Chapter: 119
Although it was a luxury brand occupying the most prominent spot on the first floor of the department store, with a long line of people waiting outside, the staff welcomed the young lady with the utmost courtesy.
“Welcome, Lady Claudius.”
“We’ve been expecting you.”
Apparently, she had made a reservation in advance, because the employee immediately escorted the young lady inside.
We were led straight to a private VIP room.
And the thing waiting for us there was—
“Ta-da! Matching bracelets!”
The young lady smiled brightly at me.
Hanging beneath a cascade of rose-gold chains were pendants shaped like a heart split neatly in half.
One pendant was pink and the other blue, apparently modeled after the colors of our eyes.
“Look. If you put them together like this…”
When the two halves were fitted together, the pendant soon transformed into a complete heart.
Holding it up proudly, the young lady declared,
“I commissioned them myself, thinking of you, Lari.”
…The young lady had done this, for me?
I stared blankly down at the bracelet.
As if asking me to praise her, the young lady lifted her chin proudly again.
“This is the only one of its kind in the entire world, you know?”
To commemorate the friendship between two friends and share matching items…
I carefully reached out toward the bracelet.
Clink.
The golden chain and pendant bumped against each other, making a delicate jingling sound.
I was overcome with emotion.
Even though I had vowed that I would no longer live in Seraphina’s shadow, the memories of the days when I had served as her maid suddenly came vividly to mind.
Those days I never wanted to experience again, nor ever return to.
‘Yes. So this is what having a friend was like…’
A relationship where you genuinely care for, cherish, and respect each other.
A relationship where one person does not simply bend to the other’s will, but where both stand on equal footing.
Through the young lady, I felt as though I had finally learned what a true friend was…
I quietly raised my head.
By then, the young lady was staring at me with an extremely nervous expression.
“What do you think? Do you like it?”
“Of course. I’m really happy.”
I smiled broadly.
“Thank you, Eva.”
Only then did the young lady’s expression relax. She promptly grabbed my wrist.
“Give me your hand. I’ll put the bracelet on you.”
The bracelet jingled softly around my wrist.
Its sparkling appearance was so beautiful it almost brought tears to my eyes.
I carefully caressed it, worried that I might scratch it, when a sudden realization flashed through my mind.
“Um, isn’t the feast day tomorrow?”
“Why?”
“I thought we were supposed to exchange the bracelets then.”
“Oh, who cares?”
The young lady gazed fondly at the bracelet around my wrist.
Then she suddenly extended her own wrist toward me.
“Put mine on, too.”
I fastened the bracelet around the young lady’s wrist.
She needlessly jingled the bracelet, then alternated between looking at her own wrist and mine.
A smile never left the young lady’s lips.
At the same time, I made up my mind.
“Eva.”
“Why are you calling me?”
Distracted by admiring her bracelet, the young lady answered my question absentmindedly.
“As for these bracelets, I’ll pay half of the price.”
The young lady immediately raised her head.
“What?”
I smiled sweetly.
“Because I want to give you something, too.”
I had intended to give the young lady a present from the beginning.
The problem was that her tastes were so luxurious that I had been unable to decide what to prepare.
What if I chose something myself and she didn’t like it?
Of course, the young lady wasn’t the sort of person who would make her displeasure obvious, but I still wanted to give her something she would genuinely be satisfied with.
That was why I had planned to buy her something while we were shopping together today…
‘This is actually for the best.’
Meanwhile, the young lady’s expression hardened when she heard my answer.
“You don’t need to. Lari, you became my friend, didn’t you?”
“That goes both ways, doesn’t it, Eva?”
When I asked her that in return, the young lady fell silent and pressed her lips together.
I coaxed her gently once more.
“If they’re friendship bracelets, then it’s only right for us to give one to each other, isn’t it?”
“No, but… I want to pay for everything myself…”
“I heard that there’s meaning in the process of each person paying for their own bracelet and giving it to the other.”
At that moment—
The young lady’s shoulders, which had been stubbornly tensed, trembled.
“It means that our friendship will never change, forever?”
Honestly, I didn’t know whether such a saying actually existed.
All I had heard was that, once upon a time, ladies sometimes prepared matching items to commemorate their friendships.
To be honest, friendship bracelets themselves were already a rather outdated trend.
Apparently, our young lady simply wanted to try everything that was popular among her friends. How cute.
“It means… our friendship will never change, forever?”
The young lady asked again, looking half tempted by the idea.
“Yes. So let’s have Eva buy one of these bracelets for me, and I’ll buy one for Eva. How about it?”
“B-but still. Having Lari pay for something…”
“I’m doing it because I want to share a long-lasting friendship with you, Eva. Okay?”
I put the final nail in the coffin.
After thinking for a moment, the young lady turned her head away with a prim expression.
“Well, if Lari really insists…”
But judging by the way the corners of her lips were secretly curling upward, she was only saying that.
She seemed to be in the best mood imaginable.
As proof, the young lady’s footsteps were remarkably light as we left the store.
“Where should we go now? Is there anything else you want?”
The young lady suddenly turned around and asked me.
I shook my head before asking in return,
“Could we stop by a men’s clothing store, or perhaps somewhere that sells men’s accessories?”
“Why? Are you trying to buy a present for my brother?”
“Yes. He gave me earrings before, and he also helped me with the matter involving Count Gusto’s family, and…”
As I counted on my fingers all the things the Duke had done for me, I suddenly felt my cheeks grow warm.
“…I think we’re at the point where it’s okay for me to give him a present, too.”
I felt as though I had done nothing but receive things from the Duke until now, so I really wanted to give him something this time.
“Oh, honestly.”
Meanwhile, the young lady grumbled indifferently after hearing me.
“Are people without boyfriends supposed to live in misery?”
Oh. Had I offended her?
I cautiously watched the young lady’s expression.
“Um, Eva, you said you supported the relationship between the Duke and me…”
“Oh, who said I don’t support you? I do! I do!”
The young lady grumbled as she grabbed my wrist.
“I just don’t like having to give Lari up to my brother!”
Hmm.
I smiled awkwardly.
To say she was giving me up seemed a little strange, considering I objectively spent much more time with the young lady than I did with the Duke.
The Duke was an extremely busy man, after all, so there was a limit to how much time he could make for me…
Meanwhile, the young lady stopped grumbling at that point and looked up at me.
“So, do you have anything in mind?”
“Actually, I don’t know much about men’s things. I was thinking of looking around at various things.”
“Hmm, all right. Let’s go, then.”
The young lady and I headed toward the men’s clothing store first.
Jackets, shirts, cravats, and so on.
All sorts of items filled my field of vision.
‘A cravat is probably a little… too inexpensive, isn’t it?’
Of course, Harrison Department Store only carried luxury brands, and all of its products were high quality.
But considering how much I owed him for everything he had done for me, I wanted to give him something as expensive and fine as possible.
Having mentally eliminated the cravat, I fiddled with a men’s coat worn by a mannequin.
‘Something like this would be nice, too…’
The problem was that if I wanted to buy a suit, I needed to know his measurements beforehand.
‘His measurements?’
In an instant, the Duke’s sculpted body appeared in my mind.
His smooth jawline, and the elegant line of his neck beneath it.
Under the shirt with its stiffly raised collar, he surely had broad shoulders and a firm chest…
‘Aaaah!’
My face suddenly grew hot for no reason, and I lowered my head.
Am I… am I really a pervert?!
