Waking up the next morning, I couldn't help but smile and feel as if I had been reborn. Really, in just 24 hours, I managed to go from a failure to someone with an actual chance to make it through University. That is, if I give it my all, of course. Getting up and out of bed to brush my teeth, get dressed and fix my hair, I then made my way to Meil's room and went to gently knock on the doors, expecting him to still be asleep, much like he was yesterday.
"A-Ah." I froze up as the doors opened before I could even knock on them, "Good morning. Did you sleep well?"
"Ugh..." He tightly squeezed the sides of his head as he walked right past me, "Mn? Oh, yeah, good morning."
"Didn't sleep well?" I followed closely behind, "Everything alright? Can I help you with anything?"
"Yeah." He walked into the bathroom before slamming the door in my face, "Please do not follow me around so intently. I am thankful for the attention, little bee, but your buzzing is a bit overwhelming when it is heard first thing in the morning."
And just like that, with a loud slam, I was left alone on the hallway. W-What did he mean when he called me little bee just now!? Is that a Simpletonese phrase? Am I just misunderstanding things? Ugh, what the hell... Why is he so goddamned charming even when he's grumpy?! A-And that face he made as he calmly told me not to annoy him in his own sweet and kind way, so cute...!!
After he got properly done with his morning routine, he went down to the kitchen to make me breakfast, but I wanted to surprise him a little...!
"Nelly?" His head tilted as he slowly approached me, "Did you... cook breakfast today?"
"Yup. I'm not that good of a cook yet, but you're sure to enjoy my specialty dish - Uštipci!" I proudly displayed my "Kiss the cook" apron I was just dying to try out, "Have a seat, it'll be done in a minute!"
"Oo...shteep...see?" He made an adorably confused face as he inquired some more about it, "I have never heard of such a dish? From the way you have said it, it sounds like a Cardinic dish. What is it exactly? What ingredients did you use?"
"Wow, someone's curious." I teased, "It's just fried dough balls, really. Though I'm not gonna share the recipe with you, Meil, since then it wouldn't be MY specialty anymore now, would it?"
"Tell me the ingredients, and be as specific as you can." He got super close to me, making me a bit flustered as I slowly stepped back, "I will not eat anything I myself do not know what has been put in it."
"A-Ah, n-no... Yeowch!" I suddenly felt a strong sizzling in the palm of my hand as I tossed my arm up from the stovetop, "Fuck! Owwww~!"
"Gasp, Nelly!" He immediately snapped out of it and went to check my hand, "Sorry, this is my fault!"
"Fuck yeah it is, dumbass!" I slapped him in the heat of the moment with my other hand, "Sit the fuck back down, you goddamned paranoid prince!"
"Prince?" He felt up the part of his face that got slapped before shaking it off, "A-Ah, sorry! I-I will get out of your way!"
The burn on my hand wasn't actually that bad, thankfully, as I was quick to remove it from the stovetop. Running it under some cold water from the tap and applying some alcohol from the pantry completely did the trick, but I still wasn't gonna let Meil off the hook for scaring me like that. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with him? To be so suspicious of my cooking... What, did he think I was trying to poison him or something?
"Geez, here you go." I handed him the plate with a bunch of fried dough balls on it, "There's more where that came from, so eat up."
"S-Sure..." He still felt a bit anxious about taking the first bite, but the guilt from burning me thanks to his stupid actions overweighed his fears, so he finally dug in, "Mmm! This is quite delicious!"
"See? Now can you trust me?" I joked, "Here, I forgot the sour cream. Can't have uštipke without a bit of sour cream!"
"Ah, about that..." He carefully took the sour cream from my burned hand, "It is not that I do not trust YOU, Nelly..."
"Huh?" I waited for him to continue.
"Yo!" The all too familiar loud and obnoxious voice rang out through the main hall of the house, "Hehe, never gets old!"
"Ah, that must be Kevin." Meil smiled as he went out of the room, "I called him in today to help you with your studying, so let me go get him. Oh, and be careful around the fire."
"You goddamned...!" I could feel a vein popping from all this abrupt chaos, "And whose fault was it that I got burned, huh!?"
"Whoa, your girl's mad, man." Muscle guy's head popped in through the doorframe, "What'd you do this time? Ooh, fried dough balls!"
"Ap ap ap!" I slapped his hand away before he got his grubby mitts on the dough balls, "Those aren't for you, I'm afraid!"
"Uuugh, not a very hospitable housewife, mademoiselle..." He sighed as loudly as he voiced his complaints, "Aren't Cardinians supposed to be super hospitable or something?"
"I'm from Secundis!" I corrected him.
"My point still stands though." He got all smug, "The people of Trivis Numerica can be a bit overly-traditional, but even I've heard the stories of them happily dropping everything they're doing to help a brother out!"
"Ugh, well then - I was actually born in Great Hiana, so take that!" I continued through the list hoping to win the argument.
"Now you're just making stuff up." He clicked his tongue, "But whatever, I see how it is. You just wanted to enjoy a sweet and peaceful dinner with your hubby, is that it?"
"H-Hey!? S-Shut up!" I quickly took off my showy apron as soon as I saw him pointing his stupid finger at it, "B-Besides, it's rude to call Meil my...!"
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"Hubby?" Meil tilted his head, donning such a puzzled look on his face you'd think you could see a question mark popping up above him, "Is that some sort of dialect?"
Oh, right. He's horrible at languages, thank Prylos...
----------------------------------------
***
----------------------------------------
"So, what do they taste like?" Muscle guy leaned on his fist as he eyed the two of us happily eating a tast breakfast.
"Nelly, I still think it is rude to not let our guest eat..." Meil felt a bit awkward from being stared at.
"He'll live, don't worry." I reassured him, "Besides, this is super fatty, y'know? Not good for a muscle builder like him."
"Is that so? Then Kevin, I am sorry for tempting you." Meil apologized before digging into the dough.
"Let me just make it clear - You're not tempting me, you're being a good host." Muscle guy gave me a sidelong glance, "It's that little girlie of yours that's tempting me to kick her ass for being a stupid brat."
"How rude!" I got up, "I'm neither a little girlie nor a stupid brat, for your information! Heh, not to brag or anything, but I passed tonight's mock exams easily (though it was just barely...)"
"So? I did that as well, y'know?" Muscle guy got all smug, "Besides, a little birdie told me you failed the first time, so I'm still well within my rights to call you a stupid brat."
"Alright now, settle down you two. I called you here to help her, not fight with her, Kevin." Meil stood by my side, "She may be a bit defensive right now because she has not yet acquainted herself with you properly, but I can assure you that she is a very sweet girl once you get to know her."
"Yeah yeah, I know the frustrations of a newbie teenager all too well." Muscle guy flashed me an oddly honest grin, "The world is suddenly against you, and everyone keeps telling you that you've changed, but in reality you feel like you're the only one who stood true to yourself, am I right?"
"A-Ah, yeah..." I looked away, "You actually worded that really nicely."
"Right? It took me a long time to realize this, but the world is quite a ruthless place for kids. Of course, some kids deal with it without issues, which is good, but that just means emotional peeps like us get pushed to the sidelines."
"Mhm..." I bashfully looked at the dough balls on the table as I spoke up with a loud Ahem, "Y-You can take a few. Sorry for not sharing."
"What's this? Am I warming up to you already?" He happily took a few and stuffed them in his mouth, "Ah, but seriously, I didn't expect you to stop being bratty so fast."
"...Are you making fun of me now?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him.
"Nah, not at all. In fact, I'm just saying it's good that you've learned to throw away that teenage angst that's blocking your logic from reaching your noggin." He knocked on his temple as if it were a door, "I know a guy who struggled a lot back when he just turned thirteen. He worked his ass off his whole life, and just when he thought everything was starting to come together, it all fell apart right in front of him."
"Kevin, you do not mean...?" Meil gulped.
"Yeah." Muscle guy refused to break eye contact with me as he gave me a useful life tip, "Instead of swallowing his pride and accepting that the girl he loves just isn't interested, he blindly let his emotions engulf him as he continued pressing on like an idiot. Almost a decade later, once he matured a bit, he finally realized he had wasted his entire childhood chasing a dream that was never meant to be."
"Wait, that guy couldn't possibly be...?" I realized as well.
"Yep, that's me." He pointed to himself as his eyes went hollow, "Though enough about that! Point is - The moment I realized that and got back to my senses, the whole world opened itself up to me. I got really fit, I found a ton of hobbies now that my schedule cleared up, and above all, I learned to live life without regrets."
"B-But Green girl is...!" I tried shouting, only to get my mouth covered by Meil.
"You did the right thing, Kevin." He reassured him, "And it is exactly that emotional maturity that I want you to teach Nelly here."
"Can do, bud!" He said with a glint in his smile as he tossed us a hearty thumbs up, "Oh, let me guess - You've got another date with Jelena today, so you won't be back until tonight, huh?"
Eh? D-Date? A-And that name... Waitress girl!?
"The usual." Meil shrugged as he got up, "Though it is not a date, and I would prefer you not to call it that. We are just friends doing an important job together."
"Yeah yeah, and I'm sure those flowers you gave her the other day were also just a friendship gift." Muscle guy jeered.
"H-Hold up, is that where you've been going off to?" I looked up at Meil, the tears just about to burst out of my eyes.
"It is not something you should be worried about." He patted me on head, "I can't go into details on what exactly we do on our outings, but I guess the best way to describe it would be... tying up loose ends."
Loose ends!? Hold on, since when were those two so close!? T-This is a surprise... All this time I hsd thought Green girl was my only rival, and since we didn't talk all that much, I sort of forgot about Waitress girl's entire existence. I grew complacent, and now Meil got stolen right from under my nose! So wait, how does "Tying up loose ends" even describe the situation at all? What the hell could they be doing that can be summed up like that!? Damn...!!