When was it? Well, there was no need to ponder, as she could recall it right away.
It was the day she and Sion returned from their outing by the lake.
From then on, Laila wasn’t as intimidated by him as she had been before.
She doesn’t know why, but that was the case. The first time she noticed the noticeable change was at the dinner table.
She took Sion to the dining hall to have dinner.
They sat facing each other, and as usual, she received a very small portion of food and began to eat.
From the very first bite, something felt different.
‘It’s delicious.’
The food melted on her tongue and smoothly went down her throat.
It wasn’t like this just a day ago.
Back then, it felt like chewing on gritty sand, forcing down every bite…
Perplexed, she continued eating, and before she knew it, her portion of food was empty.
Laila looked at the empty plate with widened eyes.
Then she raised her hand and called a maid who was in the dining hall, and with a trembling voice, she placed an order.
“Can I have another serving?”
And so, Laila ended up eating three times her usual amount of food right there.
Although it went down smoothly, she still felt uneasy.
What if she ended up vomiting?
Or worse, if she couldn’t hold it in front of Sion during their conversation before bed…
However, amidst the unease, the food remained delicious, and Laila even had dessert after finishing her hearty dinner.
By then, the thought of letting things unfold as they might dominated her mind.
‘Should I vomit, well? Let it happen. I’ll just run to Elvin.’
However, that day, Laila didn’t run to Elvin.
She was fine until just before falling asleep.
She didn’t feel bloated, sore, lightheaded, or dizzy.
Even when she was alone with Sion in the bedroom, she was fine.
Her stomach remained comfortable, and she didn’t feel the urge to flee.
She even felt that time passed more smoothly than on other days.
And smiling in front of Sion didn’t feel particularly exhausting. Well, it could be considered a habit by now.
Anyway, it was a smoother time than expected.
Laila had an uneventful time and went to bed. She slept well.
She didn’t have any nightmares, slept deeply, and after waking up, she had a quick breakfast, loitered around, and then went to see Sion at noon.
And as she walked around the garden with Sion, she finally realized.
‘Sion isn’t as scary.’
Even when she was with Sion, her heart didn’t beat as fast. She felt less conscious, less tense, and less frightened.
After reaffirming that fact several times over lunch, dinner, and bedtime conversations, Laila rolled around in bed excitedly just before falling asleep that night.
Because she felt good.
‘I don’t know why, but it feels so good!’
Delighted by the overwhelmingly joyful change, Laila tossed and turned in bed before finally falling asleep.
That day, Laila dreamed of a band playing a congratulatory song in her bedroom for her ninetieth birthday.
‘……Well, that dream was a little too far ahead of time.’
Laila suddenly realized.
A girl in the mirror was staring at her intently.
She made eye contact with herself and felt strangely calm.
Laila took a moment to reflect on her situation.
‘Sion is less scary than before. So what? Sure, daily life has become a bit easier because of it, but that’s all. The future… hasn’t changed a bit.’
Laila was certain. If a disaster were to strike and Sion suddenly died now, she would still find herself facing the murderer, blinded by vengeance, ten years later.
‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. At least until Sion feels gratitude or warmth towards me…’
But how can one confirm gratitude and warmth?
If Sion only feels it inwardly and doesn’t express it, then what?
‘Express… he’ll express it, right?’
Will he?
Laila fretted over untimely concerns.
Sion expressing gratitude to Laila.
Sion expressing warmth to Laila.
Neither seemed imaginable, no matter how hard she tried.
“…I don’t know; do whatever you want!”
First, let’s heal Sion’s complicated grief as much as possible before thinking about it!
Laila blurted out her thoughts without realizing it. Marie’s eyes shone in the mirror.
“I see.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll take care of you today.”
“Huh?”
“This Marie will unleash her skills to the fullest after a long time!”
“Wait, hold on…”
Before Laila could stop her, Marie busily began to move. Laila swallowed a sigh as she watched Marie’s hand, which had been holding just a comb, gradually become more elaborate. Oh dear.
ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚
“……Hi, Sion.”
The sun was at its highest in the sky. Laila smiled awkwardly and walked over to Sion’s bed.
Sion’s gaze naturally traveled to Laila’s hair. Laila blushed and attempted to scratch her head, but there was nothing to scratch.
With a half-hearted sigh, Laila recalled the state of her hair, which she had checked in the mirror before leaving her bedroom.
She had braided her lush pink hair into two braids. That was fine.
The problem lay with the accessories. Marie liked flower and butterfly decorations, and she had generously adorned Laila’s small hair with such decorations all over.
Marie often referred to Laila’s hair as the Dancing Butterfly Garden, which was covered with extravagant flower and butterfly decorations.
‘I messed up. How could this happen again…’
She mentally shortened it. Ah, that darn butterfly dance!
Laila couldn’t understand it at all, but Marie occasionally wanted to implement that problematic Butterfly Dance on her hair—not too frequently, but periodically.
The reason was simple.
According to Marie, it just reeeeeeally suited her and looks pretty.
But Laila’s thoughts were different. She didn’t know what was pretty about it; she just knew it was uncomfortable.
Right now, because of these accessories, Laila’s head feels heavy!
‘Of course, later on, these decorations will come back into fashion for a while…….’
Before the regression, when was it? She remembers going to the capital and seeing so many butterfly dances on the side streets that she almost fell off her seat.
She thought it was a dream. Surprisingly, it was reality. She learned that about a month had passed since the Butterfly Dance hair decorations became trendy in the capital’s social circles at the time.
Trends are really unpredictable…
“Huh?”
Laila’s eyes widened at the sight of Sion, who’d been giving her a moment to recall the past.
“Are you laughing?”
As soon as Laila noticed Sion’s slightly relaxed lips, words popped out automatically without going through her head.
“What?”
Sion immediately responded. His lips quickly hardened, as usual.
Laila stared at his stiff face and said again.
“You were laughing, weren’t you?”
“No.”
“You were laughing; I saw it.”
“You must have seen wrong.”
Saw it wrong? Did she? No, definitely not. She saw it clearly. The shape of his lips was distinctly different than usual.
“I’m not mistaken; you definitely laugh!”
“…So what if I did?”
“Huh?”
“Do you really want to confirm if I was laughing at your headdress?”
“……ah.”
Laila let out a small sigh with a dejected expression.
Right. That’s right. Even if he did laugh, it definitely wasn’t for a good reason.
Why did she even want to confirm that he laughed?
Feeling somewhat empty, and at the same time, the awkwardness from the butterfly dance she had momentarily forgotten rushed back.
Unable to touch her hair, which had no room for adjustment, Laila rolled her eyes around before speaking softly.
“It doesn’t suit me, does it?”
“…….”
However, despite laughing at her headpiece, Sion fell silent when asked if it didn’t suit her.
Enduring the strange silence, Laila changed the subject first.
“Shall we go out?”
“Where.”
“Huh?”
“Where are you planning to go today?”
“That’s…….”
The garden or the courtyard. Laila paused before answering.
‘Could it be?’
With budding hope, Laila asked Sion.
“Do you want to go out?”
