𝐔𝐍𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔 » 𝐘𝐔𝐑𝐈 𝐁.

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟒 ;

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 ; 𝐇𝐄𝐑

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"Auntie!"

While fishing the keys out from your bag to open the door of your apartment as your arm wrapped around the brown-colored bakery's paper bag, a familiar child voice reached your ears. To this point, you have already given up on correcting her.

"Auntie!"

Someone once told you if you started hearing a voice, you must act like it didn't exist so the voice will disappear.

"Auntie! Auntie!"

Just ignore it and you will be fine—

"AUNTIE!!"

Nope, it didn't work.

Finally turning the key in the lock, with a sigh, you look over to the girl who is accompanied by a fair-skinned woman with black hair. She looks young, you noted. Tall and beautiful too.

You quirked an eyebrow at her. "I'm sure this is the first time I see your face here. Are you a new neighbor?"

Her eyes widened and bow her head down in politeness."Oh-! Um— I'm Yor Briar, Anya's... mother. Nice to meet you."

Your eye twitched at that familiar last name.

Briar? Briar?! It hasn't been 24 hours since you last met one, an annoying one even – and you are telling me there's another one? Who will live here?!

Unbelievable, you thought. Well, at the very least, it wasn't her pesky younger brother.

Realizing you spaced out, you quickly put on a polite smile. "I'm y/n Schneider, your neighbor. Nice to meet you too."

Anya stared at you with wide eyes. Right, she's an esper so it was obvious she could read your previous thought. While Yor wasn't looking, you did a mouth-zipping gesture and then point at the female. You were confused about how cooperative she is when she instantly nodded her head; in fear of what you might do to her.

"Care to go inside to have some tea?"You offered, tearing your gaze away from the child."The pastries that I just bought are freshly baked."

Yor nodded her head with blush and curled her lips into a smile, "If we are not bothering you."

You returned the gesture.

"Then please wait for a moment, I'll grab slippers for you to wear."You halted in your tracks, you took a step back to look at them, "Any of you allergic to cats?"

"No, I don't think so."

Humming, you disappeared into a room and returned with two pairs of beige-colored slippers in seconds.

"Then I hope you are not bothered by the cat fur. I haven't cleaned my apartment for a while."

Yor slipped her feet into the slippers, exhaling a satisfied sigh when she finally removed her shoes after standing for hours to buy the ingredients that Loid told her to; in her defense, she never cook for a family except for her brother with the ingredients that she found in the wild so she wasn't too familiar with homemade cooking.

"Miss Schneider, you have a cat?"

You only showed the way to the living room to answer her question, Anya's eyes immediately fell on the three cats with the same color of fur.

Yor look around the apartment. The living room alone could fit four of the living rooms from her last apartment. The dining area is open to the living room, but the kitchen is separated from the living room by a half-wall. But what caught her eyes the most was the painting on the wall.

"I love your interior design, Ms. Schneider."Yor commented, "Especially the color palette that you chose."

"Thank you, it was based on Scandinavian design."

"Cats!"Anya squealed as her eyes twinkled, jumping up and down excitedly, and turned to her mother, "Anya loves cats!"

However, after her sudden declaration, all your cats immediately run away the second she attempts to be close to them. You wouldn't blame them as you would even make a flee if she approach you with that weird smug look that she have on her face.

You place three kouign-amanns on the plates and bring them to the living room, handing a plate to Yor and one to yourself as Anya still trying to capture your pets.

"So, "You started. "not a Forger?"

Her whole body froze. "Huh?"

"You introduced me as Anya's mother and she is a Forger, "You paused. "while you said you are a Briar."

After processing your words, her face erupted into flames.

"Can I do... that?"

You were speechless. Even Anya turned around to look at her in shock after hearing her answer.

You gave her a confused smile.

"I mean — Wouldn't it be more suspicious if you didn't?"