Sia (2)

The two were Sia's older brothers, Josh and Ross. Sia didn't say much about these two brothers of hers, but despite the way he saw her treat them, Shui could tell they were close. He was an only child so he was a bit envious of this sibling interaction.

"What we want, is some of those skewers."

"That's right."

Josh held out his hand and then so did Ross. Though the two were one year younger than he was, the two boys were much bulkier than Shui so he felt a little intimidated when those hands were shoved near his face. Unlike him, Kate showed irritation and looked at the two with a sharp glare which made them flinch and draw back their hands.

"Hmph, buy your own. Aren't you two working at a construction place or whatever?"

"No, we got fired today."

Ross replied while Josh nodded.

"Huh?! What did you two do this time?"

Josh responded,"We saw our boss slapping a girl's ass so we slapped his too."

"Why?!"

Sia shouted and Shui internally wanted to do the same.

"We thought it was a greeting. Why else would you do that to someone in public?"

Ross' answer had Sia massaging her forehead with her right hand. At this moment, though it was only by a fraction, Shui could understand how hard it was for her. It was no wonder why despite being younger than him, she was more mature. She had to be mature when she had big brothers like this. In order to comfort her, Shui raised one of his skewers to her empty mouth. She glanced at him and then chomped down on it. This was the first time Shui had done this but neither of them thought anything weird about it.

A smile appeared on Shui's face as he watched her chew the meat with a slight frown. However, he noticed the twins staring at him so he turned to look at them. At first, their expressions were very serious as they looked at Shui, but then they looked each other and showed big smiles before each giving him a thumbs-up.

"So you're sis' boyfriend. I thought she was acting differently lately. Right, Josh?"

"Yeah, I thought the same."

Only now did Shui realise what they were thinking, his first thought was to stop feeding Sia, but before he could let go of the skewer, she put her hand over his. She then dragged over the rest of the meat on the skewer into her mouth before letting go. Shui spent a few moments in a daze due to the unexpected sensation, but swiftly snapped out of it once he noticed the grins on the twins' face becoming wider.

When Sia finishing eating, she calmly responded to their claim.

"If you have time to think stupid things like that then why don't you hurry up and find a new job?"

"No, as your big brothers we must get closer to this boyfriend of yours."

"That's right. We should invite him home."

"Huh? What are you talking about!? He's not my boyfriend."

"Oh you don't have to be shy. We don't have a problem with your taste in men."

When the twins first saw Shui, they were sure he was a girl, only after checking his aura did they find out that he was a boy. He seemed weak, but not unreliable. Though he wasn't what they expected, from the caring look in his eyes when he fed Sia, they could accept him as their future brother-in-law.

Shui was at the side, watching the siblings argue. Sia denying that he was her boyfriend didn't disappoint him, it only made him ponder the idea. He imagined Sia being his girlfriend, him spoiling her and them walking around on dates. It wasn't majorly different from what they already did but it filled him with happiness for some reason. While he was stuck in these thoughts, Sia suddenly entered him back into the conversation.

"Besides it's his decision. You don't have time to go to my house right, Shui?"

"Huh? Uh, sure, why not?"

He had barely paid attention to the conversation but he responded with his honest feelings. He had no expectations for how her home would look, just the fact that it was where she lived was enough for him to be interested.

"See, he wants to come too."

"Yeah, it's three against one. Let's go."

With three of them going against her, Sia sighed with exasperation and gave up on trying to stop the twins as they led the way to their home. Along the way, she said to Shui.

"Don't expect anything decent. Our house only has two rooms, one's a bathroom and the other's for everything else. It's definitely not gonna be what you're used to."

"I know. It doesn't matter if it's fancy or rundown, I just want to know more about you."

Shui's pure sincerity along with his angelic smile, forced Sia to turn away so that her expression didn't turn silly.

"Here it is!"

Ross spread out his arms before a small wooden shack that left one thought in Shui's head.

'This place is smaller than my office.'

Of course he knew not to show it. Since he already expected their place to be small, it was really but a passing thought. They were deeper in the slums than before so there were more greedy eyes and rotten smells in the area, but they still stayed away from the four of them. Shui didn't know how strong the twins were, but Sia had told him that they were both stronger than her.

Once they reached the house, Sia said, "Okay, we're here. I'll walk back with Shui."

"Huh, what do you mean? Let him come in at least."

Ross tried to argue against her but Sia wasn't backing down again.

"It's getting late, shouldn't you head back?"

"Yh, yeah. I'll come again another time."

Sia didn't like the way Shui mentioned 'another time', but since it made her brothers give up, she clicked her tongue and grabbed his hand. Sia pulled Shui back to their usual meetup spot and Shui didn't put up even a hint of resistance. In fact, he even had a smile on his face because he found a new side to Sia today. This was the first time he saw her become so agitated and emotional, and that filled him with joy. He hoped that he would continue to see more sides of her.

After parting from Sia, Shui went back to Fairies' Wardrobe, but this time, there was someone waiting for him right in front of the entrance.

"Da- I mean, President?"

"Follow me."

Shui's father would normally be a very relaxed and carefree person, but that was only outside of business. Whenever they were inside Fairies' Wardrobe, his father would always act like an exemplary president even with him, so Shui quickly straightened his back and walked behind him. Shui followed his father to his wide and lavish office and waited anxiously as his father took a seat behind his desk and faced him who was still standing. Though he was used to it, the strict glare that his father always had in the workplace still made him tense.