In all her life, Daisy had never drawn so many eyes to herself all at once. She had never once wanted to be the center of attention. The situation itself was horrifying to her, and it felt like a kind of violence.

But Malcolm’s eyes, looking up at Daisy with the ring raised toward her, shone brighter than the tiny diamond set in it. He seemed neither to see nor to care about the confusion and fear written plainly across her face.

That smile of his, brazen to the point of being ironclad, was demanding an answer. Daisy opened her mouth, stumbling over her words, pushed along by the weight of the moment.

“We’re not even together, we’re just neighbors, so why all of a sudden…”

“That’s not how this works, Daisy. I told you to just say ‘yes.’”

Malcolm put on a stern expression as he pressed his own unilateral decision on her, one no one else had ever agreed to.

“I’m proposing because I’ve decided you’re a suitable person to be my wife. You have your shortcomings, of course, but I can teach you those things over time.”

“That’s not the point, I don’t even know Mr. Dylan well, so how could I possibly talk about marriage…”

“I’ve already thought all of that through. All you have to do is follow my decision and everything will work out fine.”

“No, I can’t make a decision this important like that…”

“Oh, just give it a try. If you live with me and don’t like it, you can just get a divorce!”

It was complete nonsense, and if she had heard this under normal circumstances, or if they had been alone, she would have immediately decided he wasn’t worth her time.

But Daisy was mortified by the eyes of all the people watching her the way one watches a monkey at a zoo, deeply frightened by the faint hostility she sensed from them, and unsettled by the man in front of her staring up at her with such inexplicable confidence. She only wanted to get out of this situation.

“I’m sorry, but I honestly don’t know right now. I can’t give you an answer.”

“Daisy, just listen to me for a…”

“Later, I’ll give you an answer later. I really have to go, I’m so busy right now.”

Daisy called back in a near-frantic rush, then grabbed the cart and hurried away before Malcolm could stop her.

“Wait…”

Malcolm moved to go after her but stopped after a few steps, grinned, and turned back to his crew.

“That’s what you call a proper lady. Look at her, all flustered and shy.”

“Looks more like she just turned you down to me.”

“Shut it.”

Malcolm laughed it off with a string of curses, but he was seething inside.

‘Daisy, you dare humiliate me like this?’

Still, chasing after her right now and demanding an answer wasn’t the smart move. Malcolm had seen clearly enough the look of fear on Daisy’s face earlier. There was no point in provoking a cornered rabbit and letting things go sideways.

‘Well, she’ll obviously say yes in the end.’

Even if things went sideways, they would fall into place eventually. If she was too scared and kept hesitating, he planned to frighten her more and force her hand.

‘What’s the market value of that flower shop building of hers?’

Once they were married, his first order of business was to sell Daisy’s flower shop and put her to work waiting on him. That way he would have both her assets and a legally sanctioned maid to sleep with.

Malcolm smiled to himself, already savoring something that had not yet come into his hands and showed no sign of doing so.

*   *   *

Daisy rushed home in a breathless scramble, and Ruik pushed the front door open with its nose and came out to meet her.

“Ruik, you’re back.”

The moment she saw Ruik, the tension drained out of her all at once and her knees buckled. Ruik quickly moved under her as she started to sink and steadied her.

“Th, thank you. I just got a little weak in the knees, that’s all.”

“Mrrph.”

Ruik looked up at Daisy with worried eyes as she got back on her feet. The look said, ‘Something happened? I’m worried.’

“Let’s go inside, Ruik.”

Daisy went inside with Ruik.

Ruik stayed pressed close to her side as they moved, as though afraid she might fall. Daisy wanted to reassure it, but her heart was still pounding hard.

When Daisy sat down in the chair at her worktable, Ruik came back carrying her water bottle. She thanked it quietly, poured herself a cup, and drank it down in one go. Then she spent a moment stroking Ruik’s back as it sat beside her chair, steadying herself.

“Sniff.”

“I’m okay now. Thank you, Ruik. Oh, right.”

Daisy finally noticed the collar she had been clutching tightly in her hand the whole time and held it out to Ruik.

Ruik tilted its head and looked at her.

“This is a gift for you. I had your name and our address engraved on it so you can always find your way home no matter where you go. I’ll put it on you now.”

Ruik held still as Daisy fastened the collar around its neck.

Daisy managed a small smile. Having Ruik beside her had eased much of the fear and distress she felt.

Still, Ruik’s eyes still held that look of worry.

Some people said animals had no feelings, but living with Ruik had led Daisy to reject that entirely. When Ruik looked at her like this, she could read every emotion in those eyes.

Ruik wanted to comfort her, and Daisy herself wanted to calm down by telling someone, anyone, what had happened.

“You know, Ruik. I just got a marriage proposal.”

Daisy spoke quietly as she stroked Ruik’s head.

“You know Mr. Dylan from next door, the one you saw the other day, the arms dealer… it was him. He just suddenly proposed to me in the middle of the street. I was so scared and caught off guard. So I ran away, but I… I don’t know. I don’t know him well and he doesn’t know me either, so why would he propose to me?”

“……”

“And in the middle of the street, of all places. I was so embarrassed and mortified. And whether I accept his proposal or not, I have no intention of quitting work anytime soon, but if everyone thinks I’m getting married and quitting, my orders will dry up. …I must really be an idiot. I should have gotten angry right then and there.”

Many people believed that even women with jobs should naturally quit and take care of the household once they married. Daisy thought of that belatedly and felt a fresh wave of distress at the possibility that she had also been exposed to those kinds of stares.

Ruik watched her in silence. Without blinking.

Daisy didn’t notice, and sat lost in thought for a moment before she happened to glance at the clock and stood up.

“What am I doing, it’s lunchtime. Are you hungry? I’ll get it ready right away.”

Daisy jumped up and hurried into the kitchen. Ruik kept its eyes fixed on her retreating back the whole time.

And the next day, Ruik vanished without a trace.

*   *   *

One week later.

Daisy was making her way home in the dead of night, exhausted and stumbling.

The cheeks that had been soft and dewy with color had grown rough and hollow in just one week. Her eyes were sunken and dark circles had formed beneath them.

The canvas shoulder bag she carried was stuffed full of flyers that reeked of ink. Each flyer bore a blurry, smeared drawing that could just barely be recognized as a dog, with a large line of text printed beneath it.

Lost dog. Name: Ruik. Reward for any information on sightings.

‘Another wasted day…’

Daisy pulled off her grimy work gloves and rubbed her tired eyes with the back of her hand.

A week ago, after Ruik suddenly disappeared, Daisy had turned the entire neighborhood upside down searching for it.

But Ruik had vanished into thin air.

A dog that large and conspicuous would have left witnesses no matter where it went, yet not a single person had seen Ruik on the day it went missing. The neighbors, the constables, the night watchmen, not one of them had seen anything.

Daisy felt like she was going out of her mind.

For the first three days, she closed the flower shop and searched frantically. Once the panic settled, she commissioned a print shop to make flyers and spent every evening after work walking all across the capital, plastering them on every wall and handing them out to passersby.

“Haah…”

That night too, Daisy was on her way home after staying out late putting up and handing out flyers. Her blister-covered feet stabbed with pain like needles at every step, her head was foggy from lack of sleep, and she was hungry.

But if it meant finding Ruik, none of this pain mattered. Tears welled up in Daisy’s eyes.

‘Where could it have gone? Surely no one hurt it…’

There were many people who had resented Ruik, some quietly and some openly, and Daisy couldn’t stop worrying. If something had happened, just the thought of it made the ground feel like it was crumbling beneath her feet.