Grace and Evan sat at the table when it was dinner time. This time, the two didn’t wait for John to call them, and just sat at the table with their books as they waited for John to bring the dishes. After a moment, Grace got up and went to the kitchen. Evan was confused, but he also got up and followed his sister.

John was almost done making dinner when the two kids entered the kitchen. He was surprised to see them here because they rarely ever left their room unless they were called outside.

“Is something the matter?” he asked. Grace answered, “Is there anything I can help with?” It was now that Evan understood why Grace had come here. He also chimed in, “Me too.” The two looked a bit guilty as they said that, perhaps because they hadn’t thought of this before and had only stayed in their room the last couple of weeks.

Seeing the two like that made John chuckle. ‘They don’t realize they’ve been like angels.’ While most kids would run around and make all sorts of trouble like the little devils they were, these two had been really quiet and didn’t make any trouble at all. While that did make things easier for John, he still felt a bit sad.

‘And now they feel guilty because they didn’t help me when they moved it? It’s ridiculous,’ he thought. The two kids had lost their parents and were very depressed. Of course they didn’t need to help him.

“It’s alright-”

““Please,”” said Grace and Evan at the same time.

Since the two seemed really determined, John gave in. “Okay,” he said as he picked a side dish and handed it to Grace. “Little Miss, please put this on the table for me.” Grace nodded seriously, as if she’d gotten a very important mission, and left with the bowls. Evan continued to stare at John, as if he was afraid he wouldn’t get any work.

John chuckled when he saw the look on the cute kid’s face and handed him three bowls. “Can I entrust you to put them on the table for me?” “Yes!” Evan answered seriously. From his tone, it seemed that he might’ve even saluted, if it weren’t for the stack of bowls in his hands.

When the two kids returned from their ‘important missions,’ they were immediately stunned, and even felt a little betrayed when they saw how John had put everything else for dinner on a tray and was carrying it over. John smiled when he saw their expressions and wanted to tease them a little. The problem was… he didn’t know how to do that.

Before he could think of a way, Grace and Evan smirked at him and went back to the dining room.

‘What was that all about?’

He wondered, but didn’t ponder it more and just carried over the tray to the table. Grace and Evan looked particularly happy today, and ate more merrily than before. When they were done, the three did the dishes together.

‘Yes, I don’t have a dishwasher.’

They stood in a line in front of the kitchen sink. John scrubbed the tableware, Grace rinsed it, and Evan’s job was to dry it. How did it come to this? John had originally been planning on doing this by himself, as he had been until now, but Grace and Evan didn’t back down, hence the current situation.

“Am I doing a good job?” asked Evan.

John handed a plate to Grace and looked at Evan. ‘Sure enough, he wants to be praised,’ John thought as he nodded his head and said, “Yes, you’re doing very well.” “Mm-hmm!” Evan hummed as he took the plate Grace handed to him. He looked very happy.

John smiled as he picked another plate and was about to scrub it when he noticed Grace staring at him. He stared back at Grace, and said after a moment, “You’re also doing very good. You’re both doing a good job.”

Grace smiled and went back to rinsing the plate in her hands.

Soon, the three were done. There weren’t a lot of dishes they needed to do in the first place, and with the three of them working together, it was done very fast.

‘This is quite efficient,’ John thought as he looked at the two kids who were now taking off their gloves. John also took off his and said, “Good night.”

““Good night,”” the two kids said as they waved at him. They then took their books from the table and went back to their room while John, on the other hand, went to his office. Although he didn’t have any official work left to do for now, he needed to calculate his budget and plan to spend money accordingly.

Back in their room, Grace and Evan folded their arms and looked as though they were having a serious discussion. In their opinion, it really was a serious discussion.

“We did make our presence quite negligible at first. Isn’t this change a bit too drastic?” asked Evan. Grace nodded her head as if she agreed, but said, “It’s okay. He doesn’t look as if he’s sick of us.”

“Yeah, but you know that’s not good enough.”