"We heard from Muhammad, so we're going back to Malaysia first. Come back when you're done," said the note.

Huh? I stood there dumbfounded after reading the note. I read it several more times to make sure, but the message remained the same. What did they mean? Masa did tell the Malay butler to inform them if we were missing for more than a week, but we had only been gone for a couple of days, right? Besides, we had been planning to stay here for more than a week, so why had they returned to Malaysia so soon? Did something happen over there? More importantly, did that mean I wasn't going to be scolded?

Masa also looked puzzled once I handed him the note to read. "Uh…your parents are a lot more liberal than I expected?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you said they were strict?"

"They are! But they're also impulsive, and tend to make sudden decisions. Something must have happened," I said, crossing my arms. "Well then, it looks like I'll have to go back via the botanic gardens portal again."

"Hmm, then I'll go with you," said Masa.

I stared at him. "Don't you have to exit Singapore first?"

He shrugged. "My passport's due for a renewal soon enough, and now that we have access to portals, it's unlikely I'll ever travel far on Earth anyway."

"Good point," I agreed. "Well then, we'll rest for today and leave first thing tomorrow morning, all right?"

"Sure," said Masa, but was interrupted by his stomach growling. “…but um, could we eat something first?" he added, looking away with his face reddening.

"Right, right!" Tearing my eyes away from his adorable expression, I went straight to the kitchen to see what food we had. "Make yourself at home, Masa. You can put your things in the guest room on the right."

I opened the fridge and took out all the remaining fresh vegetables, since my parents wouldn't be coming back so soon. The simplest and fastest thing to cook would be my specialty—the one-dish meal.

First, chop up the carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms and bakchoy into bite-size portions, then boil some water in a pot and toss the ingredients in. Wait until all the vegetables are cooked, then add rice vermicelli and instant noodle flavouring.

Ta-da! A healthy, nutritious and delicious vegetarian meal with endless possibilities depending on the ingredients! I went with the standard vegetable soup this time, since I wasn't sure whether Masa could handle the spicier flavours like curry or tomyum. One could also replace the vermicelli with pasta or any type of noodles. An egg or cheese could also be added as a topping according to taste, but there were none in the fridge since my parents only bought enough provisions for one week.

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Hmm, we still had the afternoon free, so maybe we could go shopping at the nearby mall to add new items to my inventory? Masa might be interested to see how shops in Singapore were like. He had gone straight to the botanic gardens once he entered the country, so he must not have seen much of it yet. We didn't exactly have time for me to show him around, but there was always next time now that a portal had been established here.

As I waited for the food to finish cooking, I realised that I wasn't so worked up about being alone at home with Masa anymore. Huh. It just felt…normal? I tilted my head to the side. Maybe the cooking had relaxed me, or the fact that I wasn't facing impending doom any longer. Anyway, this was better than being so tense and overly conscious.

"Hey, is there anything I can do to help?" came his voice from over my shoulder. "Ah, you're almost done, huh."

I jumped, but managed to turn and give him a calm smile, if a little forced. "Yeah, um, maybe you could get the utensils from the drawer over there," I said, quickly pointing to my left as I scooped up the noodles into two bowls. "And of course, you could help to wash up, since I cooked," I added with a grin.

"No problem," he said with a shrug as he placed two pairs of chopsticks and spoons on the dining table. "Thanks for cooking. It does smell good."

"Ah, it's just a really simple meal, so don't expect too much," I warned, placing the two bowls down. "I was thinking we could do some shopping later for some ingredients for dinner and tomorrow's breakfast. If you're not too tired, that is."

"Fine with me, and don't worry, I'm so hungry that anything you've cooked will taste good," he said, holding up his chopsticks and putting his hands together. "Itadakimasu."

I did the same before muttering, "I'm not sure that's a compliment though."

He just grinned at me and started eating.

We headed out again after Masa washed up the dishes. I did help to clear and clean the table though. The mall was a five-minute walk away, and we headed directly to the supermarket, since Masa wasn't interested in checking out clothes or electronics. We did pause in front of a comic store, mainly for me to check out the new arrivals, since Masa couldn't read the mostly Chinese-translated comics anyway. He was somewhat amused to see that Japanese comics and games were so popular here as well, although he couldn't recognise the characters apart from the more famous ones.

At the supermarket, we went to the instant food section where I took some powdered soups, mashed potato and several packets of cup and bowl noodles. Compared to Japan, there weren't as many here, but there were some interesting Southeast Asian flavours like Assam laksa and tomyum. There were also different types of noodles like vermicelli and the wider flat rice noodles called kway teow. I considered picking up the instant porridge too, but chose to take three-in-one cereal drinks instead. Lastly, we grabbed several different flavours of granola bars.

"Right, now we're set for another round of adventuring!" I declared with a triumphant grin.