Ema's younger brother

Ema, who stood in the living room chatting with her new family for a while, glanced hesitantly in the direction of the elevator.

Dust... are you going back to your room?

"What is sister-chan thinking? By the way, why is the new brother missing?" Tsubaki, who was sitting on the sofa, followed Ema's line of sight, and looked around in surprise, "...Didn't you follow? "

Azusa didn't answer, but frowned slightly, with a cold expression.

Noticing Zi's unusual expression, Yao raised the corners of his mouth thoughtfully: "Sarah, who knows. Maybe he wants to stay by himself for a while, the new brother doesn't seem to like us very much."

Ema opened her mouth, trying to refute what she wanted, but couldn't say anything.

In her memory, the relationship between her and Hinata Chen has never been very good... When she was a child, Chen would often go home with injuries and refused to go to the hospital for bandages.

While crying, she cleaned her brother's wound and tied a bandage, and asked him why he put himself in such a mess.

But her question seemed to have poked Hinata Chen's sore spot, and the blood-oozing hand "slapped" her hand away vigorously. The little boy walked back to his bedroom with disinfectant and bandages ——

"none of your business."

This was the last sentence Ema heard in her memory.

It seems that every day someone will say something bad about Hinata, say that he has a weird temper, that his grades are too bad, that he fights with other children...Little Ema has to bend down to apologize to others every day——

"I'm sorry my brother caused you trouble."

In Ema's heart, it is right to be a well-behaved, excellent child who does not let her father worry about her, so her first reaction is not to defend her brother and argue with others.

Instead, apologize.

"Get out!"

Hinata Chen who accidentally ran into this scene angrily smashed the water bottle in his hand on the adult who came to the door, his dark red eyes contained the madness of a beast.

"Get out!"

He threw everything he could throw at the grown man.

"Look! This is your brother! It really is a wild child that no one wants." The adult blocked the object that was thrown at him with his hand, and left in a hurry, still muttering incessantly.

"Hinata Chen!"

Ema, who was severely hurt by the words "unwanted wild child", let go of her gentle mask for the first time, she called out her brother's name loudly, and looked at him with red eyes.

"Don't be willful anymore, okay?"

Hinata turned stiff for a moment, avoided Ema's sight, lowered his head and asked calmly, "Why do you apologize...how do you know it's my fault?"

"You never told me how the injuries on your body came about..."

Ema's voice was crying.

"In the face of you who never give any explanation, and other people who have plausible words... I don't know what to do other than apologize."

"...I'm sorry." Ryu Xiangchen pursed his lips, and raised his head to meet the numbed and misty eyes of the painter, "But, I really didn't do anything wrong."

So, do you trust me?

Ema didn't see her brother's implied expectation, so she just closed her eyes in disappointment, ran back to her room and closed the door.

After this incident.

Hinata Chen never talked to Ema again.

Until Ema met the little squirrel Julie.

"Xiaoqian, why don't you follow him to have a look?" The gray-blue little squirrel looked at the delicate girl seriously, "If you see it with your own eyes, you will know the truth, right?"

Ema, who has always been docile, hesitated for a moment, remembering her younger brother's indifferent attitude, gritted her teeth and agreed to Zhu Li's suggestion.

Relying on her small size, Zhu Li's reminder and her own carefulness, plus the lucky blessing of the heroine's halo, she followed Ryu Xiangchen for an afternoon without any danger.

She saw her younger brother looking at the empty place with horror from time to time, and then quickened his pace tremblingly.

She saw her younger brother knock down the person who called him a wild child, but what she said was-"Don't say such things in front of Ema".

……

"Chen... I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Ema ran back home with Julie in her arms, weeping after closing the door of the room.

but……

Since when.

Has my attitude towards Chen returned to what it was before knowing the truth...?

Ema, who was sitting on the sofa at Asahina's house, fell into a daze.

"Ema, what's wrong?"

The eldest son Masami's voice sounded worried, and Ema looked at him in a daze, only to realize that the brothers of Asahina's family were already sitting on the sofa.

— except for two brothers who lived outside and two who were working.

"...It's nothing." Ema pursed her lips slightly, and hugged the little squirrel on her lap.

"Are you scared? Suddenly there are so many brothers." Ten Nan Qizhi bent the corners of his eyes, his appearance was gentle and elegant.

Ema, who was in a complicated mood, didn't answer the conversation. She smiled politely, then lowered her head and stared at the little squirrel on her lap in a daze, her mind was full of what happened by the elevator just now.

"Oh, by the way, Ema, isn't Chen here?"

Masakami asked Ema in confusion, he remembered that he brought Hinata Chen to the door of the room.

"That's right, sister, where's Xiao Chen?" Mi, who was sitting next to Masami, supported the armrest of the sofa where Ema was sitting with both hands, habitually giving the new brother a nickname.

"Maybe he went back to his room..." Ema answered Mi's question absent-mindedly.

"Eh?! Isn't Xiaochen coming to the living room?" Mi raised his voice in surprise, he tilted his head in distress, and suddenly pulled Ema's sleeve excitedly, "Hey, sister and I will go find Xiaochen together ?”

"Eh?"

Ema's fugue was pulled back by Ya's words.

"Let's go, shall we?" Mi raised a big smile at Ema.

Others in the Asahina family also paid attention to Ema's reaction. After all, the brothers of the Asahina family gathered together specially for the Hinata siblings, so that they would have a chance to get acquainted with each other.

But Hinata was not there.

"Don't you want to call me brother? How about taking me with you?" Tsubaki stretched out her hand and waved to Ema.

Zi's ​​face turned cold, and he pressed Chun's hand down: "Tsubaki, don't be willful."

"That..." Ema looked at the brothers around him hesitantly, her tone was tactful but firm, "I'll just go find Chen alone. I'm sorry, but I have to keep you waiting."

"I'm sorry... Anyway, I stay here when I have nothing to do." Yusuke turned his head and spoke in a rough voice, but he didn't wait for the answer from the goddess in his heart.

He turned his head back suspiciously, and saw many brothers looking at him jokingly—"Is Xiaoyou talking to my sister? But she has already left."

Mi blinked her lovely eyes at him.

"..."

"Who talked to her! I can't... tell Brother You Jing!" The boy Yujie turned his eyes to the most reliable second brother.

Ukyo, who received the sight of asking for help, stroked his eyes calmly, and acknowledged Yusuke's words.

On the other side, Ema who opened the door stared blankly at the empty room, lowered her head and clenched her hands—"Xiaoqian...?" Zhu Li at her feet looked at her worriedly.

Dust is always like this.

Willful and ostentatious, turning a blind eye to other people's worries, playing and disappearing on his own, and then coming back with injuries.

Why don't you understand...

I want you to no longer be rejected and disgusted by others.

I want you to listen carefully to my voice.

In this way, it belongs to the mood of my sister.

The nails pierced the skin and was stained with blood, Ema closed her eyes half-dozed, letting the curled eyelashes hide the obscure emotions in her eyes.

"Julie, am I too timid and cowardly?"

So I choked out my own thoughts in my heart again and again.

So again and again I watched Chen leave the house and my side indifferently.

"...Xiao Qian?"

The little squirrel took a few steps back hesitantly, and the fur all over his body exploded.

dust.

Will you look at your sister seriously?

"If only I could care as little as you do about what other people think..."