It was the night before the Niijima household would bring out the board games, open up the snacks and fizz up their drinks for game night; and Makoto had an announcement to make to her legal guardian. Her sister, Sae Niijima, a former prosecutor who had now decided to become a lawyer. Her reasons were that the job was too stressful and toxic as she felt she was always seeing the bad in people, even outside of her job, so she felt it was time to change and start helping people. Especially considering the prosecution rate was above 90% meaning innocent people were going to prison fairly often. She thought they deserved a fighting chance which led her to a new career.

However, the Niijima sisters weren’t sitting on the sofa awkwardly facing each other to talk about her new career. No, this was a more personal issue to Makoto as she had something… very embarrassing to announce. At least, it felt embarrassing to Makoto as she felt her sister might be annoyed that she focused on relationships more than studies which wasn’t true at all. She balanced things very easily thanks to her ordered life.

Regardless, sitting twiddling her thoughts and residing in her mind imagining scenarios was not the best way to reveal this, so she took a deep breath and started. “Sis, I-I have something… I need to say. Do you promise not to be mad?” she asked as she bit her lip before her face betrayed herself and revealed how shaky and nervous she was. She wouldn’t show weakness in front of her sister.

“I’ll only be mad if you broke the law Makoto.” She joked as she placed her hands on top of Makoto’s which were scrunched up in her skirt, “It’s okay Makoto, I promise you’re safe here” she reassured her as she smiled softly.

She found the smile infectious as it started to appear on her face too. She took a very deep breath and let it out slowly a few times to calm herself. She felt calmer but if her rapid heart rate had anything to say, she was definitely not calm.

Might as well just come out and say it she thought to herself as she realised her heartbeat was not going to calm down anytime soon. “Sis, I- you know how- remember when.” Makoto audibly groaned and lowered her head at her inability to form a sentence. Sae noticed her frustration and rubbed her thumb back and forth along her hand to tell her it was all ok and to take her time.

With a dejected sigh, she let it slip “Sis, I’m gay.” Her thumb stopped tracing comforting patterns along her hand as she pulled them back to her chin in thought.

Sae returned her hands to their prior position, albeit hesitantly, as she asked “How did you know?” a question rated within the top 5 asked by family to a loved one who has just come out. (she made sure to prepare for this situation with thorough research).

“I think it was sometime in my second year at Shujin. There was this girl, Haru, who I met in class and we just clicked. We got so close so quickly and it felt almost as if we were meant to meet, she felt so perfect and I found her on my mind constantly. I put my lack of interest in boys to the fact that I was too focused on my studies, but then she happened and even when I studied or took notes in class; I found myself doodling in my notebook or daydreaming of her.” As Makoto spoke and slowly yet surely became more comfortable around the topic, she raised her head to look Sae in the eyes as the sisters smiled softly. And with a blush and a look to the side, she revealed one final truth “I was in love Sis. And being with her just felt so peaceful, it was like nothing bad could happen. And then earlier this year… she asked me to the roof where she did her gardening at school. And she confessed- “

“And you revealed your feelings too. Is that right?” Sae had interrupted her causing Makoto to look back at her sister with a shocked look, she tried to answer with words but eventually gave up as she simply nodded with a blush.

“I’m happy for you Makoto, I would argue that your studies are important especially this close to the end of the school year. But I can see its obvious that this is more important to you, and the fact that you have the Number 1 spot in the national mocks reassures me of your skill.”

“Thanks, Sis.”

“Bring her over tomorrow, to game night.”

Makoto froze as she realised something “Sis I adore her, but I think you might end up killing her if I do.”

“Nonsense, bring her here tomorrow or I’ll kill you,” she said, punctuating the threat with a raise of her eyebrows as if inviting her to oppose her. With a sigh, she accepted and prayed to any gods that Haru would live through the day.

#

Makoto was right, Sae was going to kill this girl. She had absolutely nothing against her, she was well-mannered and kind enough to bring a gift for inviting her. She was the embodiment of a literal ball of sunshine and her and Makoto were obviously in love. But by god did she want to jump over to her and strangle her right now because she was the worst at board games.

They decided to start off with Uno as it set off the competitive mood for the night very quickly. They all sat on the floor in the living room with the table in the middle of them all for them to place their cards on. Because Haru did not know the rules and how to play; Makoto sat next to her so she could instruct her and tell her what each card did and what the aim of the game was. And yet somehow, she still managed to get confused and ended up putting the wrong card down or just had no idea what to do. Granted Makoto was very calm with her as she knew this was what would happen, Sae, on the other hand, was currently brainstorming the cleanest way to kill her and hide the body. It was safe to say she was starting to get frustrated.

They managed to play a few games of Uno before moving on to monopoly. That was a bad idea. Makoto could see halfway into the game how Sae’s eye was starting to twitch in seething anger and frustration, you would think having someone with no board game experience playing would make it easier to win. Instead, it just made it harder for the game to actually kick off properly. Makoto decided it was best to end the board game there as she had a proposition before exiting the living room to go to where Haru had put her bag.

Sae was rubbing her temples when Haru apologised whilst looking down at the floor with an embarrassed and upset look covering her bright face. “Why are you sorry Haru-San?” she asked slightly frustrated as the after-effects of the games still plagued her.

“I feel I am ruining your game night Sae-San. Mako-Chan often says how much she enjoys your monthly game nights and I was excited when I was invited, but I completely forgot that I had never played a board game before. Sorry.” She sounded quite dejected and was obviously upset at the fact that she might be ruining a precious night for Makoto and Sae.

Sae waved her off and reassured her saying “Don’t worry about it Haru-San. When our parents first introduced me to Game night, before Makoto and before our parents passed, I felt the same as you do right now because I had no idea what I was doing. My parents assured me in the same way that I am doing right now for you. Us Niijima’s, we can be… extremely competitive, and when someone new joins in it does interrupt the usual flow. But once you get the hang of it, I assure you that these will be the best nights of your life Haru-san.” As she finished her little speech to Haru, Makoto walked back in carrying a dock, some cables, and a case for a Nintendo Switch.

“Geez sis, no need to be so formal. Haru prefers being called by just her first name anyway.” She said smiling as she struggled to keep everything in her hands. Haru giggled and shot up to help Makoto with the new items she had acquired and helped her set up the console against the TV in the living room as Makoto asked Sae to clean up the board games and sit in her chair.

“Is it in?” Haru asked Makoto with what could only be described as a mischievous glint glowing in her eyes.

“Yes dear, we never took it out after the last time we played it” Makoto replied and chuckled as Haru pumped her fist with a silent “Yes!”.

Makoto handed Sae a controller as they booted up Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and set up a 3-player match.

Haru turned to Sae with her bright smile which betrayed her words “I’m going to destroy you and trample over your corpse Sae-San.” What made her threat even scarier was the fact that she giggled light-heartedly afterwards and started to bounce in her seat in excitement.

Makoto turned to Sae with a nervous smile as she said “Haru loves video games and she can get… a tad competitive.”

Sae changed her mind. She didn’t want to kill this girl in fear of what she could do to her should she fail to kill her properly.

Makoto’s found a keeper she thought to herself with a smile as for the rest of the evening they all played on the switch.

Haru won every single match.