I let Clara drag me forward towards her meeting place. No, not her meeting place, but our meeting place. I still can't make up my mind about it.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" I ask in protest. "Don't you think I deserve a chance to give my opinion?"

"If we asked you, wouldn't you have said you had something urgent come up and run away?" Clara gives me a cheeky grin. You little…

But I… can't argue against that. She knows me too well.

In revenge, I pull her cheeks. When out of arguments, it's time for violence to take place!

"Lwet gwo."

I keep pulling. They're like marshmallows, stretching and deforming as I please. "I don't feel like stopping…"

This is too fun to stop. Plus, you played with my feelings, so it's within my rights to do it.

"Lwet gwo I faid. Wef alwost phere!"

She tries to pull my hands away while pointing forward, towards the agreed meeting spot. But, as expected, the only thing she achieves is to have her cheeks pulled even further, this time because of her.

Still, I can't bear to watch my sister suffering this much. As the great and merciful brother I am, I reluctantly let go.

Immediately, she starts rubbing her cheeks and turns her head away. "Muu… it hurts…"

"It's divine retribution for your sins." Haha, this is what you get for messing with your older brother.

Distracted by playing and fooling with each other, we don't realize we've already reached our destination until a sudden voice interrupts us.

"Hey! Clara, here! Here!"

We turn our heads at the same time towards the direction of that voice and find a girl waving at us. She skilfully moves through the crowd of people and approaches us. Well, not exactly 'us' but Clara. Like a tiger, she suddenly pounces at Clara, hugging her. My sister is too late to react and can't avoid the sudden attack.

"You came! I thought you'd chicken out…"

"I don't chicken out!" Complains Clara, struggling to get rid of her. When she finally gets herself free, the girl starts pulling on Clara's puffed cheeks. "Muu… not afain…"

Hey! I'm the only one who can pull my sister's cheeks! I have the exclusive rights, acquired through painful care and repeated use! If you want a piece of the cake, you must ask for my permission first!

I step between the two, protecting my little sister. Of course, by the way she's reacting, I know the two must be friends. But still, I must protect her from bullying!

"And you are…?" I ask, lowering my voice to sound as intimidating as possible, glaring at the girl.

But the girl just takes one step back and scans me from head to toe. She takes special note of Clara's reaction, who's hiding behind me while rubbing her cheeks. She suddenly makes an 'ooh' exclamation, as if she just realized the truth behind a big mystery.

"You must be Clara's brother! I've heard a lot about you from her."

Of course, you've heard a lot of me from her. I'm the most important person in my sister's life!

"Like how much she likes you, or how you always protect and help her when she needs it, or also about how many times she's manipulated you to get her bidding and force you to pat her head–"

Clara suddenly comes out of hiding and puts herself between the girl and me. "S-shut up, Eva! Stop spouting nonsense!"

She covers the girl's mouth with her hand and pulls her away, whispering something right next to her ear.

Oh, so this girl's name is Eva. It's nice to know that my little sister has made a friend after so long… Wait! I believe Eva was saying something important before Clara interrupted her… What was it again?

As I try to make sense of it, I listen to their conversation.

Clara looks around as if searching for something. "Are the slaves… I mean, the others here?"

Eva glares at my sister and sighs, relaxing her expression. "Yes… They're waiting nearby. The crowd was too dense. Only I came to get you."

Aah, there she goes, using the word 'slave' yet again… I'll pretend I didn't hear it. I don't want anything to do with my little sister's dark side. I've already got my hands plenty with her faction choice, which, now that I think about it, can also be considered her dark side…

Has my cute little sister no bright side!?

But Eva, aren't you going to act as if my sister didn't just use the word 'slaves' too? I mean, I'm not interested in whatever's going on, but you, too? From the way you're talking, aren't those 'slaves' your friends?

"Did they bring everything I asked?"

"Haah… yes, they did… You should stop treating them like that."

"Why? Don't they enjoy it?"

I turn my attention elsewhere. Their conversation is too dark for my taste. I start paying attention to my surroundings.

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The large crowd flows through the street like a river. The kids laugh and play around, while the adults talk.

The sun has set, but the street isn't much darker than it was during the day. From large glowing signs to lanterns, they add to the light provided by the lampposts, and the street looks kind of magical, detached from normal life.

A sudden pull at my sleeves snaps me out of my thoughts. This is one of Clara's usual ways to get my attention.

"Andreu. This is Eva, my classmate." She introduces us. "Eva, this is Andreu, my one-year-older brother."

Eva and I exchange two cheek kisses as a greeting. She looks bouncy and energetic, like one of those kids who's always doing something. I like her as my sister's friend.

"I finally got to meet you, Clara's brother! I've been looking forward to it so much… She never stops talking about you!"

"Nice to meet you too, Eva."

A smile grows on my face at her words. I never thought this day, when Clara presented her friend to me, would ever come. But there's something that has been on my mind for a while, and when could be better to ask than right now? As they say, there's no time like today.

"Eva…" I lock eyes with her. "...what were you saying before about my sister? All that stuff about patting her head and whatnot. Now I'm curious…"

"N-no! It's nothing, just a joke. A joke!" Clara stammers. She pulls Eva away from me, blocking her mouth like before. "Aah, look at this! The time, i-it's so late! We're late, l-let's go, Eva. Sorry, Andreu. We must leave right now… S-see you later! Ah, w-we're soo late, thank god I looked at the clock just now…!"

Clara pushes Eva away. She sends me a sorry look as she allows herself to be pushed.

Like a storm, they leave as suddenly as Eva appeared. Well, at least I now know Clara has made some friends and will be safe.

Still, don't you think so too? That the contents of their conversation were slightly off?

"Hmm… I hope they don't cause any big trouble…"

"Who's going to cause trouble?" Someone asks near my ear. Immediately after, I feel two arms hugging me from behind, and a cheerful laugh. "Fufufu, got you!"

There's no need to turn around to see who's attacking me. I know it perfectly.

"...Laura."

"You're right!"

After I 'guess' her name, she lets go and moves in front of me. She then slowly spins, giving me a wink. Her long dark hair flows in the air, and the same applies to her dress. The dark purple fabric sways, following her movements. She put effort into her looks tonight.

"What do you think?"

I tilt my head. "Think about what?"

"You're no fun…" she glares at me. "But today, I won't allow you to run away. Let's go, Andreu!"

"H-hey, wait. Don't drag me around like that!"

I understand she's happy about getting into the real tournament and all, as well as the fireworks, but why is it that, today, no one asks for my opinion and simply drags me around all the time?

Ignoring my silent (not so silent) protests, Laura puts her arm around mine and shoves her body closer. She grabs my arm so tightly that I have no option but to surrender and allow her to do whatever she pleases.

Laura, did you know? My blood isn't flowing… I'm going to lose my arm at this rate…

Of course, I'm not as stupid as to say it out loud. If I were to, who knows how she would react. It may be my neck that suffers next, instead of my arm. At least, I can survive without one arm, so I'm not going to take the risk.

She drags me towards the flea market. There, rows of customers are slowly walking, stopping to buy when they find something that catches their eye. We join the crowd and slowly start walking as we inspect the stalls.

Oh, well… this isn't the worst. I thought she'd drag me into an empty dark alley and, you know…

This is fine. Compared to what I imagined, this is totally fine.

We keep moving like this, following the flow, chatting and joking. Everything goes fine until we find it. The worst thing you could ever imagine, the mere thought of which makes me shiver. Yeah, I'm talking bout none other than a jewelry stall, the bane of all men. We find it inconspicuously placed between two other stalls, as if the devil himself had placed it there just to bring me pain.

No wonder Laura, a succubus, is attracted to it.

"Oh, no. Anything but this…!" I groan.

There's nothing worse than finding a jewelry shop when you're shopping with girls. The waiting torture never ends! I know about it, I have two sisters. I have plenty of experience in that regard, and believe me, there's nothing worse.

Even clothes stores are better, because they don't always go inside them just because they're passing nearby.

On the contrary, jewelry shops act like a magnet. Regardless of where they are or what they're doing, if they even so much as smell the scent of one, they'll inevitably end up inside. And not just to take a peek and go, no. That'd be bearable. Every single time, they have to look through every single piece, even if they had been inside just the day before.

Oh, god. If you still have any piety for me, just send a lightning crashing down and kill me right now… I'd rather be dead than this…!

"Look at this, Andreu! Aren't they beautiful? Those are pretty good too!"

I have no option but to wait as Laura does exactly what I was fearing.

Why the hell am I even doing here? Is there any reason why I should stay here? Do you think Laura will notice if I run away?

After what seems like an eternity, Laura makes me come back to reality.

"What do you think about these?" She asks, placing two earrings, still in their small piece of cardboard, next to her ear.

Laura holds her hair behind her ear so I can imagine the result properly. It's then that I notice something I've completely missed until now.

Hmm? She isn't wearing earrings? That's weird. She always wears them… I can't remember a single time she didn't…

Wait a moment. Could it be she didn't bring any because she was planning for this? Could this all be an extremely convoluted plot designed by both my sister and Laura just to put me into a situation where I'm kind of forced to buy her these earrings? Nah, that can't be, right? Right!?

…This is starting to get a bit scary.

I should stop thinking right about now. Let's just go with the flow. Thinking isn't always a good idea. Sometimes, it can backfire. When in doubt, just turn your brain off and let everything go.

Without any way to run away, and having decided to stop thinking at all, which makes it impossible to come up with one, I decide it's time to take this situation seriously.

I scan Laura from head to toe, paying close attention to her clothes, and grab the cardboard, twisting it so that the stall's light hits the earrings properly, so that I can better see how they would fit her.

This inevitably makes me touch her hand and ear, which makes her blush. But I ignore her reaction and instead, my gaze switches to the other earrings.

"Haaah… Why am I doing this again…?" I mutter to myself.

After scanning the army of earrings, my gaze inevitably lands on a pair near the corner. These are better. They will match her attire and personality perfectly. The ones she chose aren't bad, but these are the best.

I pick up said earrings and place the ones Laura chose back with the others. Then, I signal to the stall owner and ask.

"How much for these earrings?"

"When it comes to gifts, the 'what' isn't as important as the 'how'. Especially when it comes to jewelry. Just the fact that you chose it makes the gift all the more appealing. I know what I'm talking about, I have two sisters, after all."

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