Chapter 25 – The Lowest of Brothers
Chapter 4, Part 3
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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When Tasuku was 9 years old, he had been injected with what seemed to be stimulants by a woman next door. That had been a tremendously shocking event for both of them. Kairi had thought that because of their shared experience, Tasuku would never turn to drugs.
Kairi had always been watching over Tasuku… or so he thought. But his precious younger brother had been selling his body and getting involved with drugs since the age of 14.
Kairi was furious at his brother for treating himself so carelessly. He felt sick with self-loathing for failing to protect him.
“Aniki, you’ve misunderstood. I really just got these from a friend today…”
“Don’t lie to me anymore!”
Kairi’s strained voice was shaky, his eyes sharp and brimming with tears as he confronted his brother.
“How long have you been doing drugs?”
“…Hey, calm down. I’m telling you, I’m not doing any drugs.”
Tasuku crawled closer and placed his palm on Kairi’s knee. The warmth pierced Kairi’s heart, and he pushed his brother’s hand away.
“Then why do you know so much about drugs?!”
Tasuku’s earlier drug talk had clearly come from personal experience.
Tasuku fell silent.
There was no doubt – Tasuku had been using drugs. His quick temper must have been a side effect. Maybe he was even dealing them.
Doubt and anger swelled explosively in Kairi’s chest.
“Kairi…”
Tasuku leaned in from below, hands on the couch where Kairi sat.
“Please, believe in me.”
His eyes blinked, growing moist.
His blatant desire tried to soothe Kairi’s turbulent heart.
Kairi should have been able to turn away. But instead he found himself meeting his brother’s lips with his own. His head spun as Tasuku’s lips kissed him, sucking him in.
Kairi’s breathing became shamefully ragged from just that one kiss.
――I… We are…
“……hmm?”
Tasuku took a small tilt of his head, as if to say he couldn’t hear. Just that slight gesture allowed his tea-coloured hair to flow gently over Kairi’s eyes, scattering vibrant hues in the gaze peeking through. His long eyelashes fluttered slowly, reminiscent of a young child.
This man is his younger brother, connected by blood, with whom he has grown up together.
Yet, his heart now writhes with a bittersweetness that should not be felt towards a brother. The urgency of needing to suppress his feelings and the forbidden desire intertwine, tightening around his chest.
With trembling breath, he murmured.
“We are the lowest of brothers.”
“…”
“I can’t believe in Tasuku… I can’t even believe in myself—because, isn’t it impossible? To be doing something like this as brothers, it can only mean we’re crazy. When I remember it during the day while working, I really want to disappear. The thought that it’s insane for brothers to do this wells up inside me—Tasuku must feel it too, right? That kind of disgusting feeling.”
He stared hard into his translucent eyes, trying to draw out agreement.
Tasuku slowly blinked once. His eyes, filled with the tears of desire, were frighteningly sharp.
“Disgusting?”
After murmuring that, Tasuku’s tone suddenly turned harsh.
“Is it because we’re related by blood? Because we’re both men? I don’t think we’re the lowest in society. To me, my older brother is the only important, meaningful person in this world. No one else could ever replace him. That’s right. It’s the opposite. There’s no brotherhood more perfect than ours. We fulfil each other completely. With Kairi as my brother, I’m the happiest I could ever be… ‘That woman’… the woman who abandoned us… she was just a vessel to give birth to Kairi and me as brothers. That’s why, when the vessel became useless, it disappeared quickly. Only we, the ones who matter, became a family. We created a home just for ourselves.”
Kairi couldn’t help but think that perhaps Tasuku is still using drugs even now.
The words rushing out of him—like being struck, Kairi is being hit with this overflowing love.
It erodes the part of Kairi that tries to stay sane.
Goosebumps rose all over his skin.
A sweet and unfathomable, abnormal relationship.
Because they’re not a man and a woman, they won’t have children. Incest is despised because children born to blood-related men and women often come out deformed, or they have weak bodies and die young. But that doesn’t apply to them.
So then, is the only problem that they’re two men having sex?
Is there really no big difference between doing it with Tokiya-san and doing it with Tasuku?
――That’s not true.
From the moment Tasuku was born, Kairi and him became family. They are connected in a dimension different from anything sexual.
Conversely, if they were to introduce something sexual, the same factors within them would repel each other. Just like bringing two positive or two negative magnets close together, they would smoothly push each other out of the realm of romantic interest. That’s how he thinks it is.
To establish a relationship with Tasuku feels like suppressing that internal repulsion, as if they are forcefully pressing the same magnetic poles together with tremendous strength.
It’s painful. It’s agonising and frustrating. But it’s love.
――No, I can’t. I can’t listen to any more of Tasuku’s words today.
If he continues to absorb Tasuku’s words until morning… If Tasuku layers any more heartfelt confessions on him, he feels like his heart will avalanche upon him.
That’s terrifying.
Even though tomorrow is supposed to be a day off, Kairi pushed Tasuku away and stood up, lying; “We’ll talk about this again. I have to go in early tomorrow for work.”
Turning his back to Tasuku, he loosened his tie with stiff hands. His throat was extremely dry.
As Kairi headed toward the kitchen in search of water, he was suddenly grabbed by his left elbow. Pulled roughly, he slammed his hip against the edge of the counter. The pain made him instinctively bend over. Tasuku took Kairi and dragged him to the bedroom.
Not resisting unnecessarily, Kairi was pushed down onto the bed.
Over the past three weeks, he had been thoroughly consumed physically. And he had learned from experience that the more he resisted, the more persistent the sex would become. Therefore, it was best to comply when Tasuku was in the mood. That way, it might just end with oral sex or merely kissing.
However, the repeated shallow and deep kisses, as if they were lovers, are even more dangerous to Kairi’s emotions than sex itself. Without realising it, there were moments when he found himself entangling his tongue with his brother’s or sucking back on his lips.
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*Translator’s Note: They both really love each other but morality is weighing heavily on Kairi’s mind. This is what I like about incest story. That sweet pain of knowing it’s wrong but still wanting it the same. I’m just morally off, I guess. -K
*GLOSSARY:
- Onii-san / Onii-chan / Nii-san / Nii-chan / Aniki = (Big/Elder) Brother
☝🏻I’ll be using these throughout my translation.
Next update: 2025.01.20
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