"Hello, Louise."
She heard Simon's voice coming from the window next to them just before her fingertips reached the box of gummy candies.
"Simon?"
Simon looked alternately between Louise and the candy box with a puzzled expression.
"Am I interrupting?"
"No! I was just getting so gummy candies."
"…Just gummy candies?"
Simon stared down the other boy, who smiled awkwardly and withdrew the box.
"I didn't know Louise Sweeney had two scary brothers."
"He's not my brother."
Louise answered quickly, but the aning didn't seem to fall on him.
"I ant it when I said you could borrow my notes. Co and see anyti."
"Thank you."
He turned and walked through the library hall rather hurriedly.
"It was a misunderstanding, Simon."
"…I was interrupting sothing."
"That's not true."
"I was wondering if you would take it."
He paused for a mont.
"I worry you don't know all the traditions of the Academy. Sotis there are a few students who put a lot of importance on the gummy candies."
Louise doubted that gummies could be so serious, but she was pleased to hear Simon was worried, and she simply decided to smile.
"Thank you."
"I suppose I shouldn't have worried."
"No!"
It wasn't an unnecessary worry. Especially in Simon's case, where she knew he cared about her with a good heart.
"I like that Simon worries about ."
"I didn't know that."
"But it's also good not to worry."
In any case, Simon would find sothing to worry about anyway.
Like right now. When he was finished worrying about the gummy candies, he started eyeing Louise's bag anxiously. At this point it would be fair to call Simon her worry doll.
"Would you like to fix it?"
He held out his hand and Louise gently handed over the bag through the window.
"The tal ring is broken open."
He turned the bag around in his hands and nodded. He seed confident he could fix it.
"Leave it with for an hour."
"If that's the case…"
"I'll bring it back when after I'm done."
As soon as he finished speaking, he imdiately turned around and began to walk away.
"Wait a minute, Simon. I'm coming with you!"
Louise clung to the window fra and yelled after him. Simon had a long stride, and if she missed him now she probably wouldn't be able to catch up.
Louise looked around at her surroundings for a mont. After making sure there were no faculty mbers around, she climbed onto the window. Only then did Simon look back at Louise, his eyebrows furrowed. It seed she caused new worries for her doll. She was only on the first floor, and jumping out of windows was sothing she had always done at her mansion ho.
"You're not fourteen anymore, Louise."
Simon sat the bag on a nearby bench.
"There is no age limit for jumping out of windows."
Isn't that right? Louise leapt out of the window. It was a little bit higher than she expected, but she wasn't worried. The soil was soft, and in the unfortunate event that she would fall the most that would happen would be that her clothes would get dirty.
As she was thinking this, Simon's arms caught her body. He seed to have tid her jump. He held her waist with both arms and landed her safely.
"…?!"
Unlike Louise's surprise at the sudden kindness, Simon was as calm as usual. Then he turned around as if nothing had happened.
"Let's go."
He picked up Louise's bag again. Louise naturally had to carry Simon's bag instead.
"Oh, it's heavy."
Louise made a face, and Simon answered sternly.
"…A penalty."
Punishnt for jumping out of the window?
"What on earth is in your bag?"
She held it close to her chest, but Simon didn't answer imdiately. As usual, he answered at a ti interval of five steps.
"Gummy candies."
"Have you submitted your reports yet?"
"Two."
"I'm jealous. I didn't turn in anything so far."
Louise adjusted the bag in her arms again.
"It's okay to take it out and eat it."
With his permission, Louise opened his bag without any hesitation. As she walked with Simon, she pushed various fruit-flavored gummies in her mouth one by one. Several tis Simon asked if it was delicious, and Louise nodded happily. Simon even complinted her for a job well done. She didn't understand why he was praising her, but because of Simon's rare smile, Louise smiled along with him.
The gummies soon ran out. And the bag was not lighter at all.
"Let's stop with the penalty."
'Sotis I don't know what's in his head…'
Then Simon took his bag again, and Louise was left wondering for a mont. Perhaps the punishnt wasn't carrying the bag, but eating the gummies. But that was a reward, not a punishnt.'Sotis I don't know what's in his head…'
*
*
*
Louise sat in front of a table at the workshop while watching Simon across from her. Louise's hair, which had been loose a little while ago, was neatly tied up. As soon as they entered the workshop, Simon tied her hair up quickly saying, "It's a little hot here."
"I can tie my hair myself."
"Well, it's like a hobby for ."
"Well, you like anything you can do with your hands."
"…Not anything."
However, he was also doing a perfect job of repairing a bag for the first ti. He skillfully used a small tal hamr as he worked.
"So I heard."
Louise, who had been lying silent for a mont, ca up with topic to talk about.
Tuk.
The sound of a hamr was the only reply.
"You went to the party at the palace."
Tuktuk.
Two tis the hamr rang the on tal.
"…And while I was telling my story to the president."
Louise gazed into Simon's face.
"You had to stay at the party."
"That's right."
Simon rarely answered right away.
"It wasn't bad."
Louise shook her head. She couldn't believe it wasn't bad for him. Simon was very reluctant to be among other nobles. People had great interest in who would succeed at the throne, and in short, if sothing happened to Ian, Simon would be next in line. As a result Simon always lowered his position, as if to prove that there was no possibility of it happening. To protect both himself and Ian.
"But I was worried."
Louise spoke quietly, the taste of sweet gummy candy lingering in her mouth.
"What if Simon got into trouble because of ?"
"I don't mind."
"You would get into trouble for ?"
"Not only for Louise, but Ian as well. You are both precious to ."
Like Ian, Simon never left out Ian from their vow of friendship.
"Simon is very precious to , too."
Louise bared her heart out to him. Simon glanced up at Louise with deep affection in his eyes.
"Simon, if I say 'I'm glad you're helping ,' you're allowed to be a little an."
"That's Ian's role."
"Oh, but!"
"It's the role of Louise to be amused with every word."
"What about you?"
"I think…my role is that I like you guys."
As he returned to her bag again, Louise watched his dexterous fingers work.
Tuk.
The sound of a hamr filled the room.
"Simon."
Louise whispered quietly, still lying on the table.
"You're sure nothing happened at the party…right?"
"…Maybe."
He answered indifferently as if he were talking about soone else and focused on repairing the bag again.
The bag was soon in perfect shape in less than an hour. Simon, ever the perfectionist, complained that "the tal is still slightly twisted and ugly." But there was not an imperfection in Louise's eyes.
Finally, that night Simon ca to the student council room where Louise was studying and gave her a ribbon and lace trim to put on the tal ring. She supposed he couldn't stand the imperfection of the tal.
"The master of the workshop is so picky he looks like he's going to cry."
Ian spoke jokingly, but Simon paid no attention.
"Take this, Louise."
Simon handed Louise geography notes. This ti it was clearly written with Simon's handwriting.
"I took it last sester. The professor doesn't change his class, so it will be helpful."
"Huh? Thank you."
Simon went back to the dormitory after only making sure the ribbons on the bag were perfectly symtrical.
"That's a relief."
Louise gave a long sigh.
"What's wrong?"
Ian didn't lift his eyes from his report as he spoke.
"I was wondering if I had to borrow geography notes from your dorm neighbor."
"…From him?"
Ian finally looked up at Louise.
"Yes. He suggested I borrow his notes since we take the class together."
"So that's why Simon couldn't sleep. He had a hard ti finding his old notes."
He grinned knowingly. Perhaps Simon's discontent and anxiety was not about the tal ring. He didn't Louise to be surrounded by rumors. Simon sotis treated Louise as if she were a precious glass egg.
"Simon is so sweet."
Louise clutched the notes to her chest, and Ian happily smiled and agreed with her. It was the truth.
"He's a good person."
His sentence had an edge of bitterness to it, however.
Maybe because Ian wasn't good as Simon. Ian didn't know. At least Louise didn't borrow the notes from the weirdo anyway.
He decided to stop worrying about that for now.
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