"Ah, so are you Mr. Naofumi's younger brother?" Rapthalia asked, realization dawning on her face as she no doubt compared how the two of us looked.

"Indeed. Yes. Yup. Exactly that's correct," Shindo said. "Ah... mind if I come in?" There was a suitcase behind him, clearly he was planning to stay over for a few days at least. Which annoyed me further that he hadn't even bothered to call beforehand, because the house was still a mess from hosting Melty and Filo. Eclair had even offered to send a maid or cleaning crew- whatever I was more comfortable with, to help with the cleanup afterwards, but I had declined as the last thing I wanted was more strangers touching my things. I had assumed that I would have ample time after they had all left to clean up on my own over the next few days.

Oh well, I'd make Shindo clean up most of it. He was on vacation anyway so he should've had lots of free time.

"Do Ma and Pa know you're away?" I asked.

"Know? They're the ones who suggested this in the first place," Shindo said.

"Even the part about-"

"Even the part about making it a surprise for you."

How typical of them to say that. "Alright, make yourself at home."

"I always intended to!" he shouted as he tossed his bag inside, though once he looked at Raphtalia again he realized how goofy he sounded and changed his demeanour. I smirked- well, he was likely going to be far more well-behaved with her around.

"So, have you been practicing your cooking?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I'm sure that one day it'll be as good as yours!"

I nodded "Well let's see then, why don't you whip something up for us? That way we can see if you truly are making progress."

"Hey- that's not fair! I didn't meant that I wanted to make something now!"

"Consider it a surprise test- or a pop quiz- from your culinary teacher," I told him with a tone that implied there was no room for negotiation.

"Mr. Naofumi, you can't be seriously going to let him cook after his long trip here, are you?"

"Yeah! You really shouldn't!"

"Alright, alright, I was just joking anyway," I told him. I began counting the ingredients- alright, there would be enough for three people so it wouldn't be an issue. Honestly though, if it had been just Shindo and I over, I would've ordered burgers or something and not bothered making something myself, but I still felt like I owed Raphtalia, so that meant that it was Shindo's lucky day. "What's this conference that you're here for anyway?"

"Oh, it's this," he said, swiping through his phone to show me a poster of an engineering conference- it was an opportunity to show off whatever projects people had made. It honestly looked like something that was far too complex and took more hard work than I thought that he would want to do. "I might uh... need some help with you on it to make the finishing touches though..." Right, that was also likely why he had decided to drop over. I had often helped him with his school projects, as a matter of fact, he used to take my old science experiment charts and dioramas to school as his own during elementary school.

While I was seated making things I noticed Raphtalia and Shindo were sitting, not talking to each other and being very awkward, Shindo walked over to me while I was washing a head of lettuce. "Hey bro... I have a question..." He whispered this in a low voice. "Don't take this wrong way but..."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Is that girl... a hooker?"

At that, the head of lettuce slipped from my hands as I put too much pressure on it, flew towards the ceiling, and would've hit the floor and been ruined if Shindo hadn't managed to catch it.

"Agh! What're you doing?" he hissed.

'What am I doing? What are you saying?" I hissed back.

"Uh, is something wrong?" Raphtalia asked, getting up.

"Nothing!" the two of us said simultaneously.

"No, you dunce, she isn't that kind of girl," I told him as I continued to work on the meal.

"Whoa... so that means..." he said, now sounding genuinely impressed. "Well, I'm happy for you, bro."

"Happy for what?" I asked him, sure that he was misunderstanding something.

"That you two are dating."

"We are not dating."

"Eh? She told me that you two were partners."

"Partners in making TwitchTube videos which we make together- not those kind of partners that you're thinking about!"

"Eh? I thought you gave up on making TwitchTube vidoes after... y'know, that thing happened."

"Well, a lot of things happened, alright? I'll fill you in on everything later."

"Ah,is everything really okay?" Raphtalia asked, now walking up to us.

"Yeah,it's all fine!" Shindo said. "I just couldn't bear the thought of my big bro here doing all the work, so I came to help him!" Shindo said this while trying to cut a tomato with the wrong edge of a knife.

"Right, let me help too!" Raphtalia said, not sounding very convinced.

"You really don't have to," I said, though these protests fell on deaf ears. Raphtalia gave me a stern look that said that she wasn't going to hear any more as she started helping Shindo cut the tomatoes the right way they were supposed to be done, with Shindo not really knowing how to respond.

It was actually somehow even more uncomfortable and awkward than it had been before. I didn't get what was up with Shindo, but it seemed to be contagious and Raphtalia seemed to be able to read the room enough to realize that there was something off going on, just not what.