Kichi panicked over being presented with this choice. It seemed like a simple request, but in his mind it had large ramifications. Sure it was just sitting next to someone, but that meant not sitting next to the other. And while he could’ve just asked to sit between the pair, he would not accept making the decision to not make a decision.

“Is everything all right?” Asked Aoi. The pair of girls stared at him weirdly as they wondered why he seemed to freaked out. To them, nothing major had happened since they requested he just sit down and enjoy some video games with them.

“Right.” He snapped back to reality and knew there was no time to think. “Hang on.” Quickly, he pulled out his coin again, which drew a confused look from Airi. Meanwhile Aoi just looked at him as if he had gone mad. The boy flipped over the coin, already in his mind he already knew what heads and tails meant. “Okay.” After it landed back into his hands, he went over to sit down by Aoi.

“You really had to do that, didn’t you?” She remarked. The girl couldn’t believe the type of person he was. How did that require external help to choose one way or another. The worst part is that she couldn’t even take slight pleasure in him being besides her since it wasn’t even because he necessarily wanted it.

Kichi, on the other hand, felt better now that he got another opportunity to avoid his sister for the time being. That said, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. It was as if there was something brewing between the twins. It was a good thing he didn’t want to sit between them or else he would be feeling that animosity to a much more extreme degree.

He wondered if there was more to their reason on coming by than just wanting to simply hang out. As they got into the game, he found himself merely watching Airi play. This wasn’t some type of multiplayer game where they could team up or compete. It was a single player experience, which did make it a bit of a surprise that she’d pick this one out of his library.

At the same time, it did allow him to observe the twins play a video game, which he had never seen before.

“Okay you died, now it’s my turn.” Aoi said, reaching out for the controller.

“No fair, we know this game’s super hard.” Airi was not so generous about giving it to her. “Two deaths each, how about that?”

“We’ve always agreed on switching when one of us dies.” She didn’t relent in trying to assume control of the game. “Besides, you didn’t say that when the remake came out.”

“Fine.” Airi tossed it over to her in a display he found uncharacteristic of her. While the boy admittedly didn’t know if she was so aggressive while playing video games with her sister. The pair almost seemed as though they were about to engage in an argument regardless of his presence. Kichi knew from personal experience that being angry led to making some irrational choices.

“You know, maybe we don’t need to play such a challenging game.” He suggested. When things got too frustrating, he knew he would get mad enough to just quit and be in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Kougi always told him it was silly to get upset over a video game, but he wouldn’t listen. Though it was a good point made by her and he attempted to get that across to the twins.

“It’s fi- Ah!” Aoi was about to respond to his statement with indifference. However as she spoke up, a monster fell from above where she stood and killed her. “What was that?”

“Looks like it’s my turn.” Airi attempted to take the controller back from her sister, which was met with resistance.

“That’s not fair.” She kept a firm grip and fought back. “That came out of nowhere. Besides, I was distracted trying to talk to him.”

“We already said we’d switch if one of us died.” Airi didn’t stop as the pair got into a tussle.

“Uh, you do know I’m still here, right?” He tried to make his presence known. “Don’t I get a turn too?” They didn’t listen to him as their struggle continued. At this point his patience had run dry. Kichi wasn’t going to be ignored in his own house any longer. “Hey you two!” The boy yelled, which promptly got them to stop. “What the heck is wrong with you?”

“Nothing.” Aoi meekly replied as she let go of the controller. “There’s nothing up between the two of us.”

“Right.” Airi also attempted to diffuse his suspicion. “The two of us are totally not feeling upset with each other. And it definitely has nothing to do when we were sick.” The more she talked, the less he was swayed to turn a blind eye to their issues. If anything, it only made him want to dig deeper.

“You two are free to talk it out.” He let that be known. “I know it’s probably a family thing, but I’m here to be a neutral party.”

“Okay.” Immediately she took advantage of his good will to ask questions. “Do you know where Aoi went after school when I was sick?” Even though he had a hint this was the core to their tension. This didn’t mean Kichi was prepared to be the one asked the questions on the matter.

“W-why do you ask that?” He failed to answer the question and responded with a question of his own. “W-what make y-you think I know about that?”

“I know she spent some time after school somewhere.” She told him, not taking note of any of his anxiety. “It’s not really like her to hang out in public and I know she wouldn’t ask to be with someone else. So that made me wonder, who knows her that would ask?”

“That is an interesting line of thought.” He shot a glance towards Aoi to silently beg for help. She returned a look basically telling him he was either on his own, or they were about to be found out. “But is it really a big deal? Isn’t it good she’s coming out of her shell?”

“I’m actually happy she’s trying, but…” Airi knew there was something missing in this story that was important to her. “But, I’m wondering if you tried to help her with that?”

“Uh…” He wasn’t sure if he should lie to her face about it. While the boy was fine in lying by omission, it was a little bit different from directly doing so. For starters, it would mean if she did find out the truth, then she would no longer trust him. That wasn’t something he wanted from either of the girls. “I mean, she seemed kind of down since you were sick.” Aoi grit her teeth now that he had admitted to the afternoon they shared together all alone.

“Really!?” She was in shock from hearing the news. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about that.” The girl turned to look at her twin to try and get an explanation as to why this needed to be hidden between them.

“Hmpf.” Aoi didn’t give her a positive response when pressed on the matter. “I’m not the only one hiding things around here.” She said. “I bet you were with a certain someone when I was sick too, right?” The girl sent a glare Kichi’s way. It immediately told him she wanted a response from him specifically.

“Well, she was going to be bored all stuck at home without you to play with.” He gave in quickly and already tried to make excuses. “I was just trying to be nice and friendly.” Now it was known what he had done with each of them when the other wasn’t around.

“I can’t believe you.” She then turned her ire back onto her sister. “You didn’t even tell me about that either.” Given they always told the other everything. Keeping a secret must’ve meant there was a reason to hide it. That there was something about the time they spent with him that meant something special. This was the message both twins got when they learned of their respective news.

“You’re the one who did it first.” Airi defended herself. The pair got up from their seats to stand face to face with one another. He genuinely felt there could be a fight inside his room and it concerned him greatly.

Why were they acting like this? Kichi couldn’t wrap his mind on why this was apparently enough to divide twin siblings of all people. If only he knew someone who could help him diffuse this situation before it blew up completely.

Wait a second… Of course he does. And she should just be in the next room over.

“Okay girls…” He said, slowly getting up to not provoke any sudden moves. “Just calm down, I just need to use the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” Kichi crept over to his door and quietly exited as the pair appeared frozen in their staring contest.