"Hah…"
"Stop sighing, will you?" Vida complained while combing her hair, "You've been doing that ever since that man left. Did you quarrel?"
Amara shook her head, "No. I'm just impatient."
"Hm? About what?"
She stared at Vida for a minute. The latter stopped combing her hair and stared back at her. Why did the two of them, Vida and Azer, dislike each other? Both of them warned her about each other as well.
Amara sighed again. She gazed out the window and her eyes automatically landed on the neighbor's.
"About Azer. I…wanted to know more about him, about who he is."
"Then ask him!"
"I did! But you came, and then he left."
"So, it's my fault?"
"I'm not blaming you."
"Hmph, you sounded like it," Vida stood, picked up her pillow, and patted it before sitting on her mattress. "Maybe he's uncomfortable with me around. I feel the same way towards him. I feel like when he's around, there's this super nasty smell lingering in my nose and suffocating me—
"He doesn't smell that bad," Amara interrupted, pouting at her friend.
"It's not about his body odor! I guessed I'm just sensitive towards shape—!"
Amara, "Hm?"
Vida averted her eyes and flopped on her bed, "N-Nothing. I mean, I'm just sensitive toward his shape?"
Amara's eyebrows furrowed, "His shape?"
"His build! He's large! He's towering! I hate looking up at him when he talks! Argh! I'm going to sleep, goodnight!" Vida turned her back to her and covered her body.
The ensuing silence between them made Amara sleepy. She lay on her bed facing Vida. She thought she was asleep, but then her voice came up again.
"Do you really like that man?" Vida asked in a whisper. The dead silent night made it possible for Amara to catch her words.
She answered softly, "Yeah."
"I don't want to hurt you, Ara, but…Azer…," Vida let out a deep sigh. She seemed unable to find the right words, yet she continued, "He's the kind of man that will give his everything to his one true love. His life, his soul, I bet he can even die for that person, and only that person alone will he be able to love genuinely. I don't know if you're that person for him, but until you are sure, please, don't give him your all. You'll get hurt."
Amara faced Vida's back. She seemed to know more about Azer than she was, and the strange and unpleasant feelings brewing within her made her feel terrible. She closed her eyes and erased those nasty emotions.
She muttered in a low voice, "What's with the two of you? Do you, perhaps, actually know each other? It seems that Azer is not the only one hiding things here."
There wasn't another word that followed. When she tried to peek over Vida, she discovered she was already sleeping soundly. Even when she reached out her hand and poked her cheek, there was no response.
When she woke up that morning, Vida was already gone.
Her mood even worsened when from her shop, she could see Laura and Mirabelle happily chatting with Hans. She frowned when she caught Laura glancing around, then she walked in the direction where the door to the kitchen was, and disappeared in her sight.
"They're being a nuisance. Can't they see people are trying to work?" Her hands gripped the wire cutter and she tried to focus on her new piece. But as if the wind was mocking her, it delivered cheerful giggles and claps to her ears.
Her face scrunched in annoyance. Is it even possible? To hear those noises across the street, their voices must be as loud as an excited elephant trumpeting. She shook her head to shrug off the resounding sounds of their cringy and exaggerated simper.
"I cut it wrong.'
Amara sighed and threw the cutter in the box. She won't be able to work properly because of her bad mood. She stood and took off her apron.
"I should get breakfast."
Her gaze moved past the windows. The reason Azer hadn't delivered her food was that they just had reopened. There were still no pastries displayed and maybe, Azer was in the kitchen trying to bake bread.
As soon as she opened the door of his store, she was immediately greeted by a lively and polite voice.
"Oh! Dear customer, we're not open due to the fact that—oh, it's you!"
Hans, the guy with hazel eyes and brownish hair brightened when he saw Amara. The image of her with his master that night when an assassin broke out to their shop resurfaced in his mind. But his expression immediately went stiff as his eyes glanced at the door to the kitchen.
By his actions, Amara could tell that he already knew what was between her and Azer. She slightly nodded her head.
"Oh, uhm, why don't you stay here? I'll just call Azer," Hans gave her a lopsided smile. But before he could go to the door, the other woman, Mirabelle blocked his way.
"Can't you see they don't have anything to sell to you? Why don't you just leave?" She said, a bit snarky.
Amara glared at the woman, "Then why are you still here? There's nothing to buy as you said."
"Lady Laura has business here," Mirabell lifted her chin and looked down at her, "I'm sure you're already aware."
"Aware of what?"
Mirabelle snickered at her and answered, "The two of them are already dating, so back off. You're too conceited to think you'll get noticed by someone like him. You're ugly and fat. You're too big for your britches, piggy."
Amara's hand clenched into fists. She was enraged, and she found it strange. Every time someone would insult her before, she would just casually ignore it and shrug her shoulders, as though it didn't bother her because she believed she was already used to them.
But now, she felt like grabbing the tray on the counter and smashing it into Mirabelle's head. The latter smirked at her with condescending eyes and was about to add another insult if only Hans didn't tap her shoulder and speak.
"If I were you, I'd get out of the way."
Mirabelle, "What?"
The reply barely left her mouth when all of a sudden, the door opened, and another person dressed in flour was pushed out. She bumped at Mirabelle and the latter tumbled down the floor.
"You said you know how to bake and insisted, yet look at you. You look like a ghost rolled in powder," Azer said while stepping out. His face was grim, and he wasn't looking at Amara, but at Mirabelle who was trying to stand up from the floor instead.
His eyes were frighteningly cold yet filled with contempt and fury.
Laura was too shocked to speak. Her eyes were teary and reddish. Her pretty clothes were covered in flour.
It was Mirabelle who yelled, "Who do you think you are to do this?! Do you not know who my lady is?!"
"I know. The youngest daughter of Duke of Vernice and the fiancée of Count Luxem," Hans answered calmly. "I wondered what the higher social society would think if they heard Lady Vernice frequenting the commoner's streets and flirting with a man who's already dating someone."
Laura's head spun toward Hans, "Dating…already? Who?"
"I don't think that's any of your business, lady. But since she's present here, might as well introduce you," Azer replied instead. He walked past Laura and pulled Amara's hands, "Her. Now, get lost. We have a date."
Azer pulled her to the kitchen but her other hand was grabbed by Laura and they stopped. She looked at her with rage and hatred, then she smirked.
"Do you even know who he is? The likes of you aren't fit to stand by his side! You're just a filthy commoner—ngh!"
Azer snatched Amara's hands and pushed her weakly, but that push was enough to throw her out and she lightly bumped into a shelf.
"My lady!" Mirabelle rushed to Laura and helped her steady. But her hands were slapped away.
Laura glared at them, "You'll regret this!"
Then, the two of them stormed out of the bakery. A heavy sigh came out from Hans, while Azer pulled Amara to the kitchen and locked the door.
The state of the island counter table was a mess. Everything was covered in white powder and on the floor was a sack of flour ripped in the center. However, nothing of those occupied her mind right then. What was going on in her head was a completely different matter.
Why did she not think of that? For Laura to be smitten with Azer, they must have met before. She must have seen him somewhere. But for a duke's daughter like Laura, who was raised in the mansion and surrounded by riches, there was no way she'd set foot in the commoner's area just like that.
They couldn't have met in that neighborhood, or in those streets.
Her hunch from the beginning was right. Azer was a nobleman. A man of higher status.
"Amara."
Countless emotions swirled in her eyes. She looked at him when he called her name, but it was as though she was looking at someone she didn't know. Now, everything was coming down to her.
Who was he? Why did he suddenly build a store and live across to her? Why did he…like her?
She was too afraid to hear the answer, that when he came closer wearing a worried face and cupped her cheeks, she only became aware that teardrops fell from her eyes.
Is she crying because of those insults hurled at her, or because of the uncertainties encircling her newfound love?