‘Still a problem right now.’

She absolutely needed to deliver the letter to Daniel today, which meant she wasn’t going to take the President’s car. She couldn’t very well ask to be dropped off wherever she needed, as though it were a private carriage. And even if she did, she doubted the President would agree.

On top of that, after yesterday, he now knew she might slip out through the back gate. So today she had no choice but to climb over the lowest section of the fence surrounding the school grounds.

“Hup!”

Iris hitched up her skirt and vaulted over the fence with quick, practiced efficiency.

Daniel’s home was fortunately not far from the school. She felt a considerable pang of guilt for having looked up the address in the student records, but she couldn’t very well ask Eden to deliver it. She was sorry for the child, but he would almost certainly open the envelope.

The Dupree family’s standalone house sat in a neighborhood lined with upscale terraced houses. Iris blinked at the sight of the large, elegant building, so different from the unpretentious father and son she knew.

She checked the address again, but it was unmistakably this house. Caught off guard, she forgot to look for the letterbox and stood staring blankly at the garden, when the sound of a car engine approached from a distance.

The moment that mechanical sound reached her ears, Iris’s face went pale. Car sounds had come to mean something particular to her.

She stepped back and squinted to look, and thankfully it wasn’t the President’s. A car of an older model than his pulled to a stop in front of her.

‘Oh no.’

Iris froze, not knowing what to do, when through the car window she saw a lady with grey hair. There was something familiar about her features, and Iris’s gaze fixed on the woman’s face.

The lady noticed Iris at the same moment the driver came around and opened the back door.

“……Who are you?”

Jane’s eyes went wide at the sight of the young woman standing in front of her own home.

“Oh, good evening. Mrs. Dupree……”

The moment Iris saw her face, she recognized Eden’s grandmother and bowed immediately.

“I’m Iris Mora. Eden’s homeroom teacher.”

The flustered haste in Iris’s voice made it plain this was entirely unexpected. Jane’s expression, as she stepped out of the car with the driver’s help, was unreadable.

“How lovely to meet you. I’m Jane Dupree. Eden’s grandmother.”

She smiled gently at Iris as she straightened up and met her eyes.

“Eden talks about you a great deal. He really does look like you.”

Like Daniel and Eden, she had a warm, pleasant face.

“How are things with Daniel?”

“With Mr. Dupree as well.”

Jane let out a quiet laugh at Iris’s bright, easy answer. She had meant it as a probe into the nature of their relationship.

“Won’t you come in?”

“No! I, I just came to deliver this!”

Iris nearly jumped out of her skin and thr*st the letter toward Jane before she knew what she was doing. Jane took the envelope and checked the name written on it.

“……Shall I call Daniel for you?”

The corner of her mouth curved subtly upward.

“Oh, no! It’s all right! I was going to put it in the l-letterbox……”

“Why would you sneak it in when there are people home?”

“It’s nothing that warrants that! And it’s far too late in the evening!”

“So you want me to pass it along? You’re making me your errand girl?”

“N-no, no, that’s not what I meant at all……”

What a delightful young woman. Jane thought she understood why the President had chosen her. Pure and charming, in a way that was entirely genuine.

From the look of her clothes, the President seemed to have decided to make this woman his. Head to toe, his style. But beneath the surface, her behavior was exactly as Eden had described.

“I, I’ll just put it in the letterbox myself!”

“Why? Daniel will be pleased.”

As Iris crept toward Jane to take the letter back, Jane raised it swiftly in the opposite direction.

“Dropping in unannounced isn’t proper either…… I’m deeply grateful for the invitation, but if I could just put it in the letterbox……”

“Ha ha ha! I’ll pass it along to Daniel.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Dupree……”

“Do come and visit properly sometime. I have a very fine selection of teas.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll be on my way then. Goodbye.”

Iris’s face was scarlet as she bowed again. Jane’s eyes curved as she called out a warm farewell.

The moment Iris’s back was turned, Jane dashed into the house.

“Son! Son!”

She called out loudly for her son and ran toward Daniel’s room upstairs. Her hurried footsteps rang through the staircase.

“You’re well past fifty, running around like Eden.”

Daniel looked up with a reproachful eye as Jane pushed open the door without knocking. His large desk was buried, as always, under a chaotic pile of books and papers.

“Miss Mora! Miss Mora came!”

“……What?”

“Look at this! Miss Mora left it! Just now!”

“……”

The moment Daniel confirmed the envelope Jane thr*st at him, he bolted downstairs. This time the footsteps that shook the whole house were far heavier and more frantic than Jane’s.

“Miss Mora!”

Daniel’s voice was urgent from the moment he threw open the front door, calling for her as he ran. He didn’t even notice his shirt buttons were undone as he sprinted across the garden, but Iris was already gone.

“Ha……”

He ran up the road and then down, but it was the same. He finally stopped, breathing hard, and pushed back his brown hair with a rueful sigh.

“She could have given it to me herself……”

Daniel looked down at the letter in his hand.

[To Mr. Dupree]

The neat, careful handwriting, pressed into the page with quiet effort, just like Iris herself, made his lips curve slowly.

Miss Mora wrote me a letter.

His chest swelled with a feeling he couldn’t quite contain, and he stood there for a long while just looking at the envelope, unable to open it.

He finally read the contents much later. Back in his room, Daniel took a paper knife and devoted his full attention to opening the sealed flap cleanly and intact. The thought of simply tearing it open with his hands did not cross his mind for even a moment. Fortunately, he was an archaeologist, and his hands were skilled.

“……”

It was brief. She wanted to know more about the novel illustration work, and asked whether he might be willing to meet and explain, if it wasn’t too much trouble.

“Ha ha ha……”

Good heavens. That this could happen to me.

Daniel’s heart hammered so loudly it seemed like it might be heard outside the room. Was this how a young man felt making his first date with a girl he liked. He wanted to shout.

But she was still the President’s lover. He wanted to leap out and scour every rumor in the world to find out the truth, but that was impossible.

The reply was, of course, ‘of course.’

But how to get the answer to her. He briefly considered Eden, but the odds of the envelope arriving unsealed were high. The Hemsdale Auction was tomorrow. He would have no choice but to go to the campus on Saturday.

‘This time it really can’t be helped.’

Laughter kept slipping from between Daniel’s lips as he ran a trembling hand over his face.