Mr. Devold placed his tablet on the glass coffee table next to the white couch, then fell down next to his daughter, who was engrossed in reading a rather thick textbook, and let out a tired sigh, loosening his tie.
Jane noticed that her father had been staying out quite often lately and began to suspect that he finally found himself a woman, however, she soon realized that her suspicions were wrong and Mr. Devold was simply buried in work, barely getting a chance to take a breather.
"You’re f-finally ho! How w-was work?"
Mr. Devold took the whiskey glass brought by Mrs. Kim and after taking a generous sip, smiled at his daughter, and nodded.
"Work has been hectic lately, but I don’t want you to worry about it. I’ve heard that you’ve been acing your tests, your professors are all very impressed! Good job, Princess."
The man patted Jane on the head as if she were an obedient dog and took another sip from his glass before continuing,
"What do you think about taking more tutoring classes during the sumr break? You’re going to be free anyway, this might save you from getting bored."
While it was true that so additional tutoring sessions would be a nice distraction to the approaching sumr break that was promising to be sowhat dull, Jane was actually looking forward to finally tossing the textbooks aside and enjoying school-free ti at ho.
Luckily, there was one crucial thing that could guarantee a tutoring-free sumr.
"M-My tutor is g-graduating this m-month, I d-don’t think he will have t-ti for ."
"I see..."
Mr. Devold cleared his throat as if preparing to say sothing rather unpleasant and after a few more monts of reluctance, turned his whole torso toward his daughter, and said in a sowhat serious voice,
"Mrs. Weston contacted a few days ago... It seems that your mother’s charity foundation is looking for additional help this sumr. She asked if you were willing to help them out this ti."
Jane instinctively shifted her eyes to the large oil portrait of her mother and her on the wall behind the couch.
Her mother was a renowned ballerina but had to give up her career after giving birth to Jane which took a very tangible toll on her, and after she passed away, Mr. Devold decided to honor her by establishing a charity foundation that scouted talented but underprivileged children who wanted to dance, and offered them a sponsoring opportunity and a chance to be sent to one of the famous dancing schools of their choice.
Mrs. Emily Weston was her mother’s close friend and managed most of the things related to the foundation. And although she was rather successful in handling everything on her own, with occasional help from her other ex-dancer friends, sohow, she still could not give up the idea of parading Alie around as so sort of a foundation mascot.
"I d-don’t think I will b-be of any help there."
Ian Devold, entirely prepared to hear such a reply, could not help but sigh and fake a warm but slightly disappointed tired smile.
"Jane... You know that all I want for you is to be happy and if you want to spend this sumr resting and recharging, then this is what you are going to do. However..."
Another long sigh.
"... Active charity work is one of the things that appeal to people like Mr. and Mrs. Chastain when they are choosing their future daughter-in-law, therefore, if what you have with Charles is serious, you need to consider becoming more active, at least socially."
Jane knew that her father was right. After all, even Charles never failed to ntion social and charity work every now and then, saying that he only had good intentions in mind. And even though she knew that becoming a socialite was crucial for soone like her, Jane still did not know whether driving around the city while arranging social gatherings was sothing that she wanted to do.
Not anymore, at least.
***
The soft bed covered with the bright red light of the setting sun was almost irresistible, especially after spending the whole day going over the loathso textbooks and staring at the bright laptop screen, writing never-ending lines of code. Thus, Jane decided to succumb to that temptation, and fell onto the bed, hugging a large, soft teddy bear gifted by Charles for the last St. Valentine’s Day.
Her hand involuntarily touched the soft silk ribbon enveloped around the toy’s neck, and the feeling of its surface touching her skin drifted her mory back to her mother and the countless silk ribbons that she used to tie up her hair.
Thinking about her mother’s hair, made Jane touch her own head, and as her long, thin fingers ran through her thick chestnut hair, she paused as they touched a long bumpy trail at the back of her head––an ugly reminder of the unfortunate incident that happened to her thirteen years ago and changed her family forever.
’Sotis I wonder... If I had just obeyed her and kept dancing like she wanted to, could we have all avoided those tragedies?..’
Jane was pulled out of her thinking trance by a short pinging sound that escaped from her phone––the dress she had ordered for the graduation ceremony already arrived and would be delivered to her house tomorrow.
She closed the ssage and her eyes paused on the text from Vernon Lin which she left unanswered to show him that she was not easily swayed by his teasing.
The girl re-read its contents a few more tis until finally reliving the initial sense of irritation she felt when she first read it, then threw the phone on the bed, and squeezed the fuzzy teddy bear as hard as she could, imagining suffocating the living hell out of Vernon Lin instead.
’Impudent jerk. I should have rejected his offer from the start. Now... Sohow, I have a feeling that even if I say no to his request, he will still find a way to tease .’
But it was not Vernon’s audacity that was making Jane so worked up. It was the fact that even after she was able to get to know him better, she still could not help but find him intriguing.
’Perhaps Mrs. Kim was right, he is a knight. A rcenary who managed to beco a knight. But what if what he really wants is to beco a Prince? Or even worse... The King.’
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