"Nothing much. I just made up a cute little lie to be alone with you."
I stared at Yvnes suspiciously but he just looked back with a gentle look in his eyes. I wanted to chase after Hestia because I wanted to know what lie he told Hestia to make her run away like that, but Yves just said, "Hestia's going to co back fuming in a mont, so stay here." and held back.
Yves handed his giant bundle to divert my attention.
"This, it's your junior graduation gift."
"…..?"
I had to take a few steps back from the sheer size of the bundles I received. It was just that big.
"….what."
I opened the bundle that was my supposed junior graduation gift, and peeked into the contents. There were a few smaller bundles within it. I couldn't open up all of them right there, but they were all labelled so I could see what they were.
There was one bundle full of accessories, and another for different types of shoes. There were other things in there but I couldn't read the labels to check. Even though it was absolutely filled to the brim with things, it wasn't heavy at all because of the featherweight magic on it.
When I looked baffled by the amount of items in the bundle, Yves scratched his cheek.
"I got a bit too excited buying your things."
"……"
"Whatever. You're going to accept it, right?"
"…….."
When I continued to stare blankly at Yves' gift, he put his arms around my shoulder in a familiar gesture.
"Hmm, and I don't think you'd believe if I told you that this was from Harun's labor this ti."
Yves began to persuade as best as he could when it seed that I wouldn't accept it.
He grabbed so of my hair and began to curl it with his finger.
"I chose each and every one of these items thinking of you. It's my hard work and care."
If you don't accept it, I'm going to trash it, Yves added, successfully making sure that I wouldn't reject it.
Until now, I didn't want to be in debt to him and refused any expensive items that he tried to gift . Specifically for Yves, I felt the need to give back anything that I received from him with sothing of equal worth. He could always use my gifts against .
And he could give a lot of expensive items and then ask for sothing strange. He wanted a kiss on his cheek last ti, right? Like I'd do that, supid.
When he still didn't receive the answer that he wanted, Yves promised to not ask for sothing weird. He added that he just wanted to use the things I received from him well.
Moreover, he added that because this was a graduation gift, he didn't need sothing in return.
"You're going to beat my ass if I betray you, right? I wouldn't lie to you. So relax and take the gift."
Yves said as he used transportation magic to move my gift to the dorms.
A few monts later, Hestia tried to co back to us fuming just like Yves had predicted, but she was swept away by a crowd and disappeared again.
"Just as I thought, it was your doing, Yves hyung."
"I was wondering why I was being called all of a sudden. You keep surprising us."
Not long after, Hylli and Cory, who had been called away by others, returned where we were.
Cory and Hylli saw that I was alone with Yves and scanned over. At Cory's question of, "Yves hyung didn't do anything weird to you, right?", I nodded back in reply.
Yves just glanced at Cory and Hylli.
He quietly muttered, Should've co slower, as he clicked his tongue.
Anyway, once Cory and Hylli returned, we sat back down on the sofa and tried to think of things to do as we waited for ti to pass. We were sick of watching people dance and we were too full to eat any more. And we were too awake to nap.
When Yves saw that I looked bored, he took out a set of cards from his pocket. When I asked him where he got it, Yves replied that it was Swan's. Cory, who had a fountain of blankets, took out a random blanket and put it on the ground and Yves set up a card ga on top of it. It reminded older relatives sitting down and playing hwatu* during holidays. I couldn't help but laugh.
And like that, we ended up playing cards in the corner of the hall as others danced and whispered words of love to each other. People stared at us from ti to ti, but I was too focused on the ga to care.
For so reason, Yves, who had set the ga up for us, didn't play. He just sat on the sofa with his chin on his hand as he watched play.
Bang!
While we were deeply imrsed in our ga, the door slamd open. Swan walked in, dripping wet. He put his hand in his hair and shook the water out of his hair, then wrapped his face with the blanket around his body.
Swan joined us as we played our ga. He grabbed Cory's arm and put it on his head.
[Dry]
Cory focused on the ga as he spelled Swan dry. Swanhaden, who had beco dry in an instant, joined our ga and shuffled our cards with a flashy move. For soone who had his entire face wrapped in a blanket and was basically blind, he was frighteningly good at playing.
[We will soon be announcing the queen of this year's school end party.]
The sound of the party announcer's voice rang through the hall.
Oh, it seed that they were finally announcing the queen. Hestia had been dragged away earlier, so she was going to be the queen for sure.
I stopped playing and looked towards the dance hall.
[Hestia Flowith received a large amount of votes. She is our queen for this year. Congratulations.]
I could see Hestia receiving her crown under the sparkling spotlight. Everyone looked on as Hestia tilted her head forward to receive her crown. Hestia was showing off her presence under the crowd's silence.
If one was chosen as the Augran queen, the queen and their partner danced alone on the hall.
Hestia ca down from the stage with Harun's escort.
When Hestia and Harun stood in the center of the hall, the orchestra soon began to play their music again. A beautiful lody began to play within the hall. The piece that was currently being perford by the orchestra was only perford as a grand finale for the queen.
There was a bit of magic mixed in this piece. The crown resonated and sparkled with each note of the piece, and the result made the wearer look even more beautiful. The piece was extrely expensive to begin with, and it took a lot of magic to play the music so it was only perford once to celebrate the queen.
Everyone looked wordlessly as Hestia waltzed to the beat. I was also included in the crowd. Adoration, jealousy, yearning and want all poured onto Hestia.
"Shushu, it's your turn."
I was too busy staring at how beautiful Hestia looked to know that it was my turn. I nodded and tried to focus on the ga again but I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. I was proud of Hestia for shining so brightly but I was also kind of jealous. She really was the main character.
Swanhaden lowered the blanket on his face slightly and stared at Hestia, then at .
Swan started to make sothing with the cards in his hand.
He folded a lot of cards together and began to shape them, then asked Cory ever so often to connect the cards to make sothing.
Swan had made a crown of cards. He stared at the crown in his hands and, without a word, put it on my head. I could see his jewel-colored eyes through the slits of the blanket. He tried his best to not et my gaze as he carefully put the crown on my head.
"It suits you."
And like that, Swan rewrapped the blanket tight over his face.
When I looked at the crown on my head with an odd look, Cory suddenly put sothing in my hand.
This ti, it was a small cane. It was too small for to actually use as a cane, but I held onto it anyway.
Hylli watched as Swan and Cory did anything but play gas with the card as he began to make sothing too. When Cory asked Hylli what he was making, Hylli said he was making a necklace. Cory helped Hylli stick the cards together. Hylli tried to put the necklace around my neck but the necklace was so small that it got stuck near the top of my head. I ended up proving that I had a big head instead.
Yvnes watched all of us before he smiled, muttering, Cute. He ended up grabbing a few cards of his own to join us. Yves made a heart out of cards and stuck it onto the necklace that Hylli made.
When I asked what we were doing, Cory shrugged his shoulders. Hylli really looked like he had no idea what was going on, and Yves smiled as he looked at . I couldn't see Swanhaden's face at all.
"Thanks?"
I felt like I need to say thank you, so I said it. I couldn't help but sneeze at the disgustingly positive mood of it all.
Once Hestia was done with her dance, the party was over.
As we walked back to the dorm after cleaning up, Hestia placed her crown on my head. I still had cards stuck in my hair.
"Why aren't you wearing it?"
"My head feels too heavy with the crown, so I'm putting it down for now."
"Really? Let's put it in the bag then."
Hestia stopped just as I tried to take the crown off of my head. I was confused at Hestia's request for to keep wearing it, but I decided to stay put after hearing her continued protests.
In the end, Hestia didn't collect the crown off of my head. She ignored my requests for her to take it back.
I ended up keeping the crown. Honestly, it was pretty but completely useless. I wondered how I was supposed to take care of it.
The crown is currently on my desk. I'm using it to organize my little knick-knacks.
T/N: SWAN THAT WAS SO THOUGHTFUL OF YOU OH MY GOODNESS
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