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Holly drank the juice with a subtle expression. She was obviously on a journey to find her parents, but even though she didn’t meet them, she wasn’t too disappointed. Perhaps it was because the trip itself had become more enjoyable.
“Shall I inquire? It might be easier to find if you have a sketch. I have had a talent for drawing since I was a child.”
The employee who was glancing at her eyes spoke kindly. It seemed that she was also making money that way.
“It’s okay. The juice was delicious.”
Holly, having emptied the glass of juice, left the store without regret.
She went around town like that all day, asking about her parents. After a while, inside her paper bag, the apples and bread she bought for questioning were mixed up in a mess. Even though she went out as soon as the sun rose, the time was already getting closer to lunch.
Trudging along, she eventually sat down on a table in the street just in sight.
“…Isn’t it here?”
As she sighed deeply, she felt a strong gaze from somewhere. When she turned her head, a man was standing in the alley and looking this way.
‘Who is it?’
His hair looked gray or blond, depending on the light.
“If he’s that handsome, there’s no way I’ll easily forget him…”
No matter how much she recalled it, she did not remember the face.
“Was it an illusion?”
It was as she tried to turn her head away in surprise. The man gazed at her and winked.
As Holly glanced around her at the street table where she sat, there was only one seat with her. While there were a few people coming and going on the road by the street table, the blond man’s head remained motionless, pointing in the direction she was sitting.
There was a wide river behind her, so she couldn’t even think he was looking at the person on the other side.
‘Could it be me…?’
Thinking so, she averted her gaze with a troubled expression.
‘Right now, even just one Cahill is too much.’
She also had a promise to Cahill. But even so, it was a little strange that her heart wouldn’t budge when someone that handsome was looking at her.
At that moment, she heard a chair dragging behind her.
Enchanted by the intrusive sound, she unknowingly looked behind. The culprit who made the noise was a large man sitting at the table next to her. Unlike Holly, who was sitting next to him, if he glanced up, he would have made direct eye contact with the blond man.
‘No way…’
Holly gazed at the blond man and the man in the back seat with a puzzled look.
‘The taste…’
The man’s forearm, about the width of Holly’s waist, had a mysterious drawing on it and the marks were clearly visible under his chin. Even at a glance, he didn’t seem like a person doing anything good. Although the flesh of his eyelids drooped and covered half of his pupils, the half-exposed pupils were tinged with a bloody light.
“Bro, brother… is that a man you know?”
The big man’s companion asked nervously.
“Who does that guy dare to play tricks on…”
The big man got up, slamming the table, ignoring his companion’s words. Holly, who was right next to him, was shaking.
As the large man approached, the color drained from the fair-haired man’s pale face.
“The world is wide, and there are various tastes.”
Judging by his voice that sounded like scratching iron, the result of the trick seemed not to be very good. Holly hurried her steps, embarrassed that she had misunderstood and unwilling to see a man’s misfortune.
* * *
As she continued to walk through the market, she eventually stopped in front of a uniquely shaped street vendor. With the owner cooking and the guests sitting right in front of it and eating, the savory smell tickled her nose.
“I just happened to be hungry…”
Holly soon took the empty seat and sat down with a welcome look. At her eye level, there was a paper with the menu written on it.
“I’d like a mushroom fried rice, please.”
“Yes! Please wait a minute!”
After taking the order, the cook poured oil into the pan and started to fry the mushrooms. While the man who was cooking by moving his wrist stopped his hand for a moment, Holly hurriedly rummaged through her pockets and pulled out the papers.
“Have you ever seen a middle-aged man like this?”
The paper she took out had a man’s face drawn on it. Honestly, it didn’t look like the real thing, but the bald head and a dot in the middle of his forehead were obvious.
The cook wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and leaned over to the painting.
“No. I’ve never seen them. Are you looking for someone who ran away with something?”
It sounded like a random word, but it wasn’t wrong. Instead of answering, Holly smiled bitterly, and just a moment later, a bowl of steaming rice was placed in front of her. The smell was acceptable, and she scooped up a spoonful before putting it in her mouth.
“It is delicious!”
Lifting her head, Holly gave a thumb up at the cook.
“Eat slowly.”
The cook smiled proudly and set a small bowl down next to her bowl. It was a clear stew with a savory smell.
She lifted her head and looked at it with wide eyes as the cook put an index finger over his lips.
‘There are no guests but me…’
She didn’t hate the chef’s joke.
As the savory stew went down her throat and soothed her hungry stomach, a warm aura ran through her exhausted body.
As time passed, there were more people on the market road.
Occasionally, a person with a lot of luggage would hit the back of a person sitting on a narrow road with their luggage. At the street stall where only she was sitting, the empty seats were filled one by one.
Holly half buried her nose and ate, regardless of who pushed her on the back. She saw the empty seat finally getting an occupant at the end. Then, it was next to her.
She glanced at the man’s hand out of the corner of her eye and suddenly felt empty.
‘Cahill must have eaten lunch…’
The person he would meet was the watcher of the coming-of-age trip. Since he even got kicked out in the middle, he must have been dissatisfied with Cahill.
‘Still, I’m sure the prince of a country will not starve?’
Holly tried to put her mind at ease. As she was busily moving her spoon back and forth between the stew bowl and the rice-bowl, all of a sudden, with a strange feeling, she stopped her hand.
‘Hmm…?’
She narrowed her brows before slowly starting the spoon again. Something moved slowly from around her waist towards her hips.
‘…It’s a molester.’
Thinking that, her eyes flashed.
Holly held the stew bowl whole and pretended to drink it while her pupils moved busily under her drooping eyelids. The body temperature beyond the cloth was hot. The molester thought she didn’t feel it, and he moved more blatantly. He rubbed her butt gently with the palm of his hand, then squeezed it tightly.
‘You think I’ve been through this once or twice?’
She first scraped up the leftover rice at the bottom of the bowl before scooping up a spoonful and driving it into her mouth. The bowl was clean without leaving a grain of rice.
“I enjoyed a good meal.”
Gritted her teeth and smiled, she immediately put her hands behind her back. His fingertips touched hard skin. Holly grabbed, pulled, and twisted whatever she caught. The culprit’s body temperature instantly felt cold enough to chill down his spine.
“Dirty hands, I won’t let you play with me again.”
Her voice was muffled. Holly turned her body to see who was the owner of the arm she was holding. Startled, the person reflexively clenched his hand hard.
“Aackk!”
A man’s screams of pain rang out as her fingernails dug deep into his skin. Immediately, all the eyes of the people passing by, including the cook and others in the stall were on them.
“Who are you?”
With a gasp, the words came out before she thought. The molester in front of her was the pale blond man. As she rested at the street table, she was the man who winked and joked with some guy. The man’s eyes were constantly shaking as if he was embarrassed to be caught by Holly.
“Who are you?! Let this go.”
The man tried to free her arm from Holly. However, the more he did, the deeper her fingernails went into his forearm.
“You rubbed my butt…!”
Holly’s voice rose at the man’s impudent attitude. Onlookers stopped in their spot at the sudden commotion, and there were gasps from their mouths. Meanwhile, the blond man was speechless at her remarks as if at a loss for words.
The onlookers rolled their eyes at the blond man with unkind eyes.
“What…? Rubbing your butt… no, wait, wait—there seems to be a misunderstanding…”
The man who had stiffened at her cry belatedly denied it.