The flowers in full bloom were each distinct in their color, yet they harmonized beautifully within the basket.
To Anje, it was the most lovely arrangement she had ever seen.
“I didn’t know there was such a beautiful place so close by. If there are any other good places nearby, please take me there again later, Sir.”
Aiden felt a sense of pride upon hearing her praise for the forest.
“Well, there are places… like where the water lilies bloom in clusters or the wild strawberry bushes, but I think they might be too ordinary for you…”
“I’d love to see them!”
Anje had also seen water lilies in Nancy Dilton’s notebook. They were described as long, slender flowers that were delicious to suck the nectar out of.
“It’s still a bit early for them now, so I’ll show you later.”
“Are there any other good places?”
As she asked him this, Anje was surprised to discover that she was suddenly starting to like the forest.
After getting lost in the middle of the night before, she had come to see the forest as nothing more than a scary and terrifying place. She thought that all areas outside of the orchard right next to the field or the rest stop where she would take a short break during field work were dangerous.
This sudden change of heart was quite unusual for her, as she was someone who rarely changed her mind once she decided she liked or disliked something.
‘I guess it’s possible to start liking something once you get to know it well, even if you initially disliked it because it was unfamiliar.’
She found this about herself quite amusing and smiled broadly.
“Oh, Sir. Please pick that flower too!”
The forest in spring was like a treasure island where jewels were hidden everywhere.
As she was picking pretty mushrooms, she got scolded for carelessly touching a poisonous mushroom, and she also asked Aiden if the flower she saw was the one she had seen in Nancy Dilton’s notebook.
Because of this, it took them a long time to return from what should have been a little walk, but neither of them complained.
* * *
Returning to the backyard, Anje crouched down next to Aiden and they transplanted flowers together.
She was already familiar with the technique of ‘transplanting’ without damaging the plant roots, having practiced well with cabbage seedlings.
Anje looked at the small but well-filled flowerbed with a sense of pride.
“It’s so pretty. How could you not have thought of planting flowers before? Don’t you like flowers?”
“You can’t eat flowers…”
“You glutton! Ignoring my crinoline, and having no aesthetic sense.”
Aiden protested, wrinkling his eyebrows. He wasn’t exactly a glutton.
In the past prison camp where even light barely entered, the food he was given was nothing more than hard, leather-like bread and dirty muddy water.
During his year of hellish life as a prisoner, what he dreamed of most was a bountiful table.
A farm with clean water, abundant meals, and everything else. It was only because he had to prioritize these things that he didn’t pay attention to aesthetics.
Instead of telling her about his dreams, he gave her a counter-example.
“I didn’t completely avoid growing flowers either.”
“Really?”
“Yes, during the war… I made a small flowerbed in the trenches.”
As he recalled, that was true. He and the soldiers often did silly things in the trenches.
“There was a guy who had poppy seeds, so we planted them on the trench banks and walls.”
Looking back, it was absurd that he was doing such a leisurely thing in the midst of a fierce battlefield.
But at the time, he needed something to focus on in order not to go crazy in the days when there were casualties every day.
“Did flowers bloom in the trenches too?”
“Yes. As long as there was a little water, sunlight, and soil.”
Aiden squinted his eyes as if reminiscing about a cherished scene. He was surprised when a soldier who had come to report excitedly after seeing sprouts emerging from the wall cracks, thinking it was an enemy.
After he found out the cause, he grabbed his head and scolded him for making such a fuss over such a trivial matter, but he was also quite excited himself.
On the day the first flower bloomed, the whole unit gathered to admire the flower, each taking turns smelling its fragrance.
The life in the prison camp and the suffering after his escape were so great that he had forgotten them for a while. The fact that there were such warm moments even amidst the barrage of shells and bullets and the loss of life.
“There was also a guy named Jeremy who grew dandelions in an enemy shell casings as flowerpots. He planted seeds that blew in the wind.”
“In a shell casing? That’s amazing.”
Anje, who had been listening to Aiden’s story with her mouth agape, widened her eyes.
“So what happened? Did he grow it well until the pretty flowers bloomed?”
“No, before that, a shell fell into the trench…”
Aiden omitted the details, but his bitter expression clearly explained what kind of end Jeremy and the dandelions met.
“Ah…”
The air grew heavy all of a sudden. Anje hesitated, unsure of what to say. Should she offer condolences?
He tried to read her awkward expression and lighten the mood a bit.
“Still, Jeremy was lucky. He wasn’t directly hit by the shell, so his body remained intact.”
Aiden, who was about to say that if one was hit directly by a shell, there might not even be any trace of the body left, flinched when he looked at Anje. Her face was even paler than before.
“Oh, I see. That’s fortunate.”
It seemed that he had failed to change the mood.
He picked up the shovel and started digging anywhere. It wasn’t digging with any particular purpose. It was just to relieve his urge to crawl into a rabbit hole.
‘Damn it.’
The fact that he was talking about people dying so casually made him think that the war had somehow warped his senses.
“……”
Both of them were silent for a while. Aiden was filled with guilt for ruining the mood with unnecessary words, and Anje was hesitant, unsure of how to comfort him.
Anje was the first to reach out.
“Um…”
The sound of digging stopped.
“Here… would you like some?”
Something popped out from Anje’s apron pocket. A round brown object with a shiny sugar coating. It was a donut.
It was the same donut that she had given to Pa-Pi-Pu earlier, an emergency snack that she had left behind when she went out to work.
Aiden, who was looking back and forth at the donut and her face with a bewildered expression, suddenly burst into a small laugh.
“Heh.”
Anje stared at him blankly for a moment before blinking her eyes rapidly.
‘Did he just smile?’
It was only for a moment, so she couldn’t quite catch it properly, but it wasn’t a frowning or expressionless face, or a mocking face, but a genuine smile.
Her heart pounded as she drew an unexpected reaction from him.
Meanwhile, Aiden returned to his usual expression and asked.
“Is that a donut you stole to give to the pigs?”
“How did you know…!”
Anje closed her mouth belatedly, but it was too late. Judging by his tone, it seemed that he had already noticed her ‘theft’ a while ago.
“Please give it to me.”
Anje was embarrassed as he opened his mouth, but soon noticed that his hands were covered in dirt.
Unlike her, whose hands were clean after putting on and taking off gloves, he was almost always covered in dirt because he worked with his bare hands. With hands like that, he couldn’t eat a donut by himself.
She cut the donut into a smaller piece than the one she had given Pa-Pi-Pu earlier and put it in his mouth. He moved his mouth to chew the donut piece slowly and then swallowed it.
“Even though it’s cold, it’s still this delicious, and you’re giving it to the pigs?”
“They’re not just pigs. They’re smart and kind pigs.”
“That’s right. Smart and kind piggies.”
“Pa, Pi, Pu!”
She tried to explain how special each pig was.
“Pa and Pi just learned how to ‘wait’ a while ago.”
It was the result of the snack she had secretly taken.
“Then Pu?”
“Pu… has a cute tail and a lot of personality.”
Aiden pretended to be surprised, thinking, “They’re going to be ham and bacon anyway.”
“I guess you’re going to join the circus as a pig trainer.”
“Idiot, you know I wouldn’t do that.”
She giggled and put another piece of donut in his mouth. He looked nicer with his mouth closed, eating the donut quietly.
The sight of a big, burly man meekly accepting food reminded her of a well-trained beast, and it touched her heart.
‘Or maybe when he smiles.’
When he laughed earlier, Anje had thought for a moment that he was an attractive man. His sharp eyes that narrowed into slits, or the hidden dimple that dented only one cheek.
Anje, who was deep in thought, grumbled to herself.
‘What’s this feeling?’
She couldn’t explain why, but she felt somehow annoyed. She took out another piece of donut to express her annoyance.
He closed his mouth exactly when he had eaten half of the donut.
“Are you not going to eat any more?”
“Weren’t you leaving it for yourself? I’m fine now.”
He politely declined and got up from his seat. In fact, he hadn’t really wanted to eat the donut in the first place.
However, he hesitated to refuse because it seemed like she was trying to comfort him in her own clumsy way.
Anje also stretched out her legs, which had been bent, while putting the remaining donut in her mouth and chewing it.
“Shall we plant some dandelions too?”
“Dandelions… they’ll bloom on their own without us having to plant them. The wind keeps blowing them from the fields over here.”
Maybe the reason he hadn’t thought about planting flowers all this time was because he was afraid to remember that time.
But the drawer of memories he had opened after a long time contained not only tears but also laughter.
‘How strange.’
It was amazing that he, scarred in body and mind, was somehow getting along with someone as untouchable as a noble lady.
Maybe he wasn’t as ‘broken’ as he had thought.
“Thank you for the donut.”
Anje felt like he was smiling when he said that, and she rushed to check his face. But it seemed to be just a simple mistake.
‘What a shame.’
What was she sorry for? She licked the sugar off her lips, mulling over the emotion that had come to her.
* * * *
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