19. A Puzzling Situation

Because she still hadn't gotten her uniform on yet, she got me to tag along to her house, so she could get dressed quickly, and get me late for class. All the way through she tried latching on to my arm, but I had no intention of letting her do so. She looked more and more dejected with each dodge, slumping her shoulders and giving a sad expression. Instead of feeling sympathy, only exhaustion came over me. I feel like I'm a babysitter of a whiny toddler.

"Stop with the playing around and just show me where your home is. It was somewhere around here right?"

She shrugged her shoulders, asking rhetorically "Aren't you just a bundle of fun?" while giving me a sarcastic smirk. "It's over there," she point toward a worn, small and decrepit building. One of the windows on the bottom floor was shattered, only being covered by a few wooden planks. Plants were sprouting from the brick walls. It looked like the building had been abandoned for a few years, it as unnerving to think someone would live there.

"Please welcome yourself inside, and take care not to trip over anything. I don't want my dad to wake up."

As she opened the door, a strong foul stench reeked about, overwhelming my nose.

"You'll get used to it." She responded before I could comment my thoughts aloud.

Inside, lots of garbage could be seen. Magazines, molding tablewear, mugs with putrid dark gray liquid, garbage bags, many sets of clothing and a bunch more other stuff.

"I'll be back in a bit, make yourself at home. If you haven't seen it yet, the couch is in front of the tv, you can sit there if you want."

I was just left there in the garbage dump of a living room. I wasn't going to sit down, my uniform would get stains all over if I did. I simply stood there, taking in the sight of it all. I got shivers from it, I knew that if I were to move more likely than not I'll stumble into a stinking pile of waste. I also know that whoever the father might be, I don't want to meet him.

I feel like prying further into the ordeal would not be  responsibility I can handle, but at least I have an inkling of a clue as to why she would have left the house. I would have too, most likely. How would you even live in this mess?

I waited idly, checking my phone every few seconds for the time and hoping that she would hurry up so I could be in time. I realized I could go and ditch her, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. After a while I saw her coming out of the room in her uniform, the cleanliness starkly contrasting the surroundings.

Oh, we share the same school uniform. Ohhh. Now it all makes sense, of course Kinoshita would know her. And that other time too, I see. I wonder why I don't know her though. Or ever seen her for that matter. Maybe I di-

"If you stare at me that deeply, you're gonna make me blush~"

I averted my gaze instinctively as she said that. I didn't even notice that. Well, it does look nice on her, although a bit too big of a fit for her. It looks a bit crumpled up as well, but also unnaturally clean as well.

More importantly, we need to get going already. The clock is ticking and I promised Chiori that I would get my schoolwork in order. Showing up late for class would only get me facing more issues in the future.

"Don't worry, onii-san, we'll be just in time!" She cheerily shouted. She jumped into my arm and latched onto it with both of her arms. I reacted too slowly to the sudden attack. She held tightly onto my arm. I had to resist hissing at her to get off of me.  As much as I can symphatize with her, boundaries need to be set.

"Please just get off of me," I said, and shook her roughly off of my arm, "I already have someone."

She just shrugged it off, "Alright, then we'll do that later."

No we won't. We won't have any of that.

She and I simply walked in silence to school. Strangely enough she was correct before, we still had 2 minutes left when we arrived. And even though we needed to sprint up the stairs, we got there in time. Now, I did know she was a student in our school, what I didn't know was that she was in the same class too.

How the hell did I miss her presence all this time? Even as she sticks out this much from the rest of the class, I just barely could remember someone who kind of looked like her. Am I going insane? Did I walk here with a ghost or something?