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Chapter 22: Winter cleaning? Not really **Haru’s POV** When I woke up, Shiori-san was acting... off. She kept staring at me like I had something on my face. "Shiori-san? Is something wrong?" She snapped out of it and waved her hands frantically. "Nope! Nothing at all!" Sure. Totally convincing. "Okay then," I said, shrugging. "Let’s head downstairs. Breakfast is calling." As we made our way to the dining room, I spotted Aunt Marika sipping coffee and munching on toast. Her eyes widened as soon as she saw us together. "Hold on a second. Don’t tell me you two slept together again?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at Shiori-san. Shiori-san smirked. "Relax, Auntie, we didn’t do anything scandalous~" "Miyako!" Aunt Marika ran toward the kitchen. "You’re okay with this?" Mom poked her head out, holding a pan. "Oh, let them be. Shiori’s not going to pounce on him. Haru will be 18 soon, anyway. Shiori, just a little longer~" "Mom!" I groaned, my face heating up. "Shiori-san, let’s eat in the living room," I muttered, dragging her away from the battlefield. "But I was having so much fun," she teased, giggling. We sat down on the couch with some bread and jam, but the living room looked like a tornado hit it. Boxes and random junk were everywhere—probably Aunt Marika’s stuff. "Haruuu!" Aunt Marika called from the dining room. "You’re helping me clean the storage room today, remember? You’re the one who insisted I move in here, so chop-chop!" I sighed. "Fine, fine." "Don’t worry, Haru-kun, I’ll help too!" Shiori chimed in. Great. The more, the merrier, right? After breakfast, I started hauling Aunt Marika’s stuff upstairs. Being the only guy here, I was automatically the designated pack mule. Mom conveniently vanished to "work," leaving the three of us to handle the disaster zone. "Sorry Haru dear, mom have work so.. bye bye~" Aunt Marika barked orders like a drill sergeant while Shiori and I sorted through piles of junk. Old clothes, broken appliances, random knick-knacks—Mom really hoarded everything short of actual garbage. "Can we just toss all this?" I asked, holding up a cracked blender. "If you want your mom to disown you, sure," Aunt Marika said, rolling her eyes. Figures. While we’re cleaning, Nishi wandered out of her room, rubbing her eyes. Her room is just near the storage room after all "Good morning Onii-chan! Are you cleaning with Mari-chan?" She called Aunt Marika "Mari-chan" like they were besties or something. Weird, but whatever. That’s how girls talk "Yeah," I replied. "Why?" "Can I help?" Before I could answer, Shiori-san swooped in. "Nishi-chan, you should focus on your studies, okay? Leave the cleaning to us grown-ups." Nishi nodded obediently. "Okay! Shiori Nee-chan!" Crisis averted. Shiori-san really had a knack for handling Nishi. With Nishi out of the way, the real work began. Aunt Marika ordered me to stash a bunch of old PCs in my room while she and Shiori folded clothes. "Haru, buy also some curtains on the mall. Real quick." Damn it. Your asking the wrong person Marika. I’ll swipe some cash. As I lugged the computers upstairs, I couldn’t help but wonder why we were keeping ancient, useless tech. Mom’s logic was beyond me. **Marika’s POV** I couldn’t help noticing that Shiori wasn’t her usual self. Normally, she’d be teasing me non-stop or clinging to Haru like a lovesick puppy. But today, she seemed... distracted. When Haru left to run an errand, I pulled Shiori aside and made her sit on the ratty old sofa. "Alright, spill it. What’s going on?" I asked, crossing my arms. "Did Haru do something? Because if he did, I’ll slap him for you." "Eh? how did you know?" "Cause your face literally shouting it." "No, no, it’s not Haru-kun’s fault," she said, shaking her head. "It’s just... I’m worried. There’s this girl who talks to him a lot, and I’m scared he might start liking her." Ah, a love triangle. Classic. "Did you two fight about it?" I pressed. "A little," she admitted. "We made up, but I had this nightmare last night... Haru-kun and that girl were flirting behind my back. It felt so real, I couldn’t shake it off." "sigh... And Haru’s just letting this girl talk to him? Doesn’t he realize how shady that looks?" "He’s doing it for work," Shiori said, fidgeting with her sleeves. "He’s livestreaming his game and interacting with fans to earn money." "Work?!" I nearly spat out my coffee. "That lazy brat actually wants to earn his own money?" Shiori nodded. "Yeah. He said he doesn’t want to rely on you or mom anymore. I told him that he can ask some to me but he still declined." I leaned back, stunned. Was this the same Haru I knew? The kid who used to beg me for cash to buy snacks? Maybe this was his way of growing up... or maybe it was Shiori’s influence. Still, I couldn’t let my guard down. If this "work" involved him chatting with random girls, I needed to keep an eye on him. For Shiori’s sake, of course. "Listen, Shiori," I said, patting her shoulder. "If Haru ever crosses the line, you come straight to me. I’ll set him straight." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢 She smiled weakly. "Thanks, Aunt Marika." "No problem. Now let’s get back to cleaning before Miyako dumps more junk on us." **Haru’s POV** When I got back from buying curtains, I found Aunt Marika and Shiori-san arguing over whether to keep an old lamp that looked like it came from the Stone Age. "Just toss it," I said, dropping the shopping bags. "We don’t need more clutter." "You don’t get to decide," Aunt Marika shot back. "Go set up the curtains or something." "Fine," I muttered, grabbing the bags and heading to my room. As I worked, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was up with Shiori-san. She kept stealing glances at me, her face unreadable. Maybe I should talk to her later... if she doesn’t try to dodge the question again.