In the end, Violette and Yulan wasted most of their lunch time. Yulan managed to eat lunch, but considering the amount, it was like only eating desserts.
Violette didn’t really care about her own portions. She had less time to eat because it was the result for her own actions, and originally, she also didn’t really eat that much.
But it wasn’t the same for Yulan. He didn’t have time to eat since he waited for Violette. There’s no way such a small meal would be enough for someone of Yulan’s size.
Violette kept worrying until after school about whether Yulan could concentrate on his afternoon class after eating so little. She couldn’t concentrate at all, but she properly took notes, so it’s all good.
(I wonder if he’s free right now…)
Violette packed up her notes and textbooks while thinking about Yuran, or rather, Yulan’s stomach. It would be her fault if he was hungry, so she would like to treat him to a meal. But, what if Yulan had other plans?
She should’ve asked about it before the end of the lunch break, but the idea of treating him out just came to her mind during the lesson.
Yulan was bright and calm, he’s tolerant, and he was good at taking care of others. He definitely would have many friends.
To ask him to spare his time after school for her… Violette felt extremely apologetic.
(Let’s… go to his classroom for once…)
After thinking this far, Violette wracked her brains even more. Yulan’s classroom was in the first year class. It was the class that was the most strongly influenced by Maryjun’s existence. If Violette went there, wasn’t that the same as throwing a lit match to a pit of oil? The second years hardly talked about the rumors anymore, but if the originator was there, the amount of time taken to extinguish those gossips would be different.
Violette knew that Yulan and Maryjun’s class were different, but since she couldn’t teleport, she still had to walk past it.
“… I’ll immediately go home as soon as there’s a ruckus.”
Not going was not an option. However, she also didn’t have to be careless and charge in recklessly. It’s not like it’s wrong to want a ensured escape later on.
“Violette-sama, goodbye.”
“Yes, goodbye.”
Violette returned the farewell from her classmates who were standing in front of the exit, ready to leave the classroom.
× × × ×
From middle school till the end of her first year in highschool, Violette still thought that this school was too spacious. It was so wide, to the point where there were so many classrooms that she had never been to even after being enrolled in this school for more than a year.
Yulan’s class was a class Violette had never visited before.
Of course she had experienced being a first year in high school, but Violette’s classroom last year was different. The extreme size of the school resulted in classes being too far apart from each other. Even if two classes were on the same floor, the distance between the classrooms and corridors were completely out of proportion.
And then, there was another thing that Violette had never done before.
In fact, she had never visited Yulan’s class to see him even once, even when Violette and Yulan went to the same school.
(…
I might have been spoiled by him a little bit too much.)
During middle school, Yulan visited Violette’s class every day, so there was no need for her to do so. Now that Violette was aware of the fact that she never went to find him on her own, she reflected on it a little.
But then, having Violette who was a senior student and Duke’s daughter visit him would result in a lot of rumours, and Violette didn’t feel like those rumours would go in a very good direction. Other than that, she also wanted to avoid meeting Maryjun if possible.
Violette could squeeze out a very small amount of courage since right now was already after school, but if this was normal school time, the unfavorable condition would be enough to crush her cue all together.
Even now, her pace was slow even though she had already decided to go, and she passed a lot of students who were going to return home. Her vain struggle to decrease the number of people in the classroom was transparent.
“…It’s here.”
But of course her struggle had its limits. Although she had walked much slower than how she normally walked, the class where Yulan was studying was in front of her.
When she peeked inside from the open door, the figures of people had considerably decreased. She was relieved that the amount of people was getting a lot less, but she couldn’t find the tall figure she was looking for.
“Did he go home already?”
Violette fixed her posture that was leaning forward and leaked out a sigh. Now that she thought of it, the more the amount of people had decreased, the more likely it was that Yuran would have returned home. Her own words of not making any promises at the lunch break were cleanly returned to her after school.
“Hey there.”
“…!!”
The moment Violette was going to give up and leave, there was a voice from behind. Violette thought that the ones who would realize her coming here were the people in the classroom, so she was completely defenseless. She turned back without thinking.
The first thing that attracted Violette’s eyes was the person’s brown skin. In this country where there were a lot of fair-skinned people who didn’t tan their skin, the boy looked unconditionally healthy, and Violette was surprised that she didn’t have a sense of incongruity even though this was the first time she saw someone with brown skin. His messy silver hair and perfectly round eyes were cute and it suited him, but the arms that were exposed on the rolled up sleeve were thicker than Violette’s. She couldn’t help but to think that the boy was short since she was using Yulan as the standard, but he was still taller than Violette.
In the school where there were many students who acted like a superior gentlemen, he was an extremely normal… rather than normal, he looked like a very lively boy.
“Do you have any business in my class? Or maybe you are looking for someone?”
“Y-yes…”
Apparently, the boy didn’t feel shy talking to people he just met, just like his appearance. He didn’t seem to have any ulterior motive, so Violette didn’t have to be vigilant against him, but her instinct told her to move away since the distance was shrinking too quickly.
Even so, this person had expressly called her out first, so it’s not like she shouldn’t talk to him. Yulan was not in the classroom, but she couldn’t be sure whether he had returned home or just not in the class right now.
“I am looking for Yulan Cugrus, but… did he already return home?”
“Yulan?”
The boy repeated Yulan’s name, sounding more like he was surprised rather than asking her a question. Was it too unexpected? His gaze roamed around while making a thinking posture, and after a moment, he opened his mouth as if he had noticed something.
“Wait, are you actually that ‘Violette’?”
“Eh…?”
Having her own name being called so suddenly, only question marks came into her mind, unable to even nod.
Violette was sure that this should be the first time she met with the boy in front of her. She would never forget such a characteristic person.
Without noticing Violette’s puzzlement, the boy nodded over and over again looking like he was convinced.
“You’re just like what I’ve heard of… Of course he will become that overprotective, eh.”
“Er… Did we ever meet before?”
“Ahh, sorry. It must be disgusting for me to call your name out so suddenly, right?”
“I don’t think it’s that extreme…”
His appearance as he laughed with an open mouth reminded Violette of the sun, but in a different way from Yulan. If Yulan was a warm fine clear day, this boy was like a blazing everlasting summer. Violette felt like she was scorched, but she didn’t dislike his presence.
“I’m Gia Fort. This is the first time we’re meeting.”
“I am Violette Rem Vahan. It seems like you already know about me, though.”
“It’s because Yulan often talks about you. It’s true that this is the first time we meet, but for me, you are more like an acquaintance now.”
“Yulan did…?”
“I’ve been buddies with Yulan since middle school.”
Violette herself said how Yulan and the boy, Gia were quite similar before, but what came to her mind first was how it was unexpected.
Both Yulan and Gia surely had many friends. However, the atmosphere they gave off was the completely opposite. In short, their type was different.
Such two people were good friends, and from what Gia said, it seemed like they have been friends for quite a long time. Violette didn’t understand the meaning of friendship from the beginning, so the relationship between these boys were completely out of her comprehension.
“I’m sure he shouldn’t have returned home yet, did you find him?”
“He wasn’t at the classroom.”
“Maybe he was asked to do something… I think he will come back here soon, do you want to wait for him?”
“No, it’s alright. It’s not like we made any promises before, so I’ll excuse myself now.”
Violette was thankful for Gia’s consideration, but waiting at this place would be bad for her own heart. She didn’t know whether Maryjun had returned home or not, and she also couldn’t be sure whether Yulan who she didn’t make any promises with would come back.
It was completely Violette’s slip up for not making any promise with him before.
“Can you help me relay a message to him?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“I’m sorry for today, I’ll apologize again next time… Can you convey that to him?”
“Got it~ I’ll convey it to him with full responsibility!”
“Thank you.”
It was a pity that Violette couldn’t meet Yulan and appease him for making him hungry today, but then, she also managed to meet Yulan’s good friend, so this was also a harvest.
When they were still young, Yuran would always stick behind Violette, and he would always find some spare time to go to her place even after attending school, so Violette was happy that he found himself a good friend. She knew that with Yulan’s personality, everyone would like him, and it’s easy to imagine that he could make good friends, but having the real thing in front of her was different.
Her important younger brother got a good friend. He still showed his face to Violette quite often right now, but that would also became less and less one day. Yulan was a childhood friend who was the closest to Violette, but he might graduate from that in a not so distant future.
It was wonderful that her important person had someone important to him, but Violette wondered why she felt a bit lonely when she imagined it.
Violette could finally go home with a good mood today after a long time─as if. She was jumping to a wrong conclusion. They said that before one reached their home, it was still considered as an outing, so she shouldn’t have dropped her guard before she left the school gate.
“Violette.”
“Claudia-sama…”
“Can you give me a little of your time?”
Before she could pass through the entranceway merrily, she was stopped in her tracks.
There’s no way she could reject Claudia who was asking her with a serious expression, and she could almost imagine that her future was about to change its course.