"COPY BOY" My Clone is an Elementary Schooler ⑩ [Twin Language?]

<Summer, Chapter 10>

"You two are dripping with sweat. Go to the bathroom."
On a sweltering afternoon, while Grandma prepared somen noodles, the little guy and I got into the cold bath.
With swimming goggles and swim trunks on, the coldness was enough to stop my breath for a moment as I submerged my body in the tub, and

"Whoa."
"Whoa."

we both let out a voice, but gradually we got used to it. It felt amazing. This time, savoring it, we let out a restrained,

"Whoa."
"Whoa."

breath.

When you dive in, the light streaming through the window shimmers beautifully. It's like an underground waterway in a hidden cave.
I meet the little guy's eyes underwater. His bangs sway like kelp. His eyes are pulled to the sides by the rubber of his goggles. His mouth looks like a gorilla's with a snorkel in it. Seeing each other's transformed appearances, we can't help but burst out laughing.
From the tip of the snorkel above the water,

"Ho ho ho he he he."
"Ho ho ho he he he."

the laughter echoes off the bathroom walls and descends into the water from above like someone else's voice.

When we get out of the water, we peel off our clinging swim trunks and wrap ourselves in bath towels.
Rolling onto the tatami mats with our thoroughly chilled bodies, the rush grass against my cheeks felt warm and pleasant.

Laundry swaying in the garden. Soft streaks of afternoon light. The scent of curling mosquito coil smoke. I'm lost in the beauty of it, staring blankly.
I was having a trivial conversation with the little guy.

"What did you just say?"

White feet peeked in. Neko-chan had come over without us noticing.
"Huh?"
"You two were just talking in a strange language," she said, looking puzzled as she wiped the little guy's hair with a towel.
"A strange language?"
"Are you not aware of it?" She blinked with long eyelashes that almost hit her glasses.
"Not at all."
"Something like 'be-na-'. It was a strange language, like it was played in reverse."
Even when told that,
"I wonder. I think we were just talking normally."
Even when I asked the little guy, "Did we say something weird?" he replied, "Nope, nothing," while having his head wiped comfortably.
"Then," Neko-chan looked up at the camera on the wall.

She operated the tablet with practiced hands, picked up the camera footage, and played it back. The grainy video showed the little guy and me lying down and whispering to each other.

"Nii-bo-nu-ma-bo-re-ta-ro-"
"Be-te-na-"

"This is... twin language, isn't it?"

Neko-chan stated it casually, like a doctor's diagnosis.
Grandma brought the glass bowl of somen to the table. I asked while scattering Japanese ginger into the dipping sauce.
"Twin what?"
"Twin language. A special language that twins speak to each other."
"A special language?"
We think we're just talking normally.

The little guy is poking the ice on the somen with his chopsticks, looking uninterested. Seeing me unconvinced, Neko-chan slurped her somen and cleared her throat as if to say, "Shall I tell you?"
"Twins sometimes create and speak their own language before they learn to speak after they are born. It's a common thing for parents of twins," she said, searching for something with her slender pinky finger.
After waiting for the spinning search icon, an image popped up. Two foreign girls. They are cute, but it looks like a very old photo.

"The famous ones are Poto and Kabengo. In the 1970s in Georgia, USA, it was discovered that 8-year-old twins were speaking their own language."
"Their own language..."
"Yes, they break down several words, connect them, and change them into a new single word. It has a staccato-like rhythm... It's exactly the same as you and the little guy just now."
Even when told that, I have no awareness of it. "Us? We were talking normally."
"You're unconscious of it."
"That's scary. Does that mean our language changed without us noticing?" Seeing me slurp my somen while trembling, perhaps looking ridiculous, she laughed, "Heh heh."
"I suppose so. That naturally. This will also be valuable academic material." Her inquisitive mind as a special researcher for the Cabinet Office peeked through. "So, what were you whispering about?"

"Nii-bo-nu-ma-bo-re-ta-ro-"
"Be-te-na-"

"The little guy was suspecting, 'Brother, did you eat my Umaibo snack?', so I just answered, 'I didn't eat it.'"
"You didn't eat it?"
"Yes. Be-na-."
"Be-na-... be-te-na-i... ta-be-te-na-i... I didn't eat it. Ah, I see," Neko-chan repeated it in her head.

"You definitely ate it!" the little guy brought it up again.
"Don't point with your chopsticks."
"There's one missing."
"I wonder."
"I counted them."
"Even though you're bad at math."
"Give it back!"
"Yes, yes, you're noisy."
"Give it back!"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes."
"When? What time, what minute, what second!?"

While watching us like that,
"A valuable academic discovery, and it's about an Umaibo snack..."
Neko-chan laughed as if she were exasperated.

(To be continued)

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