Rose wasn’t an expert on how households like this ran, but she knew a thing or two about servants. Only a handful of eccentric nobles ever visited the Witch’s hermitage themselves. Most of the time, their less important servants acted as the representatives in their requests for the witches’ secret potions. They were so low in the hierarchy that they were instantly expelled the moment they failed to gain their lord or lady’s trust. The fact that her own judgment and casual opinion could affect another’s life was too heavy of a burden for Rose—especially when it was a good person’s life.
Relieved, she let all the tension out of her body—and felt her dress slip right off her shoulders under her robe as she did. It was common for her to experience wardrobe malfunctions when she was mostly skin and bones and had sloped shoulders.
She stuck her hand inside her robe and yanked her dress back up. But the unbuttoned back collar flapped loose again and slid right back down.
“What are you doing?” Harij eyed Rose suspiciously as she fidgeted around under her robe.
“Uh, nothing really, just…”
Both the dress and the room were provided for her by Harij. If she changed the topic to avoid mentioning the buttons, he might take it as her being dissatisfied with him.
“Haha…” Rose ended up letting out a dry laugh. She was perplexed by how distressing it was to be cared for by someone. If she kept living only thinking about herself, she could have easily changed the topic without telling a lie, but it was becoming more difficult to interact with others as she grew attached to them.
However, the funny thing was that she actually didn’t mind it—despite how troublesome it was.
Not believing it was nothing for a single second, Harij cocked an eyebrow at her. “What is it?”
“Ah, um…it’s the buttons…”
Harij scrutinized Rose when she glanced away from him. “…Don’t tell me they are unhooked?”
“Mm-hm…”
Hearing her hushed reply, Harij grabbed her by the arm. In no way could it be called a gentlemanly escort, but Rose followed him without question. She had the strong inclination that she mustn’t oppose him right now.
Harij opened a door and swept inside. By all appearances, he had brought her into a linen closet.
Rose’s room had been right in front of them, so it would’ve been the closest and best option to avoid prying eyes. So why did he pick this spot? She returned her gaze to Harij to casually ask him about it and noticed he was sullenly glaring down at her. She promptly bit her tongue. Silence is golden.
“Your robe…”
“Pardon?” She asked for clarification because she had been too lost in thought to understand him. This prompted Harij to scrunch up his face as if he had been punched in the gut while he wrenched out the rest of his sentence.
“…Remove your robe.”
Rose deeply regretted making him fill in the blanks for her.
There was nothing lewd about it. After all, he wasn’t trying to make her strip but help her dress. No question about it.
Nevertheless, Rose froze from head to toe at his order. Not even a single hair on her body moved.
She jerkily turned her back to him, then slowly lowered the robe over her shoulders. Though she wasn’t exposing all of her back, he definitely saw some skin. Just how many buttons had she managed to hook anyway? Was she somewhat covered? Or was she revealing more than was decent? The more aware she became of his gaze, the more her skin burned.
Harij slowly reached out and gingerly touched the buttons.
POP!
She heard a button come undone, and the dress loosened. What the heck? This isn’t what we agreed on! She panicked but didn’t utter a word of complaint out loud. With her eyes wide and lips pressed together, all she could do was concentrate on each and every touch of his hands.
Harij grabbed the sides of her dress. Whether or not he knew of Rose’s inner turmoil, his every move was deliberate. His touch was more delicate than if he were peeling overripe peaches.
She sensed the buttons being hooked as he raised the sides of her dress together. He must have undone the other button because Rose had it in the wrong hole.
Only the sound of their breathing and rustling clothes could be heard in the linen closet at dawn. Somehow, it felt as if the very air in the room had grown thinner. The more conscious she became of his hands and breathing, the harder it was for her to breathe.
Harij’s hands stopped moving after he finished hooking the buttons on her collar.
Is it over? Her mouth was too dry to ask. She couldn’t speak, nor could she move, because she was too afraid she would brush against Harij’s fingertips. So she stayed that way for a good few seconds.
“…I’m done.”
Less time passed than Rose had thought. It lasted ten to fifteen seconds at most, and it still left her drained. What in the world was he looking at? She decided to convince herself he was just confirming all her buttons were properly in place.
“Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Truth be told, she wasn’t inconvenienced by it, but she was fine if fixing her clothes put Harij’s mind at ease. Indeed, the matter was of little concern to her now, so she just wanted to leave the closet—at once. It felt as if something invisible was trapped in the room with them. Her cheek felt like fire against the back of her hand, which likely meant she was red up to the back of her neck. Embarrassed, she lowered her head.
Harij was the one who said he was done, and yet he didn’t move an inch. He was standing in the way of the door, so Rose needed him to move to leave. But she had to summon the courage to ask that of him. She didn’t know what it was, but something in the air completely overwhelmed her.
Time passed without her being able to so much as fidget. She felt so suffocated by the oppressive air, she couldn’t even look over her shoulder.
“…Um, are you…angry?” Rose asked after mustering all her courage.
“No. Not in the slightest,” Harij answered.
“You aren’t? But…” Rose tilted her head, confused.
Harij’s voice is certainly not angry—but what’s with his tone? What’s with the entire atmosphere?
Harij must have sensed her confusion—he stirred behind her.
“I’m…”
“…Ah!”
Of all the things, Harij slid his fingers into the opening of her collar and stroked her nape. Gooseflesh appeared all along her skin, sending delicious shivers throughout her body, and her knees went weak while his fingers traced the contours of her neck.
“…holding myself back from doing stuff like this. Get it?”
“Uh-huh.”
Rose covered the back of her neck with both hands as she sank weakly to the ground. That moment of unmoving silence earlier had been from Harij staring down her cherry-red neck.
In retrospect, Harij’s fingertips never brushed against her skin—not even once—when he was hooking her buttons. She had never toyed with a person’s buttons before, but clearly they should never be touched without extreme caution.
“I’ll head to the dining room first,” Harij said, leaving the linen closet.
Rose had no reason to go to the dining room when she didn’t eat breakfast, but her feet still carried her there once she regained her calm.
Harij was nowhere to be found when she arrived. Puzzled, she looked for him in the kitchen.
Tala noticed her as she hummed and flipped food in a frying pan. “Oh, hello there. Do you need something, milady? Would you like to have breakfast?”
“No.”
Rose, who could only tell the truth, chose to keep her conversations with anyone other than Harij to a bare minimum. The servants took her behavior to mean she was shy.
“Why not have a cup of tea since you came all this way, then?”
“That sounds lovely, thank you.”
Tala smiled when Rose bowed her head, and she set about preparing the tea. She was a woman with a good head on her shoulders and an uncompromising attitude toward work, but unlike Rose’s grandmother, she had no problem showing kindness as well.
She pulled over a chair for Rose since she was standing there with nothing better to do.
“Would you like milk? We just got a fresh batch in today.”
“Yes, please.”
“A lot? Or a little?”
“Just a little.”
“You’ve got it.”
After Rose sat down, Tala placed the teapot on the table with a clink and then added a tea cozy on top of it. The quilted covering, with its many florid layers of fabric, may have been made by her.
An hourglass was placed next to it, and Tala returned to the stove. Rose rested her cheek against the table as she waited for the sand to finish falling. The smell of fried eggs, rushing footsteps, and the clanking of tableware were all new yet nostalgic things to Rose that tickled her pink. She discovered she had a soft spot for them, though her expression didn’t show it.
“Here you are. I was looking for you,” Harij said to Rose when he finally arrived to find her sipping dark black tea with just a splash of milk.
“Oh, you were waiting for His Lordship? What a delight it is to see you two on such good terms.”
Tala laid out Harij’s breakfast on the dining table. Rose’s teapot was also whisked away to the dining room without her permission. Aww. Rose was staring longingly after the teapot when Harij offered her his hand.
He wants me to take his hand. I know that much. I do, but…
“How long will you make me wait?”
“Sorry…”
Rose timidly placed her fingertips on his palm. He enveloped her fluttering fingers securely in his hand. He then expertly guided her out of the kitchen chair and began walking without so much as blushing. Rose was the only one who felt so embarrassed she wanted to flee. Who wouldn’t be when they were escorted just a few steps from one room into the other?
“Did you get lost in your own house?” Rose jested to escape her discomfiture as Harij pulled out a dining chair and eased her into it. Then again, she couldn’t be so sure he wouldn’t get lost, given how big the mansion was.
However, she received a firm “No” from him as he took his own seat at the table. “I was cooling off.”
“If you say so.” She tilted her head, contemplating the hidden meaning of his words as she took a sip of her tea. As soon as it clicked for her, she nearly spit out her drink. She pressed her lips shut and desperately swallowed the liquid—then immediately began gagging on it.
“Are you okay?”
She bobbed her head between coughs. Though she doubted she was really okay.