A Seemingly Unchanged New Life

Sasaki is a good person. This was Kōshū's conclusion after a month of contact. Even with a critical, detached attitude, trying to sour the atmosphere at the dinner table, he ultimately had to admit that Sasaki was a hopeless do-gooder.

Life at the language school was incredibly boring. He unexpectedly found himself spending a lot of idle time thinking about his new family. The academic system was supposed to be fully residential, but due to Sasaki's insistence, and the fact that Kōshū had already taught himself the language, the one year at the language school, meant only to ensure proper enrollment, was changed to a day school arrangement.

Another morning, Kōshū returned, running in the dim, just-breaking dawn. This was his usual habit. About 500 meters from home, he slowed down, stretching as he walked back.

The air carried the scent of early spring. Sunlight and wind blew together, the wind very gentle, the light sweat cooling slightly, but the sun brought a subtle warmth. Intertwined, it felt like a river of rolling silk. He longed to simply collapse into the spring breeze.

Just like middle-aged men who sit alone in their cars for 30 minutes after arriving home, the moment he stepped inside, the noise and complex relationships would instantly cling to his soul. The daily morning run was Kōshū's time for solitary freedom. He followed his old training methods, sprinting 100 meters, then jogging 500 meters, expending as much energy as possible.

By the time he finished a lap, his entire body and mind felt like they had been wiped clean with a rag. But that was just as well; he was facing garbage situations all day anyway, so it was a perfect fit. If he faced the whole day with full energy, he would only feel stifled by having nowhere to release it.

Returning home, he passed the bathroom, already hearing the sounds of someone washing up. It was Mr. Sasaki's son from his remarriage, only a year younger than Kōshū. Kōshū didn't stop, went upstairs to get a change of clothes, and brushed past Sasaki Rōchi, who was rinsing his mouth. Rōchi didn't glance at him, but his voice carried through the sliding door, "So smelly!"

Kōshū immediately retorted, "Shorty, and your clothes are so dirty."

Rōchi vented his anger on the cup. He mustered the courage to rush into the bathroom, but in the end, he didn't know who to show his angry expression to. The sound of splashing water didn't stop because of his anger, so he silently left again, just as he had been doing for the past month.

Sasaki Rōchi played baseball. At 12 years old, he was 1.6 meters tall and played shortstop. When his clothes got dirty, he had to brush off the mud and sand before putting them in the washing machine. Although Kōshū was only a year older than Rōchi, he was already close to 1.8 meters tall. Every time he stood in front of the short Rōchi and said something personally offensive with a straight face, it would startle Rōchi. Even Mr. Sasaki said, "Kōshū can be quite intimidating when he's expressionless."

But then Mr. Sasaki would add, "But he's essentially a gentle child. He walks around the house like a cat, making no noise. He never disturbs anyone when he comes back from his morning run, unlike Rōchi."

Tch. When he first heard that, Kōshū sat on the uncomfortable stool, expressionless, but secretly thinking, What kind of performance are you expecting? A child abandoned by his parents, who experienced betrayal and then left his hometown for Japan, so he should be an unmanageable child, right?

But in the dead of night, Kōshū would think back to his maternal grandparents. As veteran teachers, they had been very strict with him since he was young. Even though they were gone, even after experiencing so much, he still couldn't stand those spoiled, undisciplined children from happy families. Or perhaps it was jealousy. Of course, Kōshū firmly believed that he was just disgusted. After all, if someone turned bad because of a harsh environment, it only meant that the harsh environment had unleashed their true nature.

After showering, Kōshū dried his hair and went to the sink where Rōchi had just washed up. A face just beginning to show signs of manhood was quietly staring back at him. Lowering his head, Kōshū fiddled with Rōchi's toothpaste, which had a pink, anime-girl design. With a mischievous mood, he squeezed a large amount onto his toothbrush.

As Kōshū brushed his teeth, the house slowly woke up. There seemed to be voices coming from the master bedroom downstairs. Mr. Sasaki and Shen Qing ran a dental clinic together, and their schedules were packed every day, so they got up early to prepare.

The small clinic had only one receptionist, five nurses, and three doctors. After Shen Qing experienced two years as a resident doctor and ran into obstacles again due to various qualification issues, Mr. Sasaki took her in. Later, according to the third doctor, Mr. Sasaki's partner and friend, Mr. Kudo, taking in someone as skilled as Shen Qing was Sasaki's good fortune for being a good person.

Kōshū didn't blow-dry his hair, but used a dry towel to press out the moisture again, and went back to his room. In the narrow second-floor hallway, two doors were close together at the corner. Kōshū stood at the door with the "Kōshū" sign, looked at the "Rōchi" door next to it, and a thought flickered through his mind. Without hesitation, he acted, opening the room of the 12-year-old boy who was making breakfast downstairs.

Hmm? Very clean. Where were his posters and games? Kōshū directly opened the closet door and saw colorful anime girls and various manga crammed together, feeling sorry for them.

He recalled how, when he first arrived last month, the shorty had warned him not to sneak into his room. Then, at the dinner table, Kōshū had casually mentioned, "I heard a girl's voice, so I went to Rōchi's room, knocked, but he wouldn't open it, and he locked the door. I wonder what he was doing." Rōchi's face turned red, and he blurted out, "What's it to you?" Then he looked at Shen Qing, hastily explaining, "No, it's just a game, a game!"

With Sasaki and Shen Qing both stunned, the 12-year-old broke down in tears and ran back to his room.

Thus, a long-awaited "family dinner" was ruined by Kōshū. In the still, quiet atmosphere, everyone's thoughts churned beneath the table.

Mr. Sasaki said, "Let him be, just save him some food later," but he felt uneasy. He had insisted on Kōshū coming, and he had also insisted on taking in his ex-wife's child. He clearly didn't have a good grasp of the sensitive psychology of adolescents, and he was already having trouble with just Rōchi.

Shen Qing replied, "It's all Kōshū's fault. I'll take him some food later and have Kōshū apologize to him," but in her heart, she was thinking, That child Rōchi is already starting to rely on me. Being a stepmother is really not easy. I need to cultivate the relationship slowly. The most important thing is to fulfill my responsibilities as a mother from the beginning, to let the neglected child feel a mother's care, while not interfering with the child's personal wishes, and showing some hardship at the appropriate time. The only problem is this child of mine, who seems like a tree growing in a swamp, calm and stable but unapproachable, with no weaknesses.

Since saying that, Kōshū had acted like a good boy, agreeing to apologize. In his heart, he felt both relieved and annoyed. Relieved because this nominal younger brother was too easy to deal with. He, who was often tricked, had only used a little of what he had learned to make him run for cover. Then he felt a little bored. Annoyed because, judging from the look in that kid's eyes, he had a bit of a mother complex. The key was that this kid had no blood relation to Shen Qing. Although he had no psychological barriers, it felt a little strange for someone to be infatuated with his mother.

After that, Shen Qing successfully knocked on Rōchi's door. Rōchi was about to express his dissatisfaction when he saw his stepbrother standing behind his stepmother, with a dark face. Then he saw his stepbrother apologize without any psychological burden and seemingly sincerely. The scanning gaze in the room revealed his composure, and he felt a sense of shame in those occasionally surprised eyes. So what if I like anime girls? he thought. Damn it, only my best friend knows my interests. Ah, why is the son of the gentle and strong Dr. Shen such a person? But in order not to ruin his image in front of his stepmother, he suppressed his discomfort.

Since then, Rōchi felt that he had learned "adult camouflage," which meant no longer locking the door, but instead hiding all his things in the closet, including acting peacefully with Kōshū in front of his father and stepmother.

Time returned to this morning.

Kōshū went back to his bedroom, lay on the bed with wet hair, staring at the curtains slowly being penetrated by the orange sunlight. The smell of coffee wafted in from the wide-open doorway, gradually filling Kōshū's lungs. A mature male voice, a yawning female voice, and a pre-pubescent boy's voice, mixed with the sound of the toaster, the sound of the frying pan, and the sound of the coffee machine. Clearly, downstairs was already a complete family of three, wasn't it? So what role did he, Kōshū, play in this family?

Even though the male head of this house was a good person that Kōshū recognized from the bottom of his heart, and this woman, although cold-hearted, would treat her own people gently as long as she recognized them, and that shorty, although a closet otaku, always had a lingering affection in his eyes when he looked at Shen Qing, then what role did he, Kōshū, play in this family?

For more than a month, life seemed peaceful, but it was full of estrangement. He had already learned Japanese, but as for cultural integration, Kōshū didn't have the motivation to actively integrate. All sorts of things created a sense of powerlessness and boredom that lingered in his mind, always wandering like a thin mist in Kōshū's brain. What am I living for in this world? Even though no one was paying attention, he hadn't grown into a hooligan. It seems I really am a boring person.

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