4. The Awkward Morning After

After a while had passed and it seemed to be a somewhat normal, albeit early time to wake up, even though I was awake the entire time, I headed out toward the kitchen.

My sister apparently had the same idea, as she gave me a startled look when she saw me opening the door to my room.

"Good morning." I cheerily greeted her with.

"...Morning, onii-chan." She with a hint of shyness responded to me.

I came closer and gave her a sudden hug and a kiss.

"While we can't do this in front of our parents, I still want to make the most of the time we can spend in private."

She gave me a kiss back, "Okay then, but be careful."

"I will, I will." I chuckled back. It is sometimes amazing how fast the mind can adapt. We went together to the bathroom to brush our teeth, but without knowing what to say to each other, we did so a bit awkwardly.

"Do you think we can go to school together?" She started the conversation.

"Yeah, absolutely. Nothing weird about that."

"Mh..." She nodded.

As I was already awake before my parents, I decided to cook for a change. I wasn't too bad at it, really the only thing I was better at than my sister, save for a few obscure hobbies I had in passing.

"Anything you would like to eat!?" I shouted across the room to the sister who was lazily lying on the couch.

"You can make whatever." She replied nonchalantly.

So I went and made a simple rice breakfast, with some tuna, egg and seasoning. I like to keep my cooking simple.

But as I prepared everything, it seemed our parents still hadn't woken up yet.

"Must be one of those busy days again." My sister commented.

"Yeah, I've heard it was overtime for the both of them again."

My parents always text me in case anything has happened, as I was the older of the two of us. Recently it seemed they were getting exhausted by work, and as such, came a little late.

"Must be hard." she idly said as she stretched and slowly got off the couch.

It was somewhat standard for the two of us to eat alone, especially during the winter holidays. I set out the simple meals on the table as I asked her to pick up a few plates. She grumbled a bit but before saying anything had already set out the plates.

We sat opposite each other as usual, having not much to say. I tried to spark up a conversation to keep the relaxed atmosphere alive.

"Have you finished the math homework yet? I have-" I started to speak as it slowly dawned on me I hadn't finished the remaining questions.

"I'll be right back."

After coming back the dead silence was back again, but at the very least I finished up my homework in time.

That was close.