Larien had to muster extreme patience not to rub her eyes at the sight. To swallow the admiration that threatened to burst forth, she bit her lips until they were sore.

Hoping the sound of her pounding heart wouldn’t reach him, she extended the book with trembling hands.

“Here, your book.”

Speaking to him in the same haughty tone she used with others, she couldn’t hide her burning earlobes. Fortunately, he seemed too focused on her outstretched hand to notice her face. His gaze seemed somewhat vacant.

When there was no response for a while, Larien cleared her throat and called his name.

“Jayden?”

“…Thank you.”

He belatedly stretched his hand to take the book, wearing an awkward smile.

It was probably just an expression of embarrassment for his late reaction, but that fleeting smile tickled her heart completely.

“Th-there’s no need to thank me.”

As she hurriedly handed over the book, her fingertips brushed against his.

The brief contact sent a tingling warmth spreading up to her head. Her whole body felt hot, as if it would burst like fireworks.

She hadn’t seen herself in a mirror, but she was sure she looked as red and mushy as the leftover tomato soup the owner had eaten.

Trying not to reveal her dumbfounded face, she quickly turned away from him, causing her feet to tangle for a moment. Larien barely managed to regain her balance.

A ballerina losing her balance.

And in front of him, no less.

‘Don’t act foolishly. Calm down, Larien.’

Clenching her curling fingers, she lifted her chin and returned to her friends, who were paying attention to her.

“What did you talk about?”

“Why did you go over there?”

“Did he thank you?”

Their excessive interest was overwhelming for merely picking up a book.

Even while they criticized him for being aloof and not fitting in, she knew all their interest was focused entirely on him.

Their reaction was the same reason the Eastern dolls left after seeing his injury.

It was like looking at something they couldn’t have on their own and shouldn’t have, despite their interest.

Before Larien came here, he was said to have been injured while trying to save a colleague in a battle with a mouse king with seven heads. Thanks to Jayden, that colleague survived and left with a human woman named Clara to live happily in the land of dolls.

Everyone had a happy ending, but the story of Jayden left behind continued with pain. Unable to receive proper treatment, he could walk slowly or stand, but needed crutches for balance.

The group that usually envied him took the lead in ostracizing him by spreading stories of his flaw. Jayden never responded to them, even though he was aware of it.

Moreover, as he was left neglected in a corner by the owner, rumors circulated that he might eventually be discarded, so no toy wanted to get deeply involved with him even if it meant standing against that group.

Until then, he was immensely popular in the toy world, but after that, the dolls stopped approaching him.

Even after the instigator of the group was sold off, the dolls remained interested in his whereabouts, but that was all.

They judged that his indifference wasn’t worth enduring, especially with his injured leg.

Only newcomers, unaware of the situation, occasionally approached him to confess, only to see the injury and leave, as happened today.

It was always displeasing to her that they only spoke of him behind his back, rather than confessing openly and moving on.

Unlike them, Larien liked him regardless of his injury or his normal state.

One day, some mischievous children who came to the toy store took Larien out of the display case without the owner’s permission to play with her.

A child with cruel curiosity roughly spread her delicate legs apart.

《Let’s see how far these legs can split! Since it’s a ballerina doll, this should be nothing, right?》

An immense pain surged through her stiffened legs from the rough handling.

Larien swallowed a silent scream at the pain she had never experienced before, shedding tears that couldn’t flow.

Even though she wanted to escape, she had to endure everything since she couldn’t move during the day without fairy dust.

Unaware of Larien’s pain, the child excitedly grabbed one leg and started spinning her around.

The store owner was nearby but couldn’t stop them since they were noble children, and just stood there anxiously, shifting from foot to foot.

Just when her thin legs, spread apart, were about to break, a crashing sound echoed from the floor. The children’s attention suddenly turned toward the unexpected noise.

Jayden, wearing a military uniform, was standing on the wooden floor. Despite falling from quite a height, his posture remained perfectly straight.

The children’s attention immediately shifted to him.

“Wow, a soldier doll!”

“That one’s mine!”

The boys rushed toward Jayden, the nutcracker doll in military uniform, each trying to claim him.

Larien, who had been in their grasp with a corpse-like pale face, was finally able to return to her original place.

Much like a scene from a storybook battle, Jayden was thrown around and rolled across the floor several times before he could escape from the children’s hands.

At that time, Larien could only watch him with concerned eyes as he endured the ordeal in her place, while she lay askew on the shelf.

Worried that he might have been seriously injured, it was the first time she had ever waited so eagerly for nightfall.

When dusk fell and she could move thanks to the fairy dust, she immediately ran to him.

She ran so fast that she was completely out of breath.

“Jayden, are you alright?”

“……”

His usually downcast, indifferent eyes widened, seemingly not expecting her to come looking for him.

Up close, his transparent blue eyes, easily mistaken for jewels, rippled with surprise.

His smooth lips, usually set in a straight line, parted noticeably.

Finding his reaction unexpected, Larien bowed deeply and spoke the words she had prepared.

“Thank you. If it weren’t for you earlier today, I would have been seriously hurt. I was really scared.”

Remembering the terror of that moment, transparent tears formed at the corners of her eyes again. Seeing Larien’s tears, his expression became frighteningly rigid. His hand, unconsciously moving toward her eyes, hesitated in mid-air.

“Is your arm okay?”

Larien’s teary gaze turned to his torn uniform. His badly scratched arm troubled her deeply.

Noticing her gaze, Jayden turned his body to hide his injured arm from her view and spoke.

“It’s fine. I didn’t really intend to do that. I just happened to fall. Don’t worry about it.”

Jayden shrugged casually, suggesting it was nothing. Larien was surprised not by his attitude, but by how his voice, which usually only gave short answers, was lower and sweeter than she had expected.

It was a voice with a dignified and pleasant resonance, like the pipe organ that sometimes drifted from the concert hall on days when the windows were wide open.

The tips of her ears grew hot and red from the pleasant baritone that she heard.

Now that she looked at him up close, his face was as elegant as his voice. Even though she had never been interested in anything but ballet, even when her friends made a fuss over him…

Only now did his image become etched in her eyes like an imprint.

From some deep place whose beginning she couldn’t trace, a bubbly feeling arose, making her lower abdomen feel hot and ticklish.

“St-still, thank you. Let me at least wrap this for you.”

She hurriedly pulled out the handkerchief she had kept with her and wrapped it around his torn clothes.

His arm was so thick that after wrapping it once around, there was barely enough left to tie a knot.

When she moved closer to him to finish tying the tight knot, she caught a cool, refreshing scent.

Could this be what the winter sea smells like?

Her friends who had crossed the sea told her that winter seawater had a uniquely clean and refreshing scent.

Though she couldn’t know for sure since he was made in a workshop near the toy store, somehow the scent emanating from him resembled the ocean smell she had imagined.

It was a scent she felt she could smell forever without tiring of it, like her favorite potpourri sachet.

Only when her nose, which had been sniffing for quite a while, touched his thick arm did she startle and step back.

‘What if he thinks I’m a pervert?’

When she glanced up, his lake-like blue eyes were looking down at her with as much bewilderment as she felt.

He too seemed surprised by Larien’s unusual behavior.

Even his response came late.