🎃 🎃 🎃
“HERE, Alice.”
I was heading from lunch to arithmetic class when a student showed me a red ribbon. The boy was from Unicorn Dorm. I remembered him being a fourth year and someone who always glanced at me whenever we passed each other in the hallway.
“What a lovely ribbon. What’s this for?”
“It came in a package from my family. You can have it if you like…”
“You’re giving it to me?”
I thanked him, and the student shrieked briefly before fleeing. He turned the corner when I heard a loud crash. The helmet of a suit of armor rolled around on the floor, making me worry about the pain the student must have felt.
But I knew he was alive, at least, so I entered my classroom. Brett, a chubby boy, came up to me and asked if I liked sweets before opening a bundle wrapped in blue.
Inside was a white, chocolate bar-shaped object.
“This is called a Kendal Mint Cake. It’s really popular in towns near lakes. I bet young ladies from London don’t see them often, right? Here, it’s yours.”
“Thank you, Brett. I’ll have it in my room later.” I took the cake with a polite smile.
The boy and our other classmates watching us instantly erupted with excitement.
“Dum, Dee, I got sweets.”
“Hmph.”
“Hmph.”
The twins, who’d been following me, had an intense anger gleaming in their eyes. The expression on their faces would surely make a child cry if they saw it. They looked like they were willing to kill everything they encountered for the next fifty years. Even I felt like shedding a tear at those looks.
Dum, who had one hand in his pocket, pulled me by the arm when he saw I’d frozen in place.
“Let’s take our seats.”
“Class is about to start.”
Seated on either side of me, the twins remained grumpy throughout class. I received more presents from other students every time I walked somewhere else after that.
Dum and Dee’s faces were growing even scarier. It was like they were silently casting curses on every person they laid eyes on. Finally, the school day came to an end.
“I’ll have to bring an empty basket with me tomorrow.” I was clutching my gifts in my arms on the way back to Lion Dorm when I spotted a pretty boy holding his top hat down with both hands.
“Dark!”
My voice was full of emotion when I called out to him. I’d had so few opportunities to see him.
Dark jumped and turned to face me. “Alice…”
“Have you been feeling all right?” I asked. “I’m still looking for the trap-laying demon, so please just bear with it a little longer.”
Dark’s face clouded at my explanation. The blood drained from his face, his red lips trembled slightly, and his sapphire eyes blurred with tears.
“Stay away from me.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. I froze.
“Did something happen?” I asked.
“I don’t want to see your face. …I’m sorry.”
That was all Dark said before he walked away.
I stood there, alone and dumbfounded.
“He…doesn’t want…to see my face…”
Being abandoned by my fiancé was like a bolt of lightning straight to the head. It didn’t hurt. Instead, my heart felt numb, like time had stopped entirely.
Jack came up in front of me, seeing that I’d turned into an empty shell.
“Are you all right, my lady?”
“Jack… What happened with Dark? He told me he didn’t want to see my face.”
“So he’s like that with you too?” It seemed that Jack was struggling to deal with Dark as well. He scratched his head over his beret. “He’s messing up our pace like that. Bloody annoying…”
Perhaps the unexpected school enrollment and his fear of hiding his horns were influencing Dark’s mind.
“I’ll ask Dark what’s going on. We don’t have classes tomorrow, right? I’ll bring sweets to Unicorn Dorm, so please prepare some tea for us.”
I laid out that schedule before turning to look at the twins, who’d stopped behind me. They were glaring at the second story of Unicorn Dorm with eyes as cold as ice.
“Dum? Dee?”
I watched their expressions untense.
“Let’s return to the dorm.”
“Leeds is waiting for us.”
They held their hands out toward me like a pair of dashing princes. I couldn’t help but think of how Dark acted before his transformation.
“Yes, let’s head back.”
I gave my left hand to Dum and my right hand to Dee. They gently closed their fingers around mine and smiled sweetly at me.
“Just the three of us.”
“Just the three of us.”
Their kindness filled the hole Dark’s cold words had left in my heart.
I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t help but accept the gesture. The three of us walked back to the dorm hand-in-hand that day.