Tell Me To Regret, Don’t Tempt Me - Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Upon hearing the sound of the bathroom door closing, Louis couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief. He quickly ran a hand through his windswept bangs and laughed again.
How long must she have been crying in the middle of the hallway, wanting to go to the bathroom so badly?
Unable to get in even though she was desperate to go, and her green eyes looking pitifully up at him like a puppy caught in the rain, was one he wouldn’t forget for a long time.
Is this what it feels like to have a younger sister?
Thinking such thoughts, Louis suddenly raised one corner of her mouth as a good idea came to her.
A moment later, the door slid open, and the girl, with her head bowed deeply, came out.
“Are you done?”
At Louis’s question, the girl’s head dropped as if to crawl into the ground.
“Did you get lost?”
Seeing the faint nod of the brown-haired head, Louis chuckled softly.
“Come on, I’ll show you the way.”
“What?”
Only then did the girl raise her head, and her face, looking up at Louis, resembled a ripe tomato.
“Let’s go!”
Louis grabbed the girl’s wrist and pulled her along.
“W-where are we going…?”
“I’m not sure, but let’s just go for now.”
Humming a tune, Louis started to walk briskly down the hallway.
“W-where is this…?”
Following Louis for quite some time, they eventually arrived out into the courtyard and walked for a while through a small forest until they came to a small man-made pond.
“How is it? Isn’t it nice?”
“Yeah, but why are we here…….”
If someone said they were lost, it was right to ask them where to go and take them there. Vivian asked where they were going, but all she got was “Just, follow me.”
The scenery of this place, where she was dragged along by her wrist, was truly beautiful. Lotus flowers floating on the small artificial pond shimmered in harmony with the water’s ripples.
At the sound of someone sitting down, Vivian turned to find Louis planting himself firmly on the ground. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, spreading it out beside him.
“Here. Sit here.”
As Vivian hesitated, Louis tapped the grass impatiently, urging her to sit.
Cautiously, Vivian sat down on the pristine white handkerchief and glanced at Louis.
“If you have something to say, say it.”
“W-well… why are we here?”
“Oh. We got lost, that’s all.”
“What?”
“I got lost. I was supposed to guide you because you were lost, but it seems I got lost myself. Anyway, my leg hurts too much, so we should rest.”
It was clearly a lie.
“Liar.”
Vivian muttered, which caused Louis to narrow his eyes and look at her.
“Sometimes you have to let things slide. You might not understand yet because you’re young. Got it?”
Vivian gave a small nod at Louis’s words.
“By the way, I still don’t know your name. What’s your name?”
“M-my name is….”
“What?”
“I mean, my name is…”
Then, something leaped out of the small pond.
“Eek!”
Just as Vivian was about to say her name, a frog leaped right between them.
“Go away!”
Louis, startled by the size of the frog, jumped up.
*Ribbit, ribbit.*
The frog looked at Louis as if asking why he was making such a fuss, then hopped towards him.
Turning pale as the frog approached, Louis quickly hid behind Vivian.
“It’s hideous!”
Louis, seemingly scared of the frog, used Vivian as a shield. Regardless of his shouts, the frog just blinked its big eyes and settled in its spot.
“It’s not scary…”
Vivian muttered as she looked at the frog, which quickly turned its head away from Vivian and Louis as if it had lost interest in them, and then at Louis, who had settled in behind her.
“Could you, um, shoo it away?”
“What?”
The frog then turned its head back toward Louis and Vivian.
“Eek! Hurry, hurry! Get rid of it!”
Watching Louis, who was clearly frightened, Vivian stood up and approached the frog. Seeing this, Louis swallowed hard.
“Hey, frog. Where’s your home?”
As Vivian asked, the frog croaked as if in response.
“D-did it just answered you?”
As Vivian approached the frog, Louis, who had moved a bit further away, pointed at the frog with his finger.
Seeing this, Vivian turned her gaze back to the frog.
“Hey, frog. Will you go back home? We were here first.”
“The frog can’t possibly understand what you’re saying, can it? Huh?”
Asking a frog for a favor.
Louis, who was shouting in disbelief, widened his eyes.
The frog started to move towards the small pond. It jumped into the pond with a ‘plop’ and began swimming vigorously.
Louis watched in amazement, his mouth agape.
“How did you do that?”
Vivian smiled at Louis’s question. She hadn’t done anything, just simply asked the frog to move.
“Are you a wizard?”
Shaking her head, Vivian let out a small sigh and opened her mouth.
“I just said it. I don’t think the frog understood and left because of it, but if the frog didn’t move, I could have used that big leaf over there to guide it into the pond.”
Vivian pointed to a large leafy plant to Louis’s left. Following Vivian’s fingertip, Louis raised an eyebrow.
She had simply asked the frog to move before shooing it away, and by chance or not, the frog had moved and returned to the pond.
But then I asked if she was a magician.
Louis’s face began to redden.
“I-I just asked. You. How did you even get in here? This is the Crown Prince’s palace; how did you manage to get in? Unlike the library, not just anyone can enter here!”
Louis couldn’t look Vivian in the eye, his face was so red it seemed like it might burst.
“Fine, then.”
Louis was unwittingly irked by Vivian’s involuntary pout.
“Let’s go! Where should I take you?”
“But didn’t you say you got lost earlier?”
Flushed, Louis turned away quickly, not wanting to show his even more heated face.
“I remembered. Let’s go!”
He might have been able to hide his blazing face, but he couldn’t hide his red earrings. Vivian laughed heartily at the sight.
“If you stand there grinning like an idiot, I’ll leave you alone!”
When Vivian didn’t follow, Louis shouted.
“Fine, let’s go!”
With the thought that he might really leave her behind, Vivian hurriedly followed behind him.
And so they walked for quite some time.
Suddenly, Louis turned around and looked at Vivian.
“Where did you say you were going?”
Come to think of it, Vivian hadn’t told him where she was going. Louis felt like a bit of a fool when he was with her. After all, they had been walking for quite some time without knowing the destination, with his lead.
Vivian knew where she needed to go: to where the Crown Prince was studying.
She thought that there was no way Louis would know where that was, and if she went to the place where she’d met Alina, she might be able to find it.
“There’s a big statue at the entrance to the Crown Prince’s palace.”
“The Crown Prince’s palace has several big statues, you know? Can you describe it more precisely?”
“Well, their eyes are this big, their hair is like a wild field, and they look like cats, but not like cats…….”
As Vivian gestured and described the statue, Louis nodded.
“Ah, you’re talking about the Butterfly Statue.”
“Butterfly….”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
Did he really understand? That statue didn’t quite look like a butterfly…
Vivian wondered if it was right to follow Louis.
‘”Why are you here Louis?”
Louis, who had been striding confidently forward, stopped abruptly at Vivian’s question.
“Did I ever tell you my name?”
“The first time we met, I heard people looking for Louis at the library.”
“Oh… that time.”
Louis nodded slightly, apparently satisfied that Vivian knew his name, and his brow creased.
“I have to meet someone I don’t want to see today. So I thought I’d run a little late…….”
So that’s why you pretended to be lost on purpose earlier.
Vivian chuckled softly, seeing the slightly childish side of Louis, who seemed older than her.
“Why are you laughing?”
Louis’s sharp voice made Vivian quickly wipe the smile off her face.
“Um, are you meeting an ugly fiancée?”
Vivian asked discreetly, looking at Louis.
“How did you know?”
Louis was surprised for the umpteenth time today.
“Just….”
“You have a subtle cleverness. You’re as good as Arnold.”
Vivian didn’t know who Arnold was, but it must have been a compliment. She wasn’t sure if she should laugh at Louis’s words.
“You’re half right and half wrong. First of all, she’s not my fiancée yet. I’m meeting a prospective fiancée.”
Still with furrowed brows and disheveled hair, Louis seemed annoyed. Watching him, Vivian remembered the stories her mother used to tell her. And she recalled the little beauties she had found along the way.
“You might see some good points in your potential fiancée when you meet her.”
“That’s what they all say. It’s easy for people to say because it’s not their business.”
“Beauty is subjective! I’m not pretty either! But to my mother and father, I’m the most beautiful person!”
Vivian’s eyes were filled with conviction as she tapped her chest with her small fern-like hand.
“I mean, you might think differently when you meet your fiancée!”
“Not a fiancée, a prospective fiancée.”
“Yes! A potential fiancée.”
Louis smirked at Vivian, who was now voicing her opinion with her whole body in front of him.
It was somewhat absurd and cute to hear her talk so passionately, so Louis gently patted her brown hair.
“I don’t want to get married, though.”
“Huh?”
“If I have no choice but to get married, then I want it to be with a perfect person. There are many beautiful, smart, and capable people out there. So why do I have to settle for an unattractive one?”
“But still!”
“I like perfection. I was taught to be perfect, and I think I have to be. The position I’ll be in the future is the same. I think my companion on that path should also be a perfect person.”
Louis’s golden eyes darkened slightly, and Vivian had to swallow the lump in her throat.
“Of course, my father and mother don’t seem to think so. There aren’t many things in life that go the way I want.”
Louis, slightly annoyed, wrinkled his forehead a bit more before continuing again.
“But I suppose I must go. Sigh. Yes, I must go.”
Shoulders slumped, Louis began walking. Vivian watched his retreating back for a moment before slowly following behind him.