

The girl before her had, just like that, transformed into a boy.

“Onii… chan?”

Yukina froze for a moment, then immediately snapped back to her senses.

“N-No… I’m so sorry! I’m sorry! It’s just that for a moment, Miss Ephnel, you looked a bit like my brother, and I don’t know why, but I accidentally mistook you… Th-That is… I didn’t mean it like that… it’s just…”

Her momentary nervousness made her unable to even speak clearly.

The girl in front of her was Ephnel, that was supposed to be right, so why had she suddenly had such an illusion?

For a split second, it was as if she had really seen her brother.

“Well… you’re actually not mistaken.”

There it was again, that voice.

Yukina stared blankly as Ephnel spoke, enunciating each word seriously.

“I am Yanase Naoto. Your ‘older brother’.”

Yukina was stunned for a long moment, then took a large step back, looking at the girl before her in a panic.

“Eh—?? Onii-chan? That’s…”

‘A lie, right?’

The person before her, delicate with a hint of allure, had a face that stirred the heart, but it was, without a doubt, the face of her beloved brother.

This person, this voice, she would never mistake them.

But her brother… and Ephnel…

“Onii-chan… that’s absolutely impossible, right? Y-Your figure and everything are obviously different…”

“Is that so… that can be managed by changing clothes and using a chest binder. The only thing that doesn’t change is my height.”

“B-But…”

“If you want to confirm it, I can provide you with any proof you need.”

With the conversation having reached this point, Yukina could no longer refute it.

She was completely unprepared for this scene.

Her mind suddenly short-circuited, her thoughts a tangled mess, and she just stood there, stunned.

“What I told you before… this is basically it.”

As if she had anticipated Yukina’s reaction, Ephnel’s face showed no particular expression, as if she were talking about something completely unrelated.

She lowered her eyes, averting her gaze.

The hand holding her hair relaxed, and her raven-black hair fell down, draping over her shoulders.

If Yukina had seen this girl in any other setting, she probably would have praised her as a “young lady” in her heart.

But now, she was so completely filled with astonishment that she couldn’t speak.

“You’re surprised, aren’t you… But this is what I had to confess to you. The discrepancy in your ‘aptitude’ test report is for the same reason.”

“Bringing me here… was it because of this…”

“Yeah.”

Ephnel’s eyes were downcast.

“I have to apologize to you. Hiding it from you for so long, it was my fault…”

So that was an admission.

Yukina’s eyes widened.

She looked at the girl before her in disbelief, almost forgetting to breathe.

The air was filled with the faint scent of medicine, an unknown flower, the lingering fragrance of mango, and an unfamiliar coolness.

Yukina couldn’t, for the life of her, overlap the image of this “young lady”-like girl with that of her brother.

“I’ve ignored your feelings all this time, selfishly doing terrible things. I don’t intend to ask for your forgiveness now, nor do I expect your sympathy… In short… I’m sorry… But seeing you as ‘Fifina’ today, your struggles and your tears made me pick up something I lost a long time ago… Yukina, I realize I can’t keep avoiding this. I still hope for your understanding. Though this is my first time being an older sister, I still hope we can continue our relationship as ‘sisters’.”

That wasn’t it.

Yukina lowered her head, biting her lip.

Suddenly, it seemed as though many, many things all clicked into place.

Why her brother had been at the venue, why his phone was in that room, why Ephnel had that expression on her face back then, why she could so confidently declare, “Your brother is fine.”

The things Ephnel had said to her back then, which had seemed vague and meaningless, now became crystal clear in hindsight.

So that was what Ephnel had been trying to tell her.

All this time, her brother would always disappear without a word.

He would occasionally come home with injuries.

Although he hid them well, the faint smell of medicine was something he couldn’t hide, just like the smell in this hospital room right now.

Her brother had also never once accompanied her to one of Ephnel’s performances.

When she was terrified, her brother wasn’t there; in his place was Ephnel.

Unconsciously, Yukina had thought that Ephnel had stolen her brother’s place.

But that wasn’t the truth.

Her brother and Ephnel had always been watching over her, from a place she couldn’t see.

“Yukina…”

It was her brother’s face, yet it produced an unfamiliar girlish voice.

Her heart was in turmoil.

Yukina lowered her head, subconsciously averting her gaze to the hospital bed.

At this point, she was completely—unable to look the girl in the eye.

Though she wanted to laugh it off as a bad joke, she knew she couldn’t.

“Perhaps this isn’t so easy for you to accept… Actually, I didn’t plan on telling you about this so seriously at first. I wanted to tell you in a more casual way, but when I saw you, my mind went blank… In the end, all my mental preparations burst like bubbles.”

Ephnel spoke in a low voice, then suddenly smiled.

“But now that I’ve said it, it feels like a weight has been lifted. It’s easier than I imagined…”

Yukina stared blankly.

This was the first time she had seen Ephnel smile since she arrived.

It was a smile tinged with bitterness and relief, and a hint of sorrow.

Probably…

Even for Ephnel, it wasn’t possible to face all of this with complete composure.

Her heart was wavering.

They were probably both the same.

She had been mistaken all along.

Yukina looked at the white floor, raised her hand to push the girl away, and took a step back herself.

“Um… could you… give me some time…”

Ephnel was slightly stunned, then gave a bitter smile.

“It’s okay. If you need time… It was too sudden of me. And, about this hair clip, please give me an answer after you’ve thought about it. No matter what you choose, please don’t force yourself. Until then, I’ll be waiting for you…”

…