Chapter 2 – Abandoned (Part 2)
Prologue, Part 2
Novel Title: 融愛~Melt Down~ (Melted Love ~Melt Down~)
Author:風結子 沙野 (Fuyuko Sano)
Illustrator:雅良 水名瀬 (Masara Minase)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 葉越海理 (Yougoshi Kairi -MC), 葉越翼久 (Yougoshi Tasuku -ML)
*Please read at Novels Space.space, the original site of translation. TQ*
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“Where did I put the lighter…”
Tasuku tried to get up quickly, but his right leg was firmly held by his brother—and he could feel the tremble from the part that was touching him.
Kairi was very afraid of the dark. He couldn’t even sleep at night without a small light on.
――I have to be strong now!
Tasuku furrowed his already naturally sharp eyebrows even more. He opened his wide, almond-shaped eyes with double eyelids, staring into the darkness. He pulled the corners of his full lips, the one feature they shared as brothers, into a confident smile.
“Nii-chan, just stay there.”
“But—”
“It’s okay. I’m not afraid of the dark at all.”
“…Alright.”
Kairi’s legs hesitantly loosened, finally freeing his right leg.
Tasuku grabbed the edge of the kotatsu table and stood up. Then, he carefully walked toward the window, feeling his way. He stubbed his little toe on the dresser along the way but held back the tears that came to his eyes. His hand touched the rough fabric of the curtain. He grabbed it with both hands and pulled it open.
A thin, bluish light streamed in through the gap in the curtains.
Outside the freezing cold window, a crescent moon with its top-right portion missing hung in the sky.
Tasuku stood by the window and turned back to look at his brother. His heart ached.
Kairi, who was sitting with his back to the window, strained his waist so tightly it seemed like he might break. He stared up at the moon with the desperation of a moth drawn to a flame. Tasuku’s gaze was captivated by the sight of his brother.
His black hair melted into the dimly lit room. Even his dark irises, which seemed to absorb the light, were dissolving into the darkness. If he didn’t provide light soon, he felt like his brother would dissolve completely into the dark and be lost.
A chilling and cold anxiety swelled within him.
Tasuku frantically scanned the room with his eyes and spotted a 100-yen lighter lying beside the kotatsu. He quickly picked it up and tried to light it. But his haste caused only sparks to fly. By the time the skin of his thumb started to hurt, a small flame finally appeared with a flick. It was a blue conical flame topped with orange.
He pressed the lighter’s flame against the candle’s wick, which was stuck to the kotatsu table with melted wax. With a hissing sound, the candle caught fire.
Kairi, who had been sitting right beside him, had already turned his gaze from the moon to the candle.
The candle’s glistening orange glow licked at Kairi. The outline of his black hair emerged. His eyes sparkled, slowly regaining their usual wise glint.
Tasuku was deeply relieved.
Then, he remembered the cup noodles placed next to the candle.
“…They’re probably soggy by now, huh?”
Kairi blinked rapidly, fully coming back to his senses. He hurriedly opened the lid of the cup noodles.
More than three minutes had passed since pouring in the hot water, so the instant noodles had absorbed a lot of water and had become bloated and mushy.
The rising steam brought forth a familiar scent that almost made Tasuku gag.
It had been nearly two weeks of eating the same flavour of cup noodles.
A week after their mother stopped coming home, they had run out of rice, bread, and pasta in the house. So Tasuku and his brother scraped together their pocket money and bought heaps of cup noodles on sale at the local supermarket.
Eating the same flavour of cup noodles for dinner every night—on weekdays they had school lunch, but on weekends, they had cup noodles for lunch too—had become so monotonous that he was sick of even the smell. But he didn’t want to upset Kairi, so he never forgot to lie and say “It’s tasty” each time.
Watching his brother stir the soggy noodles with a sigh, Tasuku said:
“It’s fine. More volume means we’ll be full. Thanks for the meal!”
Tasuku adopted a cheerful tone, taking a seat next to Kairi and grabbing the cup of noodles. He slurped the noodles energetically. His mouth filled with the unpleasant texture of overcooked noodles.
“It’s tasty!”
Kairi took the cup noodles from Tasuku’s hands and took a bite.
“It’s tasteless.”
“Eh? Nii-chan, is your taste off?”
“Aren’t you tired of this flavour?”
“Not really. I could eat this for a whole year.”
“…What are we going to do about food tomorrow?”
“We’ll manage somehow.”
As Tasuku chewed the tasteless noodles, Kairi suddenly put his arm around his shoulders. It was a mixture of hugging and clinging. Their chilled bodies clung to each other. The warm breath near his temple felt so very warm.
“I’ll make sure to figure something out,” Kairi said.
“――Won’t Mom come back tomorrow? I have a strong feeling she will.”
Tasuku decided that tomorrow, he would borrow money from the young woman living next door to the left. She always dressed up with makeup and left for work in the evenings. According to her, Tasuku, with his loosely curly brown hair and round eyes, was “so cute I could just eat him up.” She always told him, “If you’re in trouble, come talk to me about anything,” whenever they met. Although Kairi told him not to get too close to her, Tasuku thought it would be fine if he kept it a secret from Kairi.
Once he got the money, he’d lie and say, “Mom came and left this for us.”
He whirled his mind around, forming a plan.
Surely, everything would work out.
Even if their father wasn’t around, even if their mother never came back, it didn’t matter. This life with just him and Kairi would go on forever.
He would use his own strength to keep the light on so Kairi wouldn’t be afraid.
He would buy rice and bread to keep Kairi’s stomach full.
Somehow, he felt incredibly clever and dependable. He felt like he was an adult who could do anything.
On this midwinter night, other homes were filled with light, and kids his age were probably eating their fill at dinner. They probably didn’t feel the draft in their hair or see their breath turn white inside their homes.
But none of that made him envious in the least.
It was cold, dark, and they were hungry. And precisely because of that, he and his brother were huddled so closely together they might melt into one another, staring at the same candlelight. The cold only touched the surface of their skin, while the core of their bodies and hearts felt so warm… so hot.
***
It was on that quiet night, when he was nine, that Tasuku learned the shape of the feeling called ‘happiness’.
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*Translator’s Note: They only have each other in this world. They both wanted to protect each other. It’s so sad. And what a mom! Leaving her children like that… -K
*P/S: Allow me to explain beforehand for those unfamiliar to Japanese language and culture that Japanese normally introduce themselves with the surname/last name mentioned first before the first name. And in novels, in conversation, they will likely use last names to address others. But first names are used in narration. For example, if the character’s name is Miyamoto (last name) Tsuneyasu (first name), in narration, it’ll be like… ‘Tsuneyasu sat down on the chair.’ And in conversation, when meeting a friend, the friend will ask; “Miyamoto, how long have you been sitting here?”. Get me? Okay. That’s all the explanation for now.
*GLOSSARY:
- Onii-san / Onii-chan / Nii-san / Nii-chan / Aniki = (Big/Elder) Brother
☝🏻I’ll be using these throughout my translation. But Tasuku will mostly call Kairi ‘Aniki’ when he’s an adult.
Illustration 2:
Next update: 2024.12.28