Chapter 2

“Then why are you here like this? Everyone else is in the auditorium.”

“I don’t know. When I eat strawberries, my whole body turns red, but I didn’t eat any strawberries and still turned red. That’s why I couldn’t perform and ended up in this room. I was supposed to be the main character today. I had to do well.”

“What’s so important about a boring performance…?”

“What?”

At Edward’s muttering, the girl’s eyes narrowed again.

“Ah…! Don’t worry. The performance is going boringly well.”

“Well?”

The girl looked down at her own hands, as if pondering something.

After a moment of silence, the girl blinked and asked,

“Did it show the scene where the main character gets kissed by her mom, dad, and brother before falling asleep?”

“What?”

“The scene where the main character gets kissed by her mom, dad, and brother before sleeping is the most important. I really wanted to do that well.”

“I don’t know.”

“Go look! That’s the important part. If you can’t even remember that, the performance must have gone wrong. It’s all because of me.”

“Why is that important? Getting kissed every day is boring. They just get saliva on you.”

The girl stared up at Edward with a blank expression at his words.

“Every day? You get kissed? By your dad, mom, and brother?”

“Brother? Ah! Ugh, not by him! That’s gross…”

“I see… If you have a mom and dad, you get kissed every day.”

Her voice sank low.

Only then did Edward remember that the girl was an orphan, and once again regretted his words.

“Should I… play the role of a dad for you?”

Edward himself couldn’t explain why he suddenly asked such a nonsensical question.

He really hated playing Mom and Dad games.

“…A dad has to be older.”

The girl’s face remained gloomy.

“How old are you?”

Edward asked in a sullen voice.

“Eight.”

“I’m thirteen. That’s five years older than you!”

Actually, his older brother Adrian was thirteen, and Edward was eleven, but he confidently declared his brother’s age.

“A dad has to be even older than that.”

“Then… brother! I’ll play the role of your brother.”

Finally, the girl’s face brightened.

“That’s great then. So, sit here and watch me perform. And when I tell you to kiss me, you kiss me, okay?”

“What? Kiss?”

The girl pulled the flustered Edward onto the bed to sit beside her, then started tying her hair with the ribbon on her wrist.

“Why are you tying your hair?”

“I let it down earlier because I was crying. You’re supposed to let your hair down when you’re sad and cry. Now that I’m performing, I have to tie it up prettily. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”

She spoke as if her philosophy of hairstyles was a universal truth of life.

“Ah…”

Edward nodded, not understanding her explanation.

There seemed to be a world of girls he didn’t know about.

Even with her red face, and having cried so much that her eyes and nose were red everywhere, Edward watched the girl tie her hair and suddenly had a strange thought.

‘Are girls supposed to look pretty when they cry?’

She gathered her thick blonde hair into a ponytail.

“Hey? What’s that?”

Edward, watching her profile, pointed to the spot behind her ear exposed by tying her hair.

“Ah, that? Strawberry seeds.”

“What is that?”

“You mean the three dots behind my ear? The director says my moles look like strawberry seeds. I turn red when I eat strawberries, but I have strawberry seeds behind my ear. Isn’t that strange?”

Without thinking, Edward reached out and touched the moles behind the girl’s ear.

Strangely enough, there were two above and one below, forming a tiny inverted triangle of red dots clustered together.

“Alright, I’ll start now, Brother!”

Suddenly, the girl stood up and began reciting her lines, calling Edward “Brother.”

Edward found the term “Brother” unfamiliar but oddly satisfying.

It had definitely been boring in the auditorium, but somehow, the girl’s performance was fun.

In the middle of performing, she whispered,

“Now! Brother, you kiss me and say ‘Good night,’ then I lie down on the bed and fall asleep.”

“Ah! Uh, where should I do it?”

Edward awkwardly asked.

“Where else? My cheek.”

The girl quickly lay down on the bed, and Edward hesitantly leaned toward her cheek.

Looking at the girl’s still fiery red face, Edward thought that if he kissed that cheek, his own lips might get hot too.

“Hurry up.”

“Uh-huh.”

Prompted by the girl, Edward impulsively kissed her and said, “Good night.”

“Huh? That’s strange.”

The girl, who was about to close her eyes, opened them wide and looked at Edward.

Edward, flustered, covered his lips with his hand.

“Why? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, it’s strange. When Tommy does it, he really feels like a brother. But you don’t. You feel more like a prince than a brother.”

“What? Prince?”

“You’re clean and pretty, and you even smell nice, so you seem like a prince.”

The girl smiled and closed her eyes.

At that moment, Edward thought his own face had turned as red as hers.

Just then—

“Ed! Ed, where are you? The performance is over!”

His brother’s voice echoed from the hallway.

Edward felt resentful at hearing his brother’s voice just then, and embarrassed as if he’d been caught doing something.

“Hey! I have to go.”

“Ed? Is your name Ed?”

“No…”

Edward tried to correct her pronunciation from “Ed” to “Edward.”

“Ed! Where are you?”

But at that moment, Adrian’s voice came right up to the door.

“Who is it?”

“No one.”

Edward answered carelessly to the girl, who asked with wide eyes at the voice outside, and quickly ran out.

“Ed, what were you doing in there?”

Adrian asked, looking at the door Edward had just come out of.

“Nothing! Let’s go!”

Edward grabbed his brother’s arm and pulled him along.

He didn’t even get to say goodbye.

Edward’s face darkened as he dragged his brother to the stairs.

Maybe next time, if he came with his father again, he could meet her.

Thinking of the girl’s still-red face as he left the room, Edward believed he could meet her anytime he came here.

He didn’t know it would be fifteen years before their next meeting.

* * *

Unlike the girl in his memory from fifteen years ago, whose whole body was red until they parted, the woman’s face, which had briefly flushed, soon returned to its usual pale color.

“Are you President Edward Wale?”

The woman confirmed his name, staring intently at Edward.

“…And if I am?”

Edward, fixing his gaze openly on the woman’s face, answered slowly.

“I am Diane Lina from the Tertz Newspaper. The construction of the Wale Department Store threatens the survival of local small businesses, and the forced demolition and relocation…”

The woman kept talking, but Edward barely heard a word except for one.

“Lina…”

The name that stuck in his mind from her words was this one, and he unconsciously repeated it.

“Diane Lina.”

When Edward interrupted to mumble only her surname, Diane reflexively stated her full name again.

“Diane Lina… Are you an orphan?”

“Excuse me?”

At Edward’s sudden question, Diane’s face flushed red again.

“Your face is red again. Your hair… is already down.”

Diane began to glare at Edward, who kept making rude and incomprehensible remarks.

Edward stared back at Diane, persistently and silently.

As if they were having a staring contest, Diane met Edward’s unwavering gaze without blinking, but eventually, her eyes dropped to avoid his blatant stare.

But Edward’s slow yet earnest voice drew her gaze back to him.

“Cry.”

Diane’s face, which had been looking up at Edward with narrowed eyes, suddenly twisted.

“What did you say?”

Her face was filled with the same displeasure as if she were looking at something foul-smelling.