“Do you really not want to do anything?”
I gave him a hazy smile instead of an answer. Jack groaned as if the way I looked had already told him what to do.
“Think about how much money you could make. I’m serious. You know how many rich people are spending money in theaters these days. I promise you, even though you don’t look flashy at first glance, you have this unspoken elegance about you, like a noble. You’ll be popular.”
I used the rag in my hand to clean the table. Even wiping the old kitchen table didn’t make a difference.
“If you catch the eye of a powerful person, it could change your life. Do you know how well Violeta, the prima donna from the Grand Theatre, lives now that she caught the eye of Count Germont and retired? Imagine a champagne-filled glass, a beautiful chandelier, beautiful dresses and jewels, and gentlemen asking you to dance!”
I didn’t even have to imagine it. No one knew that scene as well as I did.
Each treat was carefully colored and set up like a work of art. The shiny silver plates and the sweet wine with a low amount of alcohol. Like a butterfly, the lace and jewels were cut with great care.
The Marquis and Marchioness had put all kinds of things in their house to keep their sick daughter busy.
They brought in fabric from overseas that was lighter than a bug and brighter than a butterfly for a daughter who couldn’t dance at a ball. Things that are nice, expensive, and not important. I shook my head and stopped thinking about it.
“I’ll go to the counter if you’re going to keep talking nonsense even though you only ordered one cup of coffee.”
“Really, I don’t understand why you can’t see that there are more exciting things to do than run a coffee shop like this.”
Jack muttered and drank his coffee all at once. Jack was a young man in his early 20s who was anxious and eager to succeed. He was shorter than most men his age. He had done a lot of different things, from writing to shining shoes, and now he seemed to be trying to find people for the Grand Theatre.
Jack gave me a sad look when he looked at me. A run-down coffee shop on the edge of town, in a quiet spot where the afternoon sun hardly touched. Only a few poor students, thinkers, or women who needed a place to sit would rarely come. There was only one chair at each table. It started serving breakfast late, lunch early, and closed before dinner. No one else was working. It was clear that it wasn’t a good place to make money.
To keep from being caught, I said that the coffee shop was owned by a rich old woman who lived nearby. I acted like I was just a regular person. It was kind of funny that these kinds of ideas came up because of such claims. I set aside the change that Jack gave me and said.
“Jack.”
“Huh?”
“Being too greedy doesn’t end well.”
“What?”
When Jack asked again, he looked confused. As the third son of a poor family, he learned to make money by wandering the streets at a young age. His eyes showed how much he wanted to succeed as soon as possible. If things hadn’t gone the way they did, my parents might have pushed me around and made me wriggle in the same way.
I put the coin back in his hand. Even a cup of coffee was a treat for this young man. Coming to a place like this café and ordering coffee as if to show off, when even buying food felt like a waste of money, must be part of his plan to get me to work with him.
“As splendid as it is from above, the darker it is on the bottom.”
The young man looked back and forth between me and the coin before he finally grabbed it back. It still seemed too valuable for him to give up.
“When you’re desperate, your vision gets blurry. Make sure you make the right choices so you don’t regret them later.”
Jack stopped talking for a second.
“…I don’t really understand what you’re saying, but you’re very strange, Emily.”
“If you know I’m weird, stop trying to change my mind.”
“Ugh… Okay, okay. I’m leaving, but I’ll be back!”
Before he left, Jack yelled back and held the coin tightly in his hand, as if I might take it away. When I saw this, I laughed a little. After I put the chairs back and cleaned up, I looked at the clock and saw that it was already late in the afternoon. It’s likely that there wouldn’t be any more customers today. I cleaned up the shop because I thought I might close early and go buy something for dinner. About two years had passed since I moved to the city’s edge and bought this building.
That morning, I went to every jeweler I could find in the city. I found out about the jewelers by giving the men who drove the horse-drawn cars a few pennies. I asked how much my gems were worth and sold them at the shop that gave me the best price for the one I brought in as a trial.
When a young girl in formal clothes came to them alone to offer gems, I was afraid that they would undervalue them. Luckily, I was able to sell them without losing too much money.
I put some of the money from the sale in the bank and used the rest to buy a small building with a shop on the ground floor and a place to stay on the second floor. It was near the edge of town, which was nice, and there was a small garden next to it. In fact, I had enough money to buy a nice, high-end house, but since it was just for me, there was no point in being greedy. I didn’t plan to hire a housekeeper.
I thought about renting out the empty shop on the first floor, but instead I chose to run a trendy coffee house as a side business. I tried to make tea and bake like the maids, but everything turned out bad. I ran the shop in a way that made me happy, even though it meant that almost no one came in. The place wasn’t in a great spot, and the food wasn’t very good. Young people who were going by or didn’t have much money would sometimes order one or two cups of cheap coffee to kill time and then leave.
It was easy-going and relaxing. Wasn’t too bad. I stretched and took off my apron, which I hung on the counter. I turned off the lights, locked the door, and carried a straw basket out onto the street. I was going to get food and then go home.
I bought a smoked ham, two pieces of bread, and some apples to put in the box. I was wondering if there was any butter left at home when I heard a loud noise on the street.
I swiveled around. I could see a horse pulling a cart going crazy down the street, as if something had gone wrong. People quickly moved out of the way, but a small child was sitting on the ground, crying and looking scared.
Even though there was still a lot of space between the horse and the child, it was not safe because the horse was going so fast. People seemed scared, as if getting hit by a nobleman’s carriage for no reason could kill them. I dropped my basket and ran away. I yelled until my voice was hoarse because I wanted the pale-faced coachman to hear me.
“Pull on one rein! Just pull on one rein to stop the horse!”
It was worth a shot, whether he could hear me or not. I pushed the child, like I was trying to get him to leave, and then I rolled on the ground with him. Luckily, I heard the horse galloping loudly and passed by right behind us. Whether or not the coachman heard me, the horses raced loudly and then slowed down over time. In the chaos, a mother who looked like she had lost her child ran over and hugged her kid.
The child got bruises from my quick push, but that was better than what could have happened, which was that he could have died. I took a deep breath and picked up my sad, squished basket from the ground. I found the bread and ham right away, but the apples were a long way away. I sighed deeply and bent down to grab the apple.
“What are you doing here?”
And I slowed down.
I looked at the man who took the apple instead of me with wide eyes. The man was wearing a three-piece suit, which is a traditional outfit.
His short black hair was neatly brushed back to show his ears, and I couldn’t figure out what was making his deep violet eyes boil like chaos. On the back of the hand that held the apple, blue veins stood out, and his lips were curved as if he was confused. I did nothing but stare at his face and say his name over and over in my head.
Raretis Hope. I didn’t know what to do in this sudden scenario. Then I heard a voice in my ear that I didn’t know.
“Lord Raretis, who’s she?”
She had bright silver hair that waved like a flower in bloom at dawn. It was a woman with a face that looked like an angel. Even her full lips looked soft like flowers. As soon as I saw her face, I knew everything. It was like a bolt of lightning.
She is it.
“Um, I want to thank you. I didn’t want to be too rude, so I rented a public carriage in a hurry. If it weren’t for her, an innocent person would have been hurt while I was in a hurry. May I ask your name?”
She is the main character in the story.
Even though I look like a commoner, she is nice to me. I wasn’t sure if it was because Raretis knew me or if that was just how she was. I looked straight at the woman who was looking at me in silence.
The white dress she was wearing was simple, but the lace on the sleeves was made of the best material. Eyes as bright green as lily leaves and hair as silver as a spider’s web with drops of dew on it. Even the way her eyelashes moved was the same as Ophelia’s. The main character in the ‘game.’
I got a sharp pain in my cheek. Raretis was looking right at me. I slowly looked at the apple the man was holding before taking the rest and bending at the waist. Even though she was forgotten for a long time, the woman didn’t seem upset. Instead, she watched with a calm face.
I laughed when I saw how interested she looked. A face that looked a lot like ‘Ophelia,’ but an attitude that was so different that I couldn’t put them together even if I tried.
“Emily. I’m Emily, miss.”
The woman opened her eyes wider. Raretis just stood there and looked at me. She slowly opened her mouth while looking back and forth between Raretis and me.
“Um, Emily, thank you so much. I don’t have anything to give you right now, but I really want to say thank you. I have to leave because of important things… Could I get your contact information? If you know Raretis, sir…”
“That’s just fine.”
“No, please don’t say no. Thank you so much. If you hadn’t helped, a child could have died.”
“I don’t expect anything back.”
“Don’t say that…!”
She grabbed my hand with a bit of worry on her face. She had soft, slightly cold fingers. I slowly pulled her hand away because I was shocked. I could feel her flinch at my hard move, like a child who has never been turned down before.
“I don’t want to be involved in things that are troublesome.”
“Trouble…?”
“Elodie, we’re already late.”
She looked like she had been hit when I said what I said. I could see her jerk when Raretis spoke.
Elodie. So, her name was Elodie.
I thought about how to say it in my mouth. She was like a daffodil, which is the most beautiful flower that can grow in a greenhouse. Ophelia, on the other hand, seemed like a poisonous flower that would pull anyone who picked her into deep water.
She was strict, sad, and beautiful, all words that fit her well. So, she must have been tortured by the men who were the main characters in that ‘game,’ men who lost Ophelia, gave up, turned bad, and became twisted. Raretis took his eyes off of me and fixed them on the girl with the name ‘Elodie.’
“If we’re late, we’ll make the Marchioness unhappy.”
“I’ll go, Lord Raretis. Miss Emily…”
Raretis opened the carriage door quickly, almost in a strange way, and reached out his hand to her. After hesitating for a moment, she took Raretis’s hand and went into the carriage like she was told. Raretis shut the door behind her once she was inside. He moved in an oddly quick way.
“Why are you here?”
It sounded a little tense, but I probably misunderstood it. I kept looking at the apple Raretis was holding. Raretis’s brow was slightly wrinkled as he looked at me and then at the apple he was holding. He then put the apple in his pocket. Was he always this naughty?
“I’m a free person, so I can go wherever I want.”
“Why.”
“I don’t live in the Marquis’s house.”
Even though he had just told her they had to leave and quickly helped the woman get into the carriage, Raretis went quiet, as if he had forgotten what to say.
“Go back, Sir. Raretis. It’s rude to the lady who’s with you.”
“Are you not… going to ask?”
One of the top five groom candidates in the whole country is Raretis Hope. Even the fact that he was in a dirty carriage with a single woman who didn’t have a family crest will ensure a scandal. It would be great for the famous gossip magazines that nobles and lords read these days. Deep in his always calm, dark eyes was an indecipherable worry. Like he was in a deep, deep sea.
When I was younger, I used to want those eyes. I wanted to be the one who made them upset.
But I didn’t have enough to claim. I didn’t grab him because I was afraid that if I tried to go for him, I would trip and fall to my death. I was afraid that my feelings would kill me, so I left that sea. I could see myself in his eyes. In a clean, worn-out dress. Hair was plain and not styled in any way. A rough face, a little pale, and without any emotion.
“She looks so pretty and nice.”
“…”
Raretis’s face showed a little bit of surprise. No, he seemed to be trying to figure something out about me. I thought it was so strange to see a crack in his face. Was he that easily swayed?
Ah, because he was with a woman who was just like that ‘Ophelia.’ Did he think I, who was her friend, would blame him? He shouldn’t feel so bad about me anymore. I laughed really hard to myself.
“Mr. Raretis, you’re not the kind of guy who would ignore the woman who’s with you, right?”
“…Emilia.”
“If you think I’ll blame you, I want to tell you that I won’t. Ophelia is dead, after all.”
Raretis’ face went still. I must have hit a nerve, because he looked shocked, as if this was something he hadn’t expected at all.
Then the coachman told him to hurry. He said that if he kept going like this, they’d be very late. Raretis made a short grin.
“…Let’s talk later, Lia.”
Later. Later, huh. I did not answer. Raretis jumped quickly onto the seat for the coachman. He seemed to want to drive the carriage himself instead of letting the incompetent coachman do it.
The horses took off with a noise and kicked up a dust storm. I thought I could see the woman’s clear green eyes through the window of the moving carriage. I looked at the scene and then turned away.
‘Let’s talk later, Lia.’
When we were both very young, he used to call me by that name. Emilia and Ophelia were both named Lia, so we laughed around and called each other twins. But because everyone who came to the house called Ophelia ‘Lia’, I didn’t like that name very much. Even when we were both adults, we didn’t call each other by those names. Now, though, Raretis was calling me ‘Lia.’ It was funny.
What did he have in mind? Did he want to make his case? Doesn’t he know that the real ‘Lia’ is gone? Did he plan to tell half-Lia that?
I violently shook my head to get rid of these thoughts and went home. My steps were big and slow.
“Do you really not want to do anything?”
I gave him a hazy smile instead of an answer. Jack groaned as if the way I looked had already told him what to do.
“Think about how much money you could make. I’m serious. You know how many rich people are spending money in theaters these days. I promise you, even though you don’t look flashy at first glance, you have this unspoken elegance about you, like a noble. You’ll be popular.”
I used the rag in my hand to clean the table. Even wiping the old kitchen table didn’t make a difference.
“If you catch the eye of a powerful person, it could change your life. Do you know how well Violeta, the prima donna from the Grand Theatre, lives now that she caught the eye of Count Germont and retired? Imagine a champagne-filled glass, a beautiful chandelier, beautiful dresses and jewels, and gentlemen asking you to dance!”
I didn’t even have to imagine it. No one knew that scene as well as I did.
Each treat was carefully colored and set up like a work of art. The shiny silver plates and the sweet wine with a low amount of alcohol. Like a butterfly, the lace and jewels were cut with great care.
The Marquis and Marchioness had put all kinds of things in their house to keep their sick daughter busy.
They brought in fabric from overseas that was lighter than a bug and brighter than a butterfly for a daughter who couldn’t dance at a ball. Things that are nice, expensive, and not important. I shook my head and stopped thinking about it.
“I’ll go to the counter if you’re going to keep talking nonsense even though you only ordered one cup of coffee.”
“Really, I don’t understand why you can’t see that there are more exciting things to do than run a coffee shop like this.”
Jack muttered and drank his coffee all at once. Jack was a young man in his early 20s who was anxious and eager to succeed. He was shorter than most men his age. He had done a lot of different things, from writing to shining shoes, and now he seemed to be trying to find people for the Grand Theatre.
Jack gave me a sad look when he looked at me. A run-down coffee shop on the edge of town, in a quiet spot where the afternoon sun hardly touched. Only a few poor students, thinkers, or women who needed a place to sit would rarely come. There was only one chair at each table. It started serving breakfast late, lunch early, and closed before dinner. No one else was working. It was clear that it wasn’t a good place to make money.
To keep from being caught, I said that the coffee shop was owned by a rich old woman who lived nearby. I acted like I was just a regular person. It was kind of funny that these kinds of ideas came up because of such claims. I set aside the change that Jack gave me and said.
“Jack.”
“Huh?”
“Being too greedy doesn’t end well.”
“What?”
When Jack asked again, he looked confused. As the third son of a poor family, he learned to make money by wandering the streets at a young age. His eyes showed how much he wanted to succeed as soon as possible. If things hadn’t gone the way they did, my parents might have pushed me around and made me wriggle in the same way.
I put the coin back in his hand. Even a cup of coffee was a treat for this young man. Coming to a place like this café and ordering coffee as if to show off, when even buying food felt like a waste of money, must be part of his plan to get me to work with him.
“As splendid as it is from above, the darker it is on the bottom.”
The young man looked back and forth between me and the coin before he finally grabbed it back. It still seemed too valuable for him to give up.
“When you’re desperate, your vision gets blurry. Make sure you make the right choices so you don’t regret them later.”
Jack stopped talking for a second.
“…I don’t really understand what you’re saying, but you’re very strange, Emily.”
“If you know I’m weird, stop trying to change my mind.”
“Ugh… Okay, okay. I’m leaving, but I’ll be back!”
Before he left, Jack yelled back and held the coin tightly in his hand, as if I might take it away. When I saw this, I laughed a little. After I put the chairs back and cleaned up, I looked at the clock and saw that it was already late in the afternoon. It’s likely that there wouldn’t be any more customers today. I cleaned up the shop because I thought I might close early and go buy something for dinner. About two years had passed since I moved to the city’s edge and bought this building.
That morning, I went to every jeweler I could find in the city. I found out about the jewelers by giving the men who drove the horse-drawn cars a few pennies. I asked how much my gems were worth and sold them at the shop that gave me the best price for the one I brought in as a trial.
When a young girl in formal clothes came to them alone to offer gems, I was afraid that they would undervalue them. Luckily, I was able to sell them without losing too much money.
I put some of the money from the sale in the bank and used the rest to buy a small building with a shop on the ground floor and a place to stay on the second floor. It was near the edge of town, which was nice, and there was a small garden next to it. In fact, I had enough money to buy a nice, high-end house, but since it was just for me, there was no point in being greedy. I didn’t plan to hire a housekeeper.
I thought about renting out the empty shop on the first floor, but instead I chose to run a trendy coffee house as a side business. I tried to make tea and bake like the maids, but everything turned out bad. I ran the shop in a way that made me happy, even though it meant that almost no one came in. The place wasn’t in a great spot, and the food wasn’t very good. Young people who were going by or didn’t have much money would sometimes order one or two cups of cheap coffee to kill time and then leave.
It was easy-going and relaxing. Wasn’t too bad. I stretched and took off my apron, which I hung on the counter. I turned off the lights, locked the door, and carried a straw basket out onto the street. I was going to get food and then go home.
I bought a smoked ham, two pieces of bread, and some apples to put in the box. I was wondering if there was any butter left at home when I heard a loud noise on the street.
I swiveled around. I could see a horse pulling a cart going crazy down the street, as if something had gone wrong. People quickly moved out of the way, but a small child was sitting on the ground, crying and looking scared.
Even though there was still a lot of space between the horse and the child, it was not safe because the horse was going so fast. People seemed scared, as if getting hit by a nobleman’s carriage for no reason could kill them. I dropped my basket and ran away. I yelled until my voice was hoarse because I wanted the pale-faced coachman to hear me.
“Pull on one rein! Just pull on one rein to stop the horse!”
It was worth a shot, whether he could hear me or not. I pushed the child, like I was trying to get him to leave, and then I rolled on the ground with him. Luckily, I heard the horse galloping loudly and passed by right behind us. Whether or not the coachman heard me, the horses raced loudly and then slowed down over time. In the chaos, a mother who looked like she had lost her child ran over and hugged her kid.
The child got bruises from my quick push, but that was better than what could have happened, which was that he could have died. I took a deep breath and picked up my sad, squished basket from the ground. I found the bread and ham right away, but the apples were a long way away. I sighed deeply and bent down to grab the apple.
“What are you doing here?”
And I slowed down.
I looked at the man who took the apple instead of me with wide eyes. The man was wearing a three-piece suit, which is a traditional outfit.
His short black hair was neatly brushed back to show his ears, and I couldn’t figure out what was making his deep violet eyes boil like chaos. On the back of the hand that held the apple, blue veins stood out, and his lips were curved as if he was confused. I did nothing but stare at his face and say his name over and over in my head.
Raretis Hope. I didn’t know what to do in this sudden scenario. Then I heard a voice in my ear that I didn’t know.
“Lord Raretis, who’s she?”
She had bright silver hair that waved like a flower in bloom at dawn. It was a woman with a face that looked like an angel. Even her full lips looked soft like flowers. As soon as I saw her face, I knew everything. It was like a bolt of lightning.
She is it.
“Um, I want to thank you. I didn’t want to be too rude, so I rented a public carriage in a hurry. If it weren’t for her, an innocent person would have been hurt while I was in a hurry. May I ask your name?”
She is the main character in the story.
Even though I look like a commoner, she is nice to me. I wasn’t sure if it was because Raretis knew me or if that was just how she was. I looked straight at the woman who was looking at me in silence.
The white dress she was wearing was simple, but the lace on the sleeves was made of the best material. Eyes as bright green as lily leaves and hair as silver as a spider’s web with drops of dew on it. Even the way her eyelashes moved was the same as Ophelia’s. The main character in the ‘game.’
I got a sharp pain in my cheek. Raretis was looking right at me. I slowly looked at the apple the man was holding before taking the rest and bending at the waist. Even though she was forgotten for a long time, the woman didn’t seem upset. Instead, she watched with a calm face.
I laughed when I saw how interested she looked. A face that looked a lot like ‘Ophelia,’ but an attitude that was so different that I couldn’t put them together even if I tried.
“Emily. I’m Emily, miss.”
The woman opened her eyes wider. Raretis just stood there and looked at me. She slowly opened her mouth while looking back and forth between Raretis and me.
“Um, Emily, thank you so much. I don’t have anything to give you right now, but I really want to say thank you. I have to leave because of important things… Could I get your contact information? If you know Raretis, sir…”
“That’s just fine.”
“No, please don’t say no. Thank you so much. If you hadn’t helped, a child could have died.”
“I don’t expect anything back.”
“Don’t say that…!”
She grabbed my hand with a bit of worry on her face. She had soft, slightly cold fingers. I slowly pulled her hand away because I was shocked. I could feel her flinch at my hard move, like a child who has never been turned down before.
“I don’t want to be involved in things that are troublesome.”
“Trouble…?”
“Elodie, we’re already late.”
She looked like she had been hit when I said what I said. I could see her jerk when Raretis spoke.
Elodie. So, her name was Elodie.
I thought about how to say it in my mouth. She was like a daffodil, which is the most beautiful flower that can grow in a greenhouse. Ophelia, on the other hand, seemed like a poisonous flower that would pull anyone who picked her into deep water.
She was strict, sad, and beautiful, all words that fit her well. So, she must have been tortured by the men who were the main characters in that ‘game,’ men who lost Ophelia, gave up, turned bad, and became twisted. Raretis took his eyes off of me and fixed them on the girl with the name ‘Elodie.’
“If we’re late, we’ll make the Marchioness unhappy.”
“I’ll go, Lord Raretis. Miss Emily…”
Raretis opened the carriage door quickly, almost in a strange way, and reached out his hand to her. After hesitating for a moment, she took Raretis’s hand and went into the carriage like she was told. Raretis shut the door behind her once she was inside. He moved in an oddly quick way.
“Why are you here?”
It sounded a little tense, but I probably misunderstood it. I kept looking at the apple Raretis was holding. Raretis’s brow was slightly wrinkled as he looked at me and then at the apple he was holding. He then put the apple in his pocket. Was he always this naughty?
“I’m a free person, so I can go wherever I want.”
“Why.”
“I don’t live in the Marquis’s house.”
Even though he had just told her they had to leave and quickly helped the woman get into the carriage, Raretis went quiet, as if he had forgotten what to say.
“Go back, Sir. Raretis. It’s rude to the lady who’s with you.”
“Are you not… going to ask?”
One of the top five groom candidates in the whole country is Raretis Hope. Even the fact that he was in a dirty carriage with a single woman who didn’t have a family crest will ensure a scandal. It would be great for the famous gossip magazines that nobles and lords read these days. Deep in his always calm, dark eyes was an indecipherable worry. Like he was in a deep, deep sea.
When I was younger, I used to want those eyes. I wanted to be the one who made them upset.
But I didn’t have enough to claim. I didn’t grab him because I was afraid that if I tried to go for him, I would trip and fall to my death. I was afraid that my feelings would kill me, so I left that sea. I could see myself in his eyes. In a clean, worn-out dress. Hair was plain and not styled in any way. A rough face, a little pale, and without any emotion.
“She looks so pretty and nice.”
“…”
Raretis’s face showed a little bit of surprise. No, he seemed to be trying to figure something out about me. I thought it was so strange to see a crack in his face. Was he that easily swayed?
Ah, because he was with a woman who was just like that ‘Ophelia.’ Did he think I, who was her friend, would blame him? He shouldn’t feel so bad about me anymore. I laughed really hard to myself.
“Mr. Raretis, you’re not the kind of guy who would ignore the woman who’s with you, right?”
“…Emilia.”
“If you think I’ll blame you, I want to tell you that I won’t. Ophelia is dead, after all.”
Raretis’ face went still. I must have hit a nerve, because he looked shocked, as if this was something he hadn’t expected at all.
Then the coachman told him to hurry. He said that if he kept going like this, they’d be very late. Raretis made a short grin.
“…Let’s talk later, Lia.”
Later. Later, huh. I did not answer. Raretis jumped quickly onto the seat for the coachman. He seemed to want to drive the carriage himself instead of letting the incompetent coachman do it.
The horses took off with a noise and kicked up a dust storm. I thought I could see the woman’s clear green eyes through the window of the moving carriage. I looked at the scene and then turned away.
‘Let’s talk later, Lia.’
When we were both very young, he used to call me by that name. Emilia and Ophelia were both named Lia, so we laughed around and called each other twins. But because everyone who came to the house called Ophelia ‘Lia’, I didn’t like that name very much. Even when we were both adults, we didn’t call each other by those names. Now, though, Raretis was calling me ‘Lia.’ It was funny.
What did he have in mind? Did he want to make his case? Doesn’t he know that the real ‘Lia’ is gone? Did he plan to tell half-Lia that?
I violently shook my head to get rid of these thoughts and went home. My steps were big and slow.
