Chapter 25: Prologue
Around a month has passed since we entered our summer break. In other words, this was the first long break time that I, Asamura Yuuta, would be spending with my younger step-sister Ayase Saki. Ayase-san is a fellow second-year student at Suisei High; she's currently 17 years old. She's beautiful to the point of being known by almost every student at the school, and even though I call her my younger sister, our birthdays are barely one week apart.
You would surely expect certain things to happen in a situation like this, as would anyone with common sense. Our parents decided to get remarried, making Ayase-san and I step-siblings, but we are still in the middle of our adolescence, running into each other on a daily basis as we live under the same roof.
And now our first summer break has begun. If we were step-siblings like the ones you often see in fiction and stories, we would already be having all sorts of template events in the near future. To name a few: A pool visit, a trip to the sea, and a summer festival. In general, we'd head out together a lot, deepening our bonds, and there would be incidents that would make your heart rate race above normal levels. It's a natural course of events. It has to happen, as this is what the readers anticipate.
However, reality couldn't be further from fiction. It's always as realistic and uninteresting as you can imagine. No such events happened between Ayase-san and I, no matter how many days passed. At the very least, not up to the current time, which is close to the end of August. No notable progress has occurred in our relationship, and we just spend our days plainly and simply like we always have. The only thing different from before is the amount of time we spend together. After all…
"Good work today, Asamura-san."
"Likewise, Ayase-san."
…We spoke to each other like we were strangers who had just met. For this entire month, both her and I were working at the same part-time job during the same shifts.