Lavi trudged through the maze of grass in the manor’s backyard. With one hand clutching the hem of her dress, the other brushed away branches, as she looked at her surroundings intently.
She’d been wandering around for nearly an hour now, but her childhood friend was nowhere to be seen.
The sky was already turning scarlet, and she was at the limit of her stamina. Her fingers were scratched from the branches, covered in minor wounds, and she looked like she might collapse at any moment.
This game of hide-and-seek, which had started as a half-hearted attempt to challenge his blatant attempts to avoid her, had gone on longer than she expected. She’d looked everywhere else she could think of, so he was probably around here. She didn’t know why he chose to run away from the spacious mansion, but she wanted to tell him he’d made the wrong choice; this was a place where she and her brother often played, so it would be impossible for him to hide from her here.
Granted, she hadn’t found him right away.
Lavi, who had been striding forward, finally came to a stop.
‘Found him!’
A small tuft of pink hair stuck out from behind a bush a little way ahead. Looking at the pink locks fluttering in the wind, Lavi couldn’t help but think of cotton candy, and she couldn’t help but curl her lips into a wry smile at Akkad’s clumsy hiding.
Quietly, she crept forward, taking step carefully to avoid being noticed. Just two more steps and she’d have him—until her foot landed on a branch, which gave a loud snap. At the sound, the pink tuft flinched and jerked downward. Startled by Lavi’s sudden appearance, the boy crouched where he was hiding.
Lavi rushed forward, realizing she had to catch him before he ran away again.
“Hic-La, Laviette.”
“Akkad.”
Akkad’s eyes went wide with surprise as he looked at Lavi.
Akkad, with his cotton candy-like hair, had fair skin exemplifying the description of ‘milky white’. His skin was so delicate that the mere press of a finger against his chubby cheeks would quickly leave a red mark. A single teardrop welled in his watery, silver-gray eyes, and his plump, cherry-like lips had a slight upturn at the corners.
Even as a seven-year-old boy, he had a beauty that would make anyone cry, even Lady Rose Salome, rumored to be the most beautiful woman in the empire. Of course, Lavi had never actually seen Lady Salome, but she was sure that if Akkad continued to grow up looking as he did now, he would surely overtake the beauty.
Akad’s shoulders trembled as his reddened eyes brimmed with tears, threatening to spill at any moment. Lavi thought he looked just like a frightened puppy and couldn’t help but lift the corners of her mouth.
“Akkad, why are you avoiding me?”
” …I-I’m not!”
Akad hesitated, taking a small step back, and Lavi immediately closed the gap with two steps forward.
Soon, tears were rolling down his smooth cheeks as if they would never stop flowing. Lavi put her hands on her hips and leaned down toward her friend, who was still sitting on the ground.
“Why are you running away just because I held your hand?”
Akkad’s eyes darted here and there and he mumbled a non-excuse in a small voice, “B-but… Father said I should never take off my gloves. And… you… y-you pulled them off.” It was a voice mixed with sobs.
“It’s not like I don’t already know your secret. So what’s the big deal?”
“Sniff…hic…“
Lavi, who was weak to the sight of Akkad on the verge of tears, softened, and raised her eyebrows in resignation.
“Aah–really, what am I gonna do with you, huh?” Lavi sighed as she ran a dainty hand through her golden hair. “If I kiss you, you might just faint. Honestly.” Her sharp blue eyes glinted as she muttered to herself.
Akkad, who heard her muttering to herself, flinched and began to sob out loud.
Lavi parted her lips as if to say, ‘You’re really going to cry?’
“Don’t cry. Haven’t you heard that you look ugly when you cry?”
“Hic…N…no… Mother says… I’m p-pretty….”
“Okay, you’re pretty. You’re the prettiest. So stop crying before I really do kiss you.”
Lavi’s words were meant to be soothing, but Akkad’s sobs only grew louder.
“So, you two were here…”
Lavi’s escort knight, Allen, had heard the cries and belatedly rushed over, looking at the two children before running a hand down his face in exasperation. It had been 20 minutes since Lavi had slipped away from him while searching for Akkad with him. He wondered to himself if she’d been bullying Akkad again.
“Where does she even pick up lines like that? She certainly wasn’t like that a month ago…”
Having grown up together like siblings since birth, Lavi and Akad were supposed to be close friends—but their relationship had grown awkward.
It had started a month ago, after Lavi suffered a serious head injury.
Since that accident, nothing had been quite the same.
T/N: Hi, I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I think this story is rather cute and I’d love for more folks to enjoy it. I’ve waited a bit for someone to pick it up, but haven’t seen any interest, so here we go until someone more competent gives it a go. I’m working from the novel version rather than the serialized version, so there aren’t really graceful episode breaks – for now, just planning to break out by whenever there is a section break indicated by * * *
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