Sigh...
When had the relationship between brother and sister become this bad? Back when Shina-chan was little, she used to affectionately follow behind him, calling him "onii-chan." Back then... whenever he held her, she would laugh happily in his arms.
It seemed... it had started when his younger sister entered middle school. She had made more friends then, and as a girl, she had begun to mature, understanding that men and women should keep their distance... even if they were siblings. From then on... she preferred going out with friends of the same sex, and whenever she faced her brother, at most she would call him by his name.
At the same time, his younger sister had excellent grades and attended a private high school with a very high academic ranking. If things continued like this, she would definitely get into a better university than his in the future!
Japan was now completely different from how it had been in the past. Women no longer had only one path in life: becoming housewives. Along with Japan's declining birthrate and its stagnant economy, although women still did not hold as high a status in the workplace as men, women with higher education had become far more competitive.
Fortunately, his family was fairly well-off, a typical middle-class household. Father's salary was more than enough to cover the tuition for both children. Komuro Akari had once heard Father joke that if their family circumstances were poor, then once his daughter got into university, he would definitely make him, the eldest son, drop out.
Komuro Akari knew that it had not really been a joke. Father would definitely do that, because in this family, his younger sister truly was more outstanding than him. After all... the burden of attending university in Japan was enormous.