Starting

"What?" Ari raised her head in shock. 

"You didn't know?" Nicolai questioned back in surprise. "I thought that the three of them might have already warned you —given how close they have been with you these days," he added bitterly. 

Ari smiled at his bitter tone, but then she lowered her head and twiddled with her thumbs, "It is not like that. They treat me like how Aaron does… it's like they take me as their sister or something." 

"Well since they can't have a normal one," Nicolai shrugged as he sat down on the coffee table. He flipped open the lid of the first aid box before tipping Ari's chin up. "I hope you slapped her right back. It would be a real shame if I had to slap her on your account." 

"I thought you don't hit women," remarked Ari just as Nicolai took out a bottle of iodine and started dabbing it on the cotton ball.