Chase and Run

A magical jewel box that is said to grant wishes.

Leticia didn’t think much of it when her older brother brought home a mysterious jewel box he had won at an auction.
Even when it wouldn’t open no matter how much effort was put into it, she remained indifferent.

Even when she opened the jewel box together with Valerio, her academy classmate and friend of ten years, she wasn’t flustered.

“Rio. What kind of wish did you make……?”

She was definitely calm up until the moment the jewel box opened, and both their wrists were neatly tied together with a ribbon.
It was only when Leticia realized that the ribbon connecting her and Valerio wouldn’t come undone no matter what, that she began to panic.

“Well, I guess… If I see a back twitching and trying to run away, I want to catch it?”

Valerio’s smiling face and tone were impossibly sweet, but for some reason, a chill ran down her spine.

The cause of all this trouble lay with her and her older brother.
Leticia took a deep breath and started to devise a plan.

He said he wanted to catch her.
So, what if she made him lose the urge to catch her, and instead made him want to run away from her?

“I’m telling you. Rio, I’m going to, um, pounce on you even more.”

Leticia declared this in a trembling voice, almost in tears.