Chapter 002
“…….”
Shasha stood by the doorway for a long while, the sight of her husband turned into a child feeling utterly foreign.
To be honest, it was also a little scary.
“…….”
Her dewy grey eyes slowly observed the unknown entity wearing Hagenti’s face.
She had heard that he woke up screaming and refused Mr. Danver’s assistance. Sure enough, his hair and clothes were a mess. There were even fresh scratches on his arms she hadn’t seen before.
Setting aside the uncombed hair, did this man not know how to fasten buttons when he was seven? When she noticed his shirt buttons were misaligned all the way down from his chest, Shasha felt a small, inexplicable laugh bubble up.
A seven-year-old boy who only looks like Hagenti.
Right. He’s just a seven-year-old boy.
She took a deep breath to summon her courage and tied her long, bluish-grey hair back tightly.
She recalled him saying he had lived in a rural orphanage until he was adopted at the age of nine.
Hagenti Evreux was a man more like ice that never melts than a burning flame. That was why it was so hard to believe even while seeing it with her own eyes.
Who would have guessed? That twenty years ago, he possessed such a diametrically opposite personality….
Well, they say even mountains change in ten years. Twenty years is enough time for them to change twice over.
“It huuurts….”
Shasha cautiously sat on the edge of the bed. At that, Hagenti—who had been huddling his bear-like frame and sniffing—slightly lifted his chin.
He met her eyes for a long moment before leaning his face close to hers, as if enchanted.
“Wow, who is this pretty lady? Is this big house yours?”
P-pretty lady…. Shasha hid her flushing face and hurried her pen across the paper.
「My name is Alexandra Evreux. You can call me Shasha. I am your wife, and we have been married for three years now.」
“Wi, wi, wi….”
Hagenti narrowed his eyes and glared at the letters in the notebook.
Don’t tell me… can he not read yet? At seven years old… it’s possible.
She had encountered a massive hurdle right from the start. But just as everyone gathered in the bedroom began to share worried glances, thinking the same thing—
Hagenti suddenly straightened his back and let out a thunderous shout.
“Wife?! I’m married?!”
Ugh. A choked, breathless sound escaped Shasha as her vocal cords tightened in surprise.
He formed his lips into an ‘O’ and stared into space for a long time before despairingly grabbing his face.
“N-no way. Married? I’m only seven! This can’t be happening. I promised to marry Rose with a flower ring when I grew up!”
Who on earth is Rose…. But before Shasha could express her confusion, Hagenti let out a high-pitched, girl-like scream.
“I’m really married? To this p-pretty lady? You’re… you’re teasing me, right? This is all a dream, isn’t it? I’m in a dream right now!”
Then, he suddenly started pinching his own arm. His face and actions were so mismatched that Shasha felt like she was about to burst into laughter.
「It’s not a dream.」
She wrote the words clearly and firmly, leaving deep marks on the paper out of consideration for the regressed Hagenti.
However, before she could even flip the notebook over, he suddenly frowned and threw cold water on her mood.
“But why doesn’t Shasha speak?”
The blood in her body turned cold in an instant.
Hagenti’s eyes sparkled like grains of sand on a beach. His eyes, which had been hostile until only yesterday, had turned into those of a child, containing nothing but pure curiosity.
“…….”
Shasha nodded with difficulty, not wanting to explain the reason for her silence. Hagenti stared intently at her profile as she lowered her head, then suddenly leaned his upper body forward.
Smooch.
“…….”
Something warm and soft. The sound of unfamiliar skin-to-skin contact.
Shasha understood the situation only a few seconds later, and she exploded.
Gasp. Her face turned a perfect shade of beet-red as she covered her mouth with two trembling hands. The doctor also dropped the tin scissors he was holding in horror.
“Uh, uhhh?” Hagenti’s eyes darted around in embarrassment.
“N-neighbor Uncle Will does it every day…. He said hu-husbands and wives kiss as a g-greeting…?”
But in the frozen atmosphere, he couldn’t explain further and started to tear up.
“Did I do something wrong…?”
* * *
「Read along.」
Shasha placed the notebook in Hagenti’s hands.
While she unfastened his shirt buttons to realign them properly, Hagenti began to read the rules written there clearly, as if reciting an oath.
“Number one: If someone asks my age, say I’m twenty-seven.”
The moment the first sentence ended, a rebuttal came back.
“Mmm…. Even so, skipping twenty years makes my conscience feel a bit ‘ouchy’….”
Shasha took the notebook back, drew an arrow, and scribbled quickly underneath.
「You are originally twenty-seven, Hagenti. And don’t use words like ‘ouchy’ or ‘conscience’ from now on. They are forbidden.」
The ‘ouchy’ was one thing, but good heavens, ‘conscience.’ So you actually had one of those when you were young….
On the small side table by the bed was the medical report left by the doctor.
Post-traumatic amnesia. However, the injury is not severe, so there is a high possibility of memory recovery over time.
Slowly, as if rewinding a spring that had been accidentally released.
But whatever the diagnosis, right now, he was just a seven-year-old. Hagenti glared at Shasha with a sulky face, but he obediently continued reading the next rule.
“Number two: Do not laugh loudly or get angry. Do not cry.”
As the corners of his lips drooped, Shasha quickly tapped the page with her fingertip.
“Do not make a gloomy face either. Maintain a blank expression.”
Unlike his twenty-seven-year-old self, the seven-year-old Hagenti found it difficult to maintain a blank expression. He artificially tensed his facial muscles and looked up at Shasha as if seeking approval.
“…….”
Looking at him like this, it felt as though the real him had returned.
An instinctive sense of rejection bloomed like a winter chill. Shasha hid her gut-wrenching pain and took the notebook. Then, she calmly wrote the third rule.
「Number three: No kissing.」
For now, this was the last one. Let’s take it slow; after all… he’s seven.
However, the blank expression he was forcing himself to maintain shattered miserably the moment he saw that. Hagenti seemed absolutely unable to accept the ‘no kissing’ rule.
“Uncle Will said husbands and wives must kiss no matter what. Especially after waking up in the morning and before going to bed. He said it’s a disaster if you don’t kiss your wife. I think the sky might even fall down if you don’t.”
Whoever that neighbor Uncle Will was, he must have been very happily married. His wife must be fortunate.
Hagenti, emphasizing ‘kissing’ so seriously in his deep voice, was just too… ridiculous. Shasha felt like pink bubbles were popping in her chest, but she didn’t back down.
When she shook her head and rejected him coldly, Hagenti’s jaw dropped as if the sky had truly fallen.
Oh, goodness. A Hagenti with such an expression.
Maybe this situation isn’t entirely bad….
Shasha bit her lip to hide her twitching cheeks and sat on the bed. Hagenti’s gaze followed her persistently, trapping her desperately.
“Did you hate my kiss? Is that why…?”
「There are many couples in the world who don’t get along, Hagenti. You and I never suited each other from the beginning.」
“Then why did you marry me if we didn’t suit each other from the start?”
“…….”
The laughter vanished instantly.
Shasha picked up her pen but couldn’t write anything.
In this country, there’s something called a political marriage. And you bought me with a single diamond just to obtain a noble surname.
She hated Hagenti. Because from the moment she married him, she hadn’t been happy for a single second. But this man before her… was clearly a slightly different being.
No matter if the shell was an adult, she couldn’t explain this to a boy who was seven on the inside.
Come to think of it, that ring. She had tucked it away in a drawer after the wedding and had never worn it. When they part ways, what should she do with that ring?
Should she give it back?
“Shasha? Did you hear me…?”
The curiosity sparkling in his blue eyes was cruelly pure. Shasha decided to postpone the talk about their broken relationship and the divorce for a while.
Yes, later. Let’s tell him at least when his memories start to return.
