Chapter 8: Flirting? What’s That?
“YOU’RE kidding me! No one told me anything! You’re meeting Dylan for a marriage interview?!”
The next day, I told Siraiya everything behind the schoolhouse. Dylan was his older brother—the duke’s second son.
Siraiya was horribly shaken up by the news. It shocked him. His pale face made my heart ache for him.
“Please calm down, Siraiya. I have to meet him to be respectful, but I have no intention of marrying anyone but you.” I stroked his back reassuringly until he seemed to have regained his composure.
Still, the look on his face was one of utter despair.
“My brothers have already taken so much from me. I’ve always just given up, since there was nothing else I could do. But…but I can’t let that happen this time. I can’t give in. I don’t want to lose you. I… I love you!”
Hanging his head wasn’t enough to hide the tears streaming from his eyes, so he covered his face with both hands instead. Siraiya professed his love for me, his strained voice squeaking out of his mouth.
“You don’t have to give up,” I assured. “I won’t let them steal the things you care about ever again. It’s all right. We’re still going to get engaged and become husband and wife. We’ll be together forever. I love you too, Siraiya.”
“…!”
I pulled his body to lean against me so that he couldn’t refuse my support. I lowered his hands, too, but his eyes were still wet.
“I don’t understand why you fell for a person like me…” he muttered.
“You have more good qualities than I can even count, though I’d be happy to try. Would you like me to do that? It will take a long time, but I’m prepared to skip class if we must.”
“That’s…a bad idea. I want to graduate with full honors so I can hold my head up high as your husband someday.”
Finally, a smile returned to Siraiya’s face. I gently cupped his cheeks with my hands.
“I also love how you work so hard for my sake. …Are you sure I can’t kiss you? Just a quick one, on the cheek or the forehead.”
“Geez, you really… Kisses are special. We have to save them for our wedding.”
I was disappointed to have my sign of affection delayed, but I was glad to see Siraiya’s spirits lift. I squeezed his hands in place of a kiss.
“Siraiya. Will you come to the Rhuddlan manor after school today? My parents want to strategize about our engagement with both of us.”
“Your parents…”
“Yes. They’re eager to see us get married, too.”
Siraiya’s cheeks flushed slightly again. “I can’t wait for us to become a family,” he said.
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✶✶✶
“NOTHING beats a little flirting!”
“You’ll have to flirt with each other! That’s the ticket!”
As soon as our strategy meeting at the Rhuddlan manor kicked off, those strange comments were the first things out of my parents’ mouths.
“F-Flirting…?” Siraiya repeated their words, his green eyes growing rounder than the moon.
“On the day of your marriage interview, the two of you will need to showcase just how close you are. That way, your brother won’t want to come between you.”
“Do you know how to flirt? I’m sure you’ve seen us do it. Here, take a look. You take each other’s hands, and then…”
My parents held hands and stared deeply into each other’s eyes. They were trying to show us an example, but they gradually became distracted by each other until the world around them seemed to fade away.
Their faces drew closer and closer, until…
“It’s too soon to kiss!!”
Siraiya’s shout made my parents freeze. They realized he was correct.
When he noticed all of our eyes on him, Siraiya tensed and muttered under his breath. “No, I mean… Just for Cynthia and me…since we’re not even engaged yet… B-Besides…I want our first kiss…to be at our wedding…”
My parents smiled fondly at the blushing Siraiya as if he were their own son.
“I see. We thank you for cherishing our daughter so dearly.”
“You’re truly the only one worthy of our daughter, aren’t you?”
I agreed. I couldn’t imagine marrying anyone else but Siraiya now.
Frankly, as much as I wanted to kiss him that very moment, I was happy to have proof of how much Siraiya cared about me. I needed to cherish this earnest boy just as much as he cherished me.
“My wife just looked so beautiful. Before I knew it, I was about to kiss her.”
“And my husband is the most handsome man of all. I’m the one who couldn’t resist giving him a kiss.”
My parents had started flirting with each other, so I let them be and leaned toward Siraiya, who was seated next to me on the sofa.
“Let’s try it, Siraiya! Give me your hands.” He was flustered and blushing, but I ignored that and took his hands in mine. “Your eyes are so beautiful. I could stare into them forever.”
“Ngh…! Y-y-yours too… Cynthia…”
“I also adore your dazzling silver hair. But it’s hard to see your lovely face underneath. How would you feel about letting me style it a different way?”
“You…can do…whatever you want to me…!”
“Really?! Then let’s kiss every day after our wedding! Both morning and night kisses can never be missed!”
“What?! That’s not what I…! E-Every day…? Kissing…you…?”
I could have sworn I saw steam coming off Siraiya’s face.
“Oh dear!” I cried, seeing Siraiya on the verge of fainting.
My parents jumped in at that point to give us advice.
“That wasn’t bad. I’m just worried the boy’s going to have a heart attack.”
“Besides, it’s important not to move too fast in the early days of romance. There’s no need to push yourselves.”
“Then what shall we do? Should we scrap this flirting plan?” I asked.
That was when my parents exchanged knowing looks, seeming to think of a plan at the same time. Mother left the room for a moment to retrieve something.
She returned with a jewelry box, set it on the table, and removed a pair of earrings from inside. They were simple yet beautiful earrings designed to recreate twinkling stars. My parents had each worn one of them while they were engaged.
“Why don’t you wear matching earrings and cozy up with each other? That should be all you need to convey how close you are.”
“A lot of people butted their noses in when we got engaged, too. They wanted us to marry other nobles instead of marrying within the same family line.”
“But the earrings helped a lot. Why, it only took a single look at us to understand how much we cared about each other.”
“What do you think? If you agree, we’ll have a new pair made at once.”
Mother and Father had come up with a lovely idea.
“Let’s do it, Siraiya!” I jumped at the offer out of excitement, but when I looked at Siraiya, the blood had drained from his face. “Siraiya? You don’t want to?”
“…I couldn’t possibly mar your skin.” He reached out and gently touched my ear, rubbing his finger over my unmarred skin.
✦ ✦ ✦
Wouldn’t this be considered flirting? I thought about pointing it out to him, but decided against it when I saw the genuine look of concern on his face.
“I won’t force you if you’re against it. But personally, I’d love to share something with you that will never change,” I said.
“Never change?”
“People are always changing every single day, even though it’s hard to tell. Come tomorrow, you and I will be different people. Even these tender feelings we share toward each other right now will build up as days go by, quietly transforming us into something different. It’s a wonderful thing, but I think I’m going to miss these times too.”
I touched Siraiya’s ear, feeling his skin that was much warmer than that of my hand.
“But if we had something permanent, even if it’s small, we could carry a part of who we are today with us for the rest of our lives. That would make me really happy.”
Siraiya stared at me silently in thought. Finally, he put his hand over mine—the one against his ear—and took a deep breath before closing his eyes.
“…All right. Let’s do it.”
“Are you certain? Despite everything I just said, I don’t want to trample over your feelings either. We can find another way if you still feel hesitant at all.”
He shook his head and looked at me with gentle eyes. “I’m certain. Now I’ll see it as a treasure we share instead of something that hurts you.”
With our feelings on the same page, my family’s servants brought in special tools for us to pierce each other’s ears. It stung a bit, but I knew the pain would go away in no time at all.
Each of our ears now bore a star that would twinkle for eternity without change.
Now the two of us will truly be together forever.
At least, that was what I thought.
From the next day forward, Siraiya stopped coming to school.