♥Futarigurashi♥Kotarou lives Alone♥

Chapter 15 - New neighbor, new trouble

The doorbell went off. 'Old man can't get enough of me. We literally walked the kids to school and he's skipping sleep to hang out with me. I better entertain him.' She thought it will be Karino but it was a man she had never seen before. Compared to Karino, the man looked presentable to be out in public. Rio noticed the man was holding a towel gift set. He must be a tenant in the unused 103.

"Hello, my name is Aota, and I am temporarily staying in Room 103. This isn't much but I hope you will accept this." 

"Oh, you're too kind. Temporarily? You got here just now?" She accepted the towels. 

"Yes, it's for business purposes. Only a month so I hope we can look out for one another during that time."

"Sure. No problem." Rio looked at the tea towel, "They're both made of different materials." 

At the same time, Karino was taking out the trash. He noticed Rio was talking to Aota as he went down the stairs. 'He look presentable enough to show your parents...!' This was the first thing he thought when he saw Rio interact with Aota. 'Shit, he's giving off air that he has a stable income! So jealous!' What was he even going on about while holding a trash bag?

"Indeed. Tea towels are often crafted with linen or 100% cotton. Kitchen and dish towels are usually made of terry cloth. Do be careful with cross contamination; children have a delicate immune system." 

"That's true. Thanks anyway." 

"No problem. I'll go for a walk. I'll see you later, Suzune-san." 

As Rio watched Aota go for his walk, Karino waited until the man was out of view before he came down the stairs and straight to Rio. "Rio, Aota talked to you for quite a while." Aota dropped by at Karino's door earlier to gift him a towel set too. Karino didn't mind Aota much...that was until the guy talked to Rio longer than than talking to him.

"Well, I am a beautiful girl. Even you would stand here all day and talk to me." 

"I know I would- but that's not the point!"

"If you're worrying I will go for him instead of you, I won't be jealous if I were you." 

"W-who is jealous-?!"

"I like people who are honest when they're interacting with me. I don't like people who talk to me with some hidden agendas."

"Eh?" He wondered what she meant by that. Was Aota hiding something?

Rio opened the door some more, "Want to come in for lunch?"

"I was just thinking about what to eat~." Karino made no effort to decline her offer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Days went by and Karino noticed something; Kotarou and Aota got along very well. Aota even started to take Kotarou to the public bathhouse, school, shopping, and even spending time together. Karino didn't mind it at all because as long as someone was spending time with Kotarou and looking out for him, it meant he had time to tend to his manga or slack off and hang out with Rio.

"Hehe, I bought Ruri her favorite cookies. I have an excuse to talk to Rio~." Rio will make fun of him for coming to her place empty-handed so he bought cookies her little sister loved just so he had an excuse to go into her room and just hang out with her. 'I got it all planned out. I will tell her, I went to the conveniece store, saw Ruri's favorite cookies and bought it so she can eat it when she comes home. After that, keep the conversation going and see how long it takes until she tells me to go away." Little did he know, Rio may tease him...but she never said he couldn't go in empty-handed so he didn't really need to make up such a plan just to spend time with her.