第1章厨房春潮-我的妺妺h

"You might want to be careful in this part of town, kids. It may be cheaper, but it\'s also more dangerous, especially for pretty young ladies," the old man warned while looking at Trixie through the rear-view mirror.

The old man seemed to have good intentions, so Don simply nodded at the words and said, "Thank you. We\'ll keep that in mind," and then proceeded to make the payment via his phone. The two then exited the vehicle before standing on the sidewalk of what was a rundown street.

The road was smooth for the most part, but had cracks every now and then. Many of the trash cans that decorated the sides of the streets were filled to the brim with trash, so much so that much of the trash was around the bin rather than in it.

As for the buildings, many were either run down or covered in all sorts of graffiti. The few stores that Don could see from where he was standing had individuals crouching outside, smoking or drinking.

Don, however, couldn\'t bring himself to comment on the state of things as he had already seen places much worse than this in his former life. So instead, after looking around, he simply turned to Trixie and asked, "Where is the hotel?"

Trixie looked up at him and then pointed toward the building just across the street with a sign that read "Hard-on Hotel" in neon lighting. Upon looking closer, though, Don could see that one of the neon lights wasn\'t working, and thus led to the name being "Hard-on."

A part of him couldn\'t help but feel that this was deliberate. Not caring much about this detail, though, he and Trixie proceeded to cross the street. While they did so, they drew many glances from the people walking around.

\'Man, I hope I don\'t get shot here,\' Don inwardly thought. In his former life, people got shot for far less, and though he didn\'t want to stereotype the area just from first looks, it was clear that it was somewhere where crime was at least considerably high.

Being here himself would\'ve already been a problem as he looked like someone with a considerable amount of money, at least when compared to those who walked around this particular area.

Having Trixie with him made it worse, as she was a beautiful young girl who, at first glance, looked weak and harmless. Those two factors alone were more than enough for certain criminals to act. Even worse, though, was that in this world superpowers existed, so he had to be even more careful.

\'Of all the hotels she could pick,\' Don thought as they reached the entrance and walked into the Hotel.

The interior, much like the outside, wasn\'t much to look at. It had an uninspiring lobby with worn-down leather seats for clients, and the receptionist\'s desk was full of what looked like bottles of beer.

Opposite the receptionist\'s desk was a wooden staircase, which also looked like it had seen better days, that led up to the higher floors. There was an elevator right next to the receptionist\'s desk, but it was crossed over with tape that read "Out of Order."

\'Just great,\' Don thought but didn\'t say anything about it on the surface because one thing he had learned from his past life was that it was never good for a man to complain to a woman too much, especially regarding topics that didn\'t matter in the long run.

For example, in a couple, a man might argue with his girlfriend over the matter of going out with friends because, as a man, he knew how rowdy places such as clubs, events, and so on could get. Whereas the girl would see no problem with it if it was something she was doing long before she had met him. In such scenarios, there were only three ideal outcomes.

The first and least likely was that the woman accepted the man\'s points and stopped going out with friends. The second was the easiest but also the hardest, as it involved either party breaking up with the other or both collectively agreeing that they simply weren\'t suited to each other. But humans weren\'t logical, so this, of course, was also unlikely.

The third and most likely outcome was that the man would have no choice but to complain, but the girl would provide her own argument as well, and it would either spark a continuous flare of arguments that would only spiral the relationship from there on.

Don thought it was important to consider such points because although Trixie expressed interest in him, he didn\'t for one moment think that she was his and his alone. Not because he didn\'t want her to, but because he simply didn\'t know enough about her yet—her past, her motives, her habits, and so on.

He\'d be lying if he said he didn\'t want her, badly for that matter, but he had to tread carefully, and thus the reason for his careful approach toward everything she said and did.

Unaware of Don\'s troubles, Trixie happily skipped over to the counter and tiptoed to give herself a higher view as she waved at the elderly man sitting on the chair behind it. He had grayed-out hair on a balding head and wore a brown-stained shirt and black-stained slacks. His attention was on a strange device he was fiddling with a screwdriver.

"Hey there, Mr. Receptionist! Can I have my card?" Trixie happily asked, her energetic character standing out in such a dull atmosphere.

Don simply stood close by but didn\'t say anything. The receptionist let out a sigh, as if irritated by the disturbance, and then reached under the desk and took out a card before handing it to Trixie.

However, before Trixie could receive it, the man looked at Don and held onto the card before looking back at Trixie and saying, "I don\'t support prostitution, young lady. I already did enough by letting you rent a room without any ID."

Trixie showed a surprised expression and an innocent face, whereas Don just sighed. He couldn\'t really blame the man for jumping to that conclusion. After all, Trixie did behave as if she was acting out a fetish.

Not wanting the misunderstanding to drag on, Don stepped forward and revealed, "She\'s not a prostitute. She\'s a close friend. I was just filling out accommodation at SHU and I needed to keep my bag and suitcase somewhere. I\'m just here to get that, not to stay."

The receptionist gave Don and then Trixie a skeptical look before saying, "Well, I suppose that would explain why she paid for so few hours." The man muttered before passing the card over to Don and saying, "All right then, you can go get your bags, and she can wait for you down here."

This was a fair suggestion that Don didn\'t feel the need to argue. After all, Trixie had come here alone before already. Thus, he simply nodded and took the card before proceeding up the stairs. As he was doing this, the receptionist yelled out, "Room 14! Sometimes the door gets stuck, so make sure you open it with a bit of force."

After saying that, the receptionist gave Trixie one final look before just sighing and sitting on his chair, muttering to himself, "Kids these days."

\'Well, there goes the plan of resting at the hotel for a bit while I think of how to handle the family situation,\' Don sighed as he proceeded up the stairs, racking his brain for a quick solution.