∴ ∵ ∴
TAP.
Rose woke up to the sound of a shoe colliding with something hard.
The room was pitch-dark with the lights out. Only moonlight shone through the windows, creating a beautiful piece of art on the floor by framing the rug with a square border.
Her curiosity was piqued by the small sound that would’ve normally never bothered her before, and she rose from bed, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
Her light-pink tresses softly fell away from the soft, silky bedclothes. She placed a hand on the bedside table to help her stand.
The table was a part of the dowry Tien had delivered the other day with three donkeys. Rose didn’t hate seeing the furniture Tien had chosen in the room Harij prepared.
After running her hand gently over the side table, she headed toward the noise.
It came from one of the adjoining rooms connected to hers. She stood in front of the door—the only door that was locked.
It was designed to be unlocked only from her side. She pinched the small lever that acted as the lock between her fingers and gently opened it.
“…?!”
The door opened to Harij. For some reason, he was sitting with his back leaning against the door. He had lost his balance when she pulled open the door and landed on his elbows.
They gaped at each other, as if they had just spotted the dead crawling out of a tomb. He clearly never expected Rose to be awake, much less notice he was there.
“What are you doing here…?”
“Nothing…”
Harij stood up, lost for words. His appearance was in perfect order. He was likely about to leave for work. Rose couldn’t fathom what reason he had to be sitting perfectly still in front of a locked door just before work. He was still searching for a response when he really looked at her, and he promptly returned to his room. He came back with a single quilt and draped it over her shoulders. She was only wearing a thin chemise, after all.
Rose gratefully accepted the quilt, which smelled of soap and Harij.
“Are you always up this late at night?”
Harij answered her question with another question.
This is why nobles are such a hassle, Rose thought, though she answered him anyway.
“No. I just happened to be awake today.”
“I see.”
“Sir Harij… Did you need something from me?”
“No… Just, before going to work, I thought— No, never mind.”
“What is it? It’s unusual for you to be so inarticulate. Do you have a fever?”
“No,” Harij retorted sullenly. Then he began muttering as if a confession were being forced out of him. “…I was just checking to see if you were still inside.”
“…You can see through walls?”
“I can’t. I can just sort of sense when a person is in a room.”
Rose had never tried that before. She was both impressed by his skill and exasperated by his answer.
“Why wouldn’t I be inside?”
“No, I knew you would be, but…”
He was being evasive again. Or perhaps this was him being embarrassed about needing to anxiously check on her despite knowing she would be there.
“For that matter, I am taking refuge here because we decided my hermitage is too dangerous at night. Where else would I be, but here?”
Rose had nowhere else to go. Shock froze Harij’s face as if that fact had only just now occurred to him.
“…That’s true, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
Harij’s expression grew pensive as he seemed to be contemplating things. Even his scrunched-up face was beautiful. Rose never grew tired of basking in the brilliance of his features, but she found something that interested her even more than him for once.
Unable to contain her curiosity, Rose stretched her neck to peek inside the room concealed behind him.
She discovered for the first time that the locked door actually connected to Harij’s bedroom. The other space was just as dark as hers, but she tried to see as much as she could anyway.
Noticing her interest and neck stretched out like a turtle’s, Harij quietly asked “…Want to come in?” after several beats of silence.
She nearly answered “Absolutely” without a second’s thought until she looked up at his face.
He was gazing down at her with eyes quieter than the nighttime lake in the dead of winter. Her curiosity was immediately dispelled. Fear came in its place.
She had this gut feeling that the moment she accepted his invitation, everything about their relationship would change. Rose may not have understood what his invitation entailed, but her instincts filled her with dread.
The tension between them instantly melted away. The corner of Harij’s lip quirked up.
He placed his hand on top of her tousled hair and ruffled it.
“I’m glad I got to see you, even if briefly. You can go back to sleep,” he said before disappearing into the darkness beyond the unlocked door.
Rose realized he had granted her mercy that night but was clueless about what it was. All she could do was stare endlessly at his door while being draped in the quilt that smelled of him.