Chapter 58 – Sister’s Empty Seat (2)
Mason’s thinking stopped for a moment.
For a moment she could only doubt for a split second whether her ears and eyes were holding the right information.
A soft smile on her face in front of her eyes.
The younger brother tapping the smooth lips that completed that smile with his slender fingers.
No matter how much I thought about it, she didn’t hear it wrong.
“… Huh?”
It was difficult to hide the embarrassment. Mason looked at her with a slightly frozen expression between her slight smile and bewilderment.
“… Surprised?”
Lucia said in her slightly sad voice, but she didn’t even pull her body back as far as she could, nor did she release her tightly gripped hands.
“That, that’s a little embarrassing… West?”
Mason answered with a slight look at her Lucia. I don’t want to upset her brother’s feelings.
She tried to slowly pull her body from the front of the table behind her, but her hand held by her Lucia wouldn’t let her go.
Was Lucia originally this strong?
“… Sister.”
Lucia looked at her with her soft, slightly yearning eyes.
“I also had a hard time when I was young because I didn’t have an older sister.”
Lucia reached out and grabbed Mason’s hand opposite hers, gently tucking it over her hand.
“Your sister said it. She says she wants to play the role as her older sister, and I do too.”
Like a child of Lucia, he couldn’t bear to let go of her gently caressing hand.
“I know it sounds silly, but what I couldn’t do with her sister when I was young, what I wanted to do, I want to do it together even now. As a younger brother.”
Mason was still bewildered, but her confusion was a little less than before.
The psychology of her compensation for not receiving her was a feeling she could understand.
She, too, had the idea that she wanted to be compensated for her hard life with Ciana.
The childhood she couldn’t be with her brother, the childishness she couldn’t bloom in time.
That’s probably what Lucia is asking of me.
If so, all I can do now, being her sister…
“… If it’s a burden, how can it be bad for the ball?”
Lucia said that and slightly turned her head. She has smooth skin without any blemishes.
But Mason doesn’t move easily.
Be that as it may, there was no hesitation in kissing her grown-up brother on the cheek.
But still, it’s family. On the contrary, the thought that thinking like this seemed to make the atmosphere weird for himself also bothered Mason.
Perhaps she noticed the hesitation she felt herself, Lucia opened her mouth as her smile turned a bit sad.
“You used to do it often when you were little.”
Mason nodded her head. When she was young, before her parents died, she cherished her little brother, who was four years older than herself, and was so cute that she often expressed her affection, but her memories remained.
Mason thought hard and determined.
If she can’t go back to the way she was before, what can she do?
Filling the gap between the two that has become ambiguous somewhere.
Back to family. A relationship full of love.
A proposal so sweet that Mason couldn’t resist.
Mason slowly brought his face to Sianna’s cheek.
Her cheek against the tip of her nose, a tickle as if she could feel the very thin, still hair.
Carefully, he pursed her lips and insinuatedly brought them to her cheeks.
Talk-.
Feeling ashamed, nervous, and embarrassed that I couldn’t overcome, I feel like a disgust for a moment.
But even so, there is an end. Mason licks her lips again and leans back in her chair. With her hot face out of control.
Lucia looks at her with her surprised face. Like she really didn’t know what to do. The surprise in her eyes tickled Mason.
The feeling that she has found a true nest where she can rest again.
Because her full emotions are so precious.
“… I love you sister.”
The words that followed, once heard in the same place in the kitchen, were no longer bitter.
Mason also answers, looking at Lucia, who has her soft smile on her face.
“… I love you too Lucia.”
At first glance, her throbbing heart at the thought of her other brother soon calmed down. Mason focused on Lucia and smiled at her.
Shiana will forever remain as her lingering and painful traces.
Now Mason had a younger brother. The cause that made her feel sorry for Lucia in the first place, the real family she has to live with with regret and gratitude for her whole life from now on.
Although the end with Shiana collapsed on her strange current, it will be different as much as her Lucia.
She could not be taken away from herself by anyone like her.
Mason thought so, and she smiled happily.
“Itzy unnie, shall we eat later and go for a walk in the woods after a long time?”
“Huh? Forest?”
“Huh! Sister, come to think of it, have you ever been to a forest since you came home?”
Hearing her words, Mason was lost in her thoughts. When she first came, she was obsessed with being responsible for Sianna, then getting her job and getting drunk on her improving relationship with Sianna.
However, from the moment everything goes off the slope, the mechanical repetition of life and the blind expectation that one day Shiana will come.
“… No, I’ve never been there.”
She recalled a place that held her memories of her childhood, a place that had served as a playground for her, Lucia, Becky and Isabella.
“Do you want to go for a while? It’s still snowy, but the weather has improved a lot, hasn’t it?”
“Uh? The weather?”
Mason turned to the window toward her kitchen. It was winter that she felt toxic cold until a few days ago.
“… Really?”
It’s been a while since the new year, and the wind that seems to have died down a bit shakes the twigs. Instead of a cloudy sky, a clear blue sky floats.
“How are you, sister? Shall we go for a long time? As before?”
As before. It was such a nice sound to hear.
“Okay. Let’s clean up what we ate and go.”
Mason got up and put her dishes away. Lucia also felt good when she heard the bustle of collecting tableware and plates.
Mason took a pleasant step with Lucia. The cold, which seemed to penetrate to the bone not too long ago, did not hurt.
The rustle of footsteps left on the soft snow was light, and the warm hands held tight to keep each other from falling.
Of course, Mason himself didn’t know if it was because the weather had really become milder, or if it was because of Lucia’s warmth beside her.
“… Pretty.”
These were the words Mason casually uttered while standing at the beginning of the forest.
The snow that had accumulated on the bare branches gave the tree a new look. The branches covered with white crystals were sprinkled with new snow as the strong wind blew them.
Waves of pure white trees that covered the mountains in sight.
It was a beautiful scenery created by snowflakes.
“Let’s go! I want to go!”
Lucia brightly complains as if she really went back to her childhood.
Mason asked with a smile.
“Where?”
“Cave! I remember?”
Cave. I can’t remember. On her first day here, she and Isabella talked about the cave.
There was no way I could ever forget the few memories of her childhood.
“Well, I remember. You used to play a lot when you were little.”
“Yeah, I want to go there sometime!”
Mason thought a little. No matter how familiar she was with each other, she remembered it as a place quite far away.
Of course, now that I’m an adult, it won’t be that far, but wouldn’t it be difficult to go through a forest full of snow?
“Unni~!”
Before Mason could turn her head, he felt a weight resting on her right cheek from behind, with the sensation of an arm around her neck.
“Are you going? Huh? You’re not going to come all the way here, are you?”
Does she want to show how young she can become, as she proclaims herself? Even Mason couldn’t help but laugh at his innocent behavior.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Hehe- Holding the hand of a smiling Lucia, the two of them moved into the forest.
As a result, Mason did not find her way. The forest that had grown luxuriantly during the years she had been empty had changed a lot from the place she remembered.
However, thanks to Lucia’s continued coming back, the two of them were able to head to the cave without much difficulty.
Carefully crossing the stone bridge over the shallow stream, I went deeper into the forest along the forest path.
The entrance to the cave we arrived soon after. The entrance seemed narrower than she remembered.
Have you ever gotten so small?
“Sister, should I go in first?”
“Are there any matches?”
“I brought it!”
Lucia said proudly and took her candle and matches out of her pocket. Quickly striking a match, Lucia ducked into the cave entrance, and Mason followed her in.
Watching the air warmer than outside and the soft light from the candles fluttering on the walls and ceiling of the cave, I followed Lucia and continued to enter.
How far did she go in? Lucia muttered as she leaned against the wall.
“Well, where would it have been…”
Mason watched from behind Lucia as she eagerly scanned her wall.
“Ah, I found it!”
Did- did-
Lucia’s joyful voice echoed through the cave.
“What did you find?”
As Mason asked, Lucia looked back with a broad smile and found the time-honored graffiti that had been scratched across her wall.
A white and crooked picture, there was a picture that seemed to express four girls. Like a picture drawn by children, hearts and stars were overused here and there, along with the names written underneath.
Mason
Isabella
Lucia
Veronica
“This…”
Mason unconsciously ran her finger across her picture.
“Do you remember?”
Lucia spoke softly and turned to her. The warm light seemed to warm her heart.
“… Huh.”
When I was young, when I was playing the role of an alley leader with these kids, I drew a picture we all came to play with.
Thinking of that time when he could no longer go back, Mason smiled softly.
The weight felt on her shoulders, Lucia leaned her head. Mason closed her eyes for a bit at the sense of security her grown-up brother gave her.
Memories that will never come back.
One day, I won’t be able to go back to my old relationship with Isabella.
She, too, is not at an age where she can only live with old memories.
She just felt the warmth of Lucia next to her, and for a while, she had time to let go of her memories.
“Are you going to go in more?”
“Huh.”
At Lucia’s question, Mason nodded her head and held her hand.
“Let’s go.”
