My Stepsister is My Ex-Girlfriend - Volume 4 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

I don’t have any anecdotes that link back to the story (although my great-grandfather did act as an interpreter while being a prisoner in an internment camp in Siberia) so I think I’d like to try having an honest conversation about the story this time. If you’re starting the book from here, I strongly advise you to go back and read it first!

Almost every romantic comedy has a certain episode in which the heroine has a realization that she does indeed like the protagonist. Maybe it’s during a sticky situation that he saves her from, or maybe it’s just from naturally spending time together. Or maybe she realizes her feelings only when they aren’t able to spend time together. There are a lot of different ways to go about it, but they all share the same theme—they see the good side of the protagonist.

So, in Yume’s case, she already knew what exactly made Mizuto “good.” All the scenes I’ve written in which Mizuto looks like a cool guy to the reader are nothing new to her. She expects this behavior from him. She’s just started to build a bond with him as family, but can she ever fall back in love with him? Kindly, I ask you to read the novel for your answer, if you haven’t.

This volume set out to show that people don’t necessarily fall for others just because they know how cool they can be. Personalities are strongly affected by societal pressures, so it’d make sense that family also shapes one’s personality—especially a new family.

Humans are like snow. You can shape them pretty easily if you’re fast enough, but wait too long and they’ll be frozen in a certain shape. When you’re a high schooler, you’re probably just on the verge of freezing. There are still parts of you that can be shaped and others that you just can’t change anymore.

In general, people can easily be changed by others, but they can’t change themselves so easily. It’s a really difficult and confusing period of life. People call this “youth,” but I’ll leave my thoughts on the matter for another time.

The rest of this afterword will be an advertisement for my new book called Tensei Gotoki de Nigerareru to Demo, Nii-san? will be published by MF Bunko J on March 25th, 2020. Or at least I think it will be. I just have to pray that it gets through the Kadokawa review okay without too many words being flagged.

As usual, it’ll be a complicated story about love. There’s a little sister whose love is a little heavy. Just a little. Only a teensy bit. She’s about a hundred million times worse than Akatsuki Minami in middle school.

I recommend you read it and then return to reading StepExes. I believe it’ll make you treasure the relationship between Mizuto and Yume even more. It’ll really make you feel so much better and happier. So just try reading it, okay? Just this once, I swear.

Oh, also, we have an official Twitter account for the novel (@tsurekano). We’re planning on publishing some side stories, so be sure to follow the account for the extra content!

A big thanks to TakayaKi for his illustrations, Rei Kusakabe for her work on the manga, my editor, the novel’s designer, our proofreader, the bookstore staff, everyone who helped work on this series, and of course, to you, the readers!

This is where we’ll say goodbye for now. I might’ve said before that there wouldn’t be multiple heroines who compete for the protagonist, but...that was a lie. Now Yume has to fight against her past self. Hm? What about Isana Higashira? She’s lying on the ground reading a light novel. She’s not even trying to compete.

And with that, you’ve reached the end of Kyosuke Kamishiro’s My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: First Kiss Manifesto. Their summer vacation just keeps going on forever, doesn’t it?