In the house we are leaving, there are two rooms upstairs.
One of them is my room, and the other used to be my grandmother’s room.
But after she passed away a few years ago, the room became empty. And slowly it became a room where I would keep miscellaneous things, like my own personal storage room. Now, both the rooms are be used by me.
Needless to say, my parents certainly didn’t like the fact that I was using two rooms and told me to clean up my grandmother’s room several times.
My parents urged me to leave my grandmother’s room and clean it up many times. However, I found it too troublesome to clean a room which had been stuffed with various things by me. And so, it remained occupied by me until today. As Spring arrived and the cold weather passed like a forgotten lover, the situation finally arose where I could no longer use my grandmother’s room. Because I had to welcome a new owner to this room that I was occupying. Her name is Yuka Miyajima, and she was one of my father’s many siblings.
“Tomohiro! Aunt Yuka is here!”
Lying down in my bed, I could hear my mother’s voice coming from downstairs. It was hard to tell if she was calling me to greet my aunt, or if she was making sure I had finished cleaning up my grandmother’s room by the time my aunt arrived.
As realization dawned over me, I understood that this was not the time to be nostalgically reading a book that I had forgotten had hidden at the back of my bookshelf. Before I could decide if I should get up from the bed or continue lying down, I heard the sounds of my mother and aunt walking up the stairs while chatting.
I didn’t want them to find these books scattered all over the floor! In a panic, I hurriedly gathered them all up and stacked them on top of each other. The moment I put another book on top of the book I was reading before in the pile, the door to my room opened.
“Hello, Tomohiro-kun! It’s been a while!”
And the first thing I heard was a very lively voice. Aunt Yuka still remained the same.
“Hello, Aunt Yuka. It’s been a while—”
“Yeah, it’s been a long time! I think the last time I saw you was at your grandmother’s funeral. How are you? Have you grown taller? Isn’t he taller than me now?”
Although I call her aunt since she indeed is my aunt by family relationship, however, considering her age, it would be better to call her ‘elder sister’. Her age is probably closer to mine than to my father’s.
However, her personality somewhat is a lot like your typical aunts, loud and very energetic. So it doesn’t bother me much to call her aunt.
“Let’s measure our heights. Here, straighten your back!”
“Yes, yes…”
“Stand back to back. Hmm? Your heels aren’t raised, right?
“Yes, my heels aren’t raised…”
The smell of my aunt’s hair tickled my nostrils.
The smell was very similar to the smell of shampoo that girls in my class use. I never bothered to notice which girl smelled how, but perhaps she was a relative of mine, I couldn’t help but notice it.
Although it wasn’t something to be nervous about, my heart was racing for some reason.
“Hahahahaha! Tomohiro-kun has finally surpassed me! You were such a short and cute boy when in elementary school, but boys grow up fast after all….”
“He has suddenly started to grow taller just recently. I want him to take part in club activities or something during this period of growth, but…he’s too lazy to do anything about it.”
My mother grumbled as my aunt laughed out loud.
“Tomohiro, Auntie’s luggage is still downstairs. Go bring them up.”
“Oh sister-in-law, it’s fine! I’ll do it, I’ll do it!”
“It’s okay, my son is a man too, please use him well at times like this. Go on, Tomohiro!”
“Ai ai ai!”
“But it’s quite heavy. Will you be able to carry it by yourself? Do you want me to help?”
I was a bit surprised hearing my aunt asking me if I could carry the luggage all by myself. It’s not that I couldn’t or didn’t need anyone’s help. But when Aunt Yuka asked me if I could carry them, I felt like I wanted to do it alone and be cool with it.
“Good luck, Tomohiro-kun! I bought you a delicious cake as a gift! Let’s eat it together when you’re done! Good luck!”
“I’ll do my best…”
I climbed down the stairs as my aunt kept cheering me from behind.
As I was walking down the stairs, I could hear my mother’s and aunt’s voices from behind me.
“I’m sorry, my boy is a bit listless. I want him to be a little more energetic like a boy his age.”
“Sister-in-law, then the only way left is judo!”
…Damn. Will my aunt pester me every day to practice judo until she leaves the house?
At first glance, Aunt Yuka may appear to be a cheerful and kind person, like your typical aunts or older sisters. However, there is more to her than the eyes could see.
She is also a very heavy drinker and a confident woman. But the most important aspect about her is; she is a detective.
I have no idea what kind of work she does as a detective. Whenever I ask her questions related to her works, she only tells me bits and pieces of what she does and that is it.
However, I have a vague idea of what kind of job a person with her toughness and confidence would be able to do.
The reason she moved into our house was also related to her work. She was transferred from her department to a different position in the police.
I heard that even the transfer was related to a case.
Apparently, due to renovation or plumbing work at the dormitory where she was supposed to move in, that place was off limits for a while. She needed to find accommodation elsewhere for the time being. At that moment, she asked my parents if she could stay at our house, which is near the police station, until the renovation is complete. Since there were originally four people living in our house, including my grandmother, there was enough space to accommodate one more person. Now that my grandmother passed away, it wouldn’t be a problem if Aunt Yuka moved in.
So……, I didn’t know why I was being paranoid for. Perhaps my parents thought that it would be a good excuse to kick me out of my grandmother’s room. By offering to let her stay here for a while, they not only solved her problem of accommodation, they were also able to force me to leave my second private room.
The luggage standing in front of the doorway weighed a spectacular amount, as heavy as that aunt of mine had said it was. Still, since I was a man, I managed to carry it upstairs somehow without making a noise. Having accomplishing such a feat, I should have been applauded the moment I entered my room. Rather, what I witnessed made me feel a strange, embarrassing sense of discomfort.
Ah, damn. If that aunt of mine were to stay in my room while I was cleaning up the next room, she could try to help me continue cleaning, and that was when my secrets would have been exposed.
That should have been an understandable development… However, my pile of books is now exposed in front of my mother and aunt. My privacy, which is worth 100 yen per pile….
“Tomohiro… you should spend your pocket money on something more useful…”
“No, no, sister-in-law, this is very important for a young boy of his age! Tomohiro-kun, don’t be embarrassed to show your aunt.”
“N, no wait- Aunt Yuka, please stop~! Don’t turn it over!”
T/N: Welcome to another new series! I’m a horror and mystery lover so I couldn’t stop myself from picking it up. I’m not well versed in Japanese but I’ll try to make it as closer to the original text as possible. Currently, I don’t have an editor so the chapters may be a bit sloppy. Hope you enjoy the story~
P. S: In need of a Japanese editor. If you’re well versed in Japanese or have a considerable amount of knowledge in the language, do join our discord server and DM me. Thank you ❤️
