Dumped by One, Chased by Another? My Ex's Sister Is a Gal and She's Coming for Me - Chapter 65

You might think this is all a bit sudden.

But at shrines known for matchmaking, there’s often something called a koi-mikuji—a love fortune.

Shrines typically offer omikuji, paper fortunes that predict your luck for the year. These cover a wide range of topics: money, health, work, and yes, romance. But koi-mikuji is different.

It’s focused solely on your romantic luck. Every word on it is about love.

If you think about it, regular omikuji are like generalists, while koi-mikuji are specialists.

I wonder what I should do about my future.

Maybe it’s still too early to decide, but it might be wise to start thinking about it now.

“Something on your mind, Kengorou-san? Not interested in the koi-mikuji?”

“It’s not that I’m not interested… It just feels weird to draw a love fortune when we’re already together.”

If it turned out to be bad luck, that’d definitely kill the mood.

Not that I think we’d fight over it or anything, but still.

“Hmm, but I doubt they’d include bad luck in a love fortune. I mean, this shrine is pretty popular with couples.”

Looking around, I realized she was right—at least half the visitors were couples.

The other half? Mostly groups of women or solo female visitors.

Well, no point overthinking it.

I know how to behave, and I’ve got enough manners to carry myself properly.

“Should I be the only one to draw one?”

“Nah, I’ll do it too.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Let’s open them together.”

“Hehe.”

“What?”

“I’m just happy. It’s like you understand what I’m thinking.”

“Same here.”

Apparently, Haruki and I were on the same wavelength.

Honestly, I don’t put much faith in fortunes or divination.

In the end, they’re just vague predictions—you might get lucky, you might not. That’s all.

Most omikuji just offer suggestions: “This might happen, so you might want to do this.” Nothing definitive.

So no, they’re not something you can really rely on.

And yet, I’ve always drawn omikuji every year.

Because I had someone beside me.

Because sharing that little moment with someone else felt like a small step forward.

The future is always unstable, always uncertain.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” I said.

“Hm?”

As we both shook the wooden boxes filled with numbered sticks, I glanced over at Haruki doing the same and continued.

“No matter what happens, I want to stay by your side.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

She smiled, a soft, radiant expression like a blooming flower.

And in that moment, I knew again—the results of the fortune didn’t really matter.

“Still, I wasn’t expecting both of us to get such lukewarm results.”

“Yeah, that caught me off guard too.”

Haruki and I tied our fortunes to the rack together.

Both of us had drawn suekichi—“barely lucky.”

For reference, daikichi (great blessing) is the best you can get, followed by kichi, chuukichi, shoukichi, and finally suekichi, each with slightly worse luck than the last.

Until high school, I actually thought kichi was the worst one. I don’t know why, even now.

“The stuff written in it wasn’t even encouraging. That kinda bummed me out.”

“Are you the type who really believes in fortunes?”

“I guess so. I look at horoscopes a lot, especially in the morning.”

“Really.”

That was a surprising side of her I hadn’t seen.

I never look at that kind of stuff voluntarily, so I guess it’s just not in my routine.

“My dad watches them a lot. He says sometimes all you can do is hope that luck’s on your side.”

“Makes sense.”

Mr. Tokishirou is a doctor and runs his own hospital.

I’m sure there have been many times when all he could do was pray.

And I’ll probably experience the same.

Helping people is incredibly hard.

So, in the end, all we can do is hope.

Maybe Haruki felt the same.

Maybe she prayed—for me, when I was at my lowest.

Maybe she hoped that her feelings for me would reach me, even just a little.

“Haruki.”

“Hmm?”

“Since we got the fortunes, we should probably go make an offering too.”

“Oh, right! We haven’t prayed yet today!”

Realizing that, she and I quickly made our way to the main shrine.

“What did you pray for?”

“Hmm.”

On the way home, after we left the shrine, she asked me that.

Two bows, two claps, one bow again.

The time you get to pray is surprisingly short.

What should I wish for? What could I pray for?

I didn’t really know, so instead, I made a vow.

“I just prayed that I’d make you happy.”

“……”

Haruki stared at me, lips slightly parted.

“Why are we even the same when it comes to things like this?”

“Huh?”

“Nothing! Never mind!”

She turned away, face bright red.

That little moment of conversation was strangely delightful.