For Your Failed Unrequited Love

Felix blushed at the thought. Unlike other couples, they didn’t make eye contact and hold each other’s hands, but in the eyes of others, he and Lucy might look like a couple out on a date. He glanced at Lucy.

What is she thinking right now?

Felix was curious. Since earlier, Lucy has been looking around at the main gate of the academy as people passed by.

“Are you looking for anyone?” asked Felix.

Lucy looked back at him and opened her mouth hesitantly. “Oh, that’s…”

“Lucy!”

At that time, someone shouted Lucy’s name and ran vigorously toward them. Felix’s eyebrows rose at once. He recognized the person at a glance. Colin Connor came running, waving his hand cheerfully.

“Lucy, good morning! Hello, Felix-sunbae!” Colin, who arrived in front of them in an instant, took a deep breath and greeted them cheerfully.

“Ah, Colin said he wanted to go too…” Lucy said in a low voice.

“Of course! I have to help Lucy make the medicine! Trust me today! Porter! Tour guide! Restaurant guide! I’m confident with everything!”

“… Get lost.” Felix forgot that Lucy was by his side for a moment and let out harsh words.

“What? Is that a joke!”

“I’m not kidding.”

“Huh! It’s our turn! Come on board!” Colin pretended not to hear Felix and opened the door of the empty carriage. “Come on, Lucy! Take my hand!” He escorted Lucy who was about to climb inside.

Colin once again grated on Felix’s nerves.

This guy!

Felix looked like he had chewed a bug. He didn’t have a good feeling about this.

  *

“It’s been a while since I’ve been to the town’s shopping street! When I was a kid, I used to go to the capital’s shopping district with my mother! Oh man, the street food you buy there is so delicious! But my mother didn’t but it that often because she was skeptical of the hygiene! Oh, and the street vendors also sell strange things…!”

The carriage was on its way to town.

Inside, Colin couldn’t keep his mouth shut for even a second. He talked non-stop, from the story of the shopping mall he frequented with his mother when he was young, to the story of his aunt and grandmother’s house in the capital not too far away.

Felix looked out the window with his arms folded with a grim look on his face. It was a great opportunity to ask Lucy Keenan random questions and get close to her, but some kind of tactless guy suddenly appeared and ruined everything.

Should I throw him out of the carriage?

Felix looked out the window and Colin alternately and pondered seriously. The carriage wasn’t moving that fast, so it didn’t look like he would die from it.

Should I really throw him out?

Right then.

“Whoa!”

Suddenly, the carriage stopped.

Colin ended his jabbering and looked out of the window. “What. Who’s that standing in front of our carriage?” He quickly reported the situation.

“Ah! Lady, hold on a second!”

Felix  could hear the horseman’s urgent cry outside, but the carriage door opened. Someone stood in front of the door, the gleaming sunlight shone behind them. It was Rosé Millard.

Rosé looked around the people in the carriage with her unique arrogant eyes and stopped  at Felix.

“What? You were riding it, too?” Rosé voiced her disappointment, her eyebrows furrowed together, hinting her displeasure with Felix.

“What?” Felix asked, his face turned surly at her absurd intrusion. 

Rosé paid it no mind and climbed onto the carriage. “Let’s ride together. The carriage I was riding suddenly stopped.” She pointed at the carriage on the side of the road. Its wheel stuck in the mud. “I couldn’t go anywhere for a long time and stood there. It’s better than waiting for a new carriage to come, right?” she said and continued without waiting for a reply, “Oh, my. My clothes are dirty.” She frowned, looking at the hem of her dress that had been smeared with mud.

Rosé’s arrival caused the carriage to become cramped in an instant.

“Move aside!” Rosé demanded. She sat next to Felix, which annoyed him further.

Felix, who was helplessly pushed into the corner, clenched his jaw and rubbed his forehead. He heaved out a deep sigh.

What kind of crazy situation had he got himself into.

  *

The road beyond the window was paved with flat stones, and colourful buildings soon came into view. Slowly, the carriage came to a halt in the middle of town.

The crowd on the street was bigger than expected. Looking back, decorative flags connecting buildings were fluttering in the wind in the sky.

“There must be a lot of people because there’s a festival!” said Colin as he got off the carriage and looked around the crowd.

“Argh! My clothes are so dirty.” Rosé raised the hem of her dress and spoke, displeased. “So, where are you going?” she asked.

“We’ll visit the pharmacy first! And then the clothing stores and street vendors after!” Colin made a series of arbitrary plans. 

Even before Felix could refute anything, Rosé clapped first and said, “Oh, are you going to stop by the boutique? I was about to go see a dress, too. All right, ‘ll tag along!”

“Are you going to the pharmacy?” Felix asked Rosé, frowning his forehead. “You have nothing to see there.”

“Who cares. I can go and look around! And wouldn’t it be dangerous to walk alone on a crowded street like this?”

“Why did you come out alone in the first place?”

“That’s up to me!”

In an instant, a fight between Felix and Rosé broke out. 

Felix closed his mouth when he found Lucy looking at him with a surprised look on her face, while he was trying to shoot Rosé with harsh words. He pretended to clear his throat in a hurry.

Things are getting out of control. Even that damn Colin wasn’t enough, now Rosé Millard wants to follow us too.

“Ha… Yes, do as you please.” sighed Felix, as if he had given up. But inside, he was hatching a different plan.

I should find an opportunity and lose them both.

Thus, the four of them walked together along the town center.

The streets were crowded with people who came out to enjoy the festival. The road they passed was narrow. Naturally, they split in two. Lucy and Colin walked side by side in the front, and Felix and Rosé in the back. Felix was quite annoyed. For some reason, nothing had changed from the night of Literature Night.

The pair of squirrels were busy looking around the streets, completely oblivious to Felix’s displeasure. Lucy, whose eyes were taken away by the street scenery, seemed curious all the time.

They soon arrived in an alley lined with shops. The herbalist Lucy was talking about was also located in the alley.

As Felix entered the store, the scent of bitter herbs filled his nose. The scent were not overbearing, and from time to time, it mixed with the scent of flowers emanating from Lucy.

The shelf of the store not only displayed dried plants used as medicinal ingredients, but also weirdly shaped beans and strangely twisted tree roots.

“I think I’m going to throw up,” Rosé stated as if nauseous, looking at the dried fruit that looked like a human brain.

“Do you want to go now?” Felix asked, opening the door for her.

“I don’t want to,” Rosé sighed and went inside.

At the counter, Lucy was ordering mandragora root. The owner of the pharmacy disappeared through the curtain behind the counter and soon came out with a pile of mandragora. 

“It’s five golds.” said the owner.

“I’ll pay for it.” Felix stepped forward when Lucy opened her wallet.

Lucy quickly grabbed his arm. “I have money.”

“Didn’t the ingredients cost twice as much because of me? And it was originally made for Adrian… My conscience nagged at me for getting it free.”

“That…” After a moment’s hesitation, Lucy said, with her emerald eyes shining, “It wasn’t really made because of Adrian-sunbae”

Felix slowly lowered his arm.

It wasn’t made for Adrian?

A question crept into his mind. Lucy quickly paid for the ingredient as Felix froze in place.

“I bought all the ingredients I needed. I’m going now.”

After purchasing the goods, they left the pharmacy and headed to a boutique led by Rosé. Somehow, Colin was more excited than her and talked about the boutique all the way.

“Rosé sunbae-nim, do you know Arvena Boutique?”

Rosé’s face brightened up, and she excitedly replied, “How do you know that place? It’s a place that only deals with women’s clothes!”

“Sunbae, you don’t know anything! Mrs. Arvena is very good at designing men’s clothing as well! My aunt is a regular at the boutique, so she sometimes orders my clothes!”

“I had an inkling after seeing your outfit. You know something about style, don’t you?”

“Finally, someone understands me.”

Colin and Rosé continued to talk to each other, and suddenly they started walking in the front. They seemed to have completely forgotten the existence of Felix and Lucy, and were busy praising each other’s clothes or recommending other boutique.

Naturally, Felix and Lucy walked behind them, side by side.

“Give it to me.” Felix took the paper bag of pharmacy items from Lucy’s hand. “It’s heavy.”

“Thank you.” Lucy blushed and thanked him.

Felix loved that he got to walk alongside Lucy. He hoped Colin and Rosé would be lost in their conversation and forgot about them, or whether they were in the boutique or not.

There were many people who came to enjoy the festival in the shopping district. Felix thought it would be perfect to leave the party because it was so crowded. It didn’t matter if he lost the two in the lead, but it would be difficult if he lost Lucy.

“Just stay close to me and walk.” Felix said, gently leading Lucy to his side.

Lucy’s face reddened again.

I hope it’s not unpleasant.

Felix was worried as he saw Lucy’s stiff expression.

Did I act too friendly?