hair flying up like snakes.

  Then he went to the romance section and looked at the books. There were a couple of volumes around. He flipped through them—flip, flip, flip—as the shelves were covered. And then, he saw one that caught his eye. It said: Romance Between a Boy and a Female Ghost. They first met in the window, in Volume 1. And the boy was the younger brother.

  The brother's thoughts shifted. He imagined his younger brother trembling as he saw the book, his face turning into a slow grin before shouting, "YAY!" in excitement. The thought brought the older brother unimaginable warmth. He closed his eyes and smiled.

  Then he let out a happy sigh. "Heh heh, heh heh, he he." And after that, he ughed louder. "Ha ha ha ha!"

  Then he bounced happily. He thought, My brother is going to be happy when he sees this book I bought him. He then walked—clink, clink, clink—across the floor, which had a white box-shaped pattern.

  Then he went to the shop owner at the cashier and said, "That would be 1,200 yen for that book." After that, the older brother said happily, "I'll take it." The shop owner said, "Yeah," with a nervous smile as he saw the ghost behind him.

  He took it home happily and dashed out of the shop. He got his keys, unlocked the car, sat down, and the door went ding as it locked. He turned the car and drove straight home, passing by forests that were foggy and dusty with green trees. The ghost followed them as they passed by farms, fields, and cities until they reached a house that looked like a wooden shrine. It had upstairs gss windows and a door that opened sideways, but beside that shrine was their home—a normal house. He walked to the brown door, entered the password—ding ding—and it unlocked. He opened it slowly with a crack and then closed it.

  Then his mother came in and rushed to him with speed. She hugged him and greeted him happily. "Welcome home, Takeshi, my son."

  Then he said to his mother, "Yeah, I know, work is hard, right? It's been a long while since I saw you. I've been working for a week-long trip around Japan."

  A quick fshback came: he was at work in Shibuya. He was working day and night shifts. His eyes were tired. Working in the office, he slowly said to himself in an exhausted, tired voice, "Man, this is hard."

  He worked hard on the job, effortlessly and untiringly. Nights, days, and weeks passed. And then finally, his boss said, "You may now have a break."

  The fshback ended. He said to his mother, "Yeah, that's how my job worked. I was getting worried about my family, so... I’m going to stop by and say hi. This is my full break, so I might as well sleep."

  Then the older brother said, "Yeah, it's time to see your brother." He walked upstairs and knocked on his brother's door. The door was brownish with a knob. The brother asked, "Who is it?" and he replied, "It's me, your brother." The younger one said, "Come in."

  Afterward, the brother opened the door and said, "Hello, Takeshi."

  His room was filled with dozens of manga, and he had a PC where he worked on his art. He seemed really passionate; the tables were filled with anime figures, Gundams, and blue lights, with a candle lighting up the room. The older brother stood at the door, and the younger brother sat in his gaming chair.

  In that quiet moment, the older brother stared. Both of them looked at each other. The younger brother thought, It seems like he's giving me something. The older brother thought, Yeah, I am giving you something. The manga was tucked in his pocket. They stared at each other for a full minute.

  He slowly reached into his pocket and showed the book. When the brother saw it, his eyes lit up like a bzing fire. He instantly, swiftly snatched it out of his hand. He was that excited.

  The younger brother said, "Wow! Thank you very much! I never expected I would get this much from you!"

  He flipped the pages instantly, but his brother tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Not yet. You've got to eat first before you can read your manga."

  The younger brother said, "Fine, I might as well eat." They both walked down quietly. The stairs went tap, tap, tap. They walked down to the kitchen, where their mother was working on the food: miso soup and rice. The miso soup was sizzling—sizzle, sizzle, sizzle. He sat down and waited patiently. He thought to himself, I'm excited to read the manga. I wonder what it's about.

  He imagined it would be a horror story where ghosts haunt the protagonist forever. But his older brother, who bought it, knew it was a romance with a ghost, which was the actual plot.

  The younger brother kept thinking about the story while he was eating—chomp, chomp, chomp. He imagined the ghost would soon appear in the window—bash, bash, bash—and the protagonist would face a life-or-death situation. He thought that idea would be lovely.

  From the older brother's perspective, he knew they would soon meet in the window. The ghost would smile wide, showing she was actually his soulmate. He imagined them holding hands and talking like real, emotional friends.

  The older brother waited as he ate. He read the newspaper about current events—a person who got knocked out in a brawl in the city. He looked closer. It was June 14th. "Oh," he said, "that was a day ago." He reflected, That guy must have been hurt. I feel bad for him.

  He said to himself, It's easy to get hurt badly in the streets, anywhere, so it's always good to be careful.

  The older brother went to the mother and whispered, "He must be really eating well," and the mother replied, "Yeah, he's eating pretty well. Most of the time, he spends his days reading manga." She had a fshback of him reading endlessly for four hours at a time, flipping page after page. He spent hours re-reading the stuff he loved.

  His older brother said, "Yeah, he's pretty dedicated. It makes sense; he's been a big fan since he was six." A fshback came to the older brother of the time he gave him his first comic book. It was about a hero who saved everyone. Once he read it, he became addicted. As a kid, he would spend hours finishing a hundred volumes.

  As they watched the younger brother eating, the mother asked, "Are you almost done, Hiroshi?"

  Hiroshi Was almost finished and done he kept he ate half of it was done. He was on the table that was brown and slightly Slightly dark brown he then wait For the food to finish he went chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp. He looked calm and he was finishing it