CH 156

Episode 156

Side Story 9: Between Spring and Summer (2)

While Eugene was changing Aster’s clothes, Yssius carried Chaerine to the backyard.

After greeting everyone one by one, Yssius put Chaerine, who was looking for me, into my arms, and sat down next to me and started talking.

“Mom, Dad. Listen, I saw uncle Duke earlier, but……”

“But……”

He must have seen Eugene walking into the room to change Aster’s clothes.

“Uncle went into the room holding a boy who looked just like him!”

When Yssius spoke in an excited voice, Chaerine, who was rubbing her face on my clothes, asked in her still-drowsy voice.

“Is that so…….?”

“I’m sure Chaerine didn’t see uncle well because I was carrying her on my back.”

Said Yssius, shining his purple eyes.

“Did mom and dad see him, too? He looks just like uncle Duke.”

“Yes, he’s uncle’s son. His name is Aster.”

“Did uncle have a son?”

Yssius asked with his eyes wide open.

Yssius was not ignorant of the marriage and family circumstances of my Academy classmates.

Although he was too young to endure a long trip to see them, Yssius knew that Astra had a daughter, and Rachel was married to her fiance.

Just about six months ago, Eugene was not married and had no children, so it makes sense that he reacted this way.

“Yes, uncle has a son. Do you want to be friends with him?”

“Yes!”

“Then let’s say hi when they come back.”

As I swept over his black hair, Yssius flushed his cheeks and smiled.

“I’ll brag about it to my mom and dad when we get close.”

There were probably fewer children of Yssius and Chaerine’s age in the Imperial Palace.

So, I thought it would be good for them to meet children of a similar age.

“Yes. Get close to each other and brag about it.”

Cassius tapped Yssius on the shoulder and said.

At Cassius’s support, Yssius still raised the corners of his mouth.

But unlike Yssius, excited at the thought of meeting a new friend, Chaerine didn’t look too good.

Chaerine seems still shy of strangers.

Chaerine already met all the people here at least once, but not as often as Erica so she seems not comfortable with it.

‘Will she be less nervous if she meets a friend her age……?’

I patted her fluffy purple hair and asked her.

“Kael, a new friend is coming soon. Don’t you want to see your friend?”

“Friend?”

“Yes, he’s the same age as Kael.”

Listening to me, Chaerine shut up and thought of something.

Even her troubled face looks so cute. When she was still thinking like that, I tied back Chaerine’s slightly dishevelled hair.

Yssius, who was talking to Cassius next to him, reached out his arms to Charine in my arms.

“Kael, do you want to find white clover with Oppa?”

After a moment of contemplation, Chaerine reached out one her hand.

When I realized the meaning, I lowered her to the ground, and Yssius held her hand tightly and headed a few steps away from the table.

“Oh, you’re here.”

Cassius raised his head when he saw Eugene returned to his seat.

Aster, who had changed his clothes, had become clean again.

Eugene put Aster in his place and poured milk into a new glass.

“Here, let’s drink carefully this time.”

“Yes.”

Aster, who nodded gently, answered, holding the glass with both his hands.

“Huh? When did the kids come?”

Eugene, who found the siblings squatting in the grass and talking, asked.

“It hasn’t been long since they came. And I think Yssi saw you.”

Erica replied, looking at the children with a gentle face.

“Oh, really?”

As soon as Eugene finished speaking, Yssius jumped up from his seat.

“Hello, Uncle Duke!”

Eugene’s face was stiffened by Yssius’s enthusiastic greeting, waving both his hands.

Then he waved at Yssius with the most awkward smile in the world.

“Eugene, why are you so nervous when you see Yssi?”

When Cassius asked in a voice that he couldn’t really understand, Eugene replied, avoiding his gaze.

“I’m still having a hard time dealing with kids other than Aster, so…….”

Now that I see it, I think it was a miracle that the adoption was made.

Meanwhile, Yssius, who had no idea that Eugene was awkward with him, was holding Chaerine’s hand and shaking her hand together to greet him.

“Kael is so cute! She’s happy to see you, too! Please accept my greeting!”

But Chaerine seemed reluctant to wave to her brother’s rhythm.

And as soon as the greeting was over, she hid behind her brother’s back.

Yssius hugged Chaerine, who was trying to hide behind his back and continued to play the game that he had not played before, showing flowers in the grass.

‘Hmm, she’s still so shy. What should I do? I didn’t want to force her to get along with people because she’s still four years old, so I let go of it, but….….’

As I was contemplating whether I should attach a child of the same age as her companion sooner or later, Aster holding a glass of milk with a blank expression on his face caught my eyes.

‘Huh?’

Aster just opened his mouth slightly with a look on his face that wasn’t much different from before.

Keeping his eyes fixed on one place.

And that gaze was directed exactly at our children.

“Dad.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Will you drop me off?”

“Oh, okay.”

Eugene, who was asked by Aster, carefully lowered Aster from the child’s height chair.

As he descended from his chair, Aster walked swiftly across the grass.

“Oh, Aster! Be careful!”

Eugene shouted in a bewildered voice, but Aster couldn’t hear and moved his legs quickly.

“What’s wrong with him all of a sudden…….”

Eugene muttered in an unknown voice.

It wasn’t long before I found out why Aster, who had a blank look on his face all the time, was making ambitious movements.

“Huh?”

Catherine’s eyes grew bigger when she suddenly found a silver-haired boy in front of her.

Aster asked in a placid voice to Chaerine, who was choosing a white clover with his back to the table, not caring about her reaction.

“What’s your name?”

“Huh……?”

Aster didn’t budge, though embarrassed Chaerine stammered.

Yssius’s expression, which turned a smile on his face when he found Aster, changed rigidly to Chaerine’s hard reaction.

But Aster didn’t seem to see Yssius’s face.

Aster, a little closer to the hardened Chaerine, sat with his knees on the ground, set his eyes on her, and repeated.

“What’s your name?”

Blue eyes facing only the front without shaking and confused golden eyes encountered.

Aster did not push his face too hard in front of Chaerine nor make excessive physical contact.

But from Chaerine’s point of view, she felt uncomfortable with the eyes of a strange child who looked only at herself without paying attention to anything else.

Sure enough, tears soon filled her golden eyes.

‘Oh, my God, it happened.’

It seems that Aster, a stranger who wanted to be close to her so passionately, is too difficult for Chaerine, who is too shy.

The moment I thought I had to go and intercede so that the child wouldn’t cry, Chaerine turned her head and hid behind Yssius’s back.

The flinching Aster raised both hands as if to explain.

“Hey, your name…….?”

But it was already late.

Chaerine, held in her brother’s arms, burst into tears as soon as she heard Aster’s voice.

Aster pulled back in surprise when he saw it.

Then he rose from his seat, trying to take control of the situation but was soon blocked by Yssius with a grim look on his face.

“Don’t make my sister cry.”

Aster looked very shocked at the words of Yssius.

The adults were saddened by the sight, and I ran towards the children to take control.

* * * *

Leaving behind a loud tea party, a small boy with silver hair sat depressed, hugging his knee alone, under a maple tree, in a breezy seat.

“Sigh.”

Looking at the small back, Eugene also felt bitter.

“Aster, he isn’t crying…..?”

Erica, who followed him, asked in a sighing voice.

“No, Aster doesn’t cry much.”

For six months after the adoption, Aster burst into tears only once when Eugene was slightly injured while dealing with the beast in the estate.

“I don’t think he’s going to cry right now………”

Although Eugene wasn’t with his child as long as other parents like, Eugene had a very good grasp of Aster’s habits and behaviour.

He used to recognize Aster’s feelings like a ghost, which other people couldn’t recognize because of his lack of colourful expressions and expression of emotions.

“Then?”

“He looks very depressed.”

“Ah….. that’s too bad.”

Erica lamented, looking at Aster’s back with a sad face.

“Kael is particularly shy. She only lives in the Imperial Palace, so she hasn’t seen many kids her age yet.”

“That’s what I heard from Yerine.”

“I don’t think she’s going to cry if she’s Aster again. So please cheer Aster up.”

Erica tapped Eugene on the shoulder and said.

Eugene nodded and turned toward Aster.

“Yes, I should.”

“Then you two have a good talk. I’ll go back to Yssi and Kael.”

Seeing Erica walking towards the table, Eugene quietly approached Aster.

As expected, Aster, even seen so close, didn’t cry at all.

However, he looked so pitiful with his knees together and his head drooping.

“Aster.”

In a voice calling his name, Aster looked up at Eugene.

“Dad…….”

“Why are you here alone?”

Eugene sat next to Aster and asked.

To Eugene’s question, Aster bowed his head and did not answer.

Eugene spoke to him again, stroking the back of his sad silver head.

“Aster, are you upset that your friend cried earlier?”

The little head nodded lightly.

“But she cried because of me…….”

“So you’re sorry?”

“Eung.”

Aster added, wriggling his hands.

“I wanted to laugh and play with her…….”

Eugene, who heard Aster, was taken aback and lost his words for a moment.

‘Oh, don’t tell me……..’

The hand hovering in the air only touched the child’s small shoulder a few seconds later.

Eugene, who patted Aster on the shoulder, gave a deep sigh.

“You shouldn’t be like your dad…….”

As he spoke to himself, Aster widened his blue eyes and gave a strange expression.

“What do you mean, dad?”

“No, there’s such a thing.”

Aster still seemed feeling unanswered, but no further question was asked.

Lowering his head again and patting Aster’s head looking at the ground, Eugene quietly began to talk.

“Aster, it’s okay. Your friend was just too surprised earlier so that’s why. You can meet her later, apologize, and talk to her again.”

“I don’t think she likes me………”

“No, that wasn’t the case.”

Eugene tried to reassure Aster.

“You want to get along with her, don’t you?”

Eugene smiled as he looked at Aster’s blue eyes, nodding quickly and hinting at a strong positive sign.

“Well, here’s the deal.”

A gentle breeze blew away the father’s and son’s hair who seemed to hold the moonlight.

As the smell of flowers spread, the two began whispering as if they were setting up a secret operation.

“Before you get to know her, you must……..”