“Hello, you must be Desir!”

“Hi, you must be Grace.”

I extended my hand to the girl standing beside Althea. Just as she’d mentioned two days prior, Althea brought one of her friends over to my apartment. Initially, the plan was to bring her over after I’d prepared dinner. But for some reason, the pair appeared two hours earlier than expected.

Either way, I was welcoming of the young girl… and when I say young, I meant it.

As they were standing side-by-side, I couldn’t help but compare the pair of flowers at my door. If Althea was a beauty that could give movie stars a run for their money, Grace was a girl that exuded a friendly and charming vibe.

Althea was just an inch shy of 1.7 metres, which made her slightly above average when it came to women her age. Grace, on the other hand, could barely reach my chest. Calling her a petite girl wouldn’t do her size justice.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t an attractive girl. Her vibrant brown hair, which was tied in a ponytail, made her round face all the more adorable. There wasn’t much fat on her face either; rather, she looked far more healthy than the girl to her left.

A warm and affable girl. That was my first impression of the girl who barely looked eighteen.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Desir!”

“Really? Haha, I hope it hasn’t been bad,” I joked.

“How could it be?” Grace chuckled. “Honestly, when I heard that Althea collapsed, my heart sank! It was lucky that you were around to save her.”

“Anyone would have done the same in my position.”

“Still! The fact remains that you’d saved her! You should know that Althea is hopeless when it comes to taking care of herself. Back when we were still staying in the dorms, she would skip meals just to grind for exams!”

“Hoho, there was such a story?”

“Yeah! If I wasn’t there, she would have collapsed from malnutrition long ago!”

“G-Grace!”

Althea’s face turned crimson as she hurriedly used her hands to cover Grace’s mouth. Then, she looked over at me with flickering eyes and said: “T-That was a long time ago! I don’t skip meals anymore!”

“Haha, I’m sure you don’t.”

I laughed at the young girl’s adorable response. Of course, she wasn’t skipping meals. I am the one who’s preparing all of her food and making sure that she gets the right amount of nutrition.

“Would you like tea or water?” I asked Grace as she was settling down on the couch.

“Water, please.”

“Wait, Grace. Don’t you like Earl Grey tea? Desir has a few packets of those in his cabinet.”

“... Do I?”

“Yeah, you do! In the tea drawer, you have a few packets of various teas! You must have forgotten all about them since you only drink Green tea!”

Ah… Come to think of it, when the pandemic first started, I’d thought of tasting all of the teas on the market. Those packets should be remnants of that phase.

“Okay, I’ll go make some.”

“I’ll help!”

“Help? You? Do you even know how to make tea?”

“H-How bad do you think I am?!”

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Haha, Althea’s right. All I needed to do was to pour hot water into a cup with the tea bags. Still, it wasn’t a two-person job, and Althea should stay with Grace to keep her comfortable.

“It’s fine; just relax with Grace,” I replied with a wry smile. “What about you, Althea? Same as always?”

“Yeah, Ice Lemon tea for me, please.”

I took the two girl’s orders with a smile and headed to the kitchen. From the corner of my eye, I could see Grace’s jaw hanging as if she had seen a UFO.

“Do you want something else?”

“N-No, Earl Grey is fine for me.”

“Alright, coming right up.”

It only took a minute for me to prepare the three cups of tea. Since Althea and I drank tea almost every day, we had refrigerated two bottles beforehand. So, I only needed to prepare Grace’s unique order.

“Thank you,” Grace replied vibrantly as I passed the cup over to her. At the same time, Althea took her own mug from the kitchen island to ease my burden.

“... you have cute mugs.”

“Ah, that’s not mine. Since Althea is here most of the time, she bought her own.”

“I-I see...”

“Hehe, aren’t they cute?”

Althea raised her panda mug and gently tapped it against Grace’s cat one. “We got it at the supermarket at a discount.”

“W-We?”

“Yeap, I help Desir with the groceries from time to time!”

“I-I see...”

Grace muttered with raised brows. There seemed to be something bothering her, but it wasn’t in my place to ask. During times like this, it was best to steer the conversation away.

“So, Grace… How did the two of you become friends?”

“Hmmm? Althea didn’t tell you?” Grace alternated her gaze between her best friend and myself. Althea shook her head while I continued on with my blank expression. Eventually, the girl caved in with a sigh: “We met during orientation.”

“Orientation? Surely there’s more to that story.”

“Haha, how astute! I was partnered with her during orientation, and we bonded over mutual interests. We’d even become neighbours at the dorm! As we got to know each other better, I’d quickly realised that Althea was a klutz.”

“G-Grace!”

“Hehe, did you know that she’d once tripped over her shoelaces twice in the same minute?”

“Oh, that does sound like her.”

“D-Desir?!”

“Hoho, it sounds like you have some interesting Althea stories as well.”

“Well, she did try to wash my vegetables with soap once.”

“... Althea?”

Grace looked over at her bosom pal with bated breath. Looks like even for a long-time friend, it was hard to imagine how klutzy Althea was at times.

“...”

Althea bit the bottom of her lip as her face was starting to turn red. Haha, looks like we should stop for now.

“Hehe, we’re only joking, Althea.”

“Half-joking!”

“Tsk, I’m not talking to you guys anymore!”

“Hahahaha!”

I seemed to have struck a rapport with this Grace girl. After all, we both loved to tease Althea and were neighbours of the girl. Wait, neighbours?

“Now that I think about it, why did you leave the university dorms, Althea?”

“...”

At the sound of my question, both girls froze.

“A-Ah, that...” Althea’s eyes wandered around vigorously, and her fragile lips began to tremble.

By her side, Grace was having a similar reaction. Her eyes weren’t able to meet mine, and her gaze was firmly attached to Althea’s response.

Ah, I may have hit a sore spot—time to defuse the situation.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” I smiled and turned my attention to the clock. “Oh, look at the time. I should start preparing dinner.”

“Ah, let me help with that.”

As if on cue, Althea recovered immediately. She walked over to the kitchen as Grace traced her footsteps. “W-Wait… Althea, you can cook?”

“Hehe, you’ll be shocked, Grace!”

Puffing her chest out in pride, Althea made her cooking skills known to the world.

“Don’t listen to her, Grace. The best that Althea can do is cut some vegetables.”

“T-That’s not true! I can fry an egg too!”

“Right...”

Althea protested in anger, only to find my lips slowly curling upwards. When she realised that I was teasing her, the girl puffed her cheeks out like a pufferfish, causing her small face to swell adorably.

Seriously, this girl is way too cute.

“Alright, alright. You can assist me as per usual.”

“Hehe, now that’s more I like it!” Althea naturally went to the fridge and got out all of the ingredients for dinner. “Grace, you can relax for now. Dinner will be done in a jiffy.”

“... Okay.”

Once again, Grace looked over at us with a gaze that looked like we were two animals in a zoo. Do we really look that strange?

Either way, it wasn’t in my place to ask, so I focused on the meal at hand. At first, when Althea told me she was going to have a friend over, I’d thought that I was going to make dinner for myself. As a result, I started to crave something spicy.

But since we were having dinner together, I can’t make something spicy for Althea. So, that’s when the idea hit me. I should just make tacos!

I could customise each taco to each person’s liking. Althea could just have guacamole, meat and cheese, while I could add my house-blend salsa to my own taco. It was the perfect combination!

So I went a little overboard with my meat selection. Stewed pulled pork, grilled beef and pan-seared barramundi. The perfect base for each taco. Also, if Grace couldn’t take meat, I could just add heaps of my stewed beans with salsa.

Knowing my intentions, Althea easily prepared the vegetables like she always did. The dance in the kitchen was routine to us, but Grace watched over us with suspicious eyes.

“Do you want to try?” I asked while turning the steak on the grill.

“No, I’m fine observing.”

“Oh, okay then.” Since the girl wanted to watch, I had no reason to deny her. “Althea, could you pass the tongs?”

“Top-right drawer, right?”

“That’s the one.”

Althea walked over to the exact location of the tongs and brought them over with a dazzling smile.

“Okay, that’s it! Althea, may I speak with you for a moment?”

“H-Huh? O-Okay?”

Grace, who had been silently watching us, erupted like a volcano. She grabbed Althea by the wrist and led her out of the kitchen and towards my balcony.

“What was that about?” I’d thought out loud. “Well, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with me.”

Thinking that I returned back to my grill as I hurried to finish our dinner in time.