Dayton took a deep breath in front of Yerna’s house and straightened himself up.
‘First of all, my appearance is not a problem…’
He had relaxed a bit compared to the zoo, but he still thought he looked quite presentable. Not the best, but it would at least be decent, maybe.
He looked down at the fruit basket clutched in his left hand. He couldn’t go to someone else’s house empty-handed, so he had bought a few fruits that Yerna liked. He filled it with lemons, oranges, pineapples, and things like that for Yerna, who loved sour flavors.
“Ah, what is there to be nervous about? Get it together.”
Muttering to himself, Dayton tried to calm his nerves. He clenched his fist, and as if he had finally made up his mind, he released a finger and pressed the doorbell.
Though his posture was awkward, almost as if he were pushing against a regime, thankfully, there was no one outside paying enough attention to notice him.
-Ding dong!
After a short wait, the door opened, and there stood Yerna, dressed comfortably and looking a bit tired, welcoming him.
“Oh, you’re a little early?”
“Ah, hello, Yerna. Haha… here, take this.”
“What’s all this?”
“I couldn’t come empty-handed. I brought things I thought you’d like.”
“Thank you, come in quickly.”
Dayton took a moment to steady his heart and carefully stepped into the house.
——
“Ah… I see….”
He had been excited thinking of making excuses like writing a love letter to finally go on a date with Yerna on Sunday. But because he had stumbled upon Luke self-harming, the date that should have been filled with butterflies had completely gone out the window, transforming the schedule into a serious childcare consultation instead.
Somehow it felt like a Friday even though it was Sunday.
‘Luke… didn’t you promise to help me?’
Dayton sighed deeply inside.
“So… I just don’t know how to raise him. Dayton, what should I do?”
“Um….”
Dayton peeled an apple while contemplating Yerna’s words.
To be honest, if you only listened to Yerna, Luke seemed like a truly pitiful child.
Well, in reality, he was a poor guy, but not to that extent.
“I still don’t think Luke would have self-harmed for no reason….”
“That’s true, but he really did.”
However, to cut one’s wrist was extreme.
Yerna seemed to have that image burned into her memory as if it were a trauma.
Of course, it would be.
Thinking about how he would feel if he returned from the zoo and saw Diana doing that, he would be shocked to the core.
Nonetheless, Dayton felt that Luke would have some sort of reason for such an act.
‘He certainly seems like that kind of kid.’
Reflecting on it, there had been many moments recently where he had joyfully played with Diana and laughed while eating delicious things.
Suddenly, he cut his wrist.
“Maybe it was out of curiosity. It’ll be okay.”
“Curiosity made him cut his wrist? But, that’s not all.”
“What else did he do?”
“When I took him to the department store the other day.”
Yerna sighed and recalled the events leading up to that.
——–
It was before Luke cut his wrist when they had run out of shampoo at home and went to the department store.
Surprisingly, Luke liked washing his hair more than she anticipated, so Yerna decided to drive to a place with a broader variety of products, considering they should get better shampoo.
It was the department store run by Serena.
Plus, she wanted to use the gift card Serena had given her last time.
Although they often visited smaller shops, this was the first time at a department store, so Luke shone with excitement.
“Oh… was Serena running such a shop? It looks like Serena really is something.”
“It’s a department store, not a shop.”
“A department store… I see!”
It was when Yerna was picking out shampoos that she asked Luke for his opinion.
“Luke, what scent do you like?”
“Scent? I don’t particularly have a favorite scent, but something that keeps my hair soft longer than what I used to have would be nice.”
“Really? Hmm… then maybe this shampoo with mana in it… or Gelpin? Doroness? I can’t decide….”
She felt that the mild scent of Doroness suited Luke, and as she leaned toward it, Luke shouted.
“Oh! This is!”
“What? What’s that?”
As Yerna glanced over at Luke in surprise while picking out shampoo, she became stunned.
“This blade, it’s incredibly sharp! How many layers of sharpness has it been enchanted with? Amazing! It’s unbelievable that such a blade is only 2000 gil for a whole bundle. Isn’t it incredible, Yerna?”
“Th-that’s a razor! Put it down right now, you’ll get hurt!”
“Yerna, can’t I just buy one bundle? It’s just so interesting.”
“No! You have no use for it!”
———-
Thinking of various moments where Luke had shown interest in blades, Yerna sighed.
“Luke said that?”
“He did. I didn’t know at the time, but thinking about it now, I keep recalling those moments….”
“Hmm….”
Dayton pondered seriously.
“It seems like he just has a lot of interest in knives.”
Now that he thought about it, hadn’t it been like that before?
He remembered when Luke had gazed intently at a culinary knife and stared dumbly at the blade.
That thought concerned him a bit, but when he quickly took the knife away and handed him a peeler, it looked like Luke actually liked that more.
Moreover, he had definitely shown great interest in his own razor too.
“Oh, do you shave with this? Wow, what a great blade. But why does it have so many edges?”
He probably found everything fascinating; perhaps that was why Yerna could only think of these memories.
When he thought about it, it seemed like he had more curiosity than just about knives.
“It’s probably just curiosity. He didn’t seem to take it too seriously, right?”
Dayton felt more intrigued by the fact that Luke’s wound had healed almost immediately after he cut his wrist.
If he had such a capability, would he not have wanted to try cutting his wrist at least once himself?
If asked why, it would simply be because he could.
That was how guys typically are.
Of course, that didn’t mean Luke was exactly like that, but he thought they might have similar sentiments.
Hadn’t Luke never shown signs of being depressed to the point of actually cutting his wrist?
“Well, maybe he just wanted to test his self-healing abilities? He seems to know little about his body.”
“Is that so….”
Dayton spoke a bit louder, gathering his strength.
“Yerna, I know you care a lot about Luke. But from my perspective, having looked after him for weeks, I don’t think that’s why he cut his wrist.”
“….”
Dayton held out the peeled apple towards Yerna and continued.
“You said he won’t do it anymore, right? So believe that. Luke will be fine.”
“Yes….”
Yerna picked up a piece of the apple and bit into it.
It made her feel a bit more at ease.
“Thank you, your words are somewhat comforting.”
It was clear that she no longer saw Luke as someone who would self-harm.
Perhaps it was because she had sought out an old friend.
From that moment on, he certainly had brightened up, and he didn’t refuse to go to school either.
‘Now, he must really be okay.’
Yerna showed a somewhat relieved expression.
“What about Sunday? Is that still alright?”
“Yeah, see you on Sunday.”
Dayton clenched his fist as if to say he had succeeded invisibly.
———
As lunch break was coming to a close, Mary approached Luke, who was sitting with a gloomy expression after accidentally spilling the blood of a dragon, and offered him some bread and milk.
“Luke, haven’t eaten, so you must be hungry? I brought you some bread and milk.”
“Oh, I was just feeling hungry. Thank you so much.”
“Hehe, no big deal….”
With an awkward scratch of her head, Mary watched as Luke nodded at her.
‘How considerate is she?’
Luke thought that he needed to eat quickly before the break ended and took a big bite of the bread.
With just one bite, the cream that burst out was sweet. Perhaps because of the cream, the slightly hard outer surface contrasted beautifully with the moist inside, making for a wonderful texture.
However, no matter how moist it was, it was still bread, and there was a slight dryness, but that was quickly washed away with the milk, leaving only a nutty aftertaste.
He felt quite happy.
It seemed he really had been hungry.
Luke was on the verge of finishing it in an instant.
Of course, even amidst that, he tried to keep his dining etiquette, but whether he succeeded or not was uncertain.
At the very least, he hadn’t made any noise, so that was good.
Mary, who was watching Luke as he kept munching away, smiled brightly.
“Is it that delicious? Hehe, I’m glad.”
“Um….”
Luke swallowed the bread, still full in his mouth, with the milk and let out a relieved sigh.
“What’s the name of this bread? It’s really good.”
“That? It’s called melon bread. First time eating it, huh?”
Luke looked puzzled, glancing at the bread upon hearing Mary’s answer.
“Melon bread? But it didn’t taste like melon?”
“The name just comes from how it looks!”
“Ah. Quite intuitive.”
Naming something according to its appearance; but didn’t they craft it to look that way?
Why go through the trouble of naming it such?
‘It seems like actual melons would make it taste great though.’
As he started to munch on the bread again, Luke felt Shirud’s gaze on him.
Shirud, sitting next to him, was staring fixedly at him.
However, when their eyes met, Shirud immediately averted his gaze, showing he was still quite shy.
Luke looked down at the bread, then at Shirud, letting out a chuckle as he said,
“If you wanted some, you should have just asked. I would have shared it.”
Then Shirud was startled and waved his hands, saying,
“W-what are you talking about! I-I can’t eat melon bread!”
“Huh? Why not?”
“Because it has milk in it!”
“Ah.”
Now that he thought about it, Shirud was a high elf. Having inherited a lot of elf traits, it seemed he couldn’t even eat dairy products, unlike Yerna.
“Um, my bad. I wasn’t considerate enough.”
“It’s fine.”
Luke looked down at the table, thinking,
‘How unfortunate that he can’t enjoy this delicious treat.’
It was really tasty, and yet he could never taste it in his lifetime.
When looking at Yerna, nowadays even elves didn’t seem to have issues with dairy products.
Luke felt sorry for Shirud.
He wanted him to experience a similar flavor at least once.
“Shirud, then I’ll make you some bread later that you can eat too.”
“Eh, ah? N-no, that’s not necessary….”
“Don’t worry; I’ll find a way to make it taste similar without using milk.”
“Eh? Eh?”
‘This could turn out to be quite an interesting experiment.’
Watching Shirud panic, Luke resumed his interrupted meal.
And observing this, Mary, who was nearby, silently screamed in delight.
‘He’s so proactive! So cool!’
Cooking for a boy she liked—how romantic that sounds!
Luke clearly understood how to act around boys.
He had always thought Luke was quite proactive…
“Luke, you’re amazing….”
“Uh, yeah…? Th-thank you…?”
As Luke felt cold sweat drip down while avoiding Mary’s shining gaze, he thought,
‘Did me eating that bread appear impressive in some way? I guess I need to pay a bit more attention to my dignity.’
