"Are you okay?"
"..."
I began speaking to Swanhaden, who was still submerged in the cold water. The Blanche family apparently was one full of secrets. Did they have some kind of secret hobby of submerging themselves in cold water wearing formal clothing or something?
Swanhaden seemed to respond to my question underwater. I could see bubbles forming around his face.
Cory followed where I was and squatted next to me. Cory brought over a tree branch and began to poke Swanhaden with it. Swanhaden stretched out his arm to grab the branch to break it, then let his arm flop back down.
Swan continued floating on the water like a corpse until he suddenly put his hand in his formal jacket and looked for something in his pocket.
Swan wordlessly handed me a wet rose.
I didn't know what was going on, but I took the flower anyway.
"Good luck, Swan. I'll forgive you because you're so pitiful. I think I understand you a bit."
When Cory spoke to Swan, I decided to add a line too.
"Um…. Have fun."
Swan was completely silent. I worried that he really was going to die like that. When I asked Cory if he was okay, he shook his head. When I asked Cory whether we should drag him out of the water, to which he replied that it would basically be killing him twice if we did that. I had no idea what he meant by that, but I just nodded anyway.
"We greeted Swan, so let's go back, Shushu."
"But isn't Swan cold? Is the Blanche family immune to the cold or something?"
When I worried about Swan, Cory took out a white blanket with carrots on it from his dimension pocket. Then, he put the blanket over Swan, who was still floating on his stomach in the pond.
"Let's go now. He's probably really happy right now."
And with that, Cory picked a wildflower from the ground and laid it on top of his blanket.
Cory and I arrived, once again, at the party. The party was still going strong. The music was still loud and people were busy.
Hylli seemed to be done with whatever he needed to do earlier. He was back on the sofa that he was sitting on earlier. He seemed to have been looking for me–he complained asking where I was as soon as he saw me, but looked understanding when he saw Cory next to me.
"Everyone's busy dancing."
"Maybe it's because we learned in class, but they're all pretty good."
"Not really. Look at them. They keep stepping on their partner's feet."
We all sat down on the sofa and watched the people dancing as we chatted. Hylli asked me if I wanted to dance, but I shook my head. I was tired from walking around so much earlier. Moreover, I didn't really have much experience dancing in high society events so I felt awkward about it.
Cory agreed with my words. He said that he also found dancing difficult. Apparently, all of the dancing he had done before was with his mother, but he always ended up stepping on her feet throughout and had a hard time. It sounded like such a Cory thing that Hylli and I laughed.
We got bored of watching people dance so we brought over a bunch of snacks and ended up stacking a tower. We put the macarons as a base and connected cream desserts with other snacks to make it taller. We even made a princess to stay inside of the tower. The princess, of course, was a large strawberry. We all decided that she was a red-faced, green-haired princess.
"So what should we name this tower?"
"Does it really need a name?"
"Um…. The Strawberry Princess' Macaron Tower."
"The Social Outcast Strawberry Princess' Tower of Escape."
"...."
"...…That's good. Let's do that."
We put in a lot of effort to make The Social Outcast Strawberry Princess' Tower of Escape, but we ended up eating the whole thing in under ten minutes. Cory couldn't eat too much because of his small stomach, and I couldn't eat any more after eating so many snacks earlier. But we didn't need to worry. We had Hylli, who had a giant stomach that didn't discriminate when it came to food.
Hylli looked at the two of us struggling to eat with a pitiful look as he finished eating the whole thing. He looked like a dad who was finishing his kids' leftovers. He looked surprisingly dependable just then.
As I was fooling around with Hylli and Cory on the sofa, Hestia brought my brother over to us.
"Shushu? Is it really Shushu?"
Hestia grabbed my face with both her hands.
"Oh my god, Shushu! You look so gorgeous today!"
Hestia hopped as she grabbed my wrists and pulled me to my feet. My older brother, who was wearing a clean navy blue formal suit, looked at me with glee, hands over his mouth.
Hestia ruffled through her bag muttering, "Camera, camera!" She asked Harun to take pictures of the two of us with the camera. We began taking pictures like normal before we began to pose in weirder, more uncomfortable poses.
Hylli and Cory laughed as they watched us. They even took pictures for us. But that was abruptly ended when somebody called for Hylli and Cory and they had to leave. With stunned expressions on their faces, they said that they would be back before leaving.
Hestia and I kept taking pictures. We ended up taking about twenty more. The person in charge of filming was my older brother. At first, we were all in the pictures together, but later on I ended up getting a lot of pictures taken of myself. They took so many pictures that I couldn't even count. My brother and Hestia looked extremely excited as they continued taking pictures of me.
Maybe it was because we were so loud, but people kept looking at me. I was embarrassed so I told the two of them to knock if off. I thought they had calmed down a lot these days, but the two of them, Hestia included, were off the rails today. I shoved macarons into each of their mouths to calm them down.
Hestia looked absolutely stunning today. Her waist-length, silky pink hair bounced gently whenever she walked. Her form-fitting burgundy dress showed off her figure. If she was still the same as before, she would've worn a puffy white and pink, medieval-type dress. Those dresses were seen as uncomfortable and wasn't popular by the younger generation, but it wasn't completely out of fashion. High society wives still wore those kinds of dresses.
Anyway, Hestia's beauty was on another level, just as usual. She seemed to be embracing her growing maturity. I could see the boys who were rejected by Hestia continuing to stare this way. I could feel them staring at me, too. I felt annoyed by those stares so I glared right back, full of murder. They looked away after that.
"Did Hazel unni dress you up?"
After a few hundred pictures, Hestia linked her arm in mine as she spoke.
Oh, she figured it out right away. I nodded, awed at Hestia's sharp eyes. She sighed, relieved.
"I was a bit worried. Thank goodness. Harun oppa was also worried about you dressing up."
Harun, who was quietly listening to our conversation next to Hestia, put the camera in his jacket pocket as he spoke.
"If Shushu dressed up on her own, she'd be a mess. I was worried that you'd wear that neon dress that Leda made for you. You know her eyesight's been going recently. You didn't bring it to school, right? You got in so much trouble last time for wearing it to a party last time, Shushu."
Um, right. That did happen.
Our older maid, Leda, was trying to make a yellow dress for me but accidentally made it neon yellow. People were absolutely flabbergasted as they told me to trash it, but it was okay. The dress was super comfortable. Sure, there were bits of thread popping out here and there, but it probably wasn't that visible anyway. Leda really loved it when I wore it, too. Everyone was overreacting. It was actually pretty.
I told them that if it wasn't for Hazel, I would've worn the dress. Harun looked shocked at my words and told me that he didn't know I would bring the dress all the way over here. Hestia just put her hand on her chest in relief and muttered praised for Hazel.
"Anyway Shushu. What kind of relationship do you have with Yvnes?"
Harun asked me, completely out of the blue. I tilted my head, confused. Why were we bringing Yvnes into our conversation all of a sudden?
"We're kinda close? Why are you asking all of a sudden?"
"No, because I saw Yves stopping by the shops and looking for your dress recently."
"Why would Yves pick out my dress?"
"That's what I said."
That's why I was asking what relationship you two had, Harun explained.
Harun seemed deep in thought. Then, he shook his head, muttering, "Shushu's a million times too good for him. Absolutely not." Harun grabbed my shoulders and told me that Yves was not even an option. I could see how much Harun had suffered under Yves in his frown.
"Yves is a slimy, evil, backstabbing guy with his face being his single redeeming quality. He's been through the ringer and his personality is so bad that girls will probably fill an ocean with the tears they shed because of him. Don't fall for his face, Shushu! I'm never going to allow it!"
Harun kept dragging Yves down with his words. He really must've suffered a lot under Yves.
Suddenly, an arm dropped on Harun's shoulder. Harun was too busy yelling about Yves and how horrible he was to notice.
The person who rested their arm on Harun's shoulders was no other than Yvnes.
"Why do you think I'm going to make a ton of girls cry?"
Yves, who suddenly appeared next to Harun, put his mouth near Harun's ears and slowly spit out each word. When Yves just stared at Harun with a relaxed tilt to his head, Harun slowly walked away from him, fear written across his face.
Yves watched at Harun's horrified expression as he mockingly smiled at him. Harun, who had briefly gotten away from Yves, couldn't do anything but leave the scene as someone called out for him.
Yvnes shifted his eyes from Harun and looked at me.
Yvnes, who had arrived late to the party, was wearing a neat, form-fitting black formal suit. His hair was loosely braided and put over one shoulder. I was suddenly reminded of the first time I had met Yves, seeing him in a suit. He was always dressed like that when we met outside, too. I couldn't help but reminisce after seeing him wear something other than uniforms recently.
There was an incredibly large bundle in Yves' hands. I couldn't help but glance at the huge bundle that Yves was carrying. It reminded me of Santa's gift bag.
Just like I was watching Yvnes, Yvnes had his eyes on me and kept staring.
He continued to stare before smiling a bewitching smile. The corners of his lips were raised into a pretty curve.
"You're incredibly pretty today, Shuraina."
"Who do you think you're flirting with?"
As soon as Yves said a word, Hestia narrowed her eyes and grabbed my arm to put some distance between Yves and I.
Yvnes glanced at Hestia, then looked back at me. Yves smirked and, with a gentle voice, whispered something to Hestia.
Hestia's face grew stony as she kept listening to Yves' words before she left. Hestia went somewhere as she looked at Yves and gestured to him to stay far from me. Yves just shrugged at Hestia.
"What did you say to Hestia just now?"
When I asked Yves, he just looked at me with a small smile.