Among all his games, Reiji chose a certain racing game. I played it with Umi sometimes and it was a game rated E for everyone. You could use items that were spread across the track for various effects, take shortcuts to get to the finish line quicker or just use your pure skill instead.
We would be playing with a monitor next to the sofa.
Before starting for real, I tried to do a one-on-one against Reiji-kun to test the waters.
“Reiji-kun, you’re good at this game, huh?”
“I’ve been playing it for a long time after all!”
It seemed like I had underestimated him severely. I wasn’t too shabby myself, but he managed to beat me effortlessly.
I had a 90% winrate against Umi and had been proud of that fact, but he was a level above me. All my tricks were useless in front of him.
“Big brother!”
“Yes?”
“Why are you so bad?”“…Alright, you asked for it.”
This 4 year old managed to rouse my competitive spirit.
I knew it wasn’t very mature of me, but in this kind of situation, age was just a number. Regardless of his age, I had to give my all to put him in his place.
After that, I managed to hold on pretty well against him thanks to my luck with items, but in the end, I didn’t get a higher winrate than 20%.
I could sympathize with Umi a little now.
“One more time.”
“Sure!”
He answered my frustrated expression with a satisfied smile.
I hated the fact that I was losing, but at least he was having fun. Shizuku-san entrusted him to me after all, so I had to make sure that he had fun while playing with me.
After about an hour, we took a short break. We bought some juice from the vending machine.
“Reiji-kun, which one do you want?”
“Cider… But Mama said that I shouldn’t ask for drinks from the guests…” (T/N: Not the alcohol, but it was a brand of carbonated lemonade in Japan, kinda.)
“You didn’t ask for it, I’m giving you some, so it should be fine. Just keep it a secret from your Mama, okay?”
“Will you keep it a secret too, big brother?”
“Mhm. I promise. It’s a promise between men.”
“Promise…”
His eyes sparkled as he chose the drink he wanted. He probably was intrigued by the words ‘promise between men’.
This hurt my wallet a little, but as long as I was careful from now on it should be fine.
I bought myself a small cola while Reiji-kun bought a grape-flavored Cider. We both gulped our drinks as soon as we opened it.
From an outsider’s perspective, we probably looked like brothers with a huge age gap. I was an only child, so I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of life I would be living if I had a little brother like him.
“Big brother.”
“Hm?”
“Can I sit there?”
“You want to sit here? Go ahead.”
When I gave him permission, he sat down in my lap.
I felt like he let his guard down too much with someone he just met. He probably got attached to me because I was the closest one in age compared to the other people here.
“Reiji-kun, can I ask you something?”
“What is it?~”
I wanted to ask him why he wasn't wary of me, but that was probably a hard question for him to answer.
“Um, Reiji-kun, do you like me?”
“Yes!”
“How about the big sister that was with me yesterday? Do you like her too?”
“I like her too! But she’s a stranger…”
“Am I not a stranger too?”
“Yes, but big brother has the same smell as Papa!”
“Reiji-kun’s papa? What do I smell like?”
“Smoky!”
“Ah, the cigarette smell, I see…”
Mom was a heavy smoker, so the smell of cigarettes had permeated everything that we had been using for years.
They said that people who weren’t used to smelling cigarettes would notice the smell easily. Considering that and the fact that children had a strong memory and keen senses. It was a given that he would notice it. By coincidence, his dad probably smoked the same brand of cigarette as my mom.
“You like your Papa, huh, Reiji-kun?”
“Um… Yes.”
He only nodded his head after looking around for a little. He was probably trying to see if Shizuku-san was around or not.
It seemed like he paid close attention to his mom.
He probably didn’t understand anything, but he somewhat knew what to say and not to say.
It reminded me of me when I was his age.
In any case, I understood why he was so attached to me now.
He probably saw his dad in me.
“I see. How about your Mama, do you like her?”
“Mhm!”
It felt like I’m seeing my past self in him.
I knew his parents probably had a good reason to divorce, but asking a child this young to understand that was bound to be difficult.
We were in a similar situation, so I could sympathize with him, but this wasn’t something that I should poke my nose into.
All I could do for now was to make Reiji-kun forget about his loneliness until Shizuku-san came to pick him up.
“I see. Sorry for asking you a strange question. Anyway, we had our drinks, so let’s continue! What do you want to play next?”
“This one!”
With the heavy talk out of the way, we continued playing our game.
We proceeded with playing various games including puzzles and tabletops. Sometimes, I taught him what he didn’t know and sometimes, he would call me bad at games. This continued for an hour.
“Sorry for the trouble, Maki-kun. I’m back.”
“Welcome back, Shizuku-san.”
“Welcome back, Mama!”
“I’m back, Reiji. Were you a good boy?”
“Yes!”
Reiji-kun got off the sofa, ran to his mom’s side and hugged her tightly.
At first, I was worried if I could take care of him well, but we had the same interest in games, so we got along surprisingly well.
Also, I managed to learn about his situation a little.
“Ah, right, Maki-kun, Mizore-san just ordered something from us, so I could drive Umi back after I’m done with the delivery.”
“Understood. Well, If that’s all, see you later, Shizuku-san.”
Actually, Umi also sent me a text about that and told me to get ready before she arrived.
“Bye bye~”
“See you later, Reiji-kun.”
Anyway, thanks to Reiji-kun, I managed to kill some time and calmed down, so there shouldn’t be any problem if I were to go out with Umi now.
…I’ll still bring a few of those with me just in case. I doubt there would be a chance to use them though.
Fuel my gacha addiction please