I live with my husband, Kazunari, and our three-year-old daughter, Rin. I’ve always been close with my older brother Kouji, who’s ten years ahead of me. He’s married to Keiko, and together they have three girls—Ayane in 8th grade, Kaori in 4th grade, and six-year-old Madoka.
Whenever we visit their house, Rin, who’s an only child, has the best time playing with her older cousins. She lights up around them. But no matter how often I invite them to hang out, my brother’s family cancels on us at the last minute almost every time. I’m starting to reach my limit.
And then my bad feeling came true. My brother lied to me just to stop us from coming over. Our parents drilled into us our whole lives that siblings should stick together—so how did things end up like this?
To make it worse, even though Rin was happily playing with Madoka, we weren’t even allowed inside. Keiko shut the door on us right at the entrance. After seeing how Keiko handled things… I couldn’t help wondering if maybe my brother isn’t the real problem here. Maybe the root of everything is Keiko.