Gabriel sat upright on the sofa in the living room, maintaining a soldier-like posture. Despite the gentle smile on his lips, there was a solemn air surrounding him; it gave off the strange feeling that he was about to face a terrible ordeal, the kind that usually left people half-dead or wishing for death.
Before him stood Misha, whose arms were crossed in front of his chest. Since Gabriel had come out of the bathroom several minutes ago, the boy had been staring at him with squinted eyes and furrowed brow, his lips tightly pursed into a thin line. No matter from which angle one looked at his face, it exuded a feeling of deep anger and hostility.
“So? What the hell did you do to my sister?”
“…Nothing?”
“Liar!” the boy snorted before stomping on Gabriel’s right foot as punishment for lying, drawing out a small groan of pain. “What do you take me for? An idiot?! Anyone who’s not blind can tell she cried! A lot! Look! Her eyes are puffy, swollen, and red! Don’t tell me nothing happened, I won’t believe you!”
Misha paused to catch his breath, letting his words sink in. Then, he spat out, “And you two stayed in the bathroom for almost two hours! That’s too suspicious!”
“…”
“What? You’ve got nothing to say in your defense?”
“Well, I’m just not used to helping people take a bath, and I scrubbed her back too roughly and put shampoo in her eyes by accident. I’m sorry.”
Gabriel spoke earnestly, appearing remorseful from the bottom of his heart. Misha, who hadn’t expected such an answer, was left speechless. Meanwhile, Masha had to pinch her lips to keep herself from bursting out laughing.
“Trash is more useful than you,” Misha eventually sneered before turning on his heel and disappearing into the kitchen.
“…”
After the child fleed, the living room fell into a profound silence.
The two left behind had very different expressions plastered on their faces. Gabriel seemed constipated, while Masha appeared to be on the verge of exploding. But honestly, her bladder was about to explode; she had been restraining her laughter for a long time already, and now, she couldn’t hang on anymore.
“Help me go to the toilet, please?” Masha asked in a gentle voice, innocently blinking her long eyelashes at the young man. In a well-practiced manner, she acted as though she hadn’t been the one who was having fun at his expense just now.
“Sure.” Gabriel let out a sigh before standing up and pushing Masha’s wheelchair to the bathroom.
‘Next time she asks me to help her bathe, I’m saying no!’ he thought, opening the door. Not only did he have to suffer from Misha’s unreasonable suspicion, but Masha also didn’t help out, taking great pleasure in his misery. Goodness, that pair of siblings sure knew how to make a fool out of him.
And yet, his chest couldn’t feel any warmer.
***
Inside the kitchen, Misha busied himself, preparing tonight’s dinner.
Time ticked by, but his small face was still shrouded in displeasure, his lips stretched into a pout. Again, the sharp knife landed on the cut board with too much strength, and chunks of vegetables flew everywhere in the room. However, Misha didn’t seem to notice it, his mind lost elsewhere.
Of course, Misha didn’t believe Gabriel one bit.
That earnest face of his had irked him to death, making him want to slap the young man on both cheeks. Just remembering it was enough to make him fly into a rage. He knew perfectly well that whenever Gabriel appeared overly honest, nine times out of ten, it’d mean that he was lying through his teeth.
Besides, how the hell could Gabriel scrub his sister’s back until she bawled her eyes out? That guy wasn’t blind, nor was he deaf! After a few seconds, he should have realized that he was using too much strength and accordingly reduced it. Accidentally putting shampoo in Masha’s eyes was a lot more probable. But it wouldn’t have made her eyes as swollen and red.
Misha was not the brightest, but his IQ was not in the negative yet!
However, in Gabriel’s defense, those lies would probably have worked out if he was indeed a little kid. But unknown to Gabriel, inside that childish body of his resided the soul of a twenty-five-year-old man. He wasn’t an innocent boy, and he certainly wouldn’t be fooled by such nonsense!
But… Misha also knew that those lies might have a reason to be, which was why he had decided to quietly leave the living room instead of scolding Gabriel until he turned deaf.
There were things teenagers and adults wouldn’t want to say to a child. That, he could understand.
Sometimes, young people like Gabriel and Masha didn’t know how to suppress their hormones, going into ruts whenever and wherever. In all probability, Gabriel also couldn’t control his lower half after seeing his girlfriend’s naked body, and Misha knew his sister wasn’t the shy kind. So, although her legs weren’t in their best shape, a few positions were still possible if she and Gabriel wanted to enjoy themselves. And once they were started, they surely wouldn’t want to stop even if Masha’s legs began to hurt.
That was normal. They were a young couple at the peak of their love and sexual desire. To make matters worse, they didn’t have the chance to see each other often after Gabriel’s stepmother locked him up inside her villa. The number of times they meet between August and Christmas could be counted on one hand. Following this, Masha was hit by a car and hospitalized for over a month.
In theory, his sister should have stayed a little longer at the hospital, but they had renovated the house and hired a nurse, and seeing this, the doctors reluctantly allowed her to rest at home. She had just lost her mother, and her legs were no longer functional, so it would be best for her mental health to be close to her loved ones, Gabriel included.
Now that the couple finally had the chance to be lovey-dovey and touchy-feely, there was no way in hell they would stay still. It was hard enough for them to get the opportunity to be alone in this house, so of course, they wouldn’t waste it!
With a strong movement of his wrist, Misha hit the cut board with his knife once again, brutally chopping a carrot in half. He took a deep breath, telling himself to calm down. A young couple having sex was nothing to be angry at, yet Misha couldn’t help but feel furious deep down. He didn’t know why he felt that way. In any case, he just didn’t like the idea of Gabriel and Masha being intimate.
His mood was getting worse and worse by the minute.
‘Forget it,’ Misha inwardly grunted, carelessly throwing the sliced carrots in the casserole dish, which was already filled with a few pieces of beef, other vegetables, and broth. ‘It got nothing to do with you, so just stop thinking about it.’
But the more someone didn’t want to think about something, the more they thought about it, creating a vicious circle.
With this in mind, Misha’s lousy mood wouldn’t get better anytime soon. And so, when he called Gabriel over to put the heavy casserole dish in the oven, he screamed his name with a bit of resentment and anger in his voice. It was as if he was calling a prisoner on death row to the guillotine.
Nevertheless, the young man appeared in a matter of seconds and obediently put the casserole dish in the oven, afraid that if he delayed any longer, Misha would lose patience and do it himself, which would surely result in him breaking his back. The casserole dish was almost half the child’s weight, and with his non-existent muscles, he couldn’t lift it without hurting himself in the process.
Although Masha and Alexey had agreed to let Misha use the kitchen knives, mostly because they realized that his knife skills were far better than theirs and their stomachs couldn’t stay empty forever, they would never allow him to lift such a heavy thing by himself. Therefore, Misha had to call over Gabriel or Alexey whenever he wanted to put something in the oven.
Misha was proud and stubborn but not brainless. Even if it was frustrating, he could only rely on them for this kind of thing. Because in the end, that younger body of his was indeed as weak as a chicken. He himself thought that his arms would snap if he were to lift heavy things like casserole dishes.
Once Gabriel was done with his job and set the timer, Misha mercilessly kicked him out of the kitchen before following him into the living room. Without a glance at the young man, the boy trotted to the landline phone and called Dereck. He needed someone to complain to, and his best friend was the best candidate. They couldn’t see each other because of the snowstorm, but it didn’t mean they couldn’t talk to each other.
Dereck answered the phone, and Misha skipped the basic courtesy, not even saying “hi”. Instead, he immediately started to grumble about Gabriel, disregarding that he sat on the sofa a meter away. So what if Gaby heard him bitch about him? At least, he wasn’t talking behind his back!
Thus, Misha went on and on and on, always finding something new to criticize. His bitching skills were quite impressive, full of creativity, and as Gabriel listened to it in silence, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Dereck shared more or less the same feeling.
Did his friend really have to phone him just so he could complain about his sister’s boyfriend? And did he realize that all he talked about lately was Gabriel? Even Masha didn’t come up as often in their conversations anymore! What happened to his sis-con tendencies?!
“Hey! Are you listening to me?” Misha pouted after a short silence.
“Yes, yes, I am. It’s just that Lady wants to play, so I’m petting her too.”
“…Is your dog more important than your friend?” grimaced Misha, who couldn’t help but wonder why the hell his friend’s parents still bought a pug in this timeline.
Didn’t they know that buying and gifting a pet on Christmas was the worst idea ever? Even more so when the “gift” was for their children, who had no sense of responsibility?!
…Right, he had forgotten. Dereck wasn’t like most boys of his age, and he was mature enough to take care of a dog. He could even take care of little Misha in their past life, so what was a dog?
“Of course not! I really am listening to you.”
Misha snorted and said a few more things before hanging up. Then, he stared at the phone, telling himself that he wasn’t feeling jealous of a dog. No, nope, definitely not!
“…”
Well, if he indeed was, it wasn’t as bad as when he was a child, at the very least. Didn’t he sulk for weeks because Dereck was all over his dog at the time? He felt as if his best friend had been stolen by it, and Misha threw tantrums over tantrums as a result. Later, he even vented his frustration on the innocent dog, bothering it every time he went to his friend’s house.
Now that he thought about it, Dereck was probably trying to cheer him up by showing off the puppy, which had become his new treasure. Back then, Misha had lost his mother and had difficulty accepting it. Even if Dereck was more mature than his peers, he was still just a kid and didn’t know how to comfort him. He did his best, but in the end, it only backfired.
Misha shook his head, chasing away the shameful memories. This time around, he decided to be a bit more kind to Lady—it did grow on him in his past life, after all. It was just somewhat weird to see that old thing being a cute little puppy again.
Sighing, Misha turned around to go back to the kitchen, but the moment he did so, the phone rang, startling him. He instinctively stretched a hand to answer the phone, saying, “Hello?”
Not long after, the expression on his face changed, and the distorted grimace he made gave off the feeling that he had just swallowed a fly. Then, he glanced at Gabriel and grunted, “It’s Tristan. He wants to talk to you.”
Mini theater
ML: …Why do I feel like what you were chopping weren’t carrots in your mind but something else?
MC: It’s your imagination ~
ML:…
Edited by Clozed! ♥
