Behind Watanabe

Window.

A few days after the incident in the living room, things were back to normal and everyone in the house acted as if nothing had happened, except for Junkyu, who still thought it was odd and had yet to come up with a plausible explanation. Mr. and Mrs. Watanabe explained that all of that was the work of Mr. Watanabe who was very ambitious in carrying out his research to the point of destroying many objects. Junkyu just couldn't buy it.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the two professors who taught Haruto and Hanami came out of their respective rooms from their students, a sign that their class for the day was over. Junkyu who was in the kitchen could hear the sound of footsteps from the second floor, but didn't move and continued his activities of making one of the simplest Korean dishes, namely fried chicken.

"Junkyu brother!" Hanami's cute voice buzzed in Junkyu's ears. The man immediately turned his attention to Hanami.

"Are your classes over?" Junkyu asked.

"Not yet. Professor Jung wants to show me a new movie today. So my class will finish at two o'clock."

Junkyu's face was a little unsure and to be honest, unhappy, because Junkyu had planned to take Hanami out to play after lunch. But seeing the figure of the female professor standing behind her, it seemed that the professor knew what Hanami liked and could provide the little girl some time to enjoy more of her class.

"Okay, then I'll bring the lunch to your room. You can eat while you watch." Junkyu smiled.

"Yay, thank you Junkyu brother!" Hanami sounded excited and returned to her room with the teacher. On the other hand, there was Haruto who was seen having a vague conversation with his private teacher, and then he left. Junkyu didn't pay much attention, since Haruto was not Junkyu's business.

So Junkyu did deliver the chicken to Hanami's room and the girl seemed to be enjoying the movie as well. Therefore, Junkyu didn't want to interrupt any longer and decided to do other things on his own.

"You're good at cooking?"

"Jesus Christ, Haruto!" It was not the first time Haruto would appear out of sudden and startled Junkyu until his heart nearly fell into his stomach.

Haruto let out small chuckle and moved from behind the wall where he popped out spookily and made Junkyu reconsider his decision to live with the family. No, Junkyu was actually happy that he was able to learn something new, even from the slightest odd feature that Watanabe family had manifested for the past few days.

"What are you going to do? Hanami will be still in class for another hour." Haruto said.

"I don't know, maybe figuring out a game that Hanami might like, or help her with the homework." The straight answer was, unfortunately, didn't sound amusing enough for Haruto.

Before answering, Haruto had a quick glance onto Hanami's door and proceeded to fold his arms in front of his chest. "What about sharing the chicken with me? I know your only concern is Hanami, but you also live with me in the house."

Junkyu couldn't possibly figure out, whether it was a joke, a sarcasm, or pure statement that the six feet male figure in front of him was craving for chicken. But Junkyu didn't hesitate to share his most basic cooking skill product with the oldest child of the famlily, as he would feel appreciated if the other family members enjoyed what he made.

Instead of eating at the dining table like other civilized and normal people did, Haruto asked Junkyu to do the same thing he did for Hanami; to bring the chicken into his room. 

For the first time since he was hired as a caretaker, Junkyu entered Haruto's room and he was immediately fascinated by the unique decoration of his room. Coming from Junkyu's gut feeling and first impression, he knew that both Haruto and Hanami were intelligent and bright children, yet he didn't expect that Haruto would be even more peculiar and enthusiastic in whatever he was interested to. Junkyu spotted telescope facing the window, prints of astronomical photography on the wall, many other general knowledge related posters, piles of book, even strange jars containing alcohol and preserved objects that he didn't recognize.