NOVEL WEB Chapter 63: Yuki, do you really trust me?
After walking for a long time carrying the bags, Ryan finally approached home. The weight in his arms seemed to lessen as he caught sight of the familiar outline of the building he lived in. Only two corners separated him from the much-desired reunion with his bed, which he imagined as a haven of comfort after the chaos of his recent trip to Hinamizawa.
Quickening his pace, he began mentally planning his next moves. His mind wandered between strategies for dealing with Alya and Yuki, the two people who mattered most at the moment.
"If I message Alya first, Yuki will throw a fit. But if I go to Yuki, Alya will definitely play the martyr... This will be fun," he murmured with a sly smile as he climbed the entry steps.
The stairs felt endless, and the fatigue weighing on his eyes almost convinced him to drop the groceries and sleep right there.
"Problem for tomorrow," he muttered, reaching into his pocket for his keys.
Then he heard it. Faint noises came from inside the apartment—the muffled sound of a TV. Ryan froze, frowning. Looking down, he noticed a subtle glow slipping out from under the door.
"Don't tell me..." He stepped back, narrowing his eyes. "What the hell is Yuki doing here at this hour?"
A smirk played on his lips. "Well, if the problem came to me, I'll just deal with it right now." His voice was a low whisper, dripping with irony, ensuring Yuki couldn't hear him.
With slow, deliberate movements, he turned the key in the lock and opened the door silently. As he stepped in, the familiar scent of the house mingled with a subtle perfume that could only belong to Yuki. He closed the door carefully, as stealthy as a soldier on a covert mission.
Looking down, he spotted her shoes carelessly tossed near the entrance.
"See, Ryan? No need for an investigation. It's obvious she's here." He shook his head, amused.
The sound of the TV grew louder—a cheerful anime opening filling the living room. Moving silently, Ryan headed toward the living room. Setting the bags down on the floor, he crouched and peeked over the sofa.
Yuki was there, lying on her stomach, hugging a pillow. The green pajamas she wore, decorated with teddy bears, seemed unassuming, but her position accentuated her curves. Ryan raised an eyebrow, a mischievous expression crossing his face.
"She's going to freak out when I scare her... Well, if she has a meltdown, I can rewind time, but it wouldn't be as fun..."
He crept closer, savoring the moment. Her breathing was audible now, soft but marked by a sound that made him stop abruptly.
Ryan frowned, tilting his head to listen more closely. She wasn't just watching TV. Amidst the sounds of the anime, he caught an irregular, muffled sound—a restrained sob.
Yuki was crying.
The pillow seemed crushed against her chest, as if it were an emotional anchor. Ryan froze, the playful smile vanishing from his face. He watched, unsure of what to do, as she tried to suppress the tears that inevitably slipped through.
"Damn it..." he whispered, his once-ironic tone now laced with concern. The warmth of his internal jokes was replaced by a bitter sense of unease.
Ryan sighed, his thoughts swirling as he tried to devise a plan to understand what Yuki was feeling without revealing he was there, hidden behind the sofa.
He pulled out his phone and opened their chat, typing something casual:
"Good evening, my dear sister!"
As soon as he sent it, the notification sound echoed in the room, reminding him to put the phone on "Silent mode". Hastily, he muted it, hearing Yuki shift on the couch to grab the phone.
"I'm glad you messaged..." she murmured, her voice low, tinged with a sadness she was clearly trying to hide.
Ryan stayed alert. Soon, he heard the sound of her fingers gliding over the keyboard, and a moment later, he received her response:
"Goooood evening, brother <3!"
The cheerful tone of the message was so convincing that, if he hadn't been watching her, he would never suspect she was crying as she typed.
He began typing his next message, carefully choosing his words. He couldn't sound strange or raise suspicion that he was observing her.
"I had a seventh sense about you, you know? Like in those old soap operas where the protagonist's heart tightens. How are you?"
He sent the message and waited, his ears tuned to her movements.
She let out a soft laugh as she read the text—a stifled, almost sad chuckle. "Ahh, he's so sweet... He's saying he can feel what I'm feeling, even from afar? Hehe... But he doesn't need to worry about me."
Her voice was soft but laden with a pain she struggled to hide. Ryan clenched his fists, feeling a pang of frustration at her insistence on masking what she was feeling. Then the phone vibrated with her response, luckily drowned out by the noise of the TV:
"I'm super, super great! And you, my beloved brother?"
He read the message and took a deep breath, glancing sideways at her. Yuki seemed calm for someone hiding behind cheerful words.
"So, I don't need to worry, huh?" he thought.
Without wasting time, he began typing again:
"I could be better. Actually, I just wanted to know how your day went..."
As he waited for her reply, he heard a deep sigh from her, followed by softly spoken words that reached his ears:
"Oh, brother... I wish you'd hold me and give me head pats until all the expectations people have of me just disappeared..."
Ryan's heart tightened. There was so much weight in that statement that he almost stood up right then to hug her. But he held back. He knew that if he acted rashly, she would shut down even more.
Soon, her reply arrived, completely contradicting what he had just overheard:
"I had a quiet day with studies ^^"
He stared at the message on the screen, pressing his lips into a thin line. Behind that cheerful response, Yuki was silently suffocating. Ryan knew he had to find a way to reach her without pushing too hard.
He began typing again, the weight of the situation reflected in every word he carefully chose.
"Yuki, I've had a question I've wanted to ask you for a while."
After sending the message, he heard a sigh from Yuki. The couch creaked slightly as she shifted, and Ryan crouched even lower behind the furniture to ensure he wouldn't be seen.
"Could it be that my brother is finally curious to know if I have a boyfriend?" she murmured with a playful laugh, her voice tinged with a melancholic sweetness. "Hehe, he doesn't even realize I'm waiting for him..."
Ryan raised an eyebrow at her comment, conflicting thoughts running through his mind. "Seriously? Yuki's saying these things without knowing I'm here? How much of this is just her teasing?"
Lost in his own doubts, his phone vibrated with Yuki's new message:
"You can ask me anything! I'll answer with all my heart!"
Ryan took a deep breath, trying not to let his thoughts distract him. He began typing again, this time more directly:
"Yuki, do you really trust me?"
He hit "send" and waited, anxiously watching her for any reaction. At first, there was none—only the sound of typing. Then, her response finally arrived:
"With all my heart."
But it was what she said afterward that caught his attention. Her voice echoed in the room, laced with mild irritation:
"Jeez... How dense does he have to be to ask me that? Onii-chan, B-A-K-A!"
Ryan nearly lost his composure, fighting the urge to laugh. Her mix of sincerity and cuteness disarmed him, but he focused, maintaining a serious tone. He typed quickly, carefully crafting his next words:
"Then, little sister, why don't you open up to me more?"
The reply came before she even finished typing. Yuki whispered with a sweetness that nearly broke Ryan's heart:
"Because I love you so much... I don't want to cause you any trouble."
Ryan remained silent for a few seconds, feeling the weight of that statement. His sister was clearly doing her best to carry her burdens alone, not wanting him to share that weight with her—something that, to him, was unacceptable.
He looked at his phone, a pang of guilt washing over him for having left her alone with her thoughts for so long. At the same time, he felt a growing resolve to break through the wall she had built around herself.
"This can't go on like this..." he thought, his eyes hardening with determination.
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