The Butterfly That Swallowed the Fog
The conversation had gone on long enough. “Done. I hope the ‘coincidence’ you mentioned never happens again.”
Even in this relaxed moment, Tilia had no desire to banter or exchange lighthearted jabs with him. Her face remained firm as she delivered the warning.
“I have no desire whatsoever to get tangled up with you. My goal is simply to graduate safely.”
Elex’s lingering smile vanished at her serious words.
“Heh. Who would stop you from graduating?”
Yet his signature relaxed aura still emanated from him.
“Tilia, as you said, I have no intention of tripping up your heels.”
His gaze swept coldly across her face once more.
“So don’t read too much into it.”
“……read too much?”
“Exactly. I was merely showing you basic manners.”
Elex glanced at the floor as if questioning why he even had to explain this, then lifted his head again.
“And normally, after doing it, one offers follow-up care. That’s the least one owes.”
“……”
“There are people who don’t follow even that much, but I’m not the worst of the lot.”
His voice stayed low and flat as he spoke.
“You were injured, weren’t you? I went too deep. And because I wasn’t controlling my strength well that day, there were traces left, right?”
Though the words were blunt, Elex’s emotionless gaze pierced her.
Looking into those eyes, Tilia remembered the past.
After barely washing up in the chilly room, she had stood before the mirror in the empty space. The reflection showed her entire body covered in ugly red marks and deep blue bruises. Red fingerprints and bite marks marred her skin as though she had tumbled down a rough hillside. When she turned slightly to check her back, the images revealed even more on her spine.
“I guess that’s what usually happens after,” she had thought at the time. But now, staring at Elex with a mix of bewilderment, he added.
“That’s why I called in the physician who carries a heavy tongue, but before he could even open his mouth, you jumped up and rushed out for the exam.”
The tone with which he recounted the incident was plain and indifferent.
“And what’s so funny about waiting for the exam to end and then summoning him again for treatment? According to you, it really was nothing between us.”
Her cynical response made Tilia look straight into Elex’s eyes.
“So you only sent the apothecary.”
His emotionless gaze met her suspicious green eyes.
“What I did was simply what had to be done. So stop acting like a cat with its fur puffed up in fear.”
Elex Davenport’s face showed clear boredom at the very act of having to explain himself.
Tilia stared quietly at his emotionless pupils and slowly admitted.
She had been wrong.
The worry she had harbored—that something hidden in his grey-blue eyes might have been an unknown emotion—had been unfounded.
Inside those doll-like, beautiful eyes, nothing was concealed.
Thus, his words were correct.
His rebuke not to overinterpret and stare too deeply at him was also accurate.
“Fine.”
Looking calmly at Elex, this was the first time Tilia had smiled at him in all these days.
“You’re right.”
The smile was not as light as the one he had shown her earlier. Yet it felt far more satisfying than anything he had offered.
The cold look in the eyes that had shared the bed with her brought Tilia not contempt but relief.
With a gentler face than before, Tilia corrected her earlier thought.
“I misunderstood. I’m sorry.”
She had been annoyed at the wrong choice of words, but it had been a mistake.
No matter who said what, she had chosen the correct garbage.
“Thank you, Elex Davenport.”
Her heart felt as light as a feather with his decisive attitude, and she offered her gratitude.
“As you said, I hope that coincidence never repeats.”
Smiling brightly as she revealed her true feelings, Tilia left without looking back and brushed past him.
Her well-groomed hair brushed Elex Davenport’s shoulder.
The soft sound of her shoes quickly faded, leaving only the distant noise of the construction site and the thick dust that now filled the space she had occupied.
Yet even after she disappeared, Elex Davenport kept his eyes fixed on the spot where she had stood for a long time.
***
“Finished!”
Tilia closed the thick introductory book and stretched her arms wide.
After the conversation with Elex, she had gone straight to the library, borrowed the basic ethics and theology textbook he had been reading, and returned to the dormitory. She had just finished her studies.
“I’ve already compiled all the topics that could appear on the thesis, so during the break I can slowly think of the answers.”
The period for correcting subject-specific grades was also nearing its end. Thinking back on the grade announcement that had finally come out this afternoon, Tilia gave a slightly bitter smile.
“Well, it’s a shame I didn’t get first place this time either, but……”
Just as always, her name had floated to the top of the list, and she gave a light shrug of her shoulders.
“But being second place is where it’s at.”
Only now did the security of the phrase “just like always” dawn on Tilia. She began tidying the desk.
Having endured the ordeal that had almost made graduation impossible, Tilia’s heart had changed since the past.
She was simply grateful that she could graduate safely. She even felt grateful for the position she had always found lacking—the second place.
“Yes, being second is still second. Even after going through that harsh ordeal, I kept the same spot.”
Admirable, Tilia Ambrose.
Tilia’s face, which rarely praised herself, was about to twist maliciously when the name at the very top of the list—the name above her own—caught her eye.
The grateful feeling vanished, and suspicion rose instead.
“She passed the additional exam and still took first place.”
Tch. Tilia’s eyes narrowed irritably.
The man everyone thought hadn’t taken the exam at all had apparently used some trick to receive permission for the extra test because of illness. And he had scored a perfect 80 percent on the test that counted for only 80 percent, claiming the top spot again.
He had also apparently widened the gap in other subjects dramatically. The subject where he scored full marks was not just Rhetoric, either.
“A real monster.”
Tilia shivered as if she had seen a ghost.
To be sitting above that proud-haired man who skipped exams because he was annoyed. It was almost painful to think about.
Still, it only made her shiver slightly. It was nowhere near the level of furious tears she had shed before.
“Still, thanks to Elex, I solved the problem today.”
The conversation she had had with the first stranger she had met at the construction site that afternoon came back to her, and Tilia tapped the desk with her nails.
“At least he showed basic manners……”
He had said he wasn’t the worst of the worst. He had only done what he had to do, and he had told her not to read too much into it.
Back then, that indifferent gaze he had shown her.
The eyes that had made Tilia sigh in relief rose into her view again, and her gaze naturally drifted downward.
Under the desk, in the deep space that didn’t even reach her ankles, sat a box. The apothecary had been left exactly as it was.
Where? Tilia glanced back at her roommate, Judy, who was sleeping as deeply as always and wouldn’t wake even if someone carried her away.
“Good. Let’s take a look.”
With a mixture of relief and curiosity, Tilia picked up the box she had been ignoring.
The high-end wrapping paper opened smoothly the moment she began.
When she lifted the lid, a faint medicinal scent wafted out.
Burn ointment, wound ointment, even medicine for headaches and pain. A miniature pharmacy had been prepared inside the box.
Hmm.
Tilia took out each item one by one for the first time and made a slightly odd face.
“Is this basic manners?”
Originally, they gave so much like this?
She felt a flicker of surprise, but thinking it was just the young master’s tantrum after tidying up neatly, she felt a little at ease.
“Well, think of it as an entrance gift kit.”
Thinking about it, the fact that he had handed her the birth control pills the moment she woke up fitted the same pattern. He wasn’t the worst person after all.
“A survival strategy for someone with a lot to lose, maybe.”
Thoughtlessly, Tilia kept taking out the pills from the box and suddenly discovered something that made her furrow her brows.
“……bandages?”
The rolled white bandages were a product with adhesive already applied at the end so one could wrap them oneself.
Why on earth had they been included? She hadn’t been bleeding that much.
Staring at the bandages in confusion, Tilia shrugged lightly.
It seemed the servant in charge of the medicines had just thrown in whatever he had.
Still, Tilia kept working, thinking it was only fair, and continued to empty the box.
At this rate, she would survive even a war.
She had almost grown tired of the endless supply of medicine. Finally, the box began to reveal its bottom.
Tilia looked inside, thinking it was over.
But there was something else inside that would change her expression.
What is this?
Tilia raised her eyebrows at the alien object that stood alone in the empty space left after the piled-up medicine had been removed.