“I’m not ‘in.’ We’re friends.”

  His eyes lit up.

  “I get it. I get it. I guess the rumors are true. That kind of relationship is fine too. Good for you, dude. I’m totally not jealous.”

  He nodded sagely as he patted me on the shoulder.

  What the hell is he thinking?

  “How many times am I going to have to tell you that we’re friends before you finally get it through your thick skull?”

  He just kept nodding.

  “Yep. She’s your friend. A friend with benefits still counts as a friend.”

  “We’re not friends with benefits! We’re friend friends! She’s not like that!”

  “Really? According to the rumors, she goes on compensated dates and will sleep with anyone. She’d totally let you hit it, dude.”

  “I’m the one who actually talks to her every day—I think I know more about the situation than you. Why can’t you just trust me?”

  “You’re the king of misunderstandings, dude. I don’t trust your interpretation as far as I could throw you.”

  The feeling is mutual.

  Sometimes I forget that I hate this guy.

  “If you don’t know anything about her other than random rumors, then just shut up.”

  With those parting words, I returned to the classroom.

  People like him were the worst, talking about things they didn’t actually know anything about. You see it all the time on social media—people will bad-mouth a video game, or TV show, or even another living person, based entirely on some out-of-context screenshot or the completely uninformed opinion of some dipshit.

  Think for yourself a little bit and recognize the limitations of your perspective, idiots.

  I say that, but I couldn’t get his mention of ‘compensated dates’ out of my head for the rest of the school day. I remember how distressed she seemed after I implemented the ‘no touching’ rule. If she really craved physical connection like that so much, what did she do before she met me?

  It did seem entirely plausible that she could have done something like that. I guess rental girlfriend services existed too—unless Girlfriend-for-Rent lied to me. I just kind of assume those things actually exist. I’ve never looked into them myself.

  14 - Conception

  Once school was over, I headed to the library as quickly as possible.

  Hopefully talking to Kondou will help me feel better.

  Before I had even finished sitting down, Kondou looked at me expectantly.

  “So, what did you think?”

  “It was very good. I didn’t think any of the scenes were pointless.”

  She blushed a little bit.

  “That’s good to hear.”

  “It might have been too good, though. I know your intention was to encourage me to show you my own work, but I feel kind of intimidated now.”

  “I struggled a lot with which story to choose. I knew it had to be one of my earlier works, but narrowing it down from there was tough. I ended up going with that one because it is relatively simple and I am proud of it, but that might not have been the right choice...”

  “There’s no need to feel bad about it. It was really inspiring.”

  She looked down, her hands playing with the end of a braid.

  “I know I said all that stuff about writing for yourself and that I would like whatever you wrote as long as it was passionate, but when I thought about you reading my writing... I didn’t want you to think it sucked—I was only thinking of myself and not about the actual purpose. I should have chosen something more rough around the edges.”

  “Well, that’s how it is. I think it’s much easier to give advice than it is to take it. Even if you don’t follow your own advice, I still think it’s worth giving.”

  I also think it’s easier to take advice from other people rather than yourself—maybe that’s because I have no confidence in myself, though...

  She nodded weakly.

  “Yeah...”

  The mood was getting kind of down, so I felt I should change the subject.

  “I do feel inspired to write something now, though—the problem is I don’t know where to start. How do you come up with ideas?”

  Her eyes lit up.

  “I usually start with either the concept or the theme. For example, if I were starting with the theme, I might think of some message I want to say or theme I want to explore. Then, I will think of concepts that help explore that idea. Whereas if I were starting from the concepts, I think about some concepts that I would like to use as ingredients, and then the theme usually arises as I am figuring how to fit it all together.”

  “Hmm, so which method did you use for this story?”

  “For this story, I started with the singular concept of a slime girl.”

  “You started there? I would have thought you started by wanting to tell a story about grief...”

  She blushed slightly and looked away from me.

  “No. I really just wanted to tell a story about a slime girl...”

  “Hmm...”

  She shook her head and looked back at me.

  “Anyway, I thought about a setting that would give rise to that kind of situation, which led me to the alchemist. From there, I needed to give him some kind of motivation for creating a slime girl in the first place. The dead wife served as a good explanation, as well as lending an emotional weight to all of the scenes that I really liked. That was where the theme started to develop. Using those elements, I wrote each scene thinking about what would be fun or emotional while trying to keep things consistent. It would be wrong to say I didn’t put any thought into it, but I think a lot of it was spur-of-the-moment decisions that I refined into a coherent whole.”

  “Interesting...”

  “Did that help at all?”

  “I think so.”

  “If you need help coming up with concepts, you should think about the kinds of things you like to see in stories. If there’s a character archetype that you really like, or some kind of situation that you always enjoy seeing, you can try using those things as a base. You don’t have to come up with something wholly original—you’ll end up adding in your own flavor as you develop the ideas. When it comes to themes, you should think of something that you really want to say. Is there a certain perspective on the world that you want to see represented? Is there some feeling you want to explore? Asking questions like that can lead you to interesting themes.”

  I don’t think I have a particularly unique perspective or any feelings I want to explore... I should probably start with the concept.

  “I’ll try and think about what I like this weekend to come up with some concepts. Thank you.”

  “That’s good. I’m glad I could help.”

  Kondou stood up.

  “Well, I should get going.”

  I checked the time on my phone. It’s already that late?

  “See you Monday.”

  She hesitated. Did she want to say something else?

  “You too.”

  With that, she left.

  I guess not.

  15 - Justice

  “I’m home.”

  I took my shoes off in the entranceway.

  Stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp.

  Here she comes...

  “Welcome back, Onii-chan!”

  Fuyuko launched herself at me and I braced myself for impact, her flying tackle turned into a harmless hug.

  “Is your arm feeling better?”

  Yuriko had twisted it pretty hard this morning.

  She pouted.

  “Jeez, Onii-chan. Do you really think I’m so weak that she could injure me? I was letting her win—she’s no match for me at my full power.”

  “I know. I know. I’ve experienced your power firsthand.”

  She let go of me and backed away before striking a pose with her hand dramatically covering her face.

  “Even you have never seen me go all out. You don’t know the full extent of my powers.”

  Is she a chuuni now? I never know what my little sister is going to do next.

  That was enough fun. There were things I wanted to talk to her about.

  “So...I heard you started going out with Shinji-kun.”

  She stopped posing and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

  “Did Yuriko tell you that? We’re not going out—he just asked me out on a date. And I’m giving him a chance before I decide because I’ll try anything once.”

  Anything?

  “Is that so... I’m surprised you didn’t mention it to me.”

  She shrugged her shoulders.

  “I didn’t think it was that important.”

  That seems kind of rude to Shinji.

  “Do you like him?”

  “Of course. Shii-chan is cute.”

  “If you keep calling him ‘cute,’ I think you’ll make him sad. You shouldn’t say that to him on your date.”

  She cocked her head.

  “Why not? It’s true. He’s very cute.”

  “I’m not going to disagree, but I don’t think most guys would like it if you called them ‘cute.’”

  She pursed her lips.

  “Cuteness is justice, though...”

  I don’t know if this relationship is going to work out...

  “Just keep that in mind on your date. I hope you two have fun. Good luck.”

  She puffed out her chest.

  “Fortune always smiles upon me, and wherever I go, merriment follows.”

  Why are you talking like a weirdo?

  I sighed.

  “Anyway, are you free tomorrow?”

  Her eyes lit up and she started bouncing up and down excitedly.

  “I’m free in the morning! Even if I wasn’t, I would cancel any plans to go on a date with you, Onii-chan!”

  “We’re not going on a date! I’m bringing a friend over tomorrow.”

  She calmed down.

  “Ohh... Are you having Aki-chi over again?”

  “Who’s Aki-chi?”

  I had assumed Aki-chi was one of her friends.

  “Aki-chi. Chiaki. Kondou Chiaki. The girl you brought over before.”

  Oh, she’s already given Kondou a nickname.

  I shook my head.

  “It’s not Kondou-san, it’s one of my other friends.”

  “You’re still calling her ‘Kondou-san’?”

  I was a little taken aback.

  “Yeah?”

  “I think you two are closer than that. You’re friends, aren’t you? You should be using each other’s given names.”

  “How would you know?”

  She’s only met Kondou once and they only introduced themselves to each other.

  “I just know.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t mind if she wanted to. But she hasn’t brought it up with me.”

  “She might be too embarrassed to bring it up.”

  Is that consistent with her character? She’s the one who talked to me in the first place, and she has been pretty talkative with me in general. I think if she wanted to she would just tell me. Well, it did seem like she wanted to talk about something before she left...

  “How would you know?”

  Fuyuko smiled.

  “Call it a woman’s intuition.”

  “Is that one of your powers?”

  She nodded.

  I wish I had such a convenient power...

  “Anyway, she’s not the one coming over. One of my other friends, Haruhi, said she wanted to meet you.”

  “...”

  “...”

  Fuyuko just looked at me dumbfounded for a while before finally speaking up.

  “Onii-chan... Mom and Dad leave and you immediately start bringing home girls—I’m happy that you’re popular now, but two-timing is not okay! Who are you and what have you done with my Onii-chan!”

  “I’m not two-timing anyone! They’re both just my friends! I would never do something like that, anyway...”

  “Hmm... If you say so. Either way, I would be glad to meet her. Any friend of Onii-chan’s is a friend of mine. I better start thinking of a nickname...”

  Fuyuko wandered off, muttering to herself.

  16 - Friends

  “Haru-chi, no fair!”

  Fuyuko threw her controller in the air after getting hit with a red shell right before the finish line.

  “Sorry, Fuyu-chi. All’s fair in love and kart racing.”

  “This is all because of your blue shell, Onii-chan!”

  “What do you want me to do? Not throw it?”

  “We’re supposed to be a team! You should have held onto it until someone passed me!”

  “We’re not on a team, we’re playing free-for-all!”

  “We’re siblings, of course we’re on a team! I would have done the same for you...”

  “That would be unfair for Haruhi.”

  “Who matters more to you? Me or her?”

  Sometimes she can be so unreasonable...

  Haruhi simply smiled from the sidelines as we bickered.

  Haruhi was surprisingly good at Bario Kart. Maybe it shouldn’t have been surprising. She did play a lot of video games—mostly multiplayer ones with some kind of social element like MMOs—but she was still a gamer.

  On the other hand, I finished in eighth place...

  Look, I don’t play Mintendo games very often. Pit either of these girls against me in any FARMSOFT game and I would wipe the floor with them. Hell, I could take them both on at once. It’s not like my gamer pride is hurt or anything...

  After a couple hours of Bario Kart, we stopped to eat lunch. Fuyuko was planning on cooking something and Haruhi offered to lend a hand—apparently, she cooked a lot at home. I was also in the kitchen because I didn’t want to feel left out. Although, I mostly just offered moral support. Occasionally, one of the girls would ask me to get something for them—usually Haruhi, because she didn’t know where things were in our kitchen.

  “Onii-chan, we’re almost done, so can you set the table?”

  “Sure.”

  While I was setting the table, the two girls continued their conversation. I could overhear their conversation, but I was only half listening.

  “How did you come up with ‘Haru-chi’ as a nickname?”

  “I wanted something similar to Aki-chi.”

  “Who’s Aki-chi?”

  “Aki-chi is one of Onii-chan’s other friends. She’s really cute and she loves to read—she looks exactly like you would expect a bookish girl to look. Apparently they read together in the library after school. And they talk about writing and stuff too.”

  “Hmm, I didn’t know he had any other friends. He’s never told me about them. I guess that’s why he stopped taking the train home with me. He told me he was staying after school in the library, but he didn’t tell me any more than that.”

  “Huh? Is he trying to keep you two a secret from one another? And after he told me he wasn’t two-timing... What’s Onii-chan thinking...”

  “Be careful with the knife. And two-timing? We’re just friends, really.”

  “If you say so. You two seem pretty close to me.”

  “We are close. Friends can be close, can’t they?”

  “That’s true. Yuriko and I are best friends and we’re super close—it’s a little different when it’s between girls, though.”

  “Can a boy and a girl not be close?”

  “I guess they can. Onii-chan and I are also super close—but it’s a little different when it’s between siblings.”

  “I wish I had siblings. That’s actually why I wanted to meet you—Akio always seems in a good mood when he talks about you, even when he’s complaining.”

  “That’s good to hear. I try to be the perfect little sister for him—I want his life to be unforgettably fun—but sometimes I worry I’m just annoying him...”

  “I don’t think you need to worry about that. I’m sure he loves you.”

  “Hmm... You know, if you want, I can become your little sister. All you have to do is marry Onii-chan!”

  “I told you, we’re just friends.”

  “There’s no law against friends getting married...”

  After lunch—which was very good—Fuyuko left to go shopping with Yuriko.

  “Bye, Haru-chi! Even if you don’t marry Onii-chan, we can still be sisters!”

  What the hell did they talk about when I wasn’t paying attention?

  “Bye-bye, Fuyu-chi. Maybe I’ll take you up on that offer.”

  The being-sisters thing, right? Surely not the marriage thing...

  “See you later.”

  “See you, Onii-chan!”

  After Fuyuko disappeared in the direction of Yuriko’s house, I turned to Haruhi.

  “It’s still the middle of the day, but I can walk you home if you want.”

  “I thought we were just getting started...”

  She looked really disappointed.

  “If you want to stay, you can! I just thought that since you came to see Fuyuko, there was no reason for you to stay after she left.”

  “Is me wanting to spend more time with you not a good enough reason?”

  “No! That’s fine. I don’t know what we’ll do, though.”

  “Actually, I want to see your room. Can I?”

  Alone together with a girl in my room? No. It’s not like that—unless something changed after her conversation with Fuyuko? Now I wish I had paid more attention.

  I nervously shrugged my shoulders.

  “Sure, why not.”

  17 - Home Alone

  My heart was pounding as I led Haruhi to my room.

  It’s not like that! Calm down.

  However, logic holds no sway when it comes to matters of the heart.

  Upon entering my room, Haruhi looked around, taking it all in.

  My room was always in a presentable state—I’m not a slob. Although, there was a coating of dust over most unused things. It was just dust. It wasn’t worth my time.

  Maybe I should start dusting if I’m going to keep having girls over, though...