Chapter 1 – Secret Meeting : A Hidden Gathering Or Rendezvous

Delilah brightly smiled as she bit into what Eric handed her. She had complained last time about the taste, so he had improved it somehow, and it seemed she liked it.

“It’s delicious.”

Eric knew why she was smiling but replied bluntly. He didn’t know how to speak kindly or cheerfully like her, so there was nothing he could do.

“It’s not for the taste.”

“I know, I know.”

No matter how Eric spoke, Delilah didn’t mind. The sweet scent of fruit wafted between her red lips. She grinned, rolling the candy in her mouth, and grabbed the doorknob.

“I’m going.”

“Okay.”

Her pink hair sparkled as she walked out into the dark hallway. It was always such a beautiful color, no matter how many times he saw it. In the square of light cast from the open door onto the hallway, Delilah waved her hand. The door slowly closed, and both the light and her figure vanished from the corridor. Only the firmly closed wooden door remained before Eric’s eyes.

Eric didn’t know how she managed to get past the boys’ dormitory to his room, or how she returned to the girls’ dormitory, or how she was never caught by anyone. He had never bothered to ask. All he knew was that, except for the crickets chirping in the courtyard, everyone else was asleep during the deep night when Delilah Erica alone knocked on his door.

It had been the same on the first night she came to him.

Eric, as always, was up late. His lab was in the lecture building, so he couldn’t use it at night. So at night, Eric would stay in his dorm room, sketching new ideas or drawing simple magic circuits on paper. He always ended up staying awake until dawn, which made him sleepy during classes, but since he had already mastered everything related to the coursework, it wasn’t a problem.

He wondered: what if he made magic potions, usually liquid and hard to carry, into candy form? While rolling his pen on paper, Eric suddenly heard a knock at the door.

Eric had no friends at the academy, so no one would purposely come to his room. His was the last room at the end of the second-floor hallway, so it couldn’t be confused with anyone else’s. Besides, it was a dead quiet night. Despite the deep autumn, not even a single bug was making noise.

Did he mishear? Just as he thought that, someone knocked again. The knocking sound insisted it was no hallucination.

Eric slowly rose from the table and listened at the door. He thought he heard the soft rustle of thin fabric. Then another knock.

Knock, knock, knock! Stronger and clearer than the first, cautious knock, someone rapped on the door. As soon as the knocking stopped, Eric swung the door open.

“Ah, ah… you weren’t sleeping.”

“……”

“That’s good.”

A petite woman stood at his door, her hand raised as if she might knock again. Her pink hair swayed at her waist. Even with a slightly tired face, she smiled softly, and in the light spilling from his room, her face looked pale.

“What…”

“Um, so… that…”

She, who never showed hesitation or discomfort when talking to others, was strangely hesitant. Eric blankly stared at her pale cherry blossom-colored lips as they pursed and opened several times.

Finally, as if she’d made up her mind, she clenched her fist and squeezed her eyes shut. At that moment, a faint light shone from the end of the hallway. Maybe it was the dorm supervisor on patrol. Instinctively, Eric wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in.

“Come in first.”

Click. Only after the dormitory door closed behind them did she open her tightly shut eyes. Eric realized her pale face was now flushed red only after bringing her into the room.

“……”

“……”

There was a faintly sweet scent. The sharp smell of alcohol mingled with the sweetness and seemed to drift in the air. Eric thought her round crown, topped with pink hair, looked like a chocolate bonbon or candy.

“Um, can you… let go of my hand…”

“Oh, sorry.”

As he let go of her shoulder, which he’d been holding unconsciously, she let out a long sigh. Her shoulders trembled as if she felt cold. Now that he looked, she was wearing thin pajamas and a hastily thrown-on cardigan, not enough to block the chilly autumn night air.

‘Is she drunk?’

Her breath, heavy with moisture, clearly smelled of alcohol. Eric wrinkled his nose and stepped back from the woman whose hair, face, and neck were all tinged pink. She hadn’t just come to the wrong room by accident.

“Sorry for coming at this hour.”

At least she wasn’t so drunk she’d confused the dorm buildings. But why had she snuck into the boys’ dorm, avoiding everyone’s eyes, at this hour? While Eric wondered, she mumbled on.

“I’m Delilah Erica… Oh, I’m a sixth-year in the administrative liberal arts department. Um. So you might not remember but…”

“In the dining hall.”

“That’s right!”

He’d remembered from the start. Hair as pink as hers wasn’t common. But Delilah Erica, as she introduced herself, smiled brightly, glad he remembered her.

“Well, actually… because of what happened that day. I heard you, Eric Briar, were having a hard time…”

Eric’s face tilted slightly.

“They say everyone’s ostracizing you…”

His face tilted a little more in the same direction.

“I heard they’re even interfering so you can’t eat properly…”

Now his face was obviously tilted, so anyone could notice. Delilah glanced at him and pursed her lips. Her plump cherry blossom-colored lips parted slightly.

“…Isn’t that true?”

“I don’t know.”

Eric answered without hesitation. He really didn’t know. He’d never had friends, so being ostracized didn’t change anything. Recently, after classes, he would buy something quick at the cafeteria and hole up in his lab until just before closing, so he never went to the dorm dining hall.

“That’s a relief… I was worried, thinking what if you really were being treated like that.”

Her voice, which had been hesitant and barely a whisper, relaxed as she truly seemed relieved.

“Why?”

“Why?”

Eric’s question, feeling curious, made her ask back. She tilted her head just as he had been doing.

“Why would you be worried about me, Senior Erica?”

“Uh, uh?”

“There’s no reason for you to worry about me, Senior.”

“There is a reason!”

“What reason?”

Their words, ending in question marks, bounced back and forth between them. As their heads kept tilting, Delilah suddenly bowed her head.

“Don’t make me say something like that myself…”

It was the kind of line one would expect in a high-level romance novel his older sister read and he’d flipped through and quickly closed. As Eric’s head tilted almost sideways, Delilah reached out and straightened his face. The warmth of her hand, soft and fresh like just-baked bread, touched his cheek and then left.

“Are you really asking because you don’t know?”

“…….”

Eric muttered as he watched the hand that had left her cheek slip inside her cardigan sleeve. He truly didn’t know.

But he did know that saying things like this usually annoyed people. Every time he said, ‘I’m really asking because I don’t know,’ his older sister would always get irritated with him.

“It’s because of me….”

But what came back wasn’t irritation. Her voice, suddenly drained of strength, dropped, and then finally, he heard her sniffle, swallowing a sob.

“All the kids like me, sniff. But you ignored me. Hic. So they said they’d teach you a lesson.”

Between her broken sentences, sniffles mixed in. Finally, tears filled her eyes. Eric stared blankly at the sight of tears shimmering like a film over her large, sky-blue eyes. He had no idea why she was suddenly crying.

“Hic, sniff. I never asked for that, sniff! Everyone says they like me. Sniff, hic….”

Drip. As soon as a transparent tear rolled down her flushed cheek, she let out a wail.

“They’re all, all fools. Sniff, when did I ever ask for that? Sniff, but. Waaah…!”

Even as she cried loudly, Delilah kept mumbling something, but Eric honestly couldn’t understand half of what she said. ‘The kids, someone, don’t need them, liking is everything’—those words, broken and scattered, brushed past Eric’s ears. But none of it registered in his mind.

Right now, with Delilah crying like a child in front of him, he felt like the dumbest person in the world.

“Hic, sniff… waaah….”

Delilah finally ran out of things to mumble and just sobbed, tears streaming down her face. It seemed like she was squeezing every bit of moisture from her small body into tears. Eric, staring blankly at her, was overcome by a strange feeling.

Anxious, his heart fluttered. He felt like he had to do something. Was this what restlessness felt like? His chest tightened, and for some vague reason, he felt sorry.

Eric hugged the small, crying figure in front of him tightly. It was half unconscious.