Shun held out Alice's diamond-studded gold bangle for Shadow to observe. "See? I'm not useless, you know."

"After all this time, you only stole one item?"

Shadow was about to grab the bangle for a better look when his colleague retracted his hand. "Like I said, she keeps everything in her room. If she hadn't suddenly decided to do spring cleaning, then I'd never get a chance to grab all the nice stuff."

"So where's the rest of this 'nice stuff'?"

"Hidden in my room. Do you really still expect me to bring large items to you without attracting attention?" Then Shun started spinning the bangle around his index finger. "Why did you pick Alice out of all people?"

"Because she's lonely, vulnerable, and sitting on top of a huge inheritance."

"That's stupid."

"And who are you to lecture me on ethics when you pickpocket from random people in the streets for a living? I'm visiting later, so you'd better go back before anyone suspects you."

Shun caught the spinning bangle in his hand and returned to Alice's residence, in which Chris rushed toward him immediately. "Where have you been? We need your help!"

"Since when do you not need my help?"

Soon also ran over and explained more clearly. "One of the patio table legs is loose, and the rest of the table looks like it wants to collapse."

"In that case...get me a screwdriver and some twine." Then Shadow's vintage car pulled up into the driveway. How is Alice not bothered by all these unexpected visits? Shun inspected the patio table and discovered the cause of the loose leg. "I see that some screws are loose. Can you two hold the tabletop up for me?"

"Of course!"

The raven-haired servant removed all the loose screws on the affected table leg. He held the table leg with one hand and used the screwdriver with the other. Unfortunately, the tool slipped, and the hand that was holding the table leg got caught been the metal leg and frame. "Oh great..."

Chris ducked down and saw her colleague's swollen hand. "That's not good at all. You need first aid."

"Not yet. This table will collapse if I don't fix it because I had to remove all the screws."

"Well then...let me switch places with you." The blonde housemaid crawled under the table while Shun supported the table by his shoulder. "What do you want me to do after replacing the screws?"

"Tie the legs to the frame with twine. I'd rather weld the legs together, but we don't have a furnace or tool that's hot enough to do that."

"Understood."

After repairing the table, Soon went to retrieve the first aid kit as Shun followed. He passed by a room whose door was ajar. It was a large sunroom with glass windows in place of the roof and walls. Shadow and Alice were sitting inside and painting on easels. "What's going on?" the auburn-haired housemaid asked.

"Are they that bored to the point of painting artwork together?"

"If Miss Alice enjoys painting with Mister Shadow, then let her be." Soon finally found the first aid kit and laid everything on the dining table. "First we'll clean any cuts with iodine. Then we'll wrap your hands with cold damp towels to reduce the swelling before using this medicated oil."

"Thank you."

"Soon, I totally forgot that I had the stove on!" exclaimed Chris on her way back from the backyard.

As Shun applied the medicated oil onto his hands, Alice escorted Shadow to the front door and returned to smell the herbal odor in the year. "Shun, what happened? I thought I told Chris and Soon to reserve the medicated oil for emergencies!"

"Uh...fixing the patio table was an emergency?"

"What?!" The redhead faced her housemaids, who immediately hid in the kitchen. "I told them that I was in no rush to get that fixed. How badly does your hand hurt?"

"It got better after using cold compresses and applying medicated oil. What else can I do?"

"I have another idea." The redhead ran upstairs and came back with a glass jar full of white tablets. "Take some aspirin. I usually get an unpleasant aftertaste, so maybe serve it with something sweet like—"

Shun took a tablet and swallowed it without water. "Did Shadow come by again?"

"He did. You three must've been fixing the patio table. We were painting in the sunroom."

Then he lowered his voice and asked, "How did you meet him to begin with?"

"Oh...that's a long story. I think he and Grandfather—when he was still here—came across each other during a social business gathering of sorts. When Grandfather died, my aunt and uncle came back to help me with funeral business and met Shadow during that time too. My parents died a long time ago, and Shadow doesn't know anything about them."

Shadow already had his eyes on the prize way before he went solo then. "That explains a lot about the way he—"

"What about your family?"

Shun froze amidst packing up the first aid kit. "I don't—"

"Time for dinner!" exclaimed Chris again. "Shun, you'd better get rid of that herbal smell, or else none of us will have any appetite to eat."

"Sorry." Shun chose to wash his hands in the bathroom since the kitchen was crowded and saw Alice waiting in the hallway in front of the bathroom door. "Can I help you?"

"Not really. If your hand still hurts for the next few days, then you can go home instead of staying here and doing nothing."

"How come you always let me go home, but not Chris or Soon?"

"Because I already know that they don't have any other family nearby." The heiress removed her sapphire earrings and set them by the sink. "I'll see you at the dinner table."

After washing his hands, Shun ran the pair of earrings under faucet water and held them against the faint sunlight. I honestly don't deserve any of this...

-x-x-x-x-x-

A few days later, Shadow had the splendid idea of bringing Alice along a hiking trail to paint in nature. The weather was no longer rainy and wet, but now sunny and scorching.

Meanwhile, Shun was tasked with carrying all their painting supplies up the trail with them. Shadow Prove, I will murder you if you come up with stupid plans like this again. Spare me the agony of working under both you and Alice...

Alice opened her hand fan to cool herself off and looked back to see how behind her raven-haired servant was. "Shun, it's okay to take your jacket off if you're sweating in this weather. I don't want you to end up dehydrated."

"I'm totally fine," he lied.

"Alice, he's young and strong, so don't worry about him," Shadow reassured. "Anyway, this is the spot. If you sit on this giant tree stump, you'll notice that you have an unobstructed view of the nature ahead of you. Shun, bring over the art supplies, please."

"Here are your easels, brushes, canvases, pencils, tempera paint—"

"Tempera? As in egg tempera? It's too hot to use that, and who knows what our paintings would smell like in this heat?" complained Shadow as Shun's jaw dropped in disbelief. "Go back home and get acrylic paint. I'm pretty sure I left some used and new boxes in the sunroom the other day."

"You—" The raven-haired servant pointed his finger at Alice's guest, who completely ignored the former's existence and talked his way off with Alice again. How dare you tell me to bring tempera paint earlier and now change your mind?! Shun stormed home immediately and threw the cases of tempera paint on the floor.

"Shun, are you okay?" asked Chris while doing embroidery.

"How about you try walk up a long trail with heavy equipment on your shoulders, coming back down because we grabbed the wrong supplies, and going up again to deliver the correct supplies—all in this heat?!" He grabbed cases of acrylic paint from the sunroom and left the house again.

"I'd better make sure that the paint cases that he just tossed didn't spill out," Soon sighed.

This time, Shun grabbed a hand fan earlier and fanned himself off on the way up the hiking trail. The only reason why I'm here is solely to carry heavy equipment, and switching tempera for acrylic was probably just an excuse for Shadow to have some time alone with—

He looked up and saw Shadow leaning toward Alice to wipe paint off her cheek. The acrylic paint sets fell to the ground, in which the noise interrupted the pair and caught their attention. Shun picked up the paint sets quickly and handed them over. "If you don't mind, I need to go back and help Chris and Soon with another broken house item," he lied.

"No problem. Off you go!" Shadow replied.

Alice gasped as her eyes met with Shun's, but the latter continued fanning himself off in this heat and returned home quickly. How do you even get paint on your face? And why am I so upset that their relationship is going well? Everything's going just as we planned—

"What plan are you talking about?"

The raven-haired servant took a startled step back upon hearing Chris's voice. Great, time to improvise again. "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier, but do you want to know why I'm mad?"

"Um...sure, tell me. You're not usually like this. What's wrong?"

The two entered the house and each poured cold water to drink. "Shadow invites Alice for a 'date' at some tree stump along the local hiking trail, but somehow needs me to carry all their art supplies for them uphill. Shadow clearly told me to pack tempera paint, but when I unload the supplies, he sends me back home to replace tempera with acrylic because he thinks the egg in tempera will go bad in this heat. How can I not be mad?"

"That's actually a very long way from the house that tree stump. I've been there before. Shadow can be weird and quirky at times, but what the hell was he thinking? Obviously, you shouldn't be a third-wheel, but walking that long distance four times altogether is unreasonable torture. Does he have a grudge against you or something?"

"Or maybe he's envious that I see Alice more often than he does. If that's the case, then can I just quit already? I really enjoy working with the three of you, but Shadow is not—"

Soon returned from the backyard and heard Shun's rant. "No, please don't quit! You're a great person, Shun. You're not at fault. Mister Shadow is. If only he would actually move on in life with or without Miss Alice instead of dragging this ambiguous relationship any longer!"

The raven-haired servant smirked with his intertwined hands concealing his mouth as he watched the two housemaids bickering about Shadow. Now I've successfully converted them into supporting me instead of Shadow. "Relax, I'm not serious about quitting. I literally just started working here and have family members to support at home. Anyway, I need to change. Walking that hiking trail four times in a row has me sweating—"

"Oh no!" Chris exclaimed "I forgot to buy some herbs to make a medicinal pillow."

"What do you need? I can buy it for you since I've been exposed to the outside today."

"I need Chinese senna seeds, florist's daisy, Indian chrysanthemum, winter mulberry, and mint leaves."

Shun grabbed an empty shopping bag and some change before leaving the house again. After buying the medicinal plants that Chris requested, he made his way to the secret entrance of his hideout and knocked on the door. "It's me."

"YOU'RE BACK!" Dan opened the door and pulled his best friend inside for a tight hug. "Dude, you look skinnier than before. Is Alice Gehabich not feeding you?"

More like I have no appetite every time I remind myself that I made a deal with Shadow. "She is, but her housemaids cook food that's different from what I'm used to eating."

"What is that?" Runo closed the door and pointed at the shopping bag. "What kind of chores does she make you do?"

"This has nothing to do with Alice. I'm running an errand for one of her housemaids because I've already left the house previously and been exposed to this hot weather. I seriously regret making a deal with Shadow to steal Alice's inheritance."

"Why so sad?" Marucho asked. "Did your plan go sideways?"

"Basically, I'm supposed to convince Alice that Shadow is an absolutely great person to marry, but she's having second doubts, and Shadow keeps passing on ridiculous demands to me." From his coat pockets, Shun took out some cash and various items of jewelry. "I keep telling Shadow that I absolutely couldn't steal anything from that house because either nothing is valuable or that the valuable items are too large, but in reality...I saved everything for you all instead."

"Awww...you're the best, Shun!"

"He hasn't contacted any of you, right? He's usually, busy getting updates from me or trying to ask Alice out on a date. Makes me nauseous just thinking about what happened this morning."

"What happened?" they asked.

"He made me carry some equipment with him up this trail. Then he says I packed the wrong item, so I had to go home and bring the correct item. I don't want to talk about it, and the hot weather isn't help me. Anyway, I should go back. Don't pawn all the jewelry at once, and be sure to utilize different retailers."

"Come back often!" his friends reminded as they escorted him outside.

Shun returned to Alice's house and handed the shopping bag to Chris. "Here's everything that you requested. How do you make a medicinal pillow?"

"Simple! Just grind the plants into powder using a mortar and pestle, place the powder into a small pouch, and sew it into the pillow. I can show you right now."

"To be honest, this sewing project seems like something that Soon would do instead."

"How dare you judge me?" complained Chris playfully before gathering all her supplies.

Just when the blonde housemaid finished sewing the medicinal pillow, Alice returned from her date and waved goodbye to her guest before entering the house. "I rarely see you two together so focused on something. What's going on?"

"Your medicinal pillow is complete, Alice!"

"I need to shower and change." Shun left the dining table immediately and rushed to his bedroom, only to see Alice standing in the hallway again. "Do you have a question?"

"I'm sorry about what happened earlier—"

"Alice, it's not your fault at all. I probably misheard Shadow and packed tempera paint instead of acrylic by accident."

"Honestly, I don't know why he wanted you carry all that equipment for us in the first place I could've use my garden wagon." From her art bag, she took out a primary-green painting and handed it to Shun. "Please accept my apology."

"What is this?"

"Call it a revelation, but I suddenly had the urge to paint something related to the four seasons. This green painting represents spring, and I'm giving to you."

"Why do you think 'green' and 'spring' have to do with me...?"

"Well...you usually only wear black or green, and you're the newest addition to this household. Spring represents change and newness. Chris gets summer, Soon gets autumn, and I get winter."

"I really think that painting in nature somehow got to you. But why pick winter for yourself?"

"Because I like to keep to myself and still mourning, so I might appear cold-hearted and apathetic to some people. I'm trying to get over it, but no success yet."

"You seemed rather happy with Shadow today, and your grandfather's death shouldn't have to hold you back from doing what you want to do."

"Is that all that you see?" Alice's tone dropped significantly, sending a slight chill down Shun's spine. "Brushing paint of my face doesn't mean anything."

"What does this have to do with me?"

Instead, the heiress entered the room and looked all over for a place to hang the green painting. "You can't just rush someone into getting married, just like how you can't rush the seasons to move on in your favor. This section of the wall between your two windows looks like the perfect—"

Standing on her toes and lifting a relatively heavy item in the air called the redhead to lose her balance, but Shun hurried over and caught her in time. "I seriously think that this sudden heat wave has caused you to not think straight."

"This is the third time you've stopped me from hitting the floor," she noted as she helped herself to a standing position again. "You said you needed to shower. The bathroom's all yours."

After Alice entered the living room, Shun closed his bedroom door behind her. She stared at the spring painting in her hands and sighed. I really shouldn't have hired him. Having him endure meaningless days with the rest of us is a waste of his talents.