CH 40

Adrian kept his mouth shut as he recalled the letters and candies in the locker from time to time. Then Eleanor’s eyes sparkled.

“Is there? How can you not write a single line of such a story in a letter?”

Eleanor grabbed Adrian’s cheek and lengthened it as if she were treating a child. Adrian frowned, avoiding Eleanor’s hand.

“So, Rian, you have none?”

“what?”

“A person you like. Someone who looks the prettiest in your eyes. Someone whom you miss when you lie down to sleep, whose hand you want to hold when you’re next to…”

He groaned, his face reddening in embarrassment.

“Don’t talk nonsense. Let’s pick flowers quickly and go back.”

“So you’re in puberty? Time flies so fast…”

Eleanor grumbled and began picking out suitable flowers. To Adrian, it was just the same pink flower, but Eleanor called out each one by name and put them in a basket.

“This is Sweet Pea. Pretty, right?”

Eleanor, squatting, looked up at Adrian and she grinned.

Thump.

At that moment, Adrian’s heart pounded violently.

“Is it not pretty? Shall we use other flowers?”

When Adrian didn’t respond, Eleanor asked again. A hot flush rose to his face. It was the first time he had ever looked at someone and couldn’t take his eyes off them and felt that they were pretty.

“…It’s not pretty.”

Adrian turned around. With the hand that wasn’t holding the vase, the back of his hand brushed his reddened face.

Weird. Really, this is weird.

Adrian could Eleanor shouting at him from behind, yet he couldn’t turn around. It was because just thinking about Eleanor’s expressionless face as she looked up at him made his heart skip a beat.

‘Not pretty. It’s not pretty at all.’

All the while accelerating his pace, Adrian cast a spell on himself. He desperately hoped that he would come back to his senses after a gulp of cold water.

***

However, contrary to Adrian’s earnest wishes, Eleanor continued to be pretty. No, she only looked prettier and prettier.

Every time he saw Eleanor for the first time in a while during his vacation, she bloomed more and more dazzlingly. As the adolescent boys usually do, Adrian treated her in an attempt to hide his feelings for her.

“Rian! Did you grow taller in that half year? I feel like you’ve gotten a bit bigger.”

“How did you not grow up at all?”

“No, though? I grew up too, you know?”

“There’s not a single grown spot in my eyes.”

However, Eleanor didn’t care at all about Adrian’s attitude. She followed Adrian around and chatted with him throughout their vacation, and when he left for the academy for the new school year, she wrote letters to him. There were always several letters sent every week, and the envelopes were thick.

On Sundays when the letter came, Adrian would lie flat on the bed and read the letter from Eleanor several times.

His roommate grinned at Adrian.

“Oh, are you reading your girlfriend’s letter? It comes consistently.”

“It’s not like that.”

“No. Why don’t you look in the mirror before you lie? Your mouth is hooked on your ears.”

Adrian covered his mouth with his hand. As his roommate said, he was really smiling.

“Noisy. She really isn’t my girlfriend.”

“Then I guess the girl likes you.”

“Nonsense.”

Adrian sat up and threw the letter into the drawer.

He likes Eleanor.

Adrian had turned 17, and he was mature enough to perceive that fact reliably. But he still didn’t want to admit it.

If he came to like someone, he didn’t want it to be Eleanor alone. Eleanor was an existence who was his closest friend and sister.

At 18, until he graduated from the Academy, Adrian deliberately distanced himself from Eleanor. It was a boy’s stroke.

Years passed by in his agony alone. After graduating, Adrian spent his time traveling around the world aboard upper-class ships. It was a peaceful day in its own way.

“Marquis! Marquis, you should come and see.”

Until one autumn day at the age of 19, his world was completely shaken up.

“There’s a big problem. They said that a rockfall fell on top of Young Master Felix’s carriage!”

The sudden death of his older brother shook Adrian to the core. The Marquis Blake family, which was peaceful, was completely turned upside down due to an unexpected accident. It seemed as if the sky was collapsing.

The Marchioness fainted, and the Marquis immediately rode off and ran away. Adrian, terrified, stood stiff and unable to shed a tear. His eyes turned black, and his body trembled in shock.

“Rian!”

It was then. Upon hearing the news of the accident, the Count and Eleanor opened the door and rushed in. Adrian’s eyes widened when he saw Eleanor.

Eleanor was ridiculously dressed, with a street coat draped over her nightgown and her shoes crumpled. Her face was smeared with tears and a runny nose.

“…Ellen.”

“I’m sorry for coming late. Deepest condolences.”

Eleanor strode over and hugged Adrian. The moment she buried her wet face in his shoulder and wrapped his back tightly, tears welled up in Adrian’s eyes.

Adrian gritted his teeth, trying to bear it somehow. Yet his crying, far from abating, only intensified. His body trembled.

Eleanor whispered as she slowly brushed Adrian’s back.

“It’s okay to cry. You don’t have to put up with it.”

At that moment, something inside Adrian collapsed. Leaning on Eleanor’s small arms, Adrian vomited his sorrow all night.

Eleanor stayed by his side all the time from the funeral to Adrian’s return to his normal life. Like a daughter to the Marquis couple, like an older sister to Adrian.

Adrian became the heir to the family, and he took over one after another of his older brother’s work. Everything around him has changed.

“Rian, come down to dinner.”

“You’re not going home? Dwight had gone yesterday.”

“I was going to go today, but… The Marquis asked me to go fishing with him tomorrow.”

“Fishing? I hate fishing.”

“Not you, only me.”

The only thing that didn’t change was the time spent laughing and chatting with Eleanor. In the midst of the turbulent situation, the fact that there was something unchanging gave Adrian a place to lean on.

“…I’ll go there too.”

“Really? You say you hate it because it’s boring.”

“Because you like it.”

And I like you.

Adrian stopped his senseless rebellion against Eleanor. He stopped making pointless quibbles and scolding things that weren’t on his mind. It took a long time for him to admit his feelings, but it was an instant for them to snowball.

It was the beginning of a long and lasting unrequited love.

***

“Guys, don’t run!”

At that moment, the noisy voices of children came from outside the parlor door. Adrian, immersed in old thoughts, came back to reality with a startle.

Adrian jumped up from his seat and hurriedly stroked his hair. Soon the door burst open and a row of familiar faces entered.

“I’ve been learning the piano since I was 6.”

“I’ve been learning since I was 5!”

“I know how to play the violin, you know?”

Like Eleanor and Adrian when they were children, Sienna and Lucas entered, bickering, and then Demian followed suit with a light bow. In an instant, a noisy and cheerful air filled the quiet room.

“Hello, Rian.”

As Eleanor, with a slightly weary face, greeted him and entered, the room was instantly filled with bright light. A warm aura spread in Adrian’s chest.

“Mm. Hello, Ellen.”

***

“Let’s practice just one more time and end the class. Who wants to be the first one?”

“Uncle, I want to go first!”

“Yes, then from Sienna.”

Adrian was a natural teacher. From building intimacy to naturally inducing attention, it was so seamless that Eleanor didn’t have to intervene. It was a sense of stability that she hadn’t felt in Kaidel and Izmel’s classes.

Izmel was also very kind to the children, but the hidden sense of intimidation made the children strangely nervous.

Kaidel did exactly the opposite. The kids aren’t too bothered by him, yet he was sweating with tension.

‘So I didn’t have high expectations… I never thought he would get along well with children like this.’

Eleanor’s eyes twinkled as she learned about a new side to Adrian.

Whether it was because of his experience playing with Sienna or because of his innate friendliness, he was good at dealing with children. Lucas didn’t hesitate to play with Adrian by clinging to his shoulder, and Demian followed suit.

Thanks to that, Eleanor had been sitting comfortably on the couch since earlier, sipping tea. Every time the children play, she claps her hands and gives them a thumbs up. This was healing.

‘Listening to the sound of the piano makes me tired…’

Eleanor forcibly lifted her heavy eyelids and patted her cheeks.

Lately, Eleanor hasn’t been able to get a good night’s sleep. This is because for the first time in her 24-year life, the genre of ‘romance’ intervened.

It was shocking that the other person was Kaidel, who was said to be the most handsome man in the Empire, but recently, a tiny bit of doubt had sprouted inside Eleanor. It was a very absurd and solemn imagination that Crown Prince Izmel might like her.

[I want to have my first dance with you, Eleanor.]

The insignificant remark caused Eleanor to blush her face red. I may be mistaken, but it seems like a date request.

Even as she thought it was ridiculous, her heart beat erratically at the thought. As she returned home and read the letters she exchanged with him, the thought slowly gained strength.

“This is nonsense, really.”