It had been like this since yesterday. Even after returning to her house together, he maintained some distance from Janet.

Whenever they accidentally touched, he would stiffen his face and look at her. Then he would smile as if nothing had happened and step away.

Janet got up from her seat. And immediately reached out her hand toward Rihanel. As expected, he avoided her body. Janet clung to him as if hanging on.

Rihanel removed Janet from his body as if burned by fire. His breathing was rough as it escaped from his frighteningly hardened face.

“……”

Janet stared at Rihanel with her hands dropped. Rihanel was clearly rejecting her.

A heavy silence flowed for a moment. Soon Rihanel opened his mouth.

“Sorry. My head is complicated.”

“What is there to be complicated about?”

Janet stared at him with slightly furrowed brows. She had clearly thought everything ended well, but did Rihanel not feel the same?

If there were lingering concerns for him, those too had to be resolved quickly. Especially if they were related to her.

“Tell me.”

Janet spoke in a gentle but firm tone.

Rihanel took in the sight of her like that. Her eyes were red from crying a lot after the trial and from shedding tears while dreaming just now.

The moment he recalled that fact, a fantasy of blood flowing from her eyes unfolded. Even though the dawn light wasn’t bright yet, only that red liquid was vivid.

Rihanel closed his eyes and shook his head slightly. When he opened his eyes again, Janet was looking at him with worry. His head throbbed.

“What’s wrong? Are you dizzy?”

Janet bleeding all over her body and screaming. The fantasy that had tormented him for weeks was just a nightmare. Just a d*mn fantasy created by his weak heart. He knew that much.

So he tried to ignore it. He tried to shake it off somehow.

But the moment he saw Janet crying after the trial ended, he thought as if hit on the head.

That wasn’t a nightmare…… but the very actions I had taken.

While locked up in the detention center for just a few weeks, he thought that cold, that darkness, that loneliness was difficult. Then he newly realized. How long a time Janet had been in, how great the pain was.

So Janet Wilton forgiving Rihanel Reynes…..

Wasn’t that something that didn’t make sense?

“I should go to the Reynes estate tomorrow. I’ve left it empty too long.”

Rihanel opened his mouth while looking down. Having left the house empty for a long time was a plausible excuse. Actually, it was words he brought out because of the instinct that he shouldn’t be with her now, that he had to distance himself.

Janet Wilton’s misfortune due to Rihanel Reynes. Cowardly, he had ignored that and been briefly intoxicated by sweet happiness. Then as if punishment had descended, he experienced this incident.

This time he was lucky, and thanks to Janet and Flan working hard for him, the result was good. But if she got hurt again in the future, then Rihanel wouldn’t be able to endure it either.

And yet…… he couldn’t completely leave her, couldn’t bring up the end. Running away like this was the best he could do.

“You’re avoiding me after all.”

However, no matter what excuses he made, Janet accurately saw through his heart. Looking at the golden eyes staring at him while standing upright, Rihanel calmly asked a question.

“How often do you dream about Adif?”

“……”

“Dreams about when I hurt you?”

Janet closed her mouth and thought about the answer to Rihanel’s question.

Actually, she often had such dreams. It couldn’t be helped. She could shake off what others did, but she ended up chewing over Rihanel’s actions one by one.

When her heart was very difficult, he appeared in her dreams every day.

However, that frequency gradually decreased. Once a week, once a month…… now she hardly had them. Rather, after their reunion, his words and actions came to mind more often.

So Janet answered like that.

“Not…… very often.”

“You just had one.”

Rihanel’s blue eyes were calm like a quiet sea. However, underneath seemed to hide invisible fierce currents.

Had she talked in her sleep? Janet hurriedly answered.

“That’s because Rihanel is with me.”

Because he was beside her, she felt relieved and seemed to have poured out her grief even in dreams. However, at Janet’s words, Rihanel smiled sadly.

“Do you have such dreams when I’m here?”

“Don’t interpret it strangely.”

“Can you really accept me, Janet? Can the wounds I made be erased?”

“……”

Could the wounds be erased? Janet looked at him quietly.

To say they were completely erased would be a lie. If so, she wouldn’t have felt such grief today either.

That was a separate matter from Janet harboring the emotion called love for Rihanel. So Janet hesitated to answer. Because even she couldn’t neatly organize and speak about her emotions.

However, before Janet could answer, Rihanel, who sadly bowed his head, turned his body.

“Rest, Janet.”

He moved toward the door. Janet quickly walked and blocked the door.

“……My feelings aren’t fake. The words I said about being affectionate toward you, about loving you, the emotions I feel now, they’re all sincere.”

The dawn light that had begun to brighten illuminated Janet. When her resolute eyes turned toward him, Rihanel wanted to pretend not to know and sit down again.

He reached behind Janet to open the door. Janet followed with quick steps as Rihanel silently passed by her and walked down the corridor.

He seemed to have some misunderstanding, but Janet didn’t know well how to clear up misunderstandings. Only the thought that she shouldn’t let him go now strongly dominated her mind.

“I know. Since I kept pushing you away, you might not be able to believe it.”

“You don’t have to do this.”

“Rather, draw my blood! I can show you everything.”

Janet grabbed Rihanel to stop him and shouted.

That the person she hated most but loved most was him. What thoughts she had until she admitted she loved him, how scared she was while he was gone…… She wanted to show him directly through blood instead. Janet was that desperate.

However, Rihanel’s face became hurt at Janet’s words instead.

“Do you really want me to do that?”

“Yes.”

“……This is why it can’t work. Because the past when I looked at your memories in that way won’t disappear.”

Rihanel’s face twisted. Janet had wanted him to wound her body, but rather Rihanel looked as if he had been stabbed by a knife.

Janet’s firm gaze wavered. She couldn’t understand what was wrong. However, because he looked so anguished, the strength left Janet’s hand that had been holding his arm.

“Go in.”

Janet looked at Rihanel with her mouth closed.

When she didn’t move, he took Janet’s hand despite his hurt expression. It was the first time today that he had approached Janet first. So blankly, Janet followed him back to the room.

After laying her down, Rihanel turned around without a word.

Click, the door closed quietly.

Janet stared blankly at the closed door and thought about the answer to the question Rihanel had thrown.

⟨Can the wounds I made be erased?⟩

No, they probably won’t be erased. Even as time passes, what has already happened can’t become as if it never was.

That was also the reason she had told Rihanel not to see each other anymore. That they shouldn’t be together, let’s not make each other remember those times.

However, he kept approaching Janet. Because of that, she knew. Scabs form when wounds are exposed rather than covered up. Scars will remain where scabs fall off, but it won’t hurt anymore.

Sometimes the place that hurt will throb, but she’ll be happy much more often than that. That happiness will make that place into new flesh.

So Janet’s thought that wounds and love were separate things was wrong. This feeling was the medicine that healed those wounds.

“……Rihanel.”

Janet needed Rihanel after all.

She got up again and ran outside.

However, Rihanel had already left.

***

“Hey there! Buy newspapers if you’re going to read them.”

“……Ah, I understand.”

In front of a newsstand piled with newspapers. A man wearing a hat pressed down pretended to look for coins while quickly scanning newspapers with his eyes.

The expression of the man reading down the article on the front page crumpled badly. His hand holding the newspaper trembled.

“You’re crumpling it! If you’re not buying……”

The shop owner who was getting angry closed his mouth after seeing the man’s face.

The eyes of the man with a grimy face as if he hadn’t washed for days were glowing fiercely.

“J-just take that.”

Thinking it would be better to just let him take the newspaper, the shop owner spoke as if throwing the words. However, the man straightened his face and leaned forward.

“Are you looking down on me now?”

“Pardon?”

The man roughly slammed the newsstand. And tried to grab the shop owner’s collar across the newsstand.

“You’re looking down on me because I don’t have money to buy this one thing, aren’t you?”

“That’s not it…… Hey, help me here!”