Cold or Just Reserved?

It was embarrassing, really. For seventeen years of his life, he had never shown much interest in romance. Dating wasn’t on his "to experience" list, or at least it wasn’t anywhere near the top of it.

So why was he acting like a superficial fool? How could this girl affect him so much with just her looks? For all he knew, she could be annoying or have a terrible personality.

Maybe it would be better if this pretty blonde standing right in front of him was a bad person.

He had come all the way to Germany to explore different cultures, to enjoy discovering every inch and corner of München. He was not there to romance anyone—especially not someone who was supposed to be his roommate for the entire stay.

And right now, he was sitting there like an idiot, not responding to her.

Nice first impression.

To save himself from further embarrassment, Satoru quickly stuttered quietly, “H-hallo…”

“Leider spricht er kein Deutsch, aber ich bin mir sicher, dass er dich nicht weiter belästigen wird.”

Whatever Miho said made the blonde beauty turn away from the teen sitting on the couch, giving a response that he could not understand either.

If only he had learned German…

But alas, trying to be number one in all his classes didn’t really leave much time to learn an extra language, so the only words he knew were basic greetings and cognates in English, which were not enough to hold a conversation, unfortunately.

He couldn’t dwell on his regrets for long as his sister’s voice brought him back to reality.

“Go take a shower, Toru. I’m sure Silke would like to take one as well. I’ll make you two something to eat, and then off to bed you go,” Miho ordered. “Look at you, can’t even sit straight.”

Satoru realized he had been wobbling a little, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the exhausting flight or the mixture of excitement and embarrassment. He didn’t try to argue with his sister either—her plan was solid enough to follow.

“The only doors to the right lead to the bathroom. I’m sure you won’t get lost.”

For a moment, the Japanese teen considered bickering with his sister, but he couldn't even turn to face her, knowing that Silke was somewhere next to her. Instead, he just hummed in agreement while rummaging through his suitcase in search of his pajamas and toiletries.

Once he had everything, he stood up and headed toward the bathroom.

“The blue towel is yours, by the way,” was the last thing he heard before closing the door behind him.

Finally isolated from the feminine presence, he let out a long sigh. The boy desperately needed a moment to himself—to figure out what exactly was happening to him.

“There’s just no way this is some silly crush at first sight, right? It must be some kind of excitement from having my first-ever interaction with someone from this country. That has to be it. Surely.”

If anyone had been in the same room as him at that moment, they would have thought he was delusional with how fast and incoherently he was muttering to himself. He had to remind himself that he couldn’t hide in the bathroom forever, so he quickly assessed his surroundings.

No bathtub. But what was worse… no bidet.

“How do people live like this?”

Thankfully, the rest of the interior looked familiar, so he shouldn’t have a problem figuring out how to run the water or adjust the temperature. However, he was confused by something that looked like a white ladder—but it couldn’t be one, as the rungs were too close together.

Whatever. He’d ask Miho about it later.

Once again, he rushed himself to take a quick shower. He didn’t want to be that one roommate who hogged the bathroom longer than necessary. Although his sister had never had issues doing that back when they lived together. Still, the last thing he wanted was to worsen the German girl’s impression of him. She had traveled here as well, so she was probably dying to refresh herself with a shower, too.

Now he realized how good of an idea it was for him to have his turn first. Satoru didn’t know much about how other countries perceived Japanese men, but considering how many male characters in fiction were portrayed as perverts, it was better to be safe than sorry and minimize any chances of acting suspicious.

Satoru ruffled his hair one last time before letting the towel slip from his hands, leaving his locks slightly damp and tousled. Looking around, he spotted the basket for dirty laundry and quickly tossed his clothes in. With that, he unlocked the door and walked toward the main room.

He could feel his stomach growling slightly. Hoping it wouldn’t get any louder, he quickly took a seat at the table, focusing more on what would be on his plate.

A wurst, maybe? Or… a pretzel? Is that something they eat as a late-night snack?

Before he looked down to check out the food, he made the mistake of looking in front of him—right at Silke. She was sitting cutely, some crumbs stuck to the corner of her lips. But then he looked into her eyes and saw her…

Glaring.

Had he already done something wrong? Had he chosen the wrong seat? Or maybe Miho had said something stupid to her?

The last thought forced him to turn his head to check for any teasing grin from his sister. But there she was, washing the dishes and humming the tune of her favorite J-drama intro.

That was a good sign. But the blonde girl was still glaring…

Suddenly, Miho turned around, placing her hands on her hips in a confident pose. “You haven’t touched my specialty yet? Come on, eat up!”

Finally, he looked down to see what was on his plate. From what he could tell, it was raw minced meat with chopped onion on a slice of bread.

“Yukke?”

“Haha, yes, but no. It’s Mettbrötchen—similar to yukke, but it’s pork, not beef.”

“I see.” He gave it one last look before saying, “Itadakimasu!” and taking a bite of the unique sandwich.

“Was?” Silke suddenly spoke up, causing Satoru to choke on his food.

“Das sagt man in Japan vor dem Essen. Kümmere dich nicht um ihn, geh duschen und ruh dich aus.”

Satoru quickly drank some tea to stop himself from coughing on the breadcrumbs. He hated how out of the conversation he was, but at the same time, when he spoke with Miho, Silke probably felt the same way.

He really hoped they could find a common language and be able to talk to each other.

“You too—finish your food and go to sleep! For today only, I gave you the exclusive service of making your bed. Don’t get used to it!”

How tsundere of her.

Still, the black-haired boy was grateful for his sister’s assistance. “Thanks. There are some snacks for you in my suitcase.”

“That’s the gratitude I like to see,” she said, clearly pleased with his announcement. “By the way, I’m going for a morning jog. Want me to wake you up?”

“Yeah,” he responded with the last of his energy as he already lay down on the couch, covered with a comfy blanket.

If his sister said anything more, he wouldn’t be able to tell—sleep had already embraced him.