The boy already had an air of maturity about him. It was hard to believe that he was only thirteen, the same age as Quentin.

His soft black hair was swept neatly back, and the faint upward curve of his lips lent his face an air of composed elegance. With his long arms and legs, the Duke’s attendants often joked that he would soon surpass his father in height.

But none of that captivated Ariana.

It was his eyes.

“So beautiful…”

They were like the turquoise sea in a fairy tale.

Before she knew it, it felt as if the tide had reached her ankles and was creeping up to swallow her whole.

The colour was so vivid and mesmerising that she thought she could stay in that moment forever.

But then the boy tilted his head slightly and smiled. Only one corner of his lips rose.

It was unmistakably a smirk.

“Thank you?”

“What? Oh!”

Ariana hurriedly clamped both hands over her mouth.

Only then did she realise that she had spoken out loud. Her face flushed a furious red.

“This isn’t what I meant to do!”

She hadn’t meant to find the boy so mesmerising. Absolutely not!

While Ariana flailed around in embarrassment, Kenneth turned to Quentin with a knowing look.

“Just as you said.”

“Haha! Right?”

“Mhm. Small…”

Kenneth lowered his gaze and the corners of his mouth curled into what looked to Ariana like a gentle, mocking smile.

‘Probably because I’m younger and so… unimpressive to them.’

“So very cute.”
“…!”
Ariana turned crimson down to her fingertips and toes.

‘Oh no. I think… I think they’re teasing me.’

Without another word, she turned on her heel and ran back towards the room.

Her hurried footsteps soon turned into a sprint, her breath catching painfully in her chest.

She couldn’t explain why she felt so humiliated at that moment.

If she were being honest, she didn’t even know how to describe this strange, overwhelming emotion.

It was unlike anything she had ever felt before.

That evening, Josephina mercilessly struck Ariana’s calves with her cane.

“What were you thinking, acting like that in front of the young master? I was so ashamed, I couldn’t even lift my head!”

“You’re a disgrace to this household — a stain I’ll carry to my grave as Josephina Aberdeen’s greatest shame. You’re a filthy little worm who can’t even greet someone properly! Why didn’t you just die the moment you were born?”

The beating only stopped once Ariana collapsed in tears, choking out apology after apology.

That summer, she spent most of her days quietly watching the two boys from behind the window.

Whenever she saw them playing tennis together, she’d hide halfway behind the wall and watch them in silence.

‘If I make another mistake in front of him… I’ll be punished again.’

She wanted to take a look. She couldn’t help being curious.

But the stinging pain beneath her white socks, where the cane had left its mark, was still vivid.

Just as she tried to pull her body completely out of sight, a gentle tap echoed against the glass window.

When she turned her head, she found herself staring into a pair of playful turquoise eyes.

After hesitating for a moment, Ariana finally opened the window.

The young lord was standing there with a racket slung casually over one shoulder, watching her with amused curiosity.

Under his gaze, Ariana shrank further and murmured in a small voice.

“The ball didn’t come this way.”

“Why aren’t you coming out?”

“Pardon?”

“Haven’t you been watching us the whole time?”

Kenneth smiled and gestured over his shoulder, tilting his chin.

“We need someone to keep score. So come and join us.”

Had he seen through her disappointment at being left out?

But before she could respond, a familiar shadow fell over her from behind.

“Good afternoon, young lord.”

“A pleasant afternoon to you as well, madam.”

“How kind of you to pay such attention to this child.”

Josephina said smoothly, placing her manicured fingertips on both of Ariana’s shoulders. Her nails dug in slightly.

“But it would be terrible if her skin were to get sunburnt. Ariana will stay inside.”

“…”

“Unlike boys, a proper young lady must start taking care of her appearance from an early age.”

Ariana lowered her gaze to the floor, feeling uneasy.

It felt strange. Why did it seem like Mother and the young lord were subtly locking horns?

Kenneth maintained a polite smile, but it held no trace of deference.

“You’re not wrong, madam. But lately, many ladies seem to enjoy sunbathing along the shores of Port Ailesia.”

“……”

“Thanks to my mother’s influence, more and more people are starting to think that a sun-kissed glow is an attractive feature for noblewomen to have.”

He added this last part with all the courtesy of an invited guest.

“Of course, no one knows better than you, madam.”

“…”

Josephina’s brow twitched slightly.

The southern region, including Port Ailesia, was developing rapidly as it had been chosen as the site for the Clifford family’s hotel business.

To promote this endeavour, the Duchess had cleverly spread the notion that ‘sun-kissed, healthy skin is the ultimate symbol of wealth’.

But what about Josephina? She could never hope to be part of the Duchess’s social circle.

So, she disparaged such trends as vulgar nonsense at every opportunity. Of course, she wasn’t blind to what this audacious young lord was implying.

‘That insolent brat…’

Nevertheless, despite his young age, the boy was of a higher social status than her.

Ultimately, Ariana was forced to follow him, pulling her wide-brimmed sun hat low over her face.

She had never seen anyone her age interact with adults so effortlessly.

‘Even brother Quentin is terrified of Mother…!’

Kenneth took long strides with his long legs, but slowed down when he noticed Ariana hurrying after him with short steps.

“Do you know how to keep a tennis score?”

“Of course!”

“Good, then.”

He laughed, his voice scattering like windblown petals.

Ariana gripped the brim of her hat with both hands and mumbled.

“Why did you say that before?”

She wasn’t even sure what kind of answer she was hoping for.

After all, the boy in front of her was much closer to adulthood than she was.

“I told you. It’s because you’re cute.”

He lowered his gaze and gave her a smirking glance.

Of course. To Kenneth — and Quentin, too — Ariana must have seemed insignificant.

She should be grateful that they had included her in their game at all.

Yet an unfamiliar pang of disappointment gripped her so tightly that she pulled her hat down until it nearly covered her eyes.

‘What’s wrong with me?’

Whenever she thought of Kenneth, it felt like drinking morning tea late at night—
no matter how hard she tried, sleep simply wouldn’t come.

Her heart would beat wildly and her eyes would stay wide open until morning.

From then on, Kenneth would occasionally visit during the school holidays.

“Hello, Ariana.”

Whenever he called her name in his deep voice, shivers ran down her spine.

It felt as though he was teasing her while softly singing the title of an old ballad.

As the years passed, the boy became a man.

Ariana, always chasing after him, became increasingly anxious.

No matter how much time they spent together, he always felt out of reach.

She found herself wishing the days would fly by.

Later in life, Ariana would look back on those days and wish she could preserve them —

frozen in time, like a moment sealed forever in glass.

***

A few years later, Ariana was admitted to the capital’s prestigious finishing school, where unmarried noblewomen received a refined education until the age of eighteen.

“I don’t understand why you need to attend such a place. Isn’t proper refinement learned by watching one’s mother?”

Josephina had been thoroughly displeased at first. However, as all the other young ladies were going, she couldn’t keep Ariana at home.

At a time when it was considered old-fashioned to keep a noble daughter under the care of private tutors, she had little choice.

By the time Ariana entered her final year, aged eighteen, Josephina clicked her tongue as she read the day’s paper.

“Wow. The Clifford family’s name is in the news every single day now.”

The Kingdom of Duvris, just across the strait, was famed for its art and cuisine.

Josephina had scoffed at this, calling it a ‘vulgar country compared to the Empire’, but Ariana had always dreamed of visiting.

‘The Clifford family must be busier than ever.’

People used to joke that Kenneth might as well be Prince Claude himself, but this joke is sounding increasingly plausible.

“Kenneth?”

What she didn’t expect was to find the man from the newspaper waiting for her outside the academy gates.

He was dressed in a tailored suit and stood beside a sleek, navy motorcar — one of the vehicles that had replaced carriages in Lenthia, the capital of Cremisa.

“Ariana.”

The boy who had been so striking when they first met had grown into a dazzling twenty-one-year-old viscount.

When he offered his hand with a soft smile, Ariana’s face flushed bright red.

“Come with me.”
“…!”

Ariana fidgeted awkwardly, her gaze flitting around Kenneth’s polished shoes.

‘Wasn’t brother Quentin supposed to be the one picking me up today?’

Recently, she had been deliberately staying behind at the academy after classes had finished, just to avoid going home and being told off by her mother.

With the Aberdeen household short of attendants, it was usually Quentin who reluctantly came for her, grumbling, “Why are you making me come all the way out here this late?”

‘Now that I think about it, hasn’t Kenneth been showing up a lot more lately?’

Was she just imagining things? Or was there something more to it?