Bang! The office door opened violently, spreading noise into the corridor.

“I thought I came to your workplace too many times, so you said if I want to see you later, I should come to your room or field.”

The words Hydra had just said stuck like thorns in his head.

“And you told me to apologize to Lord Hades as well.”

I swear, I didn’t intend to make her apologize.

It was just that having my mind full of Persephone was an overwhelming and unfamiliar sensation, and since she was going to leave soon anyway, I was just trying to maintain boundaries…!

At that moment, a note crumpled mercilessly in Hades’ grasp.

Startled, Hades stopped his hurried footsteps. Slowly lowering his gaze, he gently unfolded the compressed note.

– Gathering: 2 (Silphium, White Goosefoot)
– Help Request: 1 (Cockroach)
– Solicitation: 3 (Apple Juice, Wine, Olive Oil)
– Tasting Invitation: 3 (Bread, Bread, and Bread)
– No Reason: 9 (…No more excuses to think of?)
– Total: 18

That note was Hades’ record of Persephone’s reasons for visits and their frequency over the past five days.

“Hah…”

A sigh dispersed into the slightly chilly air.

Is something wrong? Or did my attempt to avoid her show? The total number is eighteen, was she perhaps wanting to curse?

While he was the one trying to avoid her, the person who visited more than three times a day was now apologizing, making him feel conflicted.

The Lord of the Underworld, forgetting to move through darkness, headed towards the dwelling of the Goddess of Seeds.

Swallowing dry saliva, he lightly knocked on Persephone’s door.

“Um, Persephone?”

Hades carefully called her name.

“If you’re still awake, I’d like to talk.”

Honestly, he thought he might regret calling her like this.

Moreover, a part of his reason whispered that there was no need to be this flustered.

He even heard an inner voice telling him to calm down, saying he was acting like a teenager.

But still, just leaving it be wasn’t quite…

When his pitch-black eyes, carrying a faint worry, sank,

“Why did you call me?”

The door swung open.

Slightly startled, Hades stepped back and looked over the woman before him.

A faint scent of wine emanated from Persephone, who stood firmly between the doorposts.

He thought she might have been drinking, but her expression wasn’t more relaxed than usual. If anything, she looked a bit indifferent.

“Do you have any business?”

“Ah…”

Prompted by Persephone, Hades finally gathered his thoughts and opened his lips.

“Perhaps over the past few days…”

“Yes?”

“…”

“Over the past few days, and?”

“…Could you tell me why you visited the office so often?”

One of Persephone’s eyebrows raised. She crossed her arms as if she didn’t understand what Hades was talking about.

He hurriedly opened his hand to show her.

“At first it was once a day, but as time went on, the number of visits per day increased.”

“…”

“Why was that?”

At Hades’ question, Persephone detached herself from the doorpost.

“I’m sorry, I think I’ve been too much of a bother until now.”

It wasn’t an answer to his question.

She smiled faintly and demurely clasped her hands together. As if truly apologetic.

“I’ll definitely restrain myself from now on. Please go to sleep.”

It was a polite attitude he had never seen before.

Only then, looking at Persephone’s face, he noticed her eyes were slightly red along with some moisture.

‘Could it be… was she crying? Because of me?’

As the perplexed Hades was about to call out to her, the door began to close gradually. Persephone turned around, covering her mouth.

He thought he heard a sniffling sound…

“Wait!”

At that moment, Hades grabbed the doorknob.

“Wait, so what I really wanted to say wasn’t this…!”

The door opened again, revealing the room inside. Through the large gap, he saw Persephone turning towards him.

On her face, with her hand covering her mouth, a clear eye smile was visible.

Before he could question it.

“Kuk…”

Persephone removed her hand from her mouth. Her lips were clearly curved into a smile.

“Hahaha!”

Finally, she burst into laughter, opening her mouth wide.

“You fell for it, didn’t you? You totally fell for it?”

“…”

“Ahaha!”

Hades stared blankly at the cackling Persephone.

It was only when she bent over, clutching her stomach, that he could understand what was going on.

‘…She did it on purpose.’

The constant visits to the office, pretending to be upset just now, all of it was to elicit a meaningful reaction from him.

“Haaa…”

So in the end, he had fallen beautifully into the trap Persephone had set? Hades rubbed his brow.

He pointed a finger at Persephone, who was still laughing uproariously.

“Then, that, your red eyes…”

“I smeared them with wine.”

“…”

“Why? Don’t tell me you thought I was crying?”

“…Ugh.”

“Kyahaha! So you were worried!”

Persephone was now laughing almost as if she’d been electrocuted. Hades, who had been sighing deeply, pulled out a spare handkerchief from his chest.

“Wipe it off.”

“Ah, thank you. But it’s fine.”

“Why?”

“I’m tearing up from laughing too hard.”

Persephone, biting her lips tightly, trembled her back.

Haa, after repeatedly inhaling and exhaling, she rubbed her eyes and then winked at Hades.

“And I’m just a tiny, tiny bit more reactive than usual because I’ve been drinking, so please understand.”

“…It doesn’t seem any different.”

“What did you say?”

“No, alright. I understand. I certainly do.”

A quick response escaped through Hades’ lips.

“Anyway, I’ll understand everything, so tell me why you visited the office so often.”

“Is that really what you’re curious about? It doesn’t seem like it to me.”

“Why do you think that?”

Persephone pursed her lips and turned her hand over as if extending it.

“Well, because you avoided me first, Lord Hades.”

For a moment, his words got stuck.

How did she know he was avoiding her? He thought she wouldn’t know since he was usually busy anyway, and could say he went out to work.

“Weren’t you avoiding me?”

Persephone wiggled her hand as if to say her words were correct.

Hades, finally coming to his senses, answered a beat late.

“I didn’t avoid you.”

“Are you going to keep lying?”

“No, I mean…”

“You accepted the daffodils! If you were going to be like this, you shouldn’t have accepted the flower pot either!”

“…”

Persephone’s rebuke was a hundred percent right.

‘Come to think of it, it was full of contradictions.’

He thought that since he could bloom the daffodils later anyway, he just needed to keep his distance from the person who gave him the flower pot for now.

But if so, had he decided not to care about the already bloomed flowers? Could he really do that?

No, there’s no way.

In reality, Hades was paying attention to the daffodil pot he received from Persephone. He even placed it on his desk, after all.

“…It wasn’t avoiding.”

“It wasn’t?”

“…”

Hades paused for a moment, considering various excuses in his mind.

That he wanted to ask about cake recipes or how to grow potted plants but avoided it because the questions seemed too trivial, or that he was too busy with work, and so on…

But none of them seemed like they would serve as a good justification.

It was a judgment based on instinct, not reason.

Hades soon nodded with a resolute face.

“Rather, I felt that I needed to restrain myself, so I did so.”

Persephone’s eyes widened like moons.

“As you probably guessed knowing my past, the cake I ate on the first day of early summer held a special meaning for me.”

Hades’ voice became serious.

“So I kept dwelling on it.”

“…”

“This change was unfamiliar to me.”

After finishing his words plainly and neatly, he slightly averted his gaze.

It was then that he noticed Persephone’s expression had become quite strange.

“Uh…”

She looked as if she had swallowed something wrong.

Just as Hades was about to ask her what was wrong.

Persephone’s index finger pointed at herself.

“Then, you’ve been thinking about me all this time?”