"Yeah. She's gone home." Kevin spoke hesitatingly. He had no intention of letting his sister know that he got no clue of Louisa's whereabouts. He had turned around quickly and gone upstairs even before Louisa left.

  "Did Louisa say anything to you?" Claire said carefully as she was afraid to irritate her brother more. She knew that Kevin was already in his worst mood.

  "What do you want her to tell me? Speaking of this, let's talk about her." Kevin originally planned to go upstairs but suddenly changed his mind upon hearing his sister. He walked back to the couch and sat down.

  "Talk about Louisa? Why? I don't know anything." What Kevin did automatically disturbed Claire. She didn't know what was inside her brother's head. His serious face was enough to make her feel uneasy.

  "It seems that we didn't have any heart-to-heart talk before, right?" Instead of getting straight to the point, Kevin decided to start their conversation by devious questioning. He was staring straight to his sister's eyes as if he was reading her unruly mind.

  "What's wrong, Kevin? You've changed. You were never an emotional creature. This is not like you at all. If I'm remembering right, you have never talked to me on your own initiative, let alone chatted with me." Puzzled was not even enough to describe Claire's expression. She didn't even know where Kevin's opening gambit was leading to. What game was he playing?

  "Claire, did you forget that we had a talk last night?" Kevin had to admit that he wasn't the best brother. His parents were all over Claire all the time, so he had always been an isolated chi

  're surely more important to me. You're my brother. How can you even compare yourself to Louisa who is just my friend?" Claire got more confused. She suddenly felt like she was skating on thin ice.

  "One more question. Whose happiness is more important, mine or Louisa's?" Kevin proceeded systematically at his own pace. He had mentally calculated that he couldn't talk to Claire with undue haste. Instead, he had to approach things patiently and methodologically.

  "Are you alright, Kevin? Why are you asking me such strange questions?" Claire reached for Kevin's forehead tentatively and found that his cold wasn't gone completely. Was it the reason why he was acting like this?

  "I'm okay. Just answer me honestly." Kevin took her hand away and pushed a cup of tea before her.

  "Surely your happiness is more important. Well, I'm sorry. It's just that you are somewhat abnormal tonight. You keep saying something I don't understand." Claire felt her uneasiness getting worse. Did Louisa go too far and say something to upset Kevin? What he said was quite baffling.