“Brother!”

“Ah…”

Yurik’s face turned as red as a carrot. Before things got more embarrassing, I tried to pick up the handkerchief that had fallen in front of me to hand it to Yurik.

“My lady!”

Bitty’s voice was heard from afar, perhaps she had returned from buying the rug. It was an opportunity to escape the awkward atmosphere.

Glad for the chance, I smiled unconsciously as I looked at Bitty, but there were two unwanted companions beside her.

The twins, Swel and Silke.

‘Why are they coming together?’

“So you were here, Lize!”

“We’ve been looking for you.”

Swel and Silke, who arrived in front of me, spoke in a disgruntled tone. They were the ones who separated me from the group first, but now they’re grumbling about why I was alone.

It was frustrating, but right now it was more urgent to get away from this place with the twins. Nothing good would come from these troublemakers encountering the Penton siblings.

“Thank you for cleaning my dress. I’ll be going now.”

“Where are you going? Won’t you play with me? We haven’t finished cleaning the dress yet.”

Yune held onto the hem of my dress until the end. If I had known this would happen, I should have left when Yurik hinted earlier.

Unable to do either, Swel and Silke looked at Yune strangely. Their gazes met.

I hoped they wouldn’t recognize each other, but judging by the twins’ gradually distorting expressions, it seemed too late.

“Have you been playing with those Penton family brats all this time? Lize!”

“You traitor!”

The twins’ accusations flew immediately.

“Oh? It’s Lize’s sister and brother.”

Even Yune recognized the two of them. At Yune’s words, the twins glared at her fiercely. Not understanding the meaning of their gaze, Yune just blinked, and Yurik blocked in front of her.

A strange atmosphere settled.

Oh no, this is bad.

“I, I should go now, right?”

I tried to leave the place somehow before the Penton siblings and the twins started fighting.

But the twins didn’t budge an inch and had a staring contest with Yurik and Yune. The twins’ usual competitive nature was showing now.

But it seemed that personality trait applied not only to the twins but also to the Penton siblings. They also had no intention of averting their gaze first.

“You weren’t bullying my sister, were you?”

The first to break the silence was Swel. Since when did you start calling me “my sister” so intimately?

“We didn’t bully her. So let’s go now. Where is Mother?”

“Step aside, Lize. This is more suspicious.”

Swel grew suspicious because of my attempt to quickly escape the situation. Silke also seemed to have seriously misunderstood something, as she blocked my way from the Penton siblings.

“We didn’t do anything to your sister.”

Yurik said firmly. The twins flinched momentarily at his low tone. Whether overwhelmed by Yurik’s aura, they remained silent for a while. But that didn’t last long.

“T-then why does my sister look like this?”

“This was an accident with juice…”

“You must have spilled juice on purpose!”

The twins were making unreasonable accusations.

Whether the Penton siblings had bullied me or not was no longer important to them. They just wanted to make up for their behavior of being overwhelmed by Yurik’s aura earlier.

“…Sigh.”

Yurik, who sighed, seemed to have noticed this as well.

“It really was an accident! That’s why we were trying to clean it up!”

Unlike him, Yune, who hadn’t noticed, raised her voice as if feeling wronged. The twins, not to be outdone, raised their voices even louder.

Swel and Silke didn’t seem ashamed of confronting an eight-year-old child two-on-one, even though they were embarrassed by having their aura suppressed.

My head throbbed. As I averted my gaze from them to catch my breath, I met Yurik’s eyes.

I felt like I should say something to him. But I didn’t have anything appropriate to say.

In the end, when I gave a slightly awkward smile, Yurik avoided my gaze.

‘This won’t do.’

As I tried to stop the twins again, something fell in front of me with a thud.

It was Yurik’s handkerchief.

The one that had been stuck to the hem of my dress had lost its grip and fallen.

“What’s this?”

Swel, who had unknowingly stepped on the handkerchief, frowned.

“It’s not mine, ah…”

He looked at the handkerchief once and grinned. What is this ominous feeling?

“So the Penton family likes these things? Like that doll too.”

How does Swel always manage to act exactly as I predict?

He shrugged at Yurik’s expression, which was growing cold. He clearly thought his words had hit a weak spot for the Penton siblings.

“Our Marsen family has already graduated from such childish things. I can see the level of the Penton family.”

You’re even more childish for mocking that…

“D-don’t insult my brother!”

“…What?”

Yune, who had gotten angry, stammered. Swel made an expression of not understanding what was going on.

“Yune.”

Yurik pulled on Yune’s arm. Finding this strange, Swel and Silke stared intently at the Penton siblings.

“Don’t tell me this handkerchief…”

Swel and Silke activated their rare perceptiveness at the worst possible time. Why now… Their once-in-a-year perceptiveness.

“…I wasn’t going to say anything, but this handkerchief is mine.”

So I said it. I picked up the handkerchief that Swel had stepped on and put it in my chest pocket.

“What?”

“Liar! You think we don’t know your taste?”

Swel and Silke said in disbelief.

“What’s wrong with liking something? I like yellow. I also like cute characters.”

“…”

“Actually, I was going to say it was mine from the start, but you insulted a family over a handkerchief.”

That’s why I couldn’t say it earlier.

Swel and Silke’s expressions turned pale. Swel’s expression, who had been going on about family standards over a handkerchief, turned even whiter.

In conclusion, he had been looking down on his own family’s standards.

The twins, who had suddenly closed their mouths, stood there stupidly.

“…What I said earlier wasn’t sincere…”

“…”

“Liking cute things has nothing to do with family…”

“Let’s go, Mother will be waiting.”

Before Swel could make a cowardly excuse, I cut off his words. At my words, the twins, who wanted to escape this situation quickly, started walking.

Before leaving the lake, I looked at Yurik and Yune one last time.

Yurik’s face, with a dumbfounded expression, caught my eye. I couldn’t read what he was thinking.

* * *

In the carriage on the way back to the mansion, Swel and Silke glared at me fiercely.

“Why didn’t you say that handkerchief was yours from the start?”

Swel finally spoke up. I kept my mouth shut, knowing that even if I answered clearly, it would lead to an argument.

“Look at how she’s ignoring us! And why is your dress like that?”

This made me a bit scared. Isabel would definitely say something since I had stained the expensive dress that was different from usual with juice.

‘She won’t take away all the dresses in my closet, will she?’

With an uneasy heart, I looked at Isabel. Contrary to my expectation that she would scold me, Isabel was staring blankly out the window.

I had noticed since before getting in the carriage, but Isabel seemed lost in thought, unlike this morning.

“Mother!”

When Swel called out to Isabel, she glared at him fiercely.

“Can’t you be quiet, at least in the carriage?”

“…”

It became quiet at Isabel’s words.

Even after returning to the mansion, Isabel went straight to her room. Finding it strange, I caught Bitty, who was about to go to the storage room.

“Did something happen to Mother? Come to think of it, why weren’t Swel and Silke with Mother all the time and came to me instead?”

“Ah… I’m not sure, but it seems the madam met someone she used to know.”

“Someone she knew?”

“Yes. I heard it was a university professor. He was an older gentleman. I don’t know how he knows the madam though.”

With those words, Bitty went back into the storage room. A university professor…

Was there a time when Isabel cultivated friendships with university professors? With a slightly uneasy feeling, I entered the room and felt all my energy drain away.

‘I should wash the dress before Isabel notices.’

As I hurriedly took off the dress, something fell to the floor with a thud.

“…Ah, right.”

It was Yurik’s rabbit handkerchief.

‘I should wash it and return it.’

I was about to put the handkerchief in the laundry basket along with the dress but hesitated.

If I carelessly put it in the laundry basket and Felicia found out, it would surely cause a headache. Unlike the twins, she was quite perceptive.

It’s annoying, but I’ll have to wash it separately.

The problem was how to deliver the handkerchief to Yurik, but after some consideration, I decided to send it through the mailman.

After finishing my thoughts, I washed the handkerchief and dried it hurriedly.

As I was about to send it like this, I remembered Yurik’s expression I saw in the park.

That gaze whose thoughts I couldn’t read. If he was angry with me, wouldn’t it be good to try and soothe him a bit?

[I’m returning your handkerchief. And about what happened in the park, I think I went too far. I’m sorry. −Lize Marsen.−]

After putting the letter inside the wrapper containing the handkerchief, I secretly handed it to the mailman on the day he came, without the mansion people knowing.

I hoped his mood would improve a bit…

“…”

“…”

A week later, I was able to meet Yurik Penton again.