That night Kuro Kurogane had a goal: survive and stay out of the way. He didn’t have to fight to meet this goal; he just wanted to live peacefully. However, it seemed that destiny did not agree with his wish and laughed in Kuro’s face.

As Daichi was putting on his jacket and Shizuka was putting her earrings on, Daichi announced to the twins: "We will be gone for a few hours."

"Date night?" Akari asked with a big smile.

Shizuka smiled her shy little smile.

"It has been a long time."

Daichi made a point of dramatically pointing to Kuro.

"You will be the Man of the House while we are gone."

"I refuse to be held responsible for those two."

"It’s already too late!"

And with that, the parents left and there was silence, which is the time Kuro sensed danger.

Each time that the parents left, the twins always became much worse than they normally were.

Akari was stretching out leisurely.

"Well then..."

Aoi looked at the hallway calmly.

"...Bath first?"

Akari said with a grin, "Together?"

Kuro immediately jumped up from the couch.

"I’m going to my room."

Being cowardly was the smart thing to do.

Unfortunately for Kuro—

Akari grabbed him by the arm before he reached the door.

"Kuro-kun~"

"...What?"

"Will you bring us juice later?"

"...Why can’t you get it yourself?"

"...We will be in the bath."

"That’s your problem."

Aoi quietly said, "We’ll die from being thirsty if you don’t."

"You will not die from being thirsty."

Akari puffed her cheeks out and said, "You’re so heartless."

Kuro sighed, "Okay..."

What a bad decision. A very bad decision.

Thirty minutes later, Kuro finally left the room.

The air was very quiet in the house, actually, it felt too quiet in fact. The only thing he could hear was the faint wisps of steam coming from the bathroom area.

After taking out a bottle of cold water from the refrigerator, Kuro could reflect on his mission as completed. Simple and easy.

Then came the voice of Akari coming from the bathroom, calling Kuro’s name.

"Kuro-kun~!"

Kuro stopped in his tracks.

"...What?"

"There were no towels!"

"...How does that happen?"

"Emergency!"

"Just use common sense."

"Aoi calmly explained, "The towels are down the hallway in the cabinet."

"Ok". "Then get the towels." "We’re bathing". "So what?"

...silence.

Then Akari yelled, "PERVERT!"

"I did not do anything!"

In full anger, Kuro grabbed the towels.

"I need to go to bed because this family has drained me."

Kuro walked towards the bathroom without breaking his gaze from the ceiling.

He thought to himself, no eye contact means no possibility that either of them would harm him therefore a maximum chance of survival.

Steam was escaping through the crack between the bathroom door and the frame of the door.

Kuro knocked once on the door.

"Here," a voice from inside responded.

"Just going to leave them out on the floor," Kuro said, "so I can leave."

"But our hands are wet," Akari objected.

"Are you serious?"

"Kuro-kun!!" Akari’s taunting and playful tone had Kuro feeling nervous.

"Are you scared that you will see something?"

"YES! I do not want to see anything."

"Ehhh? Why not?"

"AKARI!"

"Quit picking on Kuro," Aoi said from inside the bathroom.

"Boooring," Akari replied.

Kuro inhaled, let it out, and opened the bathroom door just enough to put the towels inside.

The worst possible choice.

In retrospect, this was a colossal error.

Everything shifts as—

Akari stands to her feet

Having lost her towel.

Kuro’s impulse control has been solely drained.

Nakedness is not beautiful; only nakedness.

And still—silence—

For one full second—

The universe.

Akari began to descend her gaze to some imaginary point below her.

While bringing her gaze back up.

And YELLED!

KYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Kuro immediately panicked.

By saying it was an accident.

You looked!

I wasn’t looking!

" YOU LOOKED! "

" I WASN’T LOOKING BECAUSE YOU STOOD! "

In an effusion of panic and utter confusion, Kuro fell back.

Only to have his foot slip on the wet floor in the hallway.

WOAH—

THUD

Kuro crashed onto the floor.

Instant back pain.

At the same moment the door slid closed.

Of the bathroom.

Aoi looked outside with her long black hair hugging one shoulder.

Unlike Akari, she appeared composed.

Almost too composed.

" Ara Ara "

Kuro instantly regretted being alive.

Aoi looked down at him with a light-hearted smile.

" PERVERT!!! "

" I DIDN’T LOOK INTENTIONALLY! "

Akari rushed in behind Aoi with her towel tightly wound around herself, and her face was beet red.

" YOU SAW EVERYTHING, DIDN’T YOU??? "

" I SAW FEAR... AND REGRET. "

"THAT’S NOT AN ANSWER!!! "

Aoi squatted beside Kuro and leaned in closer.

TOO CLOSE.

" Which one is bigger ? "

Kuro’s spirit escaped his body and was free.

"Why did you ask me that?" Akari erupted.

"You are such an annoying little girl!" Aoi positioned her head curiously to one side.

"I was just curious!" Kuro shouted.

"You can’t ask me that!"

"But Kuro probably knows now." Aoi responded.

"Just kill me, now!" Akari screamed with her hands shielding her burning cheeks.

"This is mortifying," Akari whispered.

In the meantime, Aoi continued to look at Kuro.

"His ears are red," Aoi softly noted.

"Kuro, stop analyzing me." Kuro replied.

"You are obviously an open book." Aoi continued.

Kuro hastily got up and left.

"I am leaving and going to my room," Kuro shouted.

Akari pointed her finger at him and said, "You are never going to use the restroom again!"

"I accept your judgment," Kuro exclaimed as he left in a hurry.

Kuro’s once peaceful existence was gone forever.

The next day, Kuro returned to class feeling even worse than he had the previous day.

"Wow," Kuro exclaimed when he walked into school.

Kuro was surprised once again, he saw that his desk had moved from his designated spot.

"Are you kidding me?" Kuro stated. As he walked to his desk, he saw that it was now located between Aoi and Akari.

"Hi Kuro-kun, good morning Akari," Akari stated while smiling at Kuro.

Aoi then poured herself some tea and passed it over to Kuro while she was sitting next to him.

"The seating arrangement has changed," both twins said in unison.

"You can’t change the seating arrangement!" Kuro shouted at the twins.

"We just did!" the twins replied.

Kuro proceeded to sit down, but to his surprise, both twins moved so close to him that he could feel the body heat from their respective bodies.

Kuro could feel his left arm brushing up against Akari’s right arm as she tried to act like she was reading some notes.

Aoi rested her elbow on the right side of him.

As soon as this happened, the whole classroom erupted into whispers.

"Really!?"

"Oh man! Kuro has all these girls around him..."

"What a lucky guy!"

Nope, he was not lucky.

This was, in fact, like watching someone be publicly executed.

Akari moved in real close to Kuro’s ear.

"So..."

"...What?"

"Did you get any sleep last night?"

Kuro nearly died at that point.

At the same time, Aoi was casually writing in her notebook.

On one page Kuro could see:

Bath Incident - had a HUGE panic attack

underneath that it said:

LOL

The terrified look on Kuro’s face said it all.

"You actually wrote something down!?"

"It’s important to remember things."

"That’s pretty creepy!"

"Thanks."

Then out of nowhere Akari rested her chin on Kuro’s shoulder.

"You actually saw me naked, huh..."

"GETAWAY!"

The boys in the class all looked like they were about to kill Kuro.

Suddenly Haruto moved in from behind him.

Haruto’s eyes looked dull.

"Kuro."

"...what?"

"I hope you get shampoo in your eyes forever."

"That seems really specific."

"You are too far advanced for mankind."

Kuro put his head down on his desk.

The twins looked very satisfied.

That freaked Kuro out just as much, or more , than the bath incident.