Alan's Little Sister

Still folding her arms over her chest, the young girl's feisty look didn't tone down a bit.

Raising an eyebrow in Sakura's direction, the young girl replied, "So what if I am? You got a problem with that?"

Yikes. Sakura would have never imagined that Alan's sister would be so different from her older brother's amiable attitude.

Before Sakura could introduce herself, the door to the apartment room in front of them suddenly opened, and in it revealed Alan's slender figure with one hand leaning in to the nearest wall next to him for support.

Failing to recognize Sakura at first, Alan says to his sister, "Oh, Akira-chan! You're already here!"

In a blink of an eye, Akira's intimidating appearance not long ago has instantly changed as soon as she faced her brother.

"Big brother! I miss you!"

The dumbfounded look plastered on Sakura's face was hard to miss as she witnessed how this girl had changed from being savage to being an angelic sister in just one second while she threw herself away under her brother's tight embrace.

And here she thought these types of people only exist in shoujo anime only!

While they were hugging each other, Alan's head happened to look in front of him and immediately saw Sakura's figure standing across from them. He hadn't noticed it at first because of the mask concealing her face right now, but after some careful observation, Alan then concluded that it must certainly be Sakura.

"H-Hayashi-san?"

***

"Ah, so you're here to return the bento box."

After a brief introduction between the girls earlier, Alan smiled as he listened to Sakura's explanation as to why she came here in the first place.

All three of them are now seated in the living room as they talked about what happened earlier, with Alan seating right beside Sakura and his sister sitting on his left.

"Wait, why does she have my bento box in the first place, big brother?" Akira asked annoyingly. She intended those cookies that she baked the other day for her big brother only, so why on Earth did her bento box end up in a stranger's possession?

Smiling a shy smile, Alan looked at her sister and said, "Your butter cookies that time were so good that I immediately thought of sharing it with a close friend who also happens to live here. After all, sharing is caring… right?"

Akira isn't sure if she could agree with that, but she immediately sighed in defeat and let it slide for now. "I guess, you're right."

"Anyway…" Alan returned his gaze in Sakura's direction and made an inquiring look. "Why are you wearing a face mask today? Are you alright, Hayashi-san?"

Sakura became alert once more and replied, "Why, yes I am! It's just a little cough, nothing more."

"Huh? But you were just recently sick, right? Are you having another cold, perhaps?"

In a flash, Alan places one hand on top of Sakura's forehead, surprising both Sakura and his sister at the same time. Akira, on the other hand, hadn't seen her brother cared for another person for a long time besides her, so seeing him like this truly astonished her.

Alan pursed his lips and hunched his brows together. "That's weird. You don't have a fever right now. Well, good thing it's just a simple cough."

"Y-yes…" Sakura can't help but become anxious under Alan's simple touch. "It certainly is."

Due to that reason, Sakura immediately stood up when Alan returned his hand on his side and announced, "It's probably time for me to leave."

"Yes, I agree." Akira echoed.

"No! Don't leave yet." Alan immediately opposed. "Since you're here, why don't we play video games, right? I'll just get the switch and the consoles so that we can start playing in a jiffy."

"But--"

Before Sakura could totally turn down his idea, Alan was already gone fetching for his Nintendo switch inside his room, making her smack her forehead with her palm.

While Alan was away, Akira was secretly throwing icy stares in Sakura's direction. There is nothing more irritating to her than having someone take over her brother's attention.

"Hey, you there," Akira called out spitefully, making Sakura turn to face her as she hurriedly removed the face mask and took a quick sip of the coffee that Alan prepared for her earlier while he is still away. What a shame, it really tastes good but she can't freely drink it in front of him right now.

"Are you dating my brother?"

Sakura had almost spit the coffee out her mouth if she wasn't able to control her actions right away. But what the heck is that question just now?!

Setting aside the mug carefully on top of the glass table, Sakura faced Alan's sister once more and replied, "No, we are nothing like that. We're just good friends."

"Ah, I thought so too. Judging by your ugly looks, you are way out of my brother's league."

'Darn this girl!' Sakura cursed at the back of her head.

Just then, Alan returns with the box of Nintendo switch and starts turning on their android tv to connect the switch to it, making Sakura return her face mask as quickly as she could. A few minutes later, all three of them began playing endlessly.

Akira sets aside her suspicions with Sakura for a while and tries to enjoy this moment with her brother. As she did, she would glance in her brother's direction from time to time and keenly observes at how he smiles widely while talking to this stranger.

That immediately surprised her. Surely, she hasn't seen her brother smile like that for several years already.

Akira had known her brother to be socially awkward towards others, and the reason why he had left his previous luxury living in a five-star hotel is that he wanted to avoid a certain group of media men that have been tailing him to get a scoop of their family business's current situation.

He only had one friend whom he considers as his best buddy, and Akira had already met that guy.

However, seeing him smile like this in front of this girl, Akira immediately guessed that this girl must be someone special in her brother's life... just like she was to him.

In a blink of an eye, it's already six in the evening.

After thanking Alan for his hospitality, Sakura announced that she needs to return to her own apartment room to cook some dinner. Alan offered to order their dinner online, but Sakura rejected this right away out of pure intentions and said that he has already done enough for her today.

This caught Akira's attention, and secretly smiled an approving smile to herself.

Just as Sakura was about to leave, Akira suddenly declared, "Big brother, let me walk with her for a while."

And when Alan was also about to stand from his seat, she added, "And don't follow us!"

"Huh?"

Alan hesitantly obliged and watched as both Sakura and his sister are now heading towards the door.

Meanwhile, Sakura is getting anxious about Akira's real intentions on why she suddenly decided to walk with her.

"You know, you aren't so bad yourself."

They've already reached the door by the time Akira had said these words all of a sudden, making Sakura stop in her tracks.

Sakura creased her forehead. "Pardon?"

"I haven't seen my brother smile like that for a long time…" Akira trailed off, avoiding having eye contact with her. "If you want to date my brother, you have my approval."

Sakura was almost taken aback by what Akira said just now.

"I told you, we're nothing like that!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

As Sakura is now going downstairs towards her room, she remembers Akira's words and shakes her head in disbelief.

"Silly girl…"