Episode 17
When Monica finally came out of the dressing room, she was holding four sets of clothes in her hands. She had said that, and the boxes containing the clothes were actually Luis’s.
By the time Monica came to her senses, she was already sitting in a coffee house on the corner of a commercial street. Monica glared at Luis, who was sitting across from her. Louis rolled his eyes and laughed.
“My love, when you look at me like that…”
“Luis, what’s in the package next to you?”
“… There is a beautiful purple dress inside, which you bought on the condition that I would not call my lovely Moni my love!”
Monica put her hand to her forehead. He promised to not call her as Moni or my love, but now he was calling her his lovely Moni. Louis kept smiling and offered tea to Monica.
“For headaches, black tea with milk is quite effective.”
Monica felt pathetic as she drank it without realizing it.
“You could have just pretended to be my friend from the beginning. My love.”
When they finally left, the clerk waved at them and said, “When you get married, make sure to get your dresses made at our store!” They definitely looked like a couple about to get married.
But Luis strongly disagreed with Monica’s statement.
“What are you talking about? No gentleman would buy clothes for a lady who is just his friend. If I had said we were just acquaintances, it would have been even stranger.”
“It doesn’t matter if people look at it strangely.”
“But you probably couldn’t see any good stuff. The clerk’s response would be very disinteresting.”
If it was just something to buy for a friend, it wouldn’t have been a good quality item.
‘But that’s exactly what I wanted!’
Monica glared at Luis with a discontented face. Luis shook his head and wiggled his fingers a couple of times. So Monica ended up just grumbling.
“I will definitely pay you back.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, Monimoni.”
“It’s not Monimoni…!”
Louis went one step further.
“What do you think of the hat that lady is wearing? I won’t call you Monimoni, so why don’t we go and buy you a hat with lots of feathers this time?”
“Luis?”
“Stop it.” At the three letters of the name that clearly carried a certain meaning, Louis rested his chin on his hand and lifted his lips. It was a sign that he was going to stop.
“Understood. I grew up with three older sisters. Until I was six, I thought I was a girl and wore dresses they made for me.”
“Oh my god.”
Monica’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.
“It would have been cute.”
“Well, not really…”
“Why? You’re still so handsome.”
“Aha.”
Luis didn’t respond to Monica’s compliments but kept talking. It seemed like something he didn’t really want to discuss.
“Anyway, even as I got older, I enjoyed choosing dresses with my sisters. My third sister was the pickiest, but I was always the one who picked out dresses that would suit her perfectly.”
“So you knew all kinds of fabrics that I didn’t even know about.”
“That’s something Monimoni doesn’t know.”
Monica pouted.
“I’m too busy trying to make a living. I don’t know if the linen I’m wearing is 10 count or 20 count, but it doesn’t really affect my life.”
“That’s true.”
Monica’s eyes widened as she didn’t expect a simple answer like that from him.
“No matter how nice the clothes are, they are useless if the wounds on the body starts rotting away.”
“Ah.”
“And it’s okay if Monimoni doesn’t know about it.”
That’s what happened again. Monica narrowed her eyes and changed the subject. It was something she had been wondering about for a while.
“Are you a doctor?”
“Well, to be exact, I’m a medical student.”
“Are you a medical student?”
Luis grinned. Monica instinctively sensed that this was also something he was reluctant to talk about.
But it was interesting. And he was the one who said it first. Luis opened his mouth, sensing that Monica was quite curious.
“I was drafted while I was attending college.”
“Ah.”
“And the war took a lot of time.”
It was obvious without asking why he didn’t go back to college. He probably didn’t want to. Instead of asking why, Monica just smiled.
“You’re similar to me.”
“Was Monica a medical student too?”
“No, I wanted to enroll.”
Luis listened to Monica’s story with interest. His manner was gentle and warm, and Monica was able to talk about having been in an orphanage more casually than she had thought.
As she talked about wanting to leave the orphanage and go to a women’s college, and how she had come back from the war to find that the college was gone, Monica realized that Luis Verfeil, a man she had only met twice, was very comfortable to be around.
‘If you think about it, Garcia too…’
Garcia. The man with the same face as Luis was also similar in some ways. Not that it was comfortable, but… how should she put it?
‘ Garcia’s Manners and everything is different from Luis…’
Thinking back now, Monica felt dizzy at how rude she had been.
If Mrs. Mollet had seen her arguing with Garcia with her hair disheveled, she would have been fired that day. Monica thought about it and chuckled. Luis tilted his head.
“Monica?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. How far did we get?”
“The story about you getting proposed to in the hospital?”
Luis winked one eye. Monica, who had been lost in thought for a moment, felt her face burn. Her beauty was too dangerous to let down her guard. At that moment, Louis took out his watch from his bosom and made a troubled face.
“Oh my, it’s already this late.”
It seemed like it was time to go back.
“I would like to stay with Monimoni more, but…”
“Luis!”
When Monica pressed him, Luis made a joke. They hadn’t been together that long, but they felt like they were getting along pretty well.
Four dresses were not something a woman could carry alone. The dressing room offered to call for a porter, but Monica shook her head, thinking it was a waste of money to call a porter.
But when they saw that Luis was holding everything, they couldn’t bring themselves to accept it. In the end, the two of them went to the porters’ quarters in the alley of the commercial street and handed over the luggage.
“It’s the big white house at 8 Blue Gull Street. In the name of Monica Offen.”
Luis frowned as he watched Monica write down the address on a piece of paper while saying that. Monica noticed Luis’ expression belatedly and asked, “Why?” but Luis shook his head.
“It’s nothing.”
Monica blinked a couple of times, but Luis didn’t bother to say anything until they had left the porters’ office and walked quite a distance down the commercial street.
That was when.
“Wait a moment.”
Luis, who had seen something, quickly grabbed her and turned her around. Monica was surprised and called out to him.
“Luis?”
“Wait a moment.”
He dragged Monica into the shadows between the buildings on the commercial street, as if trying to make the shops wider on the narrow street. The spaces between the buildings were very narrow, as if they had tried to make the shops wider on the narrow street.
Monica was about to call out to him in a panic, but something caught her eye behind a large body blocking her way.
“… …”
“… …”
A few people came out of the yellow brick building. One of them looked familiar. It was Riella. Monica held her breath involuntarily. The building was also another clothing store, and two clerks were bowing deeply to her.
A woman who looked like a noblewoman took Riella’s hand and sent her off, and Riella smiled elegantly. Several other young ladies were standing beside Riella. They were probably noble ladies like Riella.
“I have something to do downtown in the afternoon…”
Monica remembered Riella saying that. It seemed like this was the outing. Soon a carriage arrived in front of the store. The girls got into the carriage together and set off.
Monica suddenly looked up at Luis. Luis, who was blocking her way, turned his head and stared at the carriage with sharp eyes until everyone had left.
Just a moment ago, he had seemed so comfortable, but now, the man who was looking at her with his mouth closed seemed like a completely different person.
‘His right eye…’
Monica stopped thinking and opened her mouth.
“Luis?”
“Hmm?”
“What’s going on?”
“……Yes?”
Only then did Luis show his embarrassment. It seemed that he had finally realized that he had to explain the situation to Monica. However, he couldn’t seem to come up with any excuses.
“That’s it, that….”
Eventually, Monica decided to help Luis out a little.
“Did you see your lover there?”
“……Yes?”
“I understand. I knew from the second we met that you have a lover or something. You were a womanizer.”
She glared at him with a sly look. Only then did Luis let out an awkward laugh.
“That’s not it, but…”
“Don’t lie. I knew this would happen. After all, men are like that.”
A bright smile appeared on her once cold face, but it was too late. Monica shrugged and emerged from the shadows of the building. The strong arms that had stopped her just moments ago had long since lost their strength. Luis followed her, trudging out.
“Even if your lover bites you, you have the brains to just say that she is your friend.”
“Oh, really, that’s…”
Luis, who was about to make an excuse, smiled in resignation.
“You got caught.”
He seems like a really good liar, so why can’t he tell a lie like this? But Monica didn’t want to ask him persistently. She pointed to the road that had appeared just then.
“I think I should go back now.”
“Oh, I see.”
Luis answered awkwardly. Monica smiled faintly, her hands behind her back.
“I’ll see you again.”
When they first met, it was Luis’ greeting. Luis blinked twice in surprise, then relaxed his facial muscles and smiled.
“You’re telling me what I was wondering about. As expected, you’re smart, Monimoni…”
“… If you call me that, I’ll never see you again.”
Monica raised her eyebrows and spoke with a mock stern tone.
“Tell that bastard that I said hello. He told me not to do anything dangerous.”
“That’s what Garcia said. Garcia’s concern is excessive.”
“I have a question.”
Monica took a step back and asked.
“Is this true that Garcia and you are twins?”
Luis did not give a definitive answer.
“I don’t think that’s a question I should answer.”
“… Are your last names different?”
“That too.”
Luis gave Monica a flashy greeting that she had already seen once. It was a sign that he was leaving. Monica nodded and turned around to walk away.
The man stared at her neatly tied black hair fluttering in the salty sea breeze for quite some time. The woman did not look back even once as she walked away.
“I’ll see you again.”
Although Luis went on and on about his sisters and his past as a medical student, he never revealed where he lived in La Spezia or what he was doing.
It was natural. Luis was not from here.
And Monica must have already guessed that Luis had no intention of seeing her again.
Nevertheless, Monica greeted him like that. She said she would see him again.
If it had been anyone else, Luis would have been disgusted. But strangely enough, he was incredibly grateful that it was Monica who said that.
“Monica.”
Luis scratched his chin.
“But it would be best if we didn’t see each other again.”
It was a small voice that the woman couldn’t hear.
—
