Chapter 34.2

“If that is really the Book of Prophecy, the both of them will eventually end up together. Whatever interest Senior Noah has for me right now…… who knows how long it will last?”

I fiddled aimlessly with my tie and continued to speak in a subdued tone. My mouth tasted bitter as I spoke.

“Plus Senior Noah has always been a good person, always so warm”.

Senior Gloria listened to me speak with a straight face, before laughing scornfully.

“Who, that guy?”

“Huh?”

“Those rose-coloured glasses are quite thi-, no, forget it.”

Senior Gloria shook her head and then stopped to look at me.

“I think you have too little confidence in yourself, Kate. Anyone would fall for you, that’s how cute you are.”

Let’s just end the conversation here.

“More than that…… Well, if that’s what you think, then it’s fine. Be sure to tell me if you change your mind later on.”

Senior Gloria, who had looked like she was ready to speak for much longer, stopped with those words. Surprised, I asked her.

“That’s all you have to say?”

“Yeah, you know what I think. Noah is not worthy of you.”

But most of all, I think he would be so sad and bored if I took you from him.

A storm seemed to be astir in her eyes.

Sun- sunbae, why do you look so sad?

As I moved my eyes, trying to find somewhere else to look at in my abashment, Senior Gloria stroked my cheeks as she smiled.

“So cute.”

So cute, so cute, my ears were about to fall off from how many times I’d heard that. I knew this was how she was from the beginning, but I felt a bit embarrassed after hearing it constantly.

“Why do you keep saying that?”

I felt my face flush as Senior Gloria continued to pat my cheeks. She asked a question in response, mischief written all over her face.

“Saying what?”

“You keep teasing me, saying that I am cute.”

“But that’s because you really are cute.”

She smiled widely as she rested her chin on the back of the bench. Her blonde hair fluttered in the wind.

“Hold on, do you not know that you are cute? You are so cute.”

This is going to drive me crazy.

It was nice to be complimented on how cute you were, but the truth was that it felt vexing to hear someone as pretty as she was constantly compliment me, as if she was praising me. Senior Gloria went even further. For good measure, she picked a marigold from the flowerbed, put it in my hair and smiled brightly. I blinked for a moment, my head blank, before realising something that made my blood run cold. I grabbed Senior Gloria’s hand.

“……We should run.”

“What?”

“That flowerbed belongs to the department of horticulture. If Echo sees that, she won’t care if you are a senior or anything.”

Once they had gotten far enough from the flowerbed, I explained to Senior Gloria, who still looked as puzzled as before. Echo belonged to the department of horticulture, and she had cultivated those flowerbeds with a fiery devotion. The only time I ever saw the slightest trace of passion on that placid face was when she tended to those flowerbeds.

What happened if someone messed with them?

“Last year, this boy stepped on the rose flowerbed as a joke, and Echo almost cut off all his hair with the garden scissors.” [1]

And she actually did cut a few strands. It was a sight to behold.

I continued while recalling the chaos that had been.

“You did not because you were away from the Academy for so long.”

After listening to me, Senior Gloria muttered with an embarrassed face.

“There aren’t even clubs at the Seminary.”

Nodding my head, I replied to her.

“In any case, don’t do that again, and if you ever see a green-haired, pointy-eared girl in the 2nd year, make sure to avoid her.”

“Mmhm.”

Senior Gloria toyed with the marigold next to my ear, looking embarrassed.

This was unexpected. She looked a little…… cute?

Hold on, what did I just say?

I shook my head as if to erase the thought I had just held.

“Despite that… thank you for this. I ‘ll keep it well.”

I took the marigold from her, as she had removed it from behind my ear. The soft petals were quite pretty. She stared at me silently for a moment, before she smiled and patted my head. Soon after, she said again that I was cute, and I, already familiar with it, let it enter one ear and leave through the other.

The next day, I saw Echo in class huffing that if she were to catch the bastard who touched the marigold flower bed, she would kill them. She had a muddy trowel in one hand.

As if she was ready to bury the perpetrator.

I quietly avoided her eyes.

Notes:

[1] The word used here is , which could mean either head or hair. I wanted to translate it as head initially, because it is quite something to imagine just how mad she must have been to want to behead the guy. But that would also make her unhinged, and a murderer, so I left it as hair (which the next sentence corroborates).