Chapter 51: Night

“Looks like she’s really tired…”

So much had happened yesterday.

For Yukina, everything she was used to had probably been thrown into chaos all at once.

That must be why she came to her room, just like when she was little.

Ephnel sighed softly, got up quietly, and drew the curtains.

She turned up the air conditioner’s temperature a bit, then came to the edge of the bed and sat down carefully.

Yukina slept peacefully, hugging the pillow as her chest rose and fell gently.

If one listened closely, one could hear her soft breathing.

Quiet, beautiful.

How long had it been since she last saw such a sleeping face…

It was a common sight when Yukina was little, something she was accustomed to.

But later, when she looked back in a daze, it had unknowingly become blurry.

Until yesterday, when Yukina cried in front of her.

Ephnel suddenly realized that the distance between herself and Yukina was not nearly as far as she had imagined.

Yukina.

Ephnel reached out her hand, as if trying to catch a dragonfly, and gently brushed away the hair from the corner of Yukina’s mouth.

The image of the sleeping girl gradually overlapped with the memory of the cheerful, smiling girl from the past.

Ephnel’s gaze softened unconsciously.

Ephnel took out her phone and checked the time.

It was already this late.

A dry weariness filled the corners of her eyes.

It was time to sleep.

But her bed was occupied by Yukina.

Ephnel thought for a moment and decided on the sofa.

The sofa was in the living room; for just one night, it was soft and comfortable enough.

Ephnel paused, then hesitantly and gently lifted Yukina’s small feet, which were dangling off the edge of the bed, and placed them on the mattress.

Yukina was clutching the pillow with both hands, but Ephnel easily pulled it out from the crook of her arms.

She placed the pillow aside, got up to turn off the light, and the room plunged into darkness, with only a sliver of light filtering in from the living room.

Ephnel opened the door, ready to leave, but then thought for a moment, turned back, and took out two thin blankets.

One she draped over Yukina, tucking it in gently; the other she kept for herself to use on the sofa.

“Goodnight, Yukina.”

Ephnel smiled warmly, holding the blanket.

She got up again, preparing to leave, but her little finger was suddenly pulled down, tightly hooked by a pair of soft, warm little hands.

“Onee-chan…”

A barely audible whimper broke the silence of the air.

By the dim light from the living room, Ephnel met a pair of drowsy, hazy eyes.

Yukina had woken up at some point.

She hadn’t noticed at all.

“Yukina… you’re awake?”

Her sleepiness was instantly swept away.

Ephnel swallowed and whispered awkwardly.

“Sorry… Did I wake you…”

Yukina’s eyes rippled with sleepiness.

She held tightly onto Ephnel’s finger, her gaze falling on the blanket in Ephnel’s hand.

“Where are you going, Onee-chan?”

…

“Where are you going, Onee-chan?”

Yukina and Ephnel looked at each other in silence.

“Can you stay with me? Just for a little while…”

Seeing the loss and hesitation that appeared on Yukina’s cool cheeks, Ephnel froze, at a loss for how to respond.

“I was going to sleep on the sofa because I didn’t want to wake you”—such words sounded distant and formal.

Ephnel immediately rejected that answer.

But the blanket in her hand and the light from the living room had already betrayed her.

Her intention couldn’t have been more obvious.

“Onee-chan.”

Yukina called out softly.

A rustling sound of fabric rubbing together was heard as Yukina, still holding Ephnel’s little finger, sat up in bed.

The blanket slid off her delicate skin, and the light from the living room swept across her neck.

Only one strap remained on her snow-white shoulder.

The light became a silken canopy, strand by strand, half-concealing and half-revealing.

From Ephnel’s angle, her gaze could just faintly slip into the clothes beneath Yukina’s neck.

Ephnel pretended not to see and looked away, but her heartbeat began to quicken.

“Don’t you want to sleep with me, Onee-chan?”

Whether it was out of discontent or a sliver of hope, Yukina asked the question before she even realized it.

She felt the warmth from Ephnel’s fingertips and lowered her lashes.

There was indeed a difference in skin temperature between someone who had just woken up and someone about to fall asleep.

Ephnel’s hand was much warmer than her own.

That warmth traveled from her palm to the bottom of her heart, like the winter sun, melting the snow.

Whenever she was with her sister, that fluttering feeling would fill her chest.

By now, there were no good excuses to brush aside these genuine feelings.

Yet, she had no right to respond to these surging emotions.

They were sisters.

It was a one-sided love.

If she recklessly continued down this path, she would undoubtedly fall off a cliff and be shattered to pieces.

“It’s not that I don’t want to…”

Ephnel turned her head, denying it outright, though her eyes were looking somewhere else.

“It’s just that you’ve grown up, Yukina. I thought… maybe you’d hate sleeping in the same bed with me… things like that…”

“I never said I didn’t like it.”

Yukina stubbornly held onto Ephnel’s finger, interrupting her.

“We used to sleep together all the time, right… For sisters, this kind of thing happens often, doesn’t it?”

Ephnel was at a loss for words again.

‘What do I do now?’

Ephnel had no idea.

They had indeed slept together often in the past, but the current situation was clearly different from back then.

Ephnel was growing, and so was Yukina.

The playful little girl from before had now blossomed into a slender young woman.

Her youthful skin exuded a perfectly balanced charm, and this version of Yukina already made it impossible for Ephnel to remain calm.

Let alone sleeping in the same bed.

She was the older sister, yet she was shaken by her younger sister.

The sudden surge of emotion that filled her chest flustered Ephnel.

They were supposed to be sisters, yet it seemed some other feeling was budding between them.

That all-too-obvious emotion horrified Ephnel.

“I can’t sleep if you’re not here, Onee-chan.”

“I’ll stay right here with you…”

“Get in.”

The blanket was snatched from her hands and tossed aside.

With no escape, Ephnel’s throat moved.

She could only bite the bullet, sit down, and kick off her slippers.

Then she climbed into bed.

‘I am the older sister, I am the older sister, I am the older sister.’

‘She is the younger sister, she is the younger sister, she is the younger sister.’

Ephnel comforted herself like this and slowly began to calm down.

It was just simply sleeping in the same bed, no big deal.

To be able to get this close to her favorite little sister again was a very happy thing, so she didn’t need to think about anything else.

She just had to fall asleep filled with happiness.

The bed creaked slightly.

Ephnel tried her best not to touch Yukina as she lay down in the space Yukina had made for her.

The bed was a single, not particularly large, but both Ephnel and Yukina were slim, so lying side by side didn’t feel crowded.

But after a moment’s thought, Ephnel changed from lying on her back to her side, facing away from Yukina.

This would be a little more relaxing.

Soon, the room fell silent again.

But Ephnel was wide awake.

Yukina’s warmth and a faint fragrance lingered on the bedsheets.

Behind her, she could vaguely feel a warm, soft touch.

‘Is that Yukina’s leg or her hand?’

Such an unfamiliar warmth.

Suddenly, a hand slipped around Ephnel’s waist.

The sensation, like silk gliding over her, made Ephnel’s body tense up instantly.

The hand paused briefly in front of Ephnel, then pulled the blanket over to cover her.

‘Oh, so that’s it—’

Ephnel didn’t know why she felt disappointed, but the next second, her whole body tensed up—the hand didn’t retract.

After covering her with the blanket, it slid down from her neck and collarbone.

The hand brushed past her stiff arm and waist.

Each time it grazed her skin through the fabric, Ephnel’s heart skipped a beat.

Then the hand lifted the hem of her shirt and gently wrapped around her.

As if pushing its luck, a smooth sensation came from her calf as a sleek leg squeezed in as well.

“Yu-Yukina…”

Ephnel let out a small, soft cry.

She could almost feel her heart leaping with joy, yet it was filled with an unfamiliar palpitation.

“Let me hold you for a bit…”

Yukina’s voice was soft, falling into the night.

…