Evening and Winter (夕方と冬)

Why Aren't You Like Him?

Eve was sitting in the living room with Victor, she has her clenched fists on her lap as she nervously listened to Victor sipping tea, but she relaxed instantly when she heard Chifuyu's voice as the door opened.

"Excuse me, is Mr. Clark here?" Chifuyu had a small paper in his hand.

"I'm here, Tsuguha." Victor waved his hand.

"Um, are you sure I should come to this event with you...?" Chifuyu had an invitation in his hand.

"Yes, you're going to be going as Charlotte's partner~!" Charlotte hugged his arm, jumping into sight at the doorway.

"What?!" Eve screamed in her head.

"I thought I told you I'm not a party person... Take Lucas with you," Chifuyu complained to Victor while Charlotte was nuzzling against his arm.

"Just this one time, Tsuguha, I really want you to be one of my honoured guests and attend one of my events." Victor gently begs with a smile, "I will have Evening as my partner, and you could be Miss Charlotte's." he added.

"Please, Chifuyu~?" Charlotte gave Chifuyu puppy eyes, and he sighed as his head slumped to show his surrender.

"Fine... I'll go..." he reluctantly agreed, "Just make sure to not eat any sweets before the event, okay?" he doesn't want to handle hyper Charlotte, telling her as he patted her head.

"Okay~" Charlotte agrees, "Eve, let's go shopping for the event~! Charlotte wants to see you enthral all the gentlemen there~!" she ran to Eve and held her hands.

"O-Okay," Eve agreed, overwhelmed by Charlotte's enthusiasm.

"Make sure to not make her too beautiful, Miss Charlotte. I wouldn't want other gentlemen there to take Evening from me," Victor told Charlotte.

"Don't worry, Mister Victor. Leave it to Charlotte~!" Charlotte dragged Eve out of the room, leaving Chifuyu and Victor alone.

"Tsuguha,"

"Hm?" Chifuyu turned to Victor with a confused look.

"I noticed Evening is important to you from the case about Simon Dills, I also noticed you're fairly close to her and she is more comfortable and open around you." Victor placed down his tea cup on the table with a smile on his face, "What are you to her? Or should I ask, what is she to you?" he gave his sharp smile to Chifuyu.

"I don't know what she thinks of me, but she's like family to me. Eve reminds me of my younger sister," Chifuyu responded with a straight face, then his mischievous smile rose on his face a second later. "Don't worry, sir, I'm not affectionate to her the same way you do." He smirked.

"I see, your answers are always amusing." Victor's smile turned into a pleased one.

"Look, Eve. Don't you think you'll look really good in this?" Charlotte showed Eve a blue gown, at the clothing shop.

"Um, I can wear a gown I already have, Charlotte. You can shop for yourself," Eve told her.

"What...? Come on, Charlotte wants to treat you for once." Charlotte puffed her cheeks.

"You say that every week I visit you, Charlotte..." Eve sighed, hopeless.

"Eve, do you know what colour Chifuyu likes?" Charlotte asked Eve, looking through the gowns displayed.

"I never really thought to ask him about that... Maybe white?" Eve guessed, judging by Chifuyu's Alabaster appearance. "He rarely talks about himself, sometimes he even dodges the question." She shrugged.

"Ah bon? Chifuyu is very mysterious, isn't he?" Charlotte smiled, "Should Charlotte buy him a gift? A chain earring perhaps? He seems to like chain earrings," she asked.