Dinner was a mostly quite but awkward affair, and once we were done, Raphtalia got up to leave. "Ah, thank you for everything, Mr. Naofumi. I'll be taking my leave now." She gathered her things and prepared to leave, contrary to my expectations that she would want to stay over.
"Alright, see you later," Shindo said, his voice an entire octave higher than usual as she waved Raphtalia off. I joined him.
"Thank you for everything, Raphtalia," I said. "I don't think we'd be able to get through the past few days without your help. And with your help with Filo and Melty as well."
"It was nothing, Mr. Naofumi," she said. "Let me know when they'll be swinging by again- I'd love to meet them."
"Hopefully it won't be anytime soon," I said. "But yeah, I'll let you know, and I think we can meet up for the next stream, Thursday, if that works for you."
"Yes it does," she said.
"It's getting late, do you want me to drop you off?" I asked.
"Ah, no, really- it's no trouble at all," she said. "I'll find my way on my own, but thanks for asking."
With that, she left, and once she was out of eyesight, I immediately went and placed Shindo in a headlock.
"Bro- whatcha doin' bro?"
"Do you have to be the most awkward person ever?" I asked him. "Seriously- what's wrong with you? She wanted to stay over initially, yet the moment you come in and open your mouth while staring at her like a total creep, she leaves."
"Aiyeee! It's not my fault- she's just so- foreign and stuff, and I couldn't help myself!" he cried out.
"Oh, I'm not even done listing my grievances against you," I told him. "First of all, you show up without asking me and then demand to stay over. Then you act like you've seen some kind of UFO while she's over here and chase her away- then you want me to help you with your engineering project when quite honestly, I should be making you do my work instead-"
"-bro I wouldn't know how to start with your work," Shindo said, finally escaping the headlock I had put him in. "You need to stop being so mean- and what happened to 'bros before hoes'?"
"What happened to not being an embarrassment to your older brother?" I retorted.
"Hey- I don't embarrass you!"
I decided to not dignify that with a response, and instead said, "Alright, I'm too tired to argue right now, let's go back home and get some shut-eye."
As we turned around and were about to leave, Shindo stopped in his tracks and then looked around.
"Hey- is it just me or was there someone there in the bushes right over there?" Shindo asked, pointing to a section of the wall. The same section that Fitoria had pointed to earlier. I dragged him away.
"Just your mind playing tricks on you."
The next day I woke up bright and early, getting ready for college. I had thought that my routine would assume some semblance of normalcy once Melty and Filo had flown the coop, but I was wrong as the universe seemed to enjoy giving me one problem after the other.
Least, that was how I liked to see things.
I was out the door after sparing a glance at Shindo, who was still fast asleep, out in his merry little world.
With that I tried to concentrate on whatever they were teaching me, or trying to teach me, but the thing was that I was having difficulty concentrating given my lack of sleep. Granted, I had difficulty concentrating even when it came to normal days.
I went back home- I didn't see Melty that day, though I did shoot Raphtalia a text apologizing for Shindo's weird behavior, to which she texted me back 'No worries.' which was all. I wasn't sure if this was one of those moments when they said 'when a woman says nothing is wrong, something is definitely wrong' or not.
I went back home and tried to concentrate on my portion of the project that I was supposed to be doing with Melty, though I found such a thing to be hard given the distraction in the room.
"Yo bro, what's fun to do around here?"
"You know what the most fun thing to do around here is?" I asked him.
"No, what?"
"You can leave and look for something fun to do elsewhere," I told him while trying to focus on the passage I was reading.
"C'mon now, don't be a sourpuss like that," he said. "What do you do for fun?"
"I usually stream for fun," I told him. "Usually- and that's only with Raphtalia, who's the face of the thing."
"Ooh- how big is your channel?"
I showed him the front page on TwitchTube on my phone.
"Eh, that's like- nothing," he said.
"Yes, well we just began, didn't we?" I told him. Well, at least the money was somewhat higher than what I would've expected, though nearly all of it was from that weird 'lanserboi' guy, but at least the growth was steady and we weren't declining- so that was a silver lining in a way.
"So then what else do you do for fun?" he asked.
"Nothing," I told him. before pausing. "Say- did you really see something- or someone, outside last night?"
"Yeah, I thought there was something, almost like a small animal, but it also seemed like something was glaring at me, and watching my every move," he said. "Kind of like I was a zebra in the jungle and it was a lion or something like that."
I snorted at his exaggeration, but an idea came to me. I placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him the most serious expression I could. "Okay... I need you to do exactly what I tell you to do, and don't ask too many of your dumb questions, alright?"
"Uh, bro, why does it feel like we're about to do something illega-"
"I said no asking questions!"
