At Anna's House,
Knock... knock... knock...
"Hah! You're coming as usual, aren't you, Noah?"
Anna opened her front door. Standing before her was Noah with a flat, expressionless face, his right hand still raised after knocking on the door.
"If Auntie looks at my face carefully, Auntie will definitely understand right away that I'm clearly forced to come here."
"Hahaha, you're so funny, Noah!" Anna laughed cheerfully while covering her mouth with the back of her hand. "Even though you say that with that super flat face, you still came, right? That means deep down you actually don't want to hurt Ena's feelings. Am I right?"
Noah just stood silently in front of the door, not saying anything. His facial expression remained flat.
"Hah! You're here, Noah!"
Ena appeared from behind her mother's body. She was wearing light pink pajamas with a small rabbit pattern on the chest, and her long hair that was usually loose was now neatly tied back with a blue ribbon.
It seemed she had just finished dinner—just like Noah who had also just finished eating at his own house.
"In that case, let's quickly go up and into my room!" Ena without waiting for an answer or approval, immediately lunged forward and pulled Noah's hand enthusiastically. Her small, soft fingers gripped Noah's wrist tightly.
Noah looked resigned. "H-hey! At least don't pull like that! My hand could break off, you know!"
Ena didn't care and continued pulling Noah up the stairs to the second floor.
Anna, still standing at the front door, could only shake her head while smiling amusedly watching the two children. "Those two are so cute," she murmured softly while closing the front door. Then she raised her voice louder, shouting toward the second floor. "Hey! You two up there! Don't do strange things in the room!"
"WE WON'T DO THAT!" Noah and Ena shouted simultaneously in unison from the second floor.
Anna laughed softly while walking toward the kitchen.
◇◇◇
In Nova's Room,
Meanwhile, at Nova's family home not too far from there...
"Brother! Help me with my school homework!"
Lunar casually—without knocking—opened her brother's room door and entered with relaxed steps while carrying several thick books stacked almost covering her face. The books looked heavy and full of notes and colorful highlighters.
Nova, who was lying relaxed on his bed in a sideways position, propping his head with his left hand, immediately looked toward his sister who entered without permission. At the moment he was reading a fantasy book as usual.
"Can't you finish it yourself?" Nova closed his book briefly, looking at Lunar with a flat gaze. "You're already 15 years old, you know! You should be able to do your school homework yourself. And if you really can't, you can ask Noah for help, right? He's always happy to help you."
"I'm not as smart as you, you know!" Lunar answered quickly while walking closer and sitting on the edge of her brother's bed without being invited. She immediately placed her books on the bed. "And also, today's school homework is quite difficult—very difficult—and Noah himself is now alone with Ena at Ena's house. I don't want to be a nuisance to their study date. Poor them."
"Don't you think that now you're disturbing your brother who's relaxing?" Nova raised his book again, as if giving a signal that he wanted to continue reading.
"Not at all!" Lunar answered with full confidence while crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Besides, Brother should be grateful to have a beautiful and adorable sister like me who kindly wants to accompany her brother who is lonely alone in a dark room like a hermit shutting himself in."
"Hey, I don't think I ever said I was lonely," Nova looked at his sister with a sharp gaze, "and I'm not a hermit either! My room light is on bright, you know! Don't make up your own story, okay!"
"Whatever!" Lunar waved her hand casually, completely unaffected. "I'll always be with Brother and make Brother no longer look lonely and pitiful like now." She shifted her body closer to her brother, until their distance was only a few centimeters. "Because of that, Brother also has to always make me happy by teaching me things I don't understand. Can you?"
"Haahh..." Nova let out a long sigh.
"Fine. You win, as usual!"
"Yay! I knew Brother is the best in the world!"
Nova began to sit cross-legged to the left of Lunar who had already quickly and efficiently prepared her complete arsenal of textbooks on the bed—mathematics, physics, chemistry, and several notebooks full of unclear scribbles. The distance between them now was only about 30 centimeters, close enough to see the details of the writing in each other's books.
"By the way, Brother..." Lunar asked while flipping through her mathematics book full of pencil scribbles, colorful highlighters, and some cute stickers in the corners. "Is Brother's school homework finished? Because if not, I can help you know. Seriously! I can be Brother's tutor."
Nova looked at his sister with a disbelieving and amused gaze. "Help me?" His eyebrow raised high. "You can't even finish your own homework, and you still want to offer to help me? Where's the logic in that?"
"Brother is so annoying, you know!" Lunar pouted.
"Before I start reading books or anything, I've already finished all my homework quickly. So don't worry about my homework. Just focus on your own piled-up homework." Nova pointed to Lunar's pile of books with his chin.
"Tch, so arrogant!" Lunar grumbled softly while opening a page in her mathematics book full of unfinished problems. "I was just asking nicely, you know! I meant well!"
"So..." Nova took the top book from the pile and began observing page by page carefully. "What don't you understand from all this homework? Show me which ones."
"This one!" Lunar immediately pointed to one problem with her index finger. "And this one!" Her finger moved to another problem. "And this one too!" Moved again. "And this... and this... and this one too!" She kept pointing to various problems with her innocent face.
Nova looked at all the problems his sister pointed to with a facial expression that slowly changed from neutral to disbelieving. Almost all the problems on that page were pointed out. Almost all of them. There were only two or three problems that weren't pointed out.
"What exactly do you do at school?" Nova looked at his sister with a gaze mixed with disbelief, wonder, and slight annoyance. "Do you just sleep all day at school? Play games on your phone? Or chat with friends?"
"Be quiet!" Lunar protested loudly, her face red with embarrassment and annoyance. "I always listen to what the teacher says too! I'm serious about listening!" She began explaining in a defensive tone. "I sit in the very front row, right in the middle under the teacher's nose. I take notes neatly with my favorite colored pens—pink, blue, purple, green—everything complete! I even actively ask questions if I don't understand, raise my hand, ask politely." She sighed in frustration. "But somehow, once I get home, as soon as I enter the house door, everything immediately evaporates from my brain. All gone. Totally blank. Like permanently deleted data!"
"That's called being stupid! S-T-U-P-I-D! Stupid!"
"No! I'm not stupid! I'm just forgetful! F-O-R-G-E-T-F-U-L! There's a difference, you know! Being forgetful means my brain is like RAM with small capacity—only 2GB or 4GB—doesn't mean the processor is slow like a dinosaur-era processor!"
"Small RAM, slow processor, same difference in the end! The point is you need a total upgrade—upgrade RAM, upgrade processor, upgrade motherboard, upgrade all components!" Nova continued his sister's computer analogy in more detail.
"Hmph! Brother is mean! Brother is annoying! I hate Brother!" Lunar pouted while crossing her arms in front of her chest and turning her face to the side dramatically. Her cheeks puffed up.
"Alright, alright, stop being so overdramatic." Nova took a breath and began to be serious. "Now listen to me carefully, and you have to really understand every instruction and explanation I'm going to give." He began taking a sitting position seriously. "I'll teach you from the beginning!"
"Ehh! Why not just write the answers in my book?" Lunar complained in a lazy tone while pointing to her book with her index finger. "Why do we have to do something complicated and long like a teacher teaching in class? Wouldn't it be faster, more efficient, more practical if you just give me the cheat sheet or directly write the answers. Practical, right?"
Nova looked at his sister with a sharp gaze. "If I keep spoiling you like that and giving instant answers without the learning process, without understanding concepts, you'll become like this—dependent on others, can't think for yourself—until you're an adult. So don't talk too much and complain! If you don't want to study properly and seriously, you can leave my room right now and do it yourself!"
"So cruel!" Lunar pretended to be shocked and deeply hurt, her hand holding her left chest as if her heart had just been stabbed. "Brother is so very cruel and heartless! How could you want your beloved and cherished sister like me to spend this beautiful Friday night, a night that should be relaxing and fun, studying boring material that's so boring and that will never—never at all—be used in real life later!" Lunar pretended to cry dramatically while wiping her dry eyes—no tears at all—with the back of her hand.
"No need to pretend to cry with such cheap acting. I've known you since you were born, so your acting doesn't work on me." Nova was not affected at all by his sister's drama. His expression remained flat. "And you will use this material one day, believe it or not. Let's start now, before I change my mind and kick you out of my room!"
"Fine! Okay! I give up!" Lunar raised both hands up in surrender. "Geez, Brother is the most annoying in the world!" Lunar puffed her cheeks while pouting, but her hands had already started moving to prepare books, pens, pencils, erasers, and other stationery neatly.
After that, they both began their study session seriously. Nova and Lunar were indeed in different classes because their ages were different. But because Nova had previously gone through all the exact same material that Lunar was currently studying, and because Nova had natural and patient teaching abilities—although sometimes sarcastic—he knew exactly what needed to be taught, how to teach it in an easy-to-understand way, and what method was most effective to make his little sister really understand.
Time passed quickly without realizing it. One hour, and now the clock on the wall showed 9 PM. The sky outside the window was already pitch dark.
"Uhh... So sleepy..." Lunar yawned widely with her mouth open wide while rubbing her already heavy eyes. Her hand began moving weakly and uncoordinatedly when writing, her handwriting started to slant and become unclear.
"Ready to sleep?" Nova began tidying up the books scattered on his bed, arranging them in neat and organized stacks by subject—mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology. "If so, quickly go back to your room and sleep. Your homework is all done, right?"
"Brotherrr..." Lunar whined in a spoiled voice that was starting to lose energy. Her eyes were already half-closed. "Carry me to my room... My legs can't walk anymore... So tired... They feel so heavy..."
Suddenly, before Nova could respond or say anything, Lunar lost her balance and fell asleep smoothly on Nova's lap in a sideways position.
Lunar's sleeping face looked very innocent, peaceful, and calm. All the dramatic and chatty expressions from earlier had completely disappeared. Her smooth, long black hair spread across Nova's lap.
"Hey, wake up!" Nova tried to wake his sister by gently shaking her shoulder with his right hand. "Why are you sleeping here? This is my room, not yours! Wake up and go back to your own room!"
No response at all. Lunar didn't move at all. Not even eye movement or a small twitch. Her breathing was regular and deep like someone who was already sound asleep.
"Haahh..." Nova let out a long sigh while slowly shaking his head. "Looks like she's sleeping like a log. Won't wake up even if there's an earthquake."
Nova stood up slowly, and with gentle movements he lifted Lunar's body in a bridal carry—one hand under the knees, one hand behind the back for support. Although Lunar was already 15 years old, her body was still light and small enough for Nova to lift without difficulty.
Nova walked out of his room. After successfully entering Lunar's room full of posters and large stuffed animals, Nova laid Lunar's body very gently on her soft bed. The bed was covered with light pink sheets with beautiful cherry blossom patterns. Nova adjusted Lunar's head position so it fit properly on the soft pillow.
Nova took the thick pink blanket folded neatly at the foot of the bed and gently covered his sister's body from feet to chin.
"Hehe... My panda... hehe..." Suddenly Lunar smiled sweetly in her sleep. Her hand moved reflexively and unconsciously hugged Nova's right arm which happened to still be nearby because he had just finished covering her.
"Unfortunately, I'm not your beloved panda," Nova whispered in a very soft voice.
Nova glanced at the corner of the room and saw a large panda stuffed animal about one meter in size sitting on a corner chair. Nova slowly released his arm from Lunar's hug and simultaneously replaced his arm's position with that large panda stuffed animal.
Lunar immediately hugged the panda stuffed animal even tighter, her face pressing against the soft fur of the stuffed animal.
"Alright, done." Nova whispered softly to himself while smiling thinly. "Good night, Lunar."
After that, Nova walked slowly toward the door. His hand reached for the light switch and turned off the room light. The room immediately became dark.