Chapter 99: Chapter 98 - Why Are You Better At This Than Me?

The next day began promisingly.

Then it went downhill.

Kuro got to Minami’s apartment not long after breakfast, expecting to have to clean up a horrible mess.

He wasn’t prepared for the fact that Minami Asakura was somehow worse at keeping a house clean than Akari was.

Just that one thought was terrifying.

As Kuro entered the apartment, he found Minami standing in the middle of the mess with a proud look on her face.

"I’ve started already."

Kuro looked around the room.

There was a bag full of trash tipped over.There were books all over the floor.

One of the chairs was flipped upside down.

The room looked as though it was worse off than before.

"How?" was the only thing Kuro could say.

Minami’s confidence was gone in an instant.

The actual cleanup started.For about the first fifteen minutes,everything was going well.

Kuro was putting the books away.Minami was folding laundry.

Then the disaster happened.

A loud noise came from the kitchen.

Kuro went to see what had happened.

Minami was standing still inside the kitchen, frozen.

A glass had broken on the ground.

"I dropped it."

"I know."

"It attacked me."

"The glass attacked you?"

"Yes."

Kuro looked at her.

Minami appeared to be completely serious.

Kuro decided that he wouldn’t continue the discussion .

Ten minutes later...

Another crash.

This time it was a pile of plates.

Thankfully, they did not break.

However, Minami’s self-esteem was not as fortunate.

"How are you managing to do this?" Kuro asked.

"I don’t know."

"You live here."

"I know."

" Every day. "

"I KNOW."

Every time Minami tried to help. Something happened.

Cleaning supplies were lost, garbage bags ended up missing, she forgot where she placed folding clothes, and at one point could not find her phone after searching for ten minutes.

Fortunately, it ended up being in her hand, discovered by Kuro.

Minami briefly contemplated moving away. Kuro continued to work unbothered.

He cleaned shelves, sorted bookshelves, organized paperwork, and re-arranged furniture.

The apartment became unrecognizable as Kuro worked. It was unbelievable what he accomplished.

Minami watched him repair a cabinet door, fix a broken drawer, and organize a bookshelf all in the same timeframe.

She just stared. "Kuro."

"Hm?"

"Why are you good at everything?"

"I’m not."

"You fixed three things in twenty minutes."

"It wasn’t that hard."

"You’re a little scary," and that was the prevailing opinion by that point in time.

At around lunchtime Kuro moved to the kitchen, with the sole purpose of preventing Minami from starving to death.

The kitchen looked presentable due to the fact Kuro took an hour to clean it prior to preparing lunch.

Minami watched as Kuro made her lunch.

Vegetables: Check.

Rice: Check.

Soup: Check.

Simple & Efficient: Check.

Professional: Check.

Minami felt personally offended. "You cook also?"

"A little."

"A LITTLE?"

It was hard to believe there was such a wide variety of delicious smells coming from the kitchen.

"Someone’s cooking ramen," Kuro said.

"You mean cooking?" Minami asked.

"No, you mean surviving," she replied dryly.

Kuro let out a chuckle.

"Weird to hear you laugh," Minami said as she pointed her finger at him.

"Oh, and? You’re no stranger to laughter," Kuro responded.

"Touché."

They felt relaxed and great during their conversation.

They weren’t just a teacher and their pupil; they were two people coping with a cleaning catastrophe.

They resumed the tasks they had previously been doing after the lunch break.

Their apartment continued to improve.

Books were shelving again.

The laundry had left the building.

The trash had walked itself out the door.

The furniture was coming back into view.

The mysteriously absent chair was located.

It was under a mountain of magazines.

Neither Minami nor Kuro cared enough to ask questions about it all.

At 3 PM, Minami was greeted with another problem — their neighbor.

Their neighbor was an elderly lady who happened to look out her blinds just in time to see Kuro walk into Minami’s apartment with a box full of books and then return to Minami’s apartment to help her clean. After that, she saw him go to the store to get a bunch of groceries.

This was all she needed to conclude Kuro and Minami had to be married.

"Oh my gosh," she said with a huge smile on her face.

Minami froze because in theory she understood how much trouble they were in; she feared for her life.

"Oh no," Minami thought as the neighbor stepped closer to her and said,

"I didn’t know you were married."

Everyone in the room was silent and staring.

When Minami realized Kuro and she were not yet married, she was very embarrassed, to say the least.

Kuro almost dropped the bag of groceries he was carrying when he said, "What?"

Before Minami could respond, the neighbor began to laugh and said, "Don’t be embarrassed. You two are just a younger couple who just are not comfortable with each other yet."

"We are NOT coupled!"

The neighbor refused to believe the facts.

A highly regarded skill.

"He is dependable."

Minami wished for the ground to open.

"He assists with groceries."

"Stop it, please."

"He does the cleaning."

"PLEASE stop it."

"He prepares our meals."

Kuro quietly averted his eyes.

The neighbor approved with a nod.

"Husband Material."

Minami’s soul departed.

Once again.

Finally, the neighbor left the property.

Still smiling.

Still totally convinced.

The instant she was gone.

Minami collapsed on the couch.

"I’m going to move."

"Moving because of a single neighbor?"

"Humiliation."

"Of course, that is understandable."

The completion of the rest of the afternoon went maybe very well!

Because, Kuro prevented Minami from touching anything that could be broken.

That solution was backed by many reasons.

Therefore, her responsible activities were replaced by only easy.

Easy.

Safe.

Not damaging.

Eventually.

The impossible occurred.

The apartment was then cleaned.

Actually cleaned.

Not "Minami cleaned".

Truly clean.

The living room appeared presentable. The kitchen appeared functional. The laundry was folded. The books were sorted. The floor was cleared.

It was like a miracle.

Minami was standing in the center of the room, looking around.

In shock.

"This was my apartment?"

"Technically."

"I’ve never seen it before."

"That’s a concern."

Minami ignored him.

For the first time in years.

The appearance of an ordinary man’s apartment.

There’d been a lot of adulting going on. She turned to look at Kuro.

Genuinely thanking him for all that he had done with only a simple.

’Thank you.’

Kuro shrugged it off and said, ’No problem.’

The atmosphere immediately softened for a few seconds before... ’Ding-Dong.’

The both of them froze, the entire apartment went silent, and Minami turned towards the door.

Her face went to a light shade of pale. ’No.’

Kuro looked at his watch, and then said, ’Oh.’

There was another ’Ding-Dong’ and then a cheery voice from outside yelled.

’Minami - chan !’

Minami let her head slump down on to her shoulders and said, ’She’s here.’

Kuro immediately understood.

Namida Asakura. Final Boss.

Their apartment was now clean, they had accomplished their clean up operation.

Now they just needed to survive Minami’s mom... which, in a weird way, seemed more difficult!

At the Tachibana home, Aoi and Akari received an innocuous text from Kuro saying that he was helping Minami clean her apartment.

There was an uncomfortable silence.

Akari lowered her phone.

"Aoi,"

"Yes?" was Aoi’s reply.

"Why is my brother cleaning another woman’s apartment?"

From the other side of her book, Aoi turned a page.

"Because Minami-sensei is not capable of being alone."

"That’s not the point."

"It is partially the point."

Akari pouted and threw herself onto the couch.

"He cleaned our room."

"He also lives here."

"Still."

For the first time, Aoi looked at Akari.

The faint smile on Aoi’s face looked more threatening to Akari than Akari’s evident jealousy.

"I have to admit, I am very curious."

Akari was instantly upright.

"Right?"

"Very curious."

"What if Minami-sensei is making Kuro cook?"

"Possible."

"What if she is making him clean everything?"

"Probably high."

"What if she is praising him?"

Aoi’s smile faltered.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop.

"I had not thought of that before."

Akari pointed dramatically.

"See? This is serious!"

While they were talking to each other, Kuro was unknowingly sending them another text.

"I can’t believe how much worse the apartment is now."

Sheesh! Just when I thought the apartment couldn’t be worse...

A picture was sent next.

The picture shows a huge pile of dirty clothes.

Akari was blown away by the size of the clothing pile.

Aoi pushed her glasses up on her nose.

Neither Akari or Aoi were looking at the pile of clothes itself.

They were, however, looking at the very fact that Kuro had taken this picture in Minami’s apartment.

Akari hid her face in a pillow.

"Your brother spends too much time at the apartment, Aoi. Way too much time."

Aoi quietly saved the picture to her phone.

"For evidence."

"Evidence of what?"

"I’ll figure that out later."

Akari stared at Aoi.

"That sounds awful!"

"Thank you."

A few minutes later, both girls found themselves looking at their phones, anxiously waiting for another text from Kuro.

Although they were both too proud to admit it, they were counting the minutes until Kuro got home.

When Daichi stepped into the living room and saw both girls, he promptly walked back out in silence.

Experience had shown Daichi one thing:

When Aoi and Akari showed unusual interest in Kuro, it was best to stay out of their way.