Even Though I Loved You First

““Cheers!””

“…Cheers…?”

In a family restaurant, four people sat around a table as their glasses clanked. Two of them had long violet hair along with their eyes, those two were the twins Karane and Kotone Ichinose. Another girl had long white hair and beautiful purple eyes, she seemed to be a little older than the other two girls. Nevertheless, Tenshi Ichinose also stood out.

The boy who was around these three beautiful ladies, was extremely handsome with his jet-black hair properly groomed, his eyes that shined like amethysts was the same as the other three, his name was Kei Ichinose, he was the youngest.

“Why are we here again?” Tenshi said, tracing the edge of her glass with her finger.

“Celebrating that you got admitted into the med-school of your choice, of course!” Excitedly, Kei said as he took a mouthful of salad.

“You worked hard after all, so we wanted you to take it easy. Go on, eat.” (Kotone)

“Haha… Thanks everyone, but this is just starting… Medicine is a really hard career, I won’t overwork myself, of course… but I have to work harder from now on.” (Tenshi)

For Tenshi, these past few months have been nothing but stressful as she mulled over if she was going to pass or not. She was confident, she had a passion towards medicine and since her early years, she has been exposed to all sorts of medical data.

“How does it feel, Ms. Ichinose?” Karane, who was holding an invisible microphone in her hand, asked Tenshi, who seemed a little disgusted by being called ‘Ms. Ichinose’.

However, she went along and cleared her throat, “It is an absolute honor to be accepted into the university of my dreams. As a wise man once said—” (Tenshi)

“Cut! That’s everything folks!” (Karane)

“Next scene!” (Kei)

“Hey! I was only getting started! Uuuu…” (Tenshi)

↤⨳↦

Finishing most of their meal, the four of them all exchanged details of their personal lives to pass the time. Sometimes, all they wanted to do was spend some quality time with their family.

“So~ Kei. When are you going to present me to your girlfriend~?” Tenshi asked with a mischievous smile.

“God, this again? I think we talked about it already…” Kei annoyingly said as he took a sip from his coffee.

“‘Soon’ isn’t an appropriate answer! I want to know exactly when! Come on~” Tenshi put both hands on his shoulders and shook him back and forth, making him feel dizzy.

“T-Tenshi… s-stop it… Ugh…” (Kei)

“Haha, sorry… Here we go.” Tenshi let go of his shoulder as Kei tried preventing his urges to vomit.

↤⨳↦

“I thought it was going to be an outing… So, why are we here?” Asked Tenshi as her cousins went around the hallways.

““I ran out of ideas. [Because it might be fun?]”” (Kei & Kotone)

““Ah…”” (Kei & Kotone)

“Is iced tea okay?” (Karane)

“More than okay!” Kei stood up and grabbed the iced tea from Karane, he then proceeded to place it inside the basket. Turning to Tenshi, he gave her a questioning look.

“What’s there to be unsatisfied with?” (Kei)

“Hm~ I wonder~ Maybe it’s the fact that— you all want to crash into my apartment?!” (Tenshi)

Suddenly, her shoulder was grabbed by Karane, and in a monotonous voice, she stated her opinion. “Having a group over during the first month of your life living alone is a must.” She said.

“Huh? Oh, uh… sure?” (Tenshi)
“Enough about that! It’ll be a long night! Come one, Tenshi, come and choose some snacks!” Kotone excitedly said to her.

Even though I’m the older one… I’m being pushed around by them… haha… Tenshi thought, as she let out a weak laugh. She didn’t mind it really, she was extremely happy to be able to spend some time together with her family. She really was a family-oriented person.

↤⨳↦

“What a nice place! Can I live he—” (Karane)

“No.” (Tenshi)

“Tsk.” (Karane)

As Karane made herself comfortable, the other two looked around the place in wonder. The apartment was considerably small, with the kitchen and living room joined, there was only a small hallway that joined the bathroom and the bedroom.

“Tenshi, I’ll place most of the things inside your refrigerator.” Kei said, holding the bag.

“Oh, sure, go ahead.” She said.

Kotone, who gracefully took a seat at the other end of the sofa, asked. “So, what movie are we watching?” (Kotone)

“What about a wild west-style one? Seems like fun, plus, they are a ton of those these days. Seems like a good place to start, right? I mean, we have about six hours to spend, don’t we?” (Karane)

“We do, for our first movie something like that sounds nice. We could do a sci-fi movie next.” (Tenshi)

“Sci-fi sounds nice. We could watch a romance movie one after the other!” Kei said as he came back from the kitchen. “Don’t you have any leftover pity for single people?!” (Karane)

“You’ve always been a fan of romance, right?” (Tenshi)

“Unn, Unn! I like the narration!” Kei excitedly said.

“You only want some self-insert… Even more so now since you got a girlfriend, am I wrong?” (Karane)

“…no comment…” (Kei)

“Hey now, we should be happy that Kei’s happy now, shouldn’t we?” Kotone giggled.

““Who said we aren’t happy?”” The two said in unison. To all this Kei, who just sat on the floor placing some snacks on the tea table, seemed to be a bit confused at their sudden behavior.

“What’s with you three all of the sudden?” He said eye-widened.

“Don’t tell me you’re embarrassed?” (Kotone)

“It’s not that I’m embarrassed… I’m just surprised, that’s all.” (Kei)

“Your face is red though.” (Tenshi)

“It’s not!” (Kei)

“It is.” (Karane)

“IT. IS. NOT.” Kei said with a beet-red face as he finished arranging everything on the table. “Anyhow, choose the movie we don’t have all night, y’know?” (Kei)

“Yes, yes.” Tenshi giggled as she also gathered around the table.

↤⨳↦

Karane’s POV~

This movie’s okay so far, as to be expected of Tenshi’s recommendation… As I lazily laid on the sofa, all cuddled-up to my sister Kotone, I mindlessly watched the movie without finding it any logic.

Maybe that’s why some find a movie that critics consider trash ‘extremely underrated’… The way I see it, even if a movie is hated by the critic, anyone should be free to love it if it’s something you can relate to and if it touches your heart.

When was the last time I felt such warmth? I thought.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve felt extremely happy ever since I knew all my friends would go on to high school with me… I know deep down that it won’t be the same in college, some of us will move to different places, we might even go abroad… However, I wanted to enjoy what was left of everything.

Being with Kei, Kotone… and even Tenshi, even if all of us are just silently watching a movie, it feels so much fun somehow. Ever since I cut-off ties with my best friend, I’ve felt empty somehow…

At first, I felt that something was missing, as if something that was supposed to be there wasn’t… It felt confusing. However, I try not to think about it too much.

A little after, the movie ended. The ending was normal, a simple good ending that most movies nowadays had. As the fourth movie of the night ended, so did all the snacks that we bought a few hours ago.

“Yawn” A cute, small yawn came from beside me, it was my sister.

“Are you tired already?” I asked.

“Unn. Somewhat.” She gently nodded while rubbing her sleepy eyes. She’s so cute! I couldn’t help but admire her cuteness, though the two of us were the same age, she sometimes felt like a little sister.

“It is getting late, isn’t it?” My younger brother Kei, said as he looked at his phone. “You three should be going know, we don’t want Uncle Touya and Ms. Kaho to worry.” (Tenshi)

“You’re right. Let’s tidy up and call it a night, shall we?” Kei said as he stood up, to which the three of us nodded in agreement. We continued chatting as we cleaned up.

Then, we left Tenshi’s place as she saw us off.