I Wish You Well In Your Next Love, My Love - Chapter 71
I tossed and turned, then pulled the blanket up over my shoulders.
“What else would there be besides work? Even if it’s not manual labor, haaahm—”
I sniffled once and continued.
“There’ll be so many customers that I’ll be insanely busy. No matter where I work, there’s never been a time it wasn’t busy on Foundation Day.”
“It’s not like you’re going to work for all five days.”
That was certainly true.
My part-time job was on the condition that I would work only four days, excluding the last day of the Foundation Day holiday.
“I do have the last day off…”
“Do you have someone to meet?”
At his serious tone, I laughed a little despite my sleepiness.
As if I had anything like that.
The trainee Purifiers in my cohort would be busy until the last day with the banquet hosted by House Odriann, and this unemployed man next door, who at least used to take responsibility for the boredom of my days off, had been missing for over three months.
It wasn’t anything to worry about. He was such a weirdo, always vanishing and reappearing without warning.
“Louize.”
“No. I’m just going to rest.”
At my answer, Gerard smiled with his eyes crinkling and rested his chin on the bed.
…Now I’m wide awake.
Wasn’t it cheating to smile like that with that face?
No matter how unaware he was, still. If it had been any other woman instead of me, it really would have been dangerous.
“That’s good.”
“That I don’t have friends?”
“I’m not free on Foundation Day either. I kept putting off the site inspection, and now they’re being a headache, saying I have to go even on that day.”
“Are you going far?”
“I’ll be back on the last day, so don’t think about clearing out my things.”
I hadn’t been thinking that far yet.
“Did you hear me?”
“Yes. You said you’re going to work on Foundation Day.”
“Not that.”
Was there anything else besides that? Lying on my side, I quietly retraced what he had said, but nothing in particular came to mind.
Gerard, who had been waiting, propped his chin at an angle and said, as if reproaching me,
“I said I’ll be back on the last day.”
“……”
“Let’s hang out together. It’d be unfair to do nothing but work on Foundation Day when everyone else is having fun.”
Let’s hang out together.
It was a ticklish sort of thing to say, unsuited to his size.
Had he gone through those previous few lines just to say this?
Of course, it wasn’t as if I enjoyed working on Foundation Day.
But other than the time when I was seeing Gerard, I had always been ordinarily poor, and ordinarily shabby. For someone like me, who barely lived by loosely stitching one day to the next, it wasn’t even a particular misfortune.
But, just for one day.
If I could join the tail end of the fading festival with no responsibilities or worries, I too wanted to stay there.
“…I’ll see. I might be tired.”
My lips gave an ambiguous answer.
Unable to control my fluttering heart, I had cowardly left room for it.
“Then I’ll have to make sure there’s no reason for you to be tired.”
He reached out and lightly touched my hair, which had fallen loose over my shoulder.
“Should I cause a scene in front of the shop so the customers can’t even come near?”
His laughter-tinged voice was gentle.
The tiredness I had brought up wasn’t mine, but yours.
With Gerard watching me in front of me, I slowly closed my eyes.
Unable to shake off the hand gently playing with my hair, I gave in to drowsiness.
Thinking that I should wash his thick blanket on Foundation Day.
* * *
“Money really is nice.”
The ankle pain that had been tormenting me had vanished as if washed away.
The injury hadn’t been serious to begin with, but it hadn’t been so minor that it could heal in such a short period of time either.
I kneaded the medicated compress, which still hadn’t lost its chill.
“I wish I could keep using this.”
I stretched both arms high over my head in a long, languid stretch, then wrapped the bandage around my ankle.
The pain was gone, but it could flare up again if I overdid it, so this was to prepare in advance.
