1 - ''Choice''

                                    

                                          
"I'm home." Yuuma exclaimed as he closed the door to his home.
Before he could even fully turn around, he felt a several arms wrap around his midriff. Looking down, the young man found himself locking eyes with 2 pairs of hazel orbs.
"Hello Mia-chan, Ria-chan."
At the mention of their names, the twin girls smiled at him.
"Hi, Nii-nii. Where were you?" the two said in unison.
Peeling the two girls from his legs, he patted their heads. "A football match."
The two girls cooed and looked up at him in awe, as if what they just heard was the most amazing thing that they had ever heard. Meanwhile, he could hear the crackling of oil coming from down the hall. There he saw his father, Jeroen van Houten, just peeking his head past the doorway.
"Did you win?" his father asked with a soft smile.
"Of course." Yuuma answered, his expression returning to neutral at the question.
"Uncle, uncle, did you know? Nii-nii went to a football match!" Ria exclaimed.
"...and he won." Mia added, all the while pulling Yuuma along with her.
Jeroen chuckled at the children's antics. "Yes, yes. And now he's sure to be hungry, so could you two bring him here so that he can help set the table?"
"Ok uncle." The two brunette girls replied in unison again.
As the older man disappeared behind the door, Yuuma looked down at the two girls try in vain to pull him forward. Their faces morphed from determination to frustration as soon as they found that he was not going to cooperate. The two girls looked up at him with the meanest faces they could muster. Their eyebrows knitted together; their cheeks puffed out in annoyance; their fists clenched into tiny balls; they were truly the most fearsome of 5-year-olds.
Yuuma used his freed-up hands to untie his shoes and neatly store them on the shoes rack to his left. He then proceeded to offer his hands to the girls again, maybe as a sign of acceptance or asking for forgiveness. Not that it mattered to the twins, who proceeded to pull him along, their prior annoyance completely forgotten.
"Nii-nii, listen, listen. Mia helped cut apples!" Little Mia exclaimed, patting her chest in satisfaction.
"Ria helped too!"
Yuuma couldn't help but smile at the little girls' antics. He had always wanted little sisters.
Coming into the main living area of the house, Yuuma looked over to see a mess in the kitchen. It was unsurprising given the "help" which was, supposedly, provided. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what had to have gone wrong for such a mess to be created.
Looking at the table, he saw it empty. Strange, considering his father's proclivity for...
"Over here."
Before the boy could finish his sentence, his father called the three children over from the living room. He had set up a kotatsu in place of the usual coffee table and covered it with an array of different delicacies. Cooked fish, fresh fruit, miso soup, and a whole range of other smaller meals and snacks, undoubtedly aimed at satisfying the smaller children's smaller, yet more sporadic appetites. Curiously, there was also a single plate of curry on the table.
Yuuma lifted an eyebrow. "Curry? For lunch? Really dad?"
"You didn't have breakfast before you went out for the match." Jeroen said, worry evident in his voice.
"It's not like I'm going to be starved of carbs after a single match. And besides, I only played 1 half, so there's nothing to worry about."
After seating the twins on opposite sides, the four said a prayer of thanks for the food provided. Or at least they tried.