After glancing at the time, Kirigaya Naoki realized it was almost noon. He thought it over and decided to head home for lunch. He told Yuuki Asuna he was leaving, then prepared to call it a day.
Yuuki Asuna was still frowning in thought when she casually asked, "Are you coming back this afternoon?"
Kirigaya Naoki smiled. "Don't you always complain that you never get any time to yourself? I won't come back this afternoon, so you can plan your time however you like. But we're all in this together now, so our interests are aligned. Just don't fall behind on your lessons."
Yuuki Asuna nodded and said nothing more.
Yuuki Asuna's reaction surprised Kirigaya Naoki. Given the strict way her mother had always raised her, he'd expected her to be fed up by now. Faced with Kirigaya Naoki's hands-off approach, she should have been thrilled.
Why was she so indifferent?
After Kirigaya Naoki put on his shoes and left, Yuuki Asuna obediently stayed seated in her chair. When she heard the front door close, her face lit up.
She jumped to her feet with a loud "Yay!" and dashed out of the living room toward her room.
She had things to take care of.
Unhappy? Indifferent?
It was all an act. How could she not be happy after finally escaping her restraints?
She'd only held back because she was a girl and didn't want to lose face.
Meanwhile, Kirigaya Naoki left Yuuki Asuna's house with a yawn. The midday sun hung high overhead, its glaring light making it almost impossible for the boy to keep his eyes open.
Once he'd adjusted to the brightness, he strolled slowly along.
When he got home, he ran into Sugong Zhiye.
Kirigaya Naoki smiled. "You're home, Zhiye?"
"Mm," Sugong Zhiye replied coolly.
"How's school? If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me. I'll teach you." Kirigaya Naoki stepped aside to let Zhiye go ahead and open the door.
He didn't have a key. Sugong Zhiye gave the boy a cool glance, then stepped forward and unlocked the door.
As she opened it, she suddenly asked, "What were you doing out today? I feel like I've been seeing you leave the house a lot lately."
"I picked up a part-time job, tutoring a student," Kirigaya Naoki said casually.
Sugong Zhiye fell into thought.
"A part-time job? That makes sense. With his abilities, he could definitely handle it," she mused.
Thinking of his pile of certificates and qualifications, she fell silent.
She wasn't much younger than the boy standing before her, but in the presence of this monstrous prodigy, she couldn't help feeling inferior.
She'd thought he must be the type to push himself incredibly hard. People like that were usually the ones who succeeded, but they also tended to expect more from everyone else.
Sugong Zhiye had assumed her future life would be nothing but misery.
On the boy's first day in the house, she'd been anxious.
Then she'd watched Kirigaya Naoki spend three days playing games with Kazuto Kirigaya, and she'd been left speechless.
Her older brother wasn't strict at all. In fact, he was unbelievably laid-back.
For Sugong Zhiye, who had always followed the rules, that was a huge shock.
One day, she'd gone to Kirigaya Naoki and asked him, "Shouldn't everyone study hard? Then always stay disciplined, get into a good high school, go to a good university, and find a good job. Isn't that what everyone should strive for?"
Kirigaya Naoki had looked at Sugong Zhiye with a puzzled expression. She still remembered that look: his golden eyes were like deep pools, and their clarity made her instinctively want to trust what he said.
But his answer hadn't been pleasant. This was what he'd told her: "Do whatever you want. Whatever you like doing, I'll support you. Even if you become a good-for-nothing, I can provide for you. Don't you think that kind of ordinary life is too dull?"
Sugong Zhiye had opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end, she'd said nothing.
The boy's answer hadn't satisfied her.
Zhiye was a serious girl who did everything by the book.
By comparison, Kirigaya Naoki was far too carefree. But the longer you spent with him, the more you realized how charming he was.
He was a little lazy, but he never shirked the things he had to do. Her mother was really something, leaving everything to her older brother and giving them all free rein.
The boy cooked all three meals every day.
At the thought, Sugong Zhiye hurried forward and pulled out a chair for the boy. While Kirigaya Naoki stared at her in surprise, she ushered him toward it and pointed, signaling for him to sit down.
Their mother and second brother might not know how to appreciate their older brother, but as the Kirigaya family's last shred of dignity, she had to step up.
Sugong Zhiye's cool expression turned solemn and earnest. "Big Brother, sit."
Kirigaya Naoki sat down, somewhat confused.
He felt like his little sister was acting strange.
"Oh, Big Brother's home! What are we having today?" Kazuto Kirigaya asked excitedly, looking up from the short videos on his phone when he saw Kirigaya Naoki.
Then Sugong Zhiye shot him a fierce glare.
Kazuto Kirigaya was baffled. He had no idea why Zhiye was glaring at him. Wasn't this how things usually went?
He asked, confused, "Zhiye, don't you want Big Brother to cook?"
Sugong Zhiye's face turned bright red. Thinking of her older brother's delicious cooking, she swallowed, and in the end, her appetite won out. "I do."
If you both wanted to eat, why was she glaring at him?
Kazuto Kirigaya was even more confused.
Girls had so many thoughts.
Kirigaya Naoki and Kazuto Kirigaya exchanged a silent glance.
With a sigh, Kirigaya Naoki stood up and said, "There's still some beef in the house. I'll make everyone braised beef. It's a very famous dish in China."
"Braised beef," Kazuto Kirigaya said, swallowing hard.
Gulp, gulp.
Why had there been two gulps? Kazuto Kirigaya instinctively looked at Zhiye.
He smiled. "You like beef too, Zhiye?"
Then he teased her, "It's not that you like beef, Zhiye. You like everything Big Brother makes, don't you?"
Sugong Zhiye glared furiously at Kazuto Kirigaya and cracked her knuckles, ready to teach him where he stood in the family.
The corner of Kazuto Kirigaya's mouth twitched. He raised both hands in surrender.
Kirigaya Naoki watched the two of them from the side, amused.
He got up and went into the kitchen to cook. He put on some popular music from this world on his phone, took out the beef to thaw, and gathered scallions, ginger, chili peppers, and celery.
He cut the scallions into short pieces, sliced the ginger, and cut the celery and peppers into segments, setting them aside.
The boy was an exceptional cook—or perhaps the dishes passed down by China's ancestors were all first-rate. Often, the simplest cooking methods produced the most delicious food.