Kichi quickly and quietly closed the door to his room. Once it was shut, he immediately rushed on over to his sister’s door to open it and peek his head in without knocking first.

“Kougi…? Kougi!” He called her name in a mix of being hushed and yelling. Not so much in a regular voice, but more so in a loud whisper. “Kougi, are you busy?”

“Look who came crawling back.” She responded to him. The girl had gotten back into more casual clothes from the last time he saw her. Now she rocked a pair of really short shorts and a loose t-shirt. Kougi had a smug smile on when she saw him peering into her room. “I guess twins aren’t so great to hang around after all.”

“It’s not that.” He replied as he entered the room. Kichi closed the door behind him to keep this part of their conversation private. “I don’t get what’s up with those two, but they’re mad at each other right now.”

“Really?” She was surprised to hear that after seeing them just a little bit ago. To her, they seemed like the two girls she had grown to know. “Did you do something?”

“I can’t believe you’re already blaming me.” He would’ve been more offended, but in actuality he was a major component to this battle going on in the next room. “I mean sure, it’s because I hung out with them, but I don’t know what the problem is.” He would then go on to explain to her what had happened leading up to their confrontation.

“Hmm… I see the problem now.” After getting his side of the story. Kougi was confident she understood where they were coming from. Though knowing that didn’t give her much on how to solve the issue at hand. “Bit of a pickle you’ve found yourself in.” She shrugged her shoulders in an unsympathetic manner.

“I came here for your help, not to state the obvious.” He sucked in air through his teeth knowing what he’d probably have to do for her. Kichi knew he had already brushed her off earlier and that likely got her feeling a bit upset with him. She was going to abandon him to the piranhas as payback, but right now he didn’t need things to get worse than they already were. “Come on, please.”

“Whoa!” She was shook when he dove down under her to his knees. The boy was practically begging her to help him out in this delicate situation. He held onto her hips and put on a pleading look on his face. The kind he’d do when they were younger and he’d beg her to do what he wanted. It usually worked back then and it still worked to this day.

“I’ll do anything you want me to do.” He told her. “Just help me here and I’ll owe you big time.” Kichi understood what he said would lead to some regrets down the road. However he didn’t care about it in the moment. There was fear in what might occur if he didn’t make the sacrifice here.

“Hmm, anything?” Her smug aura was oppressive even onto the core of his soul. His sister had won out yet again thanks to circumstance and there was no way she’d let such an amazing opportunity slip by. “Okay, if that’s what you say.” Kougi agreed on helping out. He stood back up onto his feet, cringing at himself for such a pathetic display. It was a good thing it was only in front of his sister or else everyone would doubt his masculinity.

“Thanks.” He said as they headed on over to his room. The boy was fortunate she wasn’t mad at him for what he did earlier. Though given the circumstances, he feared giving her the power to do whatever she wished with him would lead to disastrous consequences. Specifically for him, somehow he believed she’d find a way to avoid having to suffer any embarrassment for herself.

As he carefully opened the door to his room to allow her a peek inside what was going on. The two of them got a sight they never thought would ever happen. While he was gone, the twins broke their staring contest and were now physically fighting each other. Though it sounded bad, in practice it was far more innocent.

“How could you?” Said Aoi. At this moment in time of their wrestling match. She had gotten the upper hand and was on top of her sister’s back. Her hands were positioned in a submission move to pull back the head of her twin.

“Ah, ah!” Airi cried out. There was not much strength or violence with their battle. It wasn’t a surprise considering neither of them were physically active and that most of their days were spent inside playing video games. If he wasn’t concerned about their relationship, Kichi would’ve thought to leave it alone as neither of them were in danger of being hurt.

“What’s going on here?” Of course, he did care about them. So the boy spoke up to grab their attention. The pair froze in time for a bit as they stared him in confusion. They also saw his sister standing there behind him. All of this was enough to get the two to promptly separate from each other and act as if nothing unusually had just occurred.

“I see you’re back from the bathroom.” She replied. “Hope you had a good time.” It was a dumb statement in context of what she believed was a potty break. At this point, it was pretty much too late to hide their animosity.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on.” He said. “But I did get Kougi since she’s way better at this stuff than I am. Plus, it might be something girls understand better. So there.” He opened up the door to allow his sister inside. She took the silent invitation and immediately went to push him out of the hallway. “Hey, what was that for?”

“Like you said.” She put a hand to keep him from making reentry. “It’s something only us girls can understand. So we’ll need a little privacy.” With that, she shut the door in his face. He sighed and could only hope things would go well in his room, then realized it was his room.

“Wait a second, if you’re going to be by yourselves. Go do it in your room.” He hoped she wouldn’t do anything stupid to humiliate him again. After getting no response, he gave up on trying to get their attention once more.

“Okay, now then.” Inside, Kougi got right to work on chatting up the twins. “Is everything going well at home? I hope your parents are treating you well.”

“Of course they are.” Aoi answered. Alone in this room with Kichi’s older sister. The twins were now standing back to back with arms crossed. They didn’t want much to do with each other now that the truth came out.

“Yeah, I’m mad at Aoi because she lied to me.”

“You lied to me too!” Another argument would’ve broken out were it not for Kougi’s intervention.

“Hang on here. Lied about what?” Even after what she had been told by Kichi. She wanted to make sure to get the information from the girls as they would be much more accurate and relevant to the issue at hand.

“That she was with Kichi after school when I was sick.” Airi responded.

“And that she had an afternoon with him when I was sick.” Aoi snapped back. Their two short sentences were all she needed to know what the root of this issue was. Kougi chuckled, then slammed her hand onto the door.

“Ahh!” On the other side, Kichi could be heard yelling and falling over backwards from the loud sound.

“You know it’s rude to spy in on people’s private conversations.” She spoke through the door. “Just wait in the living room and I’ll take care of everything.”

“...Fine.” After a bit of silence, Kichi followed her command and his foot steps could be heard down the hall.

“There, that’s much better.” She commented, then turned her attention to the twins. There was only one question she knew to ask that would help direct them back to being best friends once again. “So, I’m just wondering, but…” She paused, leaving the girls to sweat over the question she was about to ask. “…Are either of you interested in my brother?”