Acting Good Before My Brother Tomie Dies

On the first day I was adopted, I learned what my job was: to keep a person named Tomie Kawakami company.

My adoptive parents made no attempt to hide their envy when they told me.

At first I didn't understand, until I met Tomie Kawakami.

He was incredibly beautiful, a masterpiece of the gods. No one could ignore his presence. My adoptive parents treated him with almost obsequious respect, willingly serving as his servants just to make him smile.

But he wasn't their child. They had adopted him when he was six. They were afraid he would be lonely, so two years later they adopted me, making me both his little sister and their spy, tasked with keeping an eye on Tomie.

At first, like my parents, I was infatuated with Tomie and did many stupid things just to please him. Then one day, I caught a brief glimpse of irritation in his eyes. That look doused me in cold water and instantly brought me to my senses.

My time at the orphanage had taught me that things that are too beautiful often hide a trap. I wanted to stay away, but my adoptive parents wouldn't let me. To keep my place in the family, I could only continue playing his obedient little sister.

It wasn't until an accident took my adoptive parents' lives that I was freed from my task. I stopped staying by Tomie's side and even chose a different high school from his.

When Tomie found out, he only stared at me with his beautiful, deep-set eyes, his gaze cold. He said nothing.

Later, I had a dream.

I dreamed that Tomie was actually a beautiful and dangerous monster. He couldn't truly die. Even a single drop of blood could split off into another Tomie. This ability began after an accident on a trip during his third year of high school.

The Tomie who should have died split off a new Tomie, who left for another city to keep seducing people, watching them fight over him and then kill him. After countless cycles of death and rebirth, he became an urban legend.

I woke from the dream in a state of anxiety. If it came true, how would I survive? After thinking it over, I decided to keep pretending to be obedient. I would be a good little sister until he died, and then inherit everything.

The plan went smoothly, and my dream became reality: Tomie really did die in that accident on his trip.

Three months later, I started university and went to a mixer. After getting the contact information of a guy I liked, I walked back to my rented apartment with a spring in my step. Tomie Kawakami was standing outside my apartment, wearing a black trench coat. His bewitching, beautiful face made him look like an aristocratic vampire drawn in elaborate detail in a manga.

He hadn't gone somewhere else like he had in my dream. He had come back here, back to my side.

"You seem to smile pretty happily when I'm not around."

Me: "..."

★Blurb archived.

Theme: Cherish every moment of the present