A Slightly Sad Story on a Rainy Day

Short story project! This month's theme!

I will collect other participants' stories later and post a summary article!
If you want to read them all together, please check that out.

It's sad!
Includes romance between men!
They are loved!

Let's #BLonNote!

Main Story: "No Umbrella"

I'm not participating in Summer Comiket this year.

All that comes to mind are stale ideas, I have no new material, and consequently, I have zero motivation to write, so I finally dropped my mechanical pencil onto the desk.
In times like these, I should cleanse my body and soul with an erotic book by 'Ramee♡Uchi-sensei,' a giant in the doujin world of the cheer-choreography scene.

When I open the closet and push aside the curtain of clothes, a collection of thin erotic books spreads out, but today it's the prized cardboard box.
Inside are the new arrivals; today, I'll unveil these.

Should I go for the one where my favorite, Kuku-chan, is in a yukata, or maybe a swimsuit isn't bad either. No... the hot pants butt is also outrageous.

As I was deliberating, the intercom rang.
My lower half is telling me to pretend I'm not home, but my brain has already figured it out.

I have no reason to expect Amazon or a hometown tax return gift.
If I haven't made plans with friends, then nine times out of ten, the person pressing my home intercom is my older brother.

If it were Riki, I'd ignore it, but my brother is an exception. I close the closet, open the window, and take a deep breath while looking at the greenery as far away as possible.
I switch to 'brother-con' mode.

Are you asking if my brother will leave if I take my time doing that?

My brother is patient.

He has a heart longer than the Amazon River and deeper than Lake Titicaca, so it's fine.
That said, it's raining outside, so I hurried to open the front door.

“Mitsu, do you have a towel?”

That was the first thing he said.
And he was soaking wet and empty-handed.

“Where's the car?”
“Yeah. I left it behind. Can you lend me some of your clothes, Mitsu?”
“You're way too underdressed for this weather.”

He must have come out after some fruitless argument with his lover, Riki.

Riki, who has been my best friend for many years, knows my brother inside out and knows that once he's had his fill of being alone, he'll definitely come back, so he doesn't chase him, look for him, or bother him.
If this were my brother's ex-boyfriend, Tomoe-senpai, he would have tracked him down and dragged him back.

“I just got tired of it.”

I think to myself.
I like Riki's calmness, but sometimes, if you don't use brute force like Tomoe-senpai, the things you hold dear will slip away.

I heard that my brother, who entered a prestigious university for basketball, moved into a dormitory and wouldn't be coming home that year because the club was too busy.

While I was taking a nap in my room on the second floor during the Obon holidays, I woke up feeling someone's presence downstairs. My parents had gone to visit a grave, so I should have been the only one there.
I crept down the stairs and looked at the entrance. There were large sandals I didn't recognize lined up, and as I shifted my gaze to the hallway, the sliding door to the Buddhist altar room was open.

Ching...

I jumped at the sound of the bell, and while holding my heart, I crept down the hallway and peeked into the room.

There was my brother, sitting properly in front of the altar, hands pressed firmly together until the sound faded away.
My knees gave out all at once.

“Mitsu. I'm home.”
“What the hell, seriously!”

The relief lasted only a moment, and then I was drenched in cold sweat from a sense of unease.

In the sweltering heat of mid-August, his sweat-soaked T-shirt was sticking to his back.
It wasn't my brother's style; it was a vintage T-shirt of an overseas rock band, and he was wearing it with the back print in the front.

“Did you say you were coming home?”
“Nope.”

He was wearing shorts and no socks.
Even though he's my brother, he looked like a ghost of Obon, and it didn't feel like my brother at all.
The sound of cicadas, which felt like it was clogging my ears, overlapped with my own heartbeat, and I looked back at the entrance.

“Huh? Where's your luggage?”
“Yeah. I left it behind. Can you lend me some of your clothes, Mitsu?”

When I looked back, my brother was reaching for the snacks offered at the altar.
“Grandma, thank you. I was hungry,” he said, tearing open the outer bag and starting to eat a snack made of thin crepe wrapped around chocolate cream.

One, then another.
Crunch, munch, munch.
Crumbling, crumbling.

The crepe dough crushed by his teeth spilled onto his knees, and he licked his fingers covered in melted cream.
It was the first time I saw my elegant brother eating in such a rough manner.



Strange things continued to happen on days like that.
When the intercom rang at night and I opened the door.

“Eh? Shirose... san?”

In front of me was my brother's roommate, the shining star of Japanese basketball, 'The Genius, Tomoe Shirose.'

“Sorry for the late hour. Um, you're Mitsuji-kun, right? Is Yuji... oh, is your brother home?”
“E-eh, my brother, you mean?”

When my mother came to the entrance pulling my brother's hand after hearing my cracked voice, Tomoe-senpai hurriedly straightened his posture and bowed his head.

“Mother, I'm sorry for the sudden visit.”
“It's fine, Tomoe-kun. It's late, so please stay the night. Mitsu, lend him some clothes! Older brother, put some bedding in the guest room! Father, that's alright, isn't it?”
“As long as I know Yuji-kun is safe, I'm fine. There's a boarding house for a high school junior nearby, so I'll go there—”
“Stay the night.”
“Yes...”

Overwhelmed by her intensity, Tomoe-senpai lined up his shoes at the edge and stood in front of my brother.
Seeing his face, he flushed with relief, and trembling with lips and cheeks as if drowning, he reached out, saying, “I'm glad.”
My brother quickly pulled away and disappeared into the guest room.

Tomoe-senpai's chin withered away in an instant, and he hung his head as if his strings had been cut.
My mother patted his head and said, “You're the first person to make my older brother that angry, Tomoe-kun. It's proof that he loves you,” and while saying something like a mediator for elementary school fights, she guided Tomoe-senpai to the bath.

Past midnight, when I was about to turn off the light in my room, my brother crawled into my bed with a thin voice, saying, “Mitsu.”
The air he carried was salty.

“Aren't you sleeping with Shirose-san?”
“Yeah. We fought.”
“I see. You're kind, chasing after him like that.”
“...It's troublesome.”

My brother, who isn't used to fighting, rubbed his cold nose against my chest.

“I'm used to painful things, but I'm weak when people are kind to me.”

My brother deeply regretted that Tomoe-senpai had been worried about his own safety rather than appearances, and he started to let him know where he was going at all times.
Thanks to that, recovering Tomoe-senpai also became more efficient, but that's another story.


Come to think of it.


There was one more time Tomoe-senpai forced his way into our parents' house.

At the end of the summer, six years after they both became professional basketball players.
It was when reports of a passionate romance between Tomoe-senpai, who had returned from America, and Chihaya-san, the absolute ace of the prestigious Japanese team 'Heats,' were released.
I was impressed that the Japanese basketball world had changed with the news of a big couple, when Tomoe-senpai, who was at the center of the storm, suddenly rang the intercom again.

My brother was busy moving for a transfer and hadn't come home.

When I peeked from the living room, Tomoe-senpai bowed deeply after talking with my mother at the entrance.
But my mother didn't accept Tomoe-senpai like she did that day, and she shut the door firmly, saying, “There's no smoke without fire.”

There was someone at the entrance for a while, but after they disappeared as if they had given up, the weather suddenly turned bad.
Noticing the large raindrops that had started to fall, my mother handed me an umbrella before I could even take in the laundry.

“Give this to Tomoe-kun. It's your brother's umbrella, so he doesn't have to come back to return it.”


I didn't really understand the reason, but I felt like I had been entrusted with a special mission, so I ran into the rain that had started to fall.
I immediately saw the vintage rock band T-shirt and called out.

“Tomoe-senpai!”

He didn't notice at all.
This time, I took a deep breath and called out in a higher voice.

“Tomoe!”

For a split second, as he turned around as if startled, Tomoe-senpai's face crumpled.
I could see his canine teeth, which he didn't usually show, from the corner of his mouth, and his smile was crying.

“Senpai...”

And when I caught up to him, jogging, he let his shoulders drop heavily.
He clenched his fists and bit his thin lower lip tightly.


“Ah, Mitsu-kun.”

We don't look alike at all.
I only understood that Tomoe-senpai desired my brother so much that he could be mistaken for my brother, who is 15cm shorter than me and has a higher voice.

“Um, here's an umbrella.”

Perhaps recognizing the handle, Senpai's snow-white cheeks twitched, and he brushed back his bangs that were stuck to his forehead to try and hide it.

“Sorry, even though it's raining.”
“It's because it's raining, that's why.”

Even though his lungs expanded with a deep breath, his chest, which should have been thick, looked dejected, and as he slowly pushed the umbrella back, shaking his head, he let out a sound like air escaping, “Feee,” and Tomoe-senpai started to cry.
A great senior, a national representative, a man who went to the pinnacle of basketball, the NBA, was sobbing in a residential area in the countryside in the pouring rain.

“Senpai,”

“So-sorry... I hurt your brother.”
I don't know what he's talking about, but is it about the romance report?
“Um, if it's about the news...”
What broke the dam before my words was not the rain, but Tomoe-senpai.

“Hey, there are so many other things in the world that should be news, you know. People dying, politicians saying stupid things, how tax money is used, hey, don't you think so too, Mitsu-kun?”

It was definitely that romance report.
“It doesn't matter who I'm with, does it? In a week, it won't even be in the corner of anyone's memory.”

“I'm sorry. Um, what does that have to do with us?”

Even as raindrops fell on Tomoe-senpai and droplets ran down his hair, I learned for the first time that you can't hide tears with rain.
“I've been dating Yuji, your brother, since university...”

At the same time, I learned for the first time that they had been dating for many years.

But the team didn't look favorably on their relationship.

While Tomoe-senpai was playing in America for two years, his consultations with Chihaya-san, who had moved to America, were leaked as a 'secret meeting'.

However, when he returned to Japan, the team was in a celebratory mood about the romance with Chihaya-san and continued the contract smoothly.
My brother, who should have been on the same team, had his contract for the next season terminated in a mix-up and had already left the team.
Teammates who knew nothing said, 'Yuji was poached by the Believers,' but at this moment, Tomoe-senpai realized.
The world accepted Chihaya-san, who had status, honor, and buzz, and considered my brother, who was 'good at best,' as insufficient for him.

“I went to Yuji's new place, but he wasn't there. I thought he might be here.”

I guess he wants to be left alone.

I realized my new special mission.

As the younger brother of my brother who is 'good at best,' I must expose the true genius, Shirose, to the world.

I shielded Tomoe-senpai from the rain that was beating down on him mercilessly with the umbrella.
“Senpai, you can deny the romance with Chihaya-san, right?”

What a stupid report, what a world. Broadcast this on the news.

“Of course I can.”

The world should know more about the messy, pathetic man who is hopelessly in love with my brother, who is 'good at best,' and is even dripping with snot and soaked to the bone.

“This is a message from my mother. You don't have to come to the house anymore, but please make sure to return this umbrella to my brother.”

The report died down in a few weeks.


My brother didn't show his face at his parents' house for that year and started dating my best friend Riki, who had transferred to the same team, happily.


On the other hand, one umbrella was added to my brother's new home, and Tomoe-senpai reconciled with my mother.
I felt a chill at the persistence of the genius Shirose, the man at the top of Japan who was relentlessly chasing him, but another suspicion arose.

Maybe my brother just avoided the rain well by pretending to keep a certain distance from Tomoe-senpai, like the fight that day.
Maybe he just avoided the rain so that such a calculating true heart wouldn't show through from under that lustrous, thin, peach-colored skin.

“Is this Mitsu's shirt?”

My brother, who came out of the shower, looks up at me with an ugly face.
“Correct. That's the shirt Riki left behind.”
He pulls on the oversized boyfriend shirt with the funny face he shows me and Riki, even though he never does it for Tomoe-senpai, and then reaches for my forbidden closet.

“Ah! Wait!”

The door opened a beat too late.
The thin erotic books in the back are safe, but he notices the cardboard box at his feet, which is even more dangerous.

“What's this?”

He crouched down faster than my panicked arms could move, becoming a blur, but I won the reach, tackled him, and escaped the disaster.

“Private!”
“Huh. Something naughty is sticking out.”
“No way!”
When I loosened my arms to protect the cardboard box, my brother, who had plopped his butt on the floor, looked up at me with a straight face.

“Just kidding. Is the content naughty?”
“I'm sorry, it is naughty.”
“I don't really mind, though.”

Damn it.

I'll make it material for the Winter Comiket new release out of spite.
A girl who is less than a girlfriend and soaking wet forces her way into the house on a rainy day, and they end up in a shower and an oversized shirt of mine, sliding into something naughty.
It's something that seems like it could easily happen in daily life, but few people have actually witnessed this scene; clichés are illusions and justice.

“Just forgive Riki already.”
“I'm not angry. It's just troublesome.”
“What a way to say it!”

Well.
My brother is patient, so he doesn't easily hate people, and he doesn't do things halfway.
My brother, who buttoned the shirt all the way up as if he had been hugged from behind and relaxed his brow, was my brother, but he was Riki's beautiful lover.

“Be honest.”
“I'll go home tomorrow.”
“Go home now, in that outfit!”
“The pattern is embarrassing.”
“What a way to say it!”

Honestly, they're all helpless people who can't even make up without me helping them.

“I don't care, just have my brother return it to Riki!”
“...Hey, I want to eat Lumonde.”

Ah, he ignored me.

Tomoe-senpai's innocence

Chihaya is a character I thought of at the same time as Tomoe, a player who went around overseas leagues after studying abroad in America and came to the Japanese league.
He was familiar with Tomoe from Asian camps and the Japanese national team and had liked him for a long time.
They got closer when Tomoe, who was scouted at a share case (like a worldwide basketball draft), was playing for a minor league team in the NBA while away from Japan for a while.

Tomoe denied the relationship, Chihaya didn't deny it.
Huh? Senpai is in the gray zone.

A very trivial after-story

The day after a lovers' quarrel in college.
Yuji, who fell in love again with Tomoe, who was praying at the Buddhist altar saying 'Sorry for the trouble' just before leaving, couldn't hold back and hugged Tomoe's back, and the scene was witnessed by his father.

Father's heart was disturbed.

He slammed the sliding door open and shouted, “Father will not allow a world line where my son marries into a genius handsome man's family!” in a rage.
He was scolded harshly by his mother, who supports the young couple, saying, “What's wrong with my son, whom I raised with such care, being deeply loved by a high-spec super-darling!”” and had his allowance reduced.

“My tsundere boyfriend Yuji is so cute today I could die” Tomoe-senpai and “I'm a low-caste person, but I'm troubled by being obsessively loved by my cheat boyfriend” Yuji went back to the dormitory together.

By the way, the sleepy younger brother Mitsuji was having a fruitless dream of “The case where my older brother, who sneaks into my bed in the middle of the night while leaving his boyfriend behind, was a hidden big-breasted beautiful girl”.

Notice

I wrote a 'boob comedy' with the same theme.
To make it the main story, the 'love' was too weak, so it's a story about 'Lumonde,' 'cardboard,' and 'boobs on a rainy day on top of it'.
It's a story about emptying your head and stuffing it with dreams of boobs, but it's a refreshing comedy read with momentum, without any vulgarity.

I will release it secretly another day.