The next day, I woke up to find out that I was alone at home. Jane and Emmi went out shopping and were coming back after lunch.

I stand on my balcony with the girl's keys in hand. Looking at their balconies I wonder how I should handle this.

I know I should just go and give it to them, but I’m pretty sure that they won’t believe me if I tell them that Bernard found them but didn’t say anything, although it is the true. If they find me suspicious, all that work I did yesterday will be in vain. I know I am not guilty of anything but still, I am nervous and scared of what they might think.

“Ahh” I sigh in frustration.

It is still eight in the morning, so I’ll study for a few minutes before going. I'll let the future me decide what the plan will be.

I grab my study materials from my room and walk to the living room. I am not sure why, but every time there is no one else at home, I like to hang around the living room instead of my room. It just feels more peaceful somehow.

I leave the keys and my study materials on the dining table. I also leave the piece of paper Bernard gave me last night. This is a copy of my exam so I can see what I did wrong. I am not sure if it is good for me to have this, but Bernard gave it to me, so I guess it is fine.

Before starting, I decided to make some coffee. As I put the kettle on the stove my doorbell rang.

I wonder who would it be at this hour, maybe Bernard?

I check the door's peephole and see a robotic face with the tips of her hair dyed red.

Yuki?! What is she doing here?!

I stare at the door. Should I open it? Or should I act like I am not home? No, wait. What am I thinking? This is the chance to talk to her.

Okay, here we go. Act like normal.

“H-hi!” I open the door.

“Good morning dumb guy”.

“Good morning…” I don’t have the energy for this.

“Here” she pulls up a small bag.

“What is this?” I ask in surprise.

“A gift”.

A gift?! The girl who has called me an idiot more times in the last few days than people have called me by my name my entire life just brought me a gift?! But why? This is suspicious.

Sensing my doubts, Yuki clarified her intentions.

“Just thanking you for yesterday”.

Wow, she is actually showing gratitude. I may have had the wrong idea about her.

“You didn’t have to. I didn’t do anything crazy”.

“Well, it’s not that I wanted to, my mother forced me”.

And here I thought she was actually grateful.

“I- I see. Thank you anyway”.

“...” She stares at me.

I have no clue what she is thinking, her face, expressionless as always, does not indicate anything.

“Oh right!” I almost forgot the keys, this helps me a lot, I really wasn’t ready to go and knock at her door, but now that she is here, I can give her keys back.

“I have something for you”.

She tilts her head to the side in intrigue.

I went back inside and looked for the keys on the dining table. I pick them up, but I stay put, wondering which one is hers. Does she look like a cat person, or a dog person? I don't know, and I don't want to make any assumptions. I will just bring both to her and surely, she will recognize hers. This gives me an idea. I could also give Lucy’s keys to her and save me the hassle. Although I wanted to use this incident as an opportunity to talk to Lucy and try to become more friendly, she will probably give me a death stare if I suddenly appear in her front door with her keys.

“What are you doing with my keys?”.

“Ahh!” I jumped in surprise.

While I was lost in thought, Yuki appeared behind me poking her head over the side, looking at the keys in my hand.

If I don't want her to be suspicious of me, I have to act calmly.

“So, these are your keys? Good. Bernard found these in his office and thought it maybe you and Lucy’s keys”.

“...”.

Although her expression hasn’t changed, I know she is looking at me in suspicious.

“He said he was busy, so he gave them to me”.

“...”.

Still seems like she isn't believing me, I don't blame her though, it's a pretty difficult thing to believe.

"It must have fallen from my pocket I guess" she stretches her hand and grabs the pink keychain with the cat.

Did she really believe me? not that I complain, I am relieved.

"Thank you".

She actually said the word.

"Don't mention it".

"...".

Yuki looks at me, then at her keychain, she goes back and forth a few more times. Suddenly she wraps her keychain with her hands, lowering her head slightly.

Eh? What's going on?

"Do you think is weird".

"What?".

"My keychain…".

Eh? What is this adorable scene? Is she really embarrassed about her keychain? I guess, looking so cold and mature didn’t mean she was. I could tease her a little, but I should refrain myself from doing so, I don’t want to ruin the little progress I just made. For now, I should just calm her doubts.

“Not at all”.

“Really?” She looks at me.

“Yeah, I think it’s cute” I am not particularly affine with any type of animal, but cats are cute for the most part.

“Yeah, cats are cute” She stares at her keychain with a soft look.

Her eyes seem too bright once she hears me say that I think she is happy.

“...".

"What now?" I see her looking down again.

"Aren't you going to try them?" she pointed at the bag she gave me before.

"Oh this? What is it?" I open the bag and see four bread looking things inside wrapped in plastic.

"Dorayaki".

Dorowhat? Never heard of this before. I Pull out one and look at it. It is like a pancake that has been stuffed with something.

"Is it good?".

"Yes, It's extremely good. They are fluffy honey pancakes stuffed with red bean paste. I recommend eating it with some green tea. The sweet taste of the dorayaki goes perfectly with the warm and slightly bitter flavor of green tea".

This is the first time I heard her talk this much. She looks very enthusiastic about these dorayaki things. Well, I’m not a fan of sweet things, but I guess I can give it a try.

Just then, I hear the whistle of the kettle.

“Want some tea?” I put the bag on the dinner table and went to the kitchen to grab two plates and two teacups “I believe we should have green tea somewhere in the kitchen”.

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“Oh no, this is for you. You should share it with Emmi or Ms. Jane”.

“You took the time to bring me some of this. The least I can do is offer you something to drink and eat. Besides, there are four here. There will be enough left for Emmi and Jane”.

“...”. She doesn't complain anymore. Well, I'm sure she wants to eat it, or that's the energy she gave me once she started talking about it.

I go to the kitchen to look for green tea. Jane is a fan of teas, and she has a ton of them, with different flavors and colors. Every time I’m sick, she gives me very ugly tasting teas, but they always work and have me fully recover in a day.

Once I found the green tea, I grabbed the kettle and headed back to the dining room. As I get out of the kitchen I see Yuki, holding my copy of my entrance exam. My soul leaves my body.

“H-hey, what are you doing?” I quickly got to Yuki.

“Sorry, this paper had so many reds marks on it, it attracted my attention”.

“Haven’t seen that paper before”.

“That’s funny. It has your name on it” she turns the paper to me pointing at my name on the top right corner.

Every attempt to escape was useless. I have been found out.

“You got me, it is mine. What? Are you going to laugh at me?”.

“Well, before I say anything. Your doorbell has been ringing for the last minute”.

(Ding dong)

“What?!” I suddenly start hearing it. I was so focused on Yuki and my entrance exam that I didn’t notice it at all. Who could it be? I better hurry.

“Going!” I opened the door.

“It was about time” A very pissed girl greets me at my front door.

Lucy!? What is she doing here?

“Sorry for interrupting whatever was so important that you couldn’t open the door”.

She looks very angry. More than normally. I have to calm her down somehow.

“N-no, no. I didn’t mean to ignore you. I was just distracted, that's all”.

“Well, not that I care anyway”.

Seems like she calmed down, but I believe she is still a little angry with me.

“Here” she extends her arm, with a plastic bag on it.

“Huh?” I grabbed the bag in confusion.

“A gift”.

What is this deja vu situation?

“It is to thank you for your help yesterday”.

“You didn’t have to”.

Let me guess, it wasn’t your idea.

“My parents wanted me to do it anyway”.

I knew it.

“Well, Thank you”.

What a surprise. To think both of them will bring me a gift. Although they were kind of forced to do it, so I don’t know how to feel about it.

“Can I ask what it is?” I open the bag and look inside, there is a small white container.

“Donauwelle”.

Never heard of that before. Guess is from Germany. I can’t even repeat what she just said.

“I never heard of it before. Is it from Germany?”.

“Yes, it is. It has different names, maybe that’s why. You may have heard of Schneewittchenkuchen?”.

Did she actually say a name? Or did she just make a bunch of random sounds? I can’t tell.

“Never heard that”.

“What about Schneewittchentorte? That’s another name for it as well".

“Neither that one”.

There is no way I ever heard of that before. Even if I did. How could I remember?

“Weird. I thought this super delicious dessert was known all over the world” she looked very confused.

Seems like she lives in a very strange bubble.

“Is it sweet?” I asked.

“Yes, it is a sheet cake”.

“A sheet cake?” I had never heard of that type of cake before.

“It consists of two-pound cakes, one on the bottom, flavored with vanilla, and one on top of it, flavored with chocolate. It has cherries, buttercream, it also has chocolate ganache added to the top. Oh! and when the cake is being baked, the tart cherries will fall down through the batter, making a wavy pattern”.

There it goes, another dessert enthusiastic. She is very passionate about it, for her to explain it to me with so much detail and energy.

Though, what she just explained sounds to me like sugar plus sugar plus sugar multiplied by sugar. I can’t deal with that much sugar.

“Well, I don't eat too many sweets, that's why I don't know many desserts. I may be the only one that doesn't know about this German dessert”.

“I don't know it either”.

“Ahhh!” I jump in surprise as Yuki speaks from behind me.

“Stop doing that!”.

“Doing what?”.

“How long have you been there?” I put my hand on my hearth, trying to hold it from escaping.

“What a surprise. What are you doing here?” Luci asks Yuki.

“Nothing in particular, just came to deliver something”.

“I see”.

“What are you doing here?”.

“Nothing, really. Just came to drop something”.

“...”.

What is this tension I’m feeling here? Weren’t they good friends? What should I do? Wait. Now that I have both of them here, I should act. I have to get on their good side.

“Oh, that’s right, I was just making some tea. Would you like to accompany us, Lucy?”.

“So, you were having some tea with Yuki? I wouldn’t want to interrupt”.

Lucy won't be easy to convince.

“Well, she bought some Japanese dessert, so I wanted to try it out”.

“I see”.

“She said it was the most delicious dessert in the world, so I have to check that out”.

Of course, Yuki didn’t say that, but the way she talked about it makes me think she believes it is the best dessert.

“Excuse me” Lucy passed by me entering my apartment “let me show you what a real dessert is”.

“I accept the challenge” Yuki follows Lucy.

Did I perhaps create some time of competition between Lucy and Yuki?

I tell them to wait at the dinner table while I prepare another plate and teacup for Luci.

“Do you drink any specific tea?” I ask Luci.

“Black tea”.

I pull black tea out of Jane’s infinite tea drawer and head to the dinner table.

As I approach the table, I notice Yuki talking to Luci while she holds a very familiar piece of paper with red marks all over it. I totally forgot I left that there.

They stop looking at my exam and start looking at me. I continue walking, ignoring their stares that feel like daggers.

This is not good. I should use Bernard's grand escape plan and hide in the bathroom until they leave.

“Where are you going?” Luci grabs my arms with shocking strength as I pass next to her.

“Bathroom”.

“Please stop fooling around and have a seat”.

Without any option, I grab a seat in front of them.

I look at them not knowing what to do or say.

Yuki serves the dessert she and Lucy brought.

“Well…” Lucy pushes one plate to me “Tell us what you think”.

Hmm. I don't really get what is going on, but I better just play along.

As I was about to choose one of the desserts to start, I felt immense pressure. Both girls are looking at me intensively. They are obviously waiting to see which one I would choose first.

I don’t think it’s a big deal, but they seem to care a lot. What to do now? I don’t want to grab one first and upset one of the girls.

“Hurry up”

“Pick something already”.

The girls looking at my indecisiveness try to put pressure on me to see if I will choose one without thinking. But I am not that naive. I stand up and grab the plate with both Lucy's and Yuki’s desserts. I turn around and walk away to another room.

“What are you doing?” The girls look at me in intrigue.

After a couple of seconds, I come back and sit right back. I leave an empty plate on the table.

“What?!”.

“Did you eat both at the same time?”.

“Yeah”.

“You are weird” Yuki looked at me with a somewhat disgusted look.

“I don’t want to hear that from you!”.

“So?” Lucy seems to want to get straight to the point.

“Hmm”.

Both things were equally good in my opinion. I don’t think they were out of this world as the girls seem to describe it. But that may be because I don’t really like sweets. Anyway, looking at these two, I know for sure they are eager to know which one is better. Unfortunately for them, I am not choosing one over the other.

“I liked them both the same”.

“Really?” They look at me in disappointment.

“I guess my dorayaki wasn’t really that good”.

“I got carried away thinking my Donauwelle was edible”.

Both Lucy and Yuki suddenly got super depressed.

“Wow! I didn’t say they were bad. I told you already, I am not into sweets. I am not the indicated person to judge this type of things”.

They still seem down.

“That being said. Those were pretty good sweets”.

Both girls look at me, their expressions suddenly brighten.

“If I had to eat a sweet thing, I would probably eat some doreyaki and doonauwel”.

They both chuckle after what I said.

“W-what?” I reply in a little embarrassment.

“That’s not how you say it”.

“I'll let it slide for now”.

Looks like they are in a better mood.

“By the way. You girls referred to the desserts like you were the ones that made it”.

The girl's expression stiffened.

“You are imagining things”.

“You are completely delusional”.

“Hmmm” I believe that’s what they said…

“Anyway. There is something I would like to ask you” Lucy suddenly changed the topic.

“What?”

“This” Lucy pulls out my entrance exam.

Now I am the one stiff.

“W-what is that? I never saw that paper before”.

“We already went through this dumb guy”.

Without any other option I accepted my destiny and told them about how Bernard gave me my entrance exam to study my mistakes.

“More than mistakes, these are abominations”.

“Totally aberrations”.

“sickening”.

“Horrific”.

“Disgusting”.

Disregarding my feelings, their words came at me like knives piercing my delicate heart.

“Look I try hard, okay? I spent two whole weeks studying for that exam, day and night. I did what I could and still failed. I’m the most disappointed”.

They listened to me in silence, still looking through my entrance exam. They then looked at each other and nodded.

“Give us a moment”.

Both of them stand up and walk far enough so I can't hear them. They whisper to each other, giving me a look every so often. I stay sitting wondering what they are talking about.

Honestly, seeing their reaction makes me realize how stupid I really am. I think I understand them a little. Seeing how I made mistakes in things they can do with close eyes must surprise them. In the end, I don't think I even deserve to be taught by these geniuses.

A whole minute passes before they come back and sit at the table again.

“After careful consideration, we decided that…”.

Why does it feel like I’m about to get rejected from the job?