Walking into school was like walking onto a stage. I was acutely aware of everything- of the six-inch buffer zone I was trying to maintain between myself and Rina, and of her constant, playful attempts to breach it. She "accidentally" bumped into me. She "stumbled" and grabbed my arm for support. Each touch was a small, public act of defiance, a reminder of the conversation we had and her complete disregard for it.
Our friends, the self-proclaimed 'Council for Rina's Happiness,' were waiting for us by the shoe lockers. They were not stupid. They were seasoned observers of our chaotic sibling dynamic, and they could sense that the atmospheric pressure had changed.
"Hey, guys!" Kenji said, his eyes darting between my haunted expression and Rina's ridiculously cheerful one. "So… the Cold War is over? You guys seem… chummy."
"We are more than chummy!" Rina declared, latching onto my arm and giving it a squeeze. I tried to pull away, but her grip was like a vise. "My wonderful, heroic Onii-chan and I had a long, heartfelt talk. We have reached a new, deeper level of sibling understanding."
"He looks like he wants to die," Miki observed, her tone dry as a bone. She pushed her glasses up her nose, her sharp eyes missing nothing. "What did you do to him, Rina?"
"I just showed him how much I appreciate him," Rina said with a beatific smile.
Hana just looked back and forth between us, a worried little frown on her face. "You both seem… different. Are you sure everything is okay, Rui-senpai?"
"Everything is perfectly, one-hundred-percent normal," I said, my voice strained, a bead of sweat trickling down my temple. The more I insisted on our normalcy, the more suspicious they became.
The interrogation continued throughout the day. They cornered me between classes. They texted me during lectures. They were a pack of friendly, well-meaning wolves, and they could smell the blood of a secret.
The breaking point came during lunch. We were all sitting at our usual table. Rina was practically sitting in my lap, and I was trying to eat my lunch while maintaining a posture of rigid, unapproachable discomfort.
"Okay, spill it," Miki said, putting down her chopsticks with a decisive click. "The tension between you two is so thick you could use it to insulate a house. What happened after the gift offering?"
"Nothing happened," Rina and I said in perfect, panicked unison.
"Lies," Kenji declared, pointing an accusatory sausage at us. "I have known you my whole life, Rui. You only get this specific shade of pale when you are a) about to fail a physics exam, or b) a girl has done something to terrify you. And Rina-chan is glowing. She has the smug aura of a cat that has successfully pushed a priceless vase off a shelf. Something definitely happened."
"We just talked," Rina insisted, patting my cheek. "We had a very productive, boundary-setting conversation. Didn't we, Onii-chan?"
"Yes," I managed to grind out. "Boundaries were… discussed."
Miki just sighed, a long, suffering sound. "You guys are the worst liars on the planet." She leaned forward, her expression turning deadly serious. "We are not leaving this table until you tell us the truth."
The Council had spoken. There was no escape.