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Chapter – 02
“Huh…?”
Startled, I widened my eyes and stared at the boy.
“I had one. Not anymore.”
Meeting my gaze directly, the boy furrowed his brows deeply and bit down on his lip before muttering as if spitting the words out.
“If you’re going to pity me, then stop it already. I’m sick of it—”
“It’s okay, I don’t have one either!”
“…What?”
Perhaps surprised by my sudden reply, the boy’s blue eyes widened.
Ignoring his reaction, I tilted my head and continued.
“You know, just because you don’t have a mom doesn’t mean you’re pitiful.”
“……”
“Look.”
I lightly lifted up my necklace. The boy’s gaze followed my hand.
The pendant itself was hidden beneath my clothes, but showing the necklace chain alone was enough to get the meaning across.
“My mom gave this to me. So it always feels like she’s still with me.”
“……”
“Don’t you have anything like that? Something your mom gave you?”
“…Something Mother gave me?”
The boy’s eyes wandered through the air for a moment, as if thinking.
Soon, his tightly pressed lips slowly parted.
“I do.”
“What is it?”
“…Akkelte.”
“Akkelte? What’s Akkelte?”
Hearing the unfamiliar word for the first time, I tilted my head in confusion.
“It’s my name. Mother gave it to me.”
“Wow! That’s such, such a cool name! Then you must feel like she’s always with you too, right?”
As if truly amazed, I clapped enthusiastically. Akkelte let out a small chuckle at my reaction.
The moment the corners of his lips softened, the entire atmosphere changed. Staring blankly at him, I kept marveling inwardly.
‘…Wow, he’s seriously ridiculously handsome.’
He might even be prettier than the original novel’s heroine, Ruruka.
I spoke to Akkelte again.
“Akkelte! Then did you come to our orphanage because your mother passed away too?”
“No. I’m only stopping by for a little while.”
“Really…?”
Then maybe he was just staying at our orphanage temporarily before moving to another one.
Feeling an inexplicable disappointment, I pouted slightly.
“When are you leaving?”
“Later.”
“When later?”
“Who knows. Probably before sunset. Ah, speaking of which.”
Akkelte, who had been seriously tapping at the chamomile petals, suddenly turned his head toward me as if he had just remembered something.
“Weren’t you looking for someone earlier?”
“Oh right! That brat!”
I had completely forgotten about the buzz-cut kid who had ruined my mood because I was too distracted by Akkelte’s beauty.
The moment I recalled the situation, anger welled up from deep inside me.
“When I catch him, he’s dead!”
Fuming, I jumped to my feet.
As I casually dusted the dirt off the hem of my skirt and said goodbye, Akkelte stared at me with a baffled expression.
“I’m going now!”
“Wait, then what about me?”
“…You? Why you?”
“Then I’ll be alone…”
Huh? Alone?
‘Wasn’t he ignoring me earlier because he wanted to be alone?’
I tilted my head, completely confused.
Akkelte frowned as though trying to add something more, but then bit his lip tightly and shook his head.
“Forget it. Go.”
Even so, he radiated obvious dissatisfaction as he bluntly spat the words out.
Still confused, I stared at him. But Akkelte turned his head away with a pouty expression, clearly having no intention of explaining himself.
Since it looked like he wasn’t going to say anything more, I reluctantly put figuring out his thoughts on the back burner.
“What’s with you? You’re so dull! I’ll come back, so just wait a little.”
“…You’ll come back?”
“Of course! Obviously I will!”
Hands on my hips, I beamed at him as if asking why he’d even question something so obvious.
At that, Akkelte hesitated briefly before giving a small nod.
“…Okay.”
His voice was so faint that if I hadn’t been listening carefully, I might not have even realized he’d spoken.
Whether he was embarrassed or simply trying to focus on the flowers, Akkelte kept his head lowered toward the ground.
Leaving him behind, I ran straight toward the orphanage.
“Wait. When are you coming ba—”
It sounded like he was saying something behind me, but I had already run too far to hear properly.
“Where did that brat go?”
I looked around, but the buzz-cut kid was nowhere in sight. Well, more than twenty minutes had already passed.
I kept glancing around in search of him.
“Elia noona, what are you doing?”
“Oh. Have you seen that buzz-cut little kid? About this tall?”
Because so many children constantly came to and left the orphanage through adoption, I couldn’t remember everyone’s names.
Only Ruruka, the class leader, and I had stayed at the orphanage for a long time. The other children merely passed through.
“If you mean him, I think he went toward the kitchen. Try looking there.”
“Really? Thanks!”
Thankfully, I managed to track down the whereabouts of the kid whose name I didn’t even know.
‘That little punk’s been hiding in the kitchen for twenty whole minutes?’
I swore to myself that I’d teach him a proper lesson the moment I saw him and headed toward the kitchen.
Because the kitchen had to prepare food in large quantities for many children at once, it was fairly spacious. Naturally, it was also filled with dangerous things like open flames and sharp cooking tools, so the door was always kept shut.
It wasn’t locked, but the doorknob was positioned quite high. Unless you were around my age or Ruruka’s age, most kids couldn’t open it by themselves.
‘That buzz-cut brat is tiny, so how the heck did he even open this door?’
Shaking my head at how troublesome kids could be, I opened the kitchen door.
At the exact same moment, something soft and wet came flying toward me.
“Ugh! Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Ahahaha! Elia noona, you dummy!”
The buzz-cut kid had thrown a water balloon filled with some disgusting liquid at me.
The balloon burst on impact, sticky liquid dripping down my body while a fishy stench spread through the air.
Frowning deeply, I grabbed the back of the kid’s neck and scolded him.
“What exactly do you think you’re doing right now?”
“W-Well, why didn’t you dodge it then? Hic…”
Seeing my serious expression, the buzz-cut kid seemed startled. His lips trembled nervously, and tears soon welled up in his eyes.
Letting out a small sigh, I set him back down and lectured him.
“You must never do something like this again. Got it?”
“B-But R-Ruruka noona said… waaah…”
“Ruruka? What do you mean?”
“WAAAAAH!”
Instead of answering my question, the kid burst into loud sobs. At this rate, the orphanage director might come running over.
‘The director already warned us not to cause trouble today because sponsors were visiting.’
If we caused a scene, I’d definitely be on the receiving end of her icy glare. Before I knew it, I had somehow become the one comforting the crying child.
Still sniffling in my arms, the buzz-cut kid suddenly stopped crying and sniffed the air.
“Sniff… Elia noona, y-you smell…”
“…That’s all because of you.”
Honestly, I could smell it too.
I had no idea what kind of liquid had been inside the balloon he threw at me, but the fishy odor just kept rising.
‘I need to wash up quickly.’
The director might gather all the children together to present us to the sponsors at any moment. I needed to wash up quickly and pretend nothing had happened.
After letting go of the buzz-cut kid, I left the kitchen and headed to the bathhouse.
Naturally, the orphanage bathhouse was communal. Calling it a public bathhouse would’ve been an exaggeration—it was more like a tiny shared shower room.
“This is so disgusting. What the heck was in that thing for it to smell this awful?”
I grumbled nonstop while peeling off my soaked dress. At this point, I’d probably have to hand-wash it while I cleaned myself.
After preparing everything one by one, I finally removed my pendant necklace—my mother’s keepsake—and checked it.
Thankfully, because it had been tucked beneath my clothes, the pendant itself wasn’t dirty.
The pendant wasn’t made of gold, and I worried it might rust if it got wet, so I always removed it whenever I bathed. I didn’t know exactly what metal it was made from, but it felt different from ordinary gold.
Besides, it was my mother’s keepsake, so of course it was precious to me.
I placed it together with my other belongings into the basket and tucked it into the drawer.
“Akkelte is probably still waiting for me too.”
I hurriedly washed myself and quickly scrubbed my dress clean. Just thinking about Akkelte waiting for me made me anxious.
Even then, worried that the smell might still linger, I washed myself thoroughly one more time before finally rushing out of the bathhouse.
I took out a set of communal clothes and changed into them. Since they were shared clothes, they were smaller and rougher compared to what I’d originally been wearing.
Then, just as I was about to put my pendant necklace back on—
“…Huh?”
It was gone.
No matter how much I searched, the pendant was nowhere to be found.
I rubbed my eyes and searched every corner of the basket, but the pendant had completely vanished.
“I definitely… put it in here before I went to bathe…”
I replayed my memories carefully in case I had imagined it, but I clearly remembered removing the pendant last and placing it into the basket.
I had even hidden it deep inside where it wouldn’t easily be seen!
Everything else was still there—only the pendant had disappeared. It was enough to make me think a ghost had taken it.
I had never once imagined losing the pendant, and my mind went completely blank.
‘Who could it be? Did that buzz-cut brat decide to get revenge because I scolded him earlier?’
I couldn’t even begin to guess who might have stolen my pendant.
Trying my best to stay calm, I thought carefully about who even knew I had the pendant.
“No. There’s no way the buzz-cut kid could’ve entered the girls’ bathhouse. Besides, he doesn’t even know I have a pendant.”
If it had been him, he would’ve stolen all my clothes too.
That would’ve been a much better way to mess with me.
But this person had specifically targeted only the pendant.
“The people who know I have the pendant are…”
The orphanage director, Akkelte, and Ruruka.
Wait, Ruruka?
“B-But R-Ruruka noona said… waaah…”
Suddenly, I remembered the buzz-cut kid mentioning Ruruka earlier in the kitchen.
Why had he said that?
‘But there’s no way angelic Ruruka would steal from me.’
I was certain it wasn’t Ruruka. Both in the original story and in real life, she was nothing but kind and angelic.
Considering the original heroine Ruruka’s personality, she was the type who would search tirelessly for the owner of a lost item, not steal something herself.
Still, I decided I should at least talk to either the buzz-cut kid or Ruruka, so I left the bathhouse.
But neither of them was anywhere to be seen.
After wandering around the orphanage, I eventually ended up back in the backyard.
“Hey. Why did you take so long?”
“A-Akkelte? You were still waiting?”
I had been so distracted by losing the pendant that I’d completely forgotten Akkelte was waiting for me. I was so out of it that only upon seeing him did I finally remember our promise.
At my dazed mumble, Akkelte twisted his lips in disbelief.
“You’re the one who told me to wait first, and yet—!”
He snapped at me with a deep frown, but abruptly stopped mid-sentence.
Then he stepped closer and bent down slightly until our eyes were level.
I hadn’t noticed before, but Akkelte was much taller than me. I’d thought we were around the same age.
“What’s wrong with your face?”
Akkelte gently held my cheek.
His expression looked so cold that I’d assumed his hands would be cold too, but surprisingly, they were warm.
“…Lost it.”
“What?”
“I said I lost it… my mom’s keepsake…”
The sadness spilled straight out of my mouth.
As I tearfully explained how I thought someone had stolen my pendant, Akkelte pressed his lips into a firm line.
Then he lowered his eyes as though deep in thought.
Soon, he finally spoke again.
“I’ll find it for you.”
“…What?”
“I’ll definitely find it for you, so don’t cry.”
