For Your Failed Unrequited Love

Adrian rushed out of the hotel without a second thought. He looked around the street with a bewildered face.

But Rei was nowhere to be seen.

“Miss Rei.”

He called her name in anticipation of seeing her somewhere.

“Miss Rei!”

But there was no return.

Adrian, who was standing blankly, soon turned and began to head back to the publishing house. He impatiently ran quickly down the street.

Arriving in front of the publishing house in an instant, he ran up the stairs without a break. After arriving in front of the president’s office, he opened the door without knocking.

“Mr. Glenn.”

Looking at Adrian, who suddenly returned, the boss opened his eyes wide.

“Is there a problem?”

“Do you know where Rei lives?”

“What?”

Glenn made a puzzled face when asked out of the blue.

“What’s wrong? Did she do anything wrong?” asked Glenn, who seemed to have misunderstood something. But Adrian asked again as if he had no time to talk.

“Miss Rei’s home address!”

“Calm down, my dear.”

Glenn said soothingly to him.

“I know the address, but I don’t think she still lives there. It’s already been two days since she quit. She doesn’t usually stay in the same house for long. I wonder if she will remain in this city.”

“Hurry up and give me her home address!”

“Oh, my!”

Adrian couldn’t resist screaming. Glenn jumped up from his seat. He rummaged through the drawers with a bewildered face at Adrian’s wild attitude.

“All right, all right. Argh. I’m sure there’s a resume here with her personal information in it.… Yes, here it is.”

Adrian hastily took the paper from his hand.

The place where Rei lived was a little further away by carriage from where he was.

Adrian left the president’s office without saying goodbye to Glenn.

Adrian came out of the publishing house and hurriedly looked around. However, that did not mean that there would suddenly be a carriage to ride in. He had no choice but to run down the street thinking of Rei’s home address.

He was out of breath, but he didn’t stop.

If he doesn’t see her again like this.

If he can’t explain to her the reason for his childish behavior.

He thought he’d regret it for the rest of his life.

Running for almost 20 minutes without a break, he finally arrived in front of the shabby building where Rei lived. He climbed the stairs in search of her.

Room 301.

As Adrian approached her room, he knocked on the wooden door.

“Miss Rei.”

“…….”

“Miss Rei, are you in there?”

Tok~ tok~

He kept knocking on the door.

However, there was no reply.

“Miss Rei!”

Then, the door next door opened and a man looked out into the hallway.

“Why is it so loud?”

He said to Adrian, who was knocking on the door, with a grim look.

“Have you seen when the woman who lives in this house left?”

Adrian asked the man desperately.

“……woman? I don’t know about that, but I saw a man moving yesterday. But are you going to keep knocking on the door loudly?”

Ignoring the question of an angry man, Adrian left the room. Unlike the way he ran up, his steps down the stairs looked heavy as if something heavy was tied to his feet.

*** 

“The new book is very popular!”

Glenn’s boss said with a flushed face.

“With this momentum, we’re going to surpass the previous sales! That’s amazing!”

Then he began to praise Adrian until his mouth was dry. But what he said didn’t catch Adrian’s ear.

Adrian stared at his book with a blank expression on his face. He slipped his hand down the cover.

She was curious about the cover. I wonder if she’s reading my book somewhere.

He couldn’t find anything about Rei anywhere. His boss, Glenn, simply said she would have left somewhere and would not be in the city for a while.

After the conversation, Adrian stood up with a bitter face.

Walking helplessly down the street, he found a teahouse and went inside. After sitting at the table and ordering tea, he took out a pen and paper.

It seemed that it was time to leave this city, too.

He always wrote letters to his nephews at the end of each of his trips. The children loved it when he explained the fun and amazing things he had experienced during the trip.

But this time Adrian sat idly, unable to begin his sentence.

As he recalled his pleasant memories, all he could remember was the face of one person.

Rei, who was preparing hair dye and strange disguise tools with a bright face.

Rei, who came running after buying dessert for him through the rain.

Rei, who alone protected him from countless reporters.

Don’t worry about anything. I’ll protect you said Rei.

The pen fell from Adrian’s hand. The ink has blackened the paper.

All his fond memories were with Rei. There was nothing else he could write in the letter.

In the end, Adrian picked up his bag again without writing a line. When he got up from his seat, the clerk approached him with a teacup.

“What about the tea, sir?”

Adrian left the coffee shop after putting money on the table without saying a word.

Are they trying to ruin his mood even more?

To make matters worse, it began to rain.

Raindrops fell on the top of his head. Suddenly, people on the street opened their umbrellas or ran somewhere, blocking the rain with their outerwear.

But Adrian did not run. His clothes were getting wet.

While walking like that.

Suddenly it stopped raining. Adrian raised his head.

People without umbrellas were still running around in the rain.

Adrian looked up at the sky with a questioning face. But it was not the sky but the umbrella that filled his vision.

“You’ll catch a cold.”

Adrian looked back at the voice behind him. There stood Rei, incredible.

“Miss Rei.”

“Why are you walking without an umbrella?”

“…….”

Is this an illusion?

Adrian stared blankly at Rei’s face. Then Rei tilted her head and shook her palm in front of his face, calling, “Mr. Reinhart?”

Rei sighed while looking at Adrian, who was still standing with a puzzled face. Then she took a book out of her bag. It was Adrian’s new work.

“I want to ask you something.”

She opened the front page and put it in front of Adrian’s face. Only one line was printed on the page.

Miss Rei, my name is Adrian.

“What the hell does this mean?”

Rei asked.

“So… isn’t Mr. Reinhart’s name, Felix Berg?”

“No.”

Adrian spat out a trembling breath and said.

“Felix is my twin brother.”

“Ah.”

Only then did Rei look surprised as if she had grasped the situation roughly.

“My name is Adrian Berg, and I didn’t go to war nine years ago. I’ve never been a knight, I’ve never saved you from a pit.”

Adrian explained in a trembling voice. He tried to gauge the expression of the woman standing in front of him, but he couldn’t figure it out. Rei was now staring up at him with a complex expression on his face.

“……Are you disappointed?”

“What? What disappointment?”

“Because I’m not Felix. Not the kind man who saved you nine years ago.”

“What are you talking about?”

Rei frowned. He seemed a little angry.

“Of course, I wanted to meet Sir Felix again at least once and say thank you for what happened then. But that’s it! I don’t like him just because he helped me once!”

Rei’s voice grew louder and louder. The people around glanced past the two.

“The reason why I showed favor to you is not because I think you are that person… It was because I liked the way we’ve been together! Your writing, your caring tone, your smile, your gentle voice, your…… That handsome face and, uh, that’s the same for Sir Felix, but, uh, anyway! It made my heart flutter! What am I talking about in the middle of the street?”

Rei closed her mouth with a red face. It was so red that her head was going to steam.

There was silence amid the sound of rain pouring over the umbrella. Rey was now looking at Adrian with a sulky face.

“……I was wrong. The attitudes I’ve shown to Miss Rei before.”

“Of course. What’s that? Is that puberty?”

“Actually, I…… I’m interested in Miss Rei. I want to talk to you more and find out.”

Rei looked slightly surprised at Adrian’s honest words and nodded soon.

“…… Do you mean you’ll give me one more chance?”

“O, of course. How can I refuse if you say it with such a handsome face?”

Rei, who seemed to be finally relieved, joked and grinned.

“You want to know about me?”

Rei said earlier, pointing toward the teahouse where Adrian came out.

“I also want to know something about Mr. Adrian…… Shall we go in and have a conversation?”

When Adrian, who was standing with a blank face, finally nodded, Rei smiled once more and turned toward the tea house.

An umbrella placed over the two of them began to break through the streets again.

– END