「What are you doing, Onee-chan?」

     Mizuki said this as she hugged me from behind.

     「Ah, Mizuki. I had some yarn left over from art class, so I was playing cat’s cradle.」

     「Ooh… Do you think it’s fun, Onee-chan?」

     「A bit. It’s kinda childish, so it’s our little secret, okay?」

     「A secret just for us. …Hey, Onee-chan. Can you teach me^[1] how to play?」

     「Sure. Let’s start with something simple—」

     I took Mizuki’s hands as she sat down next to me and threaded the yarn between her fingers. Her hands had been so surprisingly small when she was a baby, almost like little toys. Before I knew it, she had grown big enough to play cat’s cradle like this. That was, of course, something most elementary schoolers had the ability to do.

     This brought back some memories. I was still in kindergarten back then, so I didn’t remember things all too clearly. But it was clear how much Mizuki had grown.

     As I smiled, I suddenly felt someone’s gaze from my side.

     Mizuki was staring at me with an indescribable expression.

     I tilted my head.

     「Onee-chan. Onee-chan, I…」

     She started to say something, but then pursed her lips.

     This was what she did when she was unhappy with something.

     「Never mind, it’s nothing. …Onee-chan. Tell me all your secrets. Only me. And our secret games are only for us too, okay?」

     Mizuki wrapped the yarn around my fingertips.

     It was dyed in a strangely vibrant red. She tangled the blood-red string all over my pinky finger. Then, she grasped tightly onto both that pinky and the yarn.

     The sensation of Mizuki and those red fibers ran through my finger.

     「…Yeah. I’ll only tell you, Mizuki.」

     「…! Then tell me all your embarrassing secrets! It’s not fair that you know stuff about me, but not the other way around!」

     「Embarrassing secrets, huh… Do you mean like how it was only last year that you stopped wetting the—」

     「Wa-Wait! Don’t say that! Onee-chan, you dummy!」

     Mizuki’s cheery voice reverberated throughout the quiet house. Last year, she was all tears because of how lonely she was without our parents, but now, she was full of energy. That made me happy.

     It must have been even worse because she had just started elementary school that year. She probably hadn’t gotten used to the change in environment.

     I only had one more year to be in the same school with Mizuki. I hoped she would remain without tears.

     「Just tell me one of your secrets already! Something super embarrassing!」

     「Well, even if you ask… hmm.」

     I felt like it was pretty embarrassing to be playing cat’s cradle as a fifth grader, but maybe that wasn’t so bad after all. I didn’t know too much about other people, so I wasn’t sure how normal I was.

     Maybe that time last year when I cooked the rice wrong and it ended up halfway to porridge… No, I didn’t think that was the sort of embarrassing thing Mizuki wanted to hear.

     「…Maybe how I want to rely on someone, or something like that.」

     「Hm?」

     「I’m not really good at that, and I don’t really understand how to do it, but… I think I’d like to have someone I can trust and can spoil me. …That’s embarrassing, right?」

     Rather than relying on others, I preferred to be relied on. Rather being pampered, I preferred to pamper others.

     In the first place, I wasn’t sure how to rely on or be spoiled by someone else. I hugged Mizuki not because I wanted to be fawned over, but because I wanted to fawn over her. I didn’t recall ever hugging someone purely because I wanted such a thing for myself.

     But maybe that was the case in the past. Maybe I was like that before Mizuki was born.

     As if thinking over what I said, a smile spread over Mizuki’s face like a flower in bloom.

     「Then leave it to me, Onee-chan!」

     「…Mizuki?」

     「One day, I’m gonna be way bigger and cooler than you, and I’ll spoil you as much as you want!」

     「…I see. You’re so sweet, Mizuki.」

     Mizuki’s eyelids fell as I stroked her head.

     She was always following me around and calling me Onee-chan, but maybe she was growing up faster than I thought. I wondered if, in a few years, she really would become bigger and more reliable than I was.

     It was a little odd to imagine.

     What sort of adult would she turn out to be?

     By the time she grew into adulthood, I would already be one as well. I could sort of picture what she’d be like, but I had no clue about myself.

     I wasn’t exactly sure why, but I laughed.

     For some reason, the feeling of Mizuki’s hair was incredibly vivid.

     So vivid that I could never forget.

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^[1] Similar to present-day Yume, little baby Mizuki uses her own name in the place of a first-person pronoun. Like with Yume, this has been omitted because it sounds unnatural in English.

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