“I really don’t think a panty incident or two is that big of a deal.”
“...”
“Sometimes people just see things, even if you don’t want them to.”
“...”
Was that meant to be comforting? I didn’t know.
I sniffled and sobbed. “My beautiful first love...is over...”
“Stop crying over something that happened so long ago,” Nadir said.
A long whine escaped my lips. “He must remember me as some sort of deviant...”
“You think that’s what someone that young would think about some silly children’s panties?”
“Oh, you’re so mean,” I whimpered. “They were adorable, they had this bear print...”
“So...silly children’s panties, then.”
Silly children’s panties were still panties!
At a loss for what to do about the sobbing mess I’d turned into, Nadir paced restlessly around the room. He stopped abruptly, sighed, then snatched away the blanket I’d draped over my head.
“Nooo!” I wailed. “Give it back!”
“No.”
“Tyrant!” I tried to take back my stolen blanket, but I was no match for Nadir’s strength and only managed to pull myself closer to him. “Urk... Stop looking at me... I look awful from all that crying...”
“I’ve seen this an awful lot of times by now.”
“You’re supposed to say I don’t look that bad or something, even if you don’t mean it...” I mumbled, rubbing my nose on Nadir’s clothes as I sniffled loudly. Take that! Be annoyed! “I’m just a little heartbroken, okay? A memory I thought was beautiful turned out to actually be embarrassing...”
I should’ve probably been relieved to at least have been wearing my favorite bear panties, but the waterworks wouldn’t stop. How complicated a maiden’s heart could be.
“Who cares what kind of panties they were?” Nadir asked.
Another sob. “The problem is that he saw them...”
As I whined about no man wanting me for a wife after this, Nadir began to stroke my head. I realized then that he’d sat down on the bed next to me at some point.
“Like I said...” He hesitated, opening his mouth several times as if trying to decide what to follow up with. Finally, he looked me straight in the eye with that infuriatingly handsome face of his.
I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to conceal the flutter of my heart as I waited for him to continue.
Nadir swallowed hard. “I’ll just marry you myself, then.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I told you this a long time ago.”
A long time...ago...
Nadir’s cheeks reddened, but he didn’t avert his gaze. His expression reminded me of someone, but who...?
Wait. Right, that boy was making this face too—
“Huh?”
Come to think of it, his hair was this same color.
“Huh?”
And his eyes too. And they glistened a little from embarrassment, just like this.
“Huh?”
I was so stunned that my tears receded.
No one told me my first love had been right here this whole time!
✦ ✦ ✦
“I...what? Wait. Wait a second...”
The shock was so great that my brain couldn’t function properly. Wait, so...Nadir was the boy from my memories? And I’d been saying...what was it? Oh, had I just...had I actually...
I-I’d told the man himself that he’d been my first love!
“Oh. Oh, oh no, oh no, no, no, no—” I stammered in a panic.
“Hey! There, there!” Nadir said, rubbing my back. “Breathe! Come on. In...out...”
“I’m not giving birth or anything!” I mean, the breathing technique was good, just not very fitting for right now! “Since when?! Since when have you known?!”
“Well, since...” Nadir mumbled, hesitating for a moment before finally whispering, “Since I saw your...legs...”
My legs? “Wait, what? When did you see my legs? Other than just now, I mean.”
“You showed them to me yourself.”
“I would never do something so perverted!”
“You did, back when you tried to make it seem like we’d done something!”
Back when I’d tried to what, now? Wait... “You mean when Leticia was trying to escape?”
“Yes.”
Quite some time ago now, back when Leticia—still the prince’s fiancée at the time—had run away to a quiet village, I’d joined Nadir in following her there. She’d told me her brother was available, and I’d thought that was very convenient, so I’d tried to make people think we’d done the deed. Which, well, yes. I’d never planned on going all the way, though, and regardless—
“Hey!” I protested. “That only happened because you shoved me off you and made my skirt flip up! I wasn’t showing you anything!”
“The fact you were on top of me in the first place is enough for me to label you perverted!”
“How rude! I wasn’t going to compromise my chastity!” But come to think of it, ever since that day, Nadir had seemed much more wistful. “B-Besides, you were indifferent to my advances.”
If he’d remembered our time together as children, why hadn’t he greeted me with open arms and an “I’ve missed you!” when I went to visit him? Instead, he’d snapped at me to go home and kicked me out!
“That’s because you came after me before I was ready,” Nadir explained.
“Ready for what?” I tilted my head, puzzled. Why would he have needed to be ready to pursue a friendship with me?
He gave me an exasperated sigh. “I had to investigate your family situation and the people you owed money to, and ensure there were no issues with your social circles, among other things.”
Wait, did high-ranking nobles always go so far as to probe into even minor acquaintanceships? My goodness! How terrifyingly strict!
“Once I confirmed I could handle the debt and that there were no other issues, I came for you,” Nadir said.
“You called me over, actually,” I corrected him. He’d made me come for him, not the other way around.
“Tomayto, tomahto.”
“Also, how could you tell who I was by looking at my legs? Surely I’ve changed after all these years?”
“Some parts of you haven’t.”
“I’m pretty sure I’ve changed plenty.”
“You have, and that’s why I couldn’t recognize you at first,” he agreed. “A tomboyish child like you, who barely even looked like a girl, growing such giant melons? I never would’ve guessed.”
“Excuse you!” Listen, I hadn’t exactly thought I’d have ended up looking like this either! I’d hoped to become a dainty beauty!
“But one thing didn’t change.”
“And that was...?” I looked at Nadir expectantly. Maybe he was about to be nice—perhaps he’d say it was something about my personality.
He looked straight at me as he answered, “The three moles lined up on your thigh.”
“You jerk!”