The Fiancée’s Wife Has Returned

Like a treasure hunt game, they searched for ghosts and wandered around the third floor that day.

Jade had a dream.

It started, like always, with a dream of his mother leaving.

Jade sometimes spoke to her even though he knew it was a dream.

‘Why did you leave me behind?’

‘Is it because I did something wrong?’

‘Do you hate me?’

She didn’t answer because it was a dream. Because she couldn’t see him. Because she couldn’t hear him either.

‘One. Two…’

Jade counted. Just before three, his mother left with a relieved face, and young Jade burst into tears.

Even in a familiar dream, the scene of being abandoned was always painful. The heartache never became familiar, but his emotions gradually grew duller.

So to the extent they’d dulled, it was bearable.

“Don’t cry. You look stupid.”

Jade threw criticism at his past self, left alone and crying helplessly. There was no need to comfort that version of himself in the dream, whether he cried or not.

It was just a dream anyway.

Reminded that it was a dream, Jade turned away from his younger self and left the room.

A new space unfolded as he entered the corridor. Jade slowly walked down the unfamiliar hallway.

Tap-tap-tap-tap.

Footsteps similar to when Ray ran sounded. Jade looked in the direction of the noise.

A girl, slightly smaller and younger than him, came into view. The child passed through Jade’s body and ran excitedly down the corridor.

‘Why is the floor like this?!’

Then she tripped and started kicking the wall irritably.

‘Worse than Ray…’

The child ran again, and Jade slowly followed her. The child who’d been throwing a tantrum seconds ago quickly recovered her mood and scribbled all over the walls and floor with the crayon in her hand.

‘Stop coming into my room!!’

‘Play with me!! Don’t study!’

A boy who looked exactly like the child chased her out of the room she’d entered.

The boy was taller and looked older. He seemed to be that child’s older brother.

‘Why the commotion again?’

Soon a man who looked exactly like the children appeared with a sigh.

‘She ruined my homework!!’

‘There were only worms, so I decorated it.’

The children fought the same way in front of him. The girl hid behind the man, and the boy stomped his feet on the floor to show his anger.

‘Homework isn’t for decorating!! And that’s not a worm, it’s my handwriting!’

‘You should practice your writing.’

The children’s fortunes diverged at the man’s words. The girl climbed onto the man’s back, rode piggyback, and smiled smugly.

‘Luke, nyah-nyah!’

‘I’m telling Mom on both of you. That Arinne interrupted my studies, and Dad hates me!’

Jade approached them closer and patted the boy’s shoulder in the air.

‘N-no. Sorry…’

‘Luke. Why would Dad hate you? Your sister’s still a baby, that’s why. Don’t tell Mom. Dad will get in trouble…’

‘I’m telling on you so you’ll get in trouble!!’

The man and girl turned pale and began placating the boy. This house seemed to have a mother who would take that child’s side.

‘Wait. Arinne?’

It was a somehow familiar name. Jade opened his eyes wide and examined their faces carefully.

The child called Arinne had sparkling purple eyes and light brown hair. She looked somewhat different from the Arinne Jade knew.

But the sharp gaze and presence like a bird of prey were unmistakable.

‘Not a single quiet day.’

Someone’s voice came from behind Jade. The children passed through Jade in a row and ran behind him.

Jade slowly turned around to see their ‘mother.’

That moment, Jade woke up.

Jade, who’d swallowed empty air, coughed several times.

Jade couldn’t gauge how long he’d slept. The surroundings were pitch black, so it was probably night.

The room was dark and quiet. So excessively quiet that there was surprisingly no sound at all.

“My lady?”

Jade realized someone was sitting by his bedside.

The touch wiping away his cold sweat and stroking his cheek was gentle and delicate. She smoothed Jade’s disheveled bangs.

“Is that you, my lady?”

“…”

Jade asked again. Without answering, she only slowly patted Jade’s chest.

For some reason, Jade thought she might be Arinne.

Until he realized in the faint moonlight that her eyes weren’t purple but yellow-green like his own.

“Who are you?!”

Realizing she wasn’t Arinne but someone he’d never seen before, Jade’s body was seized with fear. His body wouldn’t move anymore, and even when he closed his eyes, he could still see ahead.

That strange woman moved her lips saying something. No sound came out. Jade tried hard to figure out what she was trying to say.

“-ster!!”

“-young master!!”

“Young master Jade!”

“Haah…! Hah, haah…”

His eyes suddenly snapped open. Jade rolled his eyeballs while breathing roughly.

“Young master Jade. Are you alright?”

“Calon?”

“Yes, it’s Calon.”

With an even paler face himself, Calon sat Jade’s upper body up.

Jade’s body was soaked with sweat, and his hands trembled.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“Mm-hm.”

He’d dreamed of his mother and the lady, and after waking from that dream, he’d met a strange woman. It had all been a dream.

Jade pinched his own cheek hard. It hurt. Then he pinched Calon’s cheek too. Though he didn’t say it hurt, seeing his surprised face at the action, this was reality.

Jade tried to picture the woman he’d met in his dream again. A woman with yellow-green eyes and wavy brown hair. Literally transparent skin and ice-cold hands. Yet a touch that felt warm…

Jade, who’d realized something, whipped his head up to look into Calon’s eyes and shouted.

“It’s a ghost, Calon!”

“Pardon?”

Jade turned his gaze to the window where faint moonlight shone, like in the dream. The translucent curtain fluttered slowly, like that person’s form.

“…”

With his eyes fixed there, Jade moved his lips slightly.

As a sense of reality slowly returned, Jade finally felt scared.

“I don’t want to sleep alone…”

Jade pulled on Calon’s sleeve with a tearful face.

* * *

“Eek.”

“Hm? Jade?”

The next day.

Seeing Arinne coming toward him, Jade jumped in place with a start and ran to the opposite side to hide behind a pillar.

Arinne, startled by Jade’s behavior, looked at Calon with eyes seeking an explanation.

“He says he saw a ghost last night. And apparently you resemble that ghost, my lady.”

“I look like a ghost?”

Arinne’s face soured after hearing the reason. She recalled how Jade had said she was a scary person.

There’s a story that demons have no particular form and appear in the shape of what the target fears.

Maybe ghosts were similar?

“Calon. Am I scary?”

“You’re not scary.”

It was a quick and certain answer. She smiled with satisfaction.

“Then do I look scary?”

When Arinne changed her question, Calon hesitated. The longer the answer was delayed, the narrower Arinne’s eyes became.

“…You’re beautiful.”

Having answered beside the point, he awkwardly avoided her gaze.

“I won’t get mad. Feel free to speak honestly.”

“Hmm, I’ve never particularly thought you were scary, but you have an impression that sometimes gives one the opportunity to reflect on what wrongdoing one might have committed.”

“…”

Seeing him really speak without reserve when told to, at least the part about not being scared of her must be true.

“You sound just like the proper Lawrence.”

“Lawren—you mean the Marquis?”

Calon, conscious of their surroundings, corrected his form of address.

“You said you’re friends with Lawrence, and you two have a lot in common.”

“Pardon?”

Arinne often thought of Lawrence when she looked at Calon. The face that smiled innocently like a boy, that way of speaking that scratched at people without malice, and the kindness that tried to cheer her up by humbling himself if he thought she was upset.

The two men were quite similar in character. Of course, there was the difference that Lawrence was a bit more childish and Calon a bit more annoying.

“Most of all, you two have a similar atmosphere. I’d believe you if you said you were brothers.”

“So this is how you insult people.”

“It’s not an insult. But if it sounds like one, it could be an insult~ or maybe not.”

Arinne spoke casually and turned her gaze to Jade, still hiding behind the pillar.

“You’re leaving today?”

“Ray won’t eat if I’m not there.”

Making a crawling sound, Jade squirmed out from behind the pillar.

Where had yesterday’s spirited child who said ghosts weren’t scary gone? Only a kitten with its tail puffed up remained.

“You met a ghost?”

Arinne felt unnecessarily mischievous and deliberately lowered her voice.

“Did the ghost look like me to you?”