Chapter 18
Just the day before yesterday, the stem that had only reached up to her knees when she squatted had grown tall enough to reach her face, and it now bore a massive blossom too large to be hidden even with both arms stretched wide.
From the stem to the leaves and petals, everything was pure white like snow.
“Salia, was it? It’s really growing fast.”
“That’s what amazes me too. It’s growing abnormally fast, but it doesn’t seem to be taking nutrients away from the surrounding plants.”
Lun explained this while pointing to the fresh flowers blooming vibrantly beside Salia.
If it had stolen all the nutrients from the others, they wouldn’t have bloomed at all.
It was strange how it could grow so big and yet not consume many nutrients. More than anything, it was a flower she had never seen before.
“Oh, and what’s most fascinating is that its petals change color.”
“They change color?”
“Yes. When you touch it like this… here, look.”
Lun reached out and brushed the edge of Salia’s petal. From the spot where his fingers touched, a soft pink hue began to spread, and in an instant, the pure white flower changed to the same color as Lun’s eyes.
“But the color change seems to depend on the person. When my mother touched it, nothing happened.”
“Hmm…”
“Would you like to try touching it, Miss?”
“Yeah. I’m curious what color it’ll turn.”
With her eyes gleaming with interest, Sophia didn’t hesitate and reached out to touch the flower when Lun offered.
Salia, which had returned to white after Lun let go, began to turn red when touched by Sophia’s hand.
It bloomed into a beautiful shade like a well-grown red rose, and as Sophia silently admired the flower, she began to wonder what color it might turn for others.
“Shion!”
With that thought, she walked over toward Shion, who was a little distance away, and called out to him. Upon hearing her voice, Shion quickly approached her.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing serious. Just something interesting happened.”
“Interesting?”
“This flower… it changed color when I touched it.”
Just as she was about to explain briefly and encourage him to try, she noticed something odd in Shion’s expression.
Though he tried to maintain a calm face, his eyes, fixed on Salia instead of listening to her words, carried a faint trace of fear.
Is he… afraid? Of what?
Just as that question began to form in her mind, Shion pulled himself together and, with his usual smile, spoke.
“A flower that changes color? That’s pretty amazing. But, did you touch it?”
“Ah, a little…”
“What if something bad happens from touching it? What if it had thorns or something?”
He spoke worriedly and naturally took her hand, thoroughly checking it for any wounds. As he did, he licked his lips nervously, then bit them.
“It didn’t have any thorns. And if it had hurt, I would’ve said something.”
Noticing how strangely Shion was acting, Sophia stammered, caught off guard by his behavior.
“Why are you so worried?”
“Wouldn’t it be strange if I wasn’t worried? Do you know how much I care about you?”
Still, it wasn’t like she had picked a fight with a dangerous enemy — she had just touched a flower. His reaction was clearly over the top.
“You’re overreacting over a flower.”
“I… can’t help but worry…”
“Why, though?”
There must have been a reason he was reacting this way. But Shion’s lips stayed shut, only moving silently as if searching for the right words to convince her.
What was he trying so hard to hide?
As that thought continued to unravel in her mind, a bright voice cut through the tension between Sophia and Shion.
“Ah, do you happen to be scared of big flowers?”
Lun, wearing his usual sweet smile, had clearly tossed the question in hopes of lightening the mood.
But Shion, visibly shaken, looked at Lun with wide eyes and stammered.
“Th-the flower… uh… um…”
Struggling to form words, Shion finally covered his flushed face with his hands and shouted.
“How did you even know that?!”
Well, that was… unexpected.
Shion groaned for several minutes, trying to hide his embarrassment, then eventually dropped his hands and looked to Sophia for backup.
“Don’t you think big flowers kinda look like they’re going to eat you?”
“Uh, no…”
Though she could tell he wanted her to agree, Sophia firmly drew the line.
Shion, eyes already wide and innocent, made them even rounder as he cried out in disbelief.
“Why not?! Haven’t you heard stories like that? A big flower in a flowerpot by the window that opens its mouth wide and tries to eat people at night!”
Who knew there was an adult who believed such stories?
“How old are you again…?”
“24… But you know fear has nothing to do with age!”
“Uh… right.”
“Miss Sophiaaa…!”
The heavy mood instantly vanished. Being afraid of flowers — yeah, that was something worth hiding. It was an adorable secret.
“You made such a fuss ‘cause you thought the flower would eat you?”
When she summarized it like that, Shion nodded shyly.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“That’s so mean… I was seriously scared and worried about you…!”
As he whined back, Sophia chuckled and said, “Alright, alright.”
“I mean, I do know that story. My mom used to tell it when I was a kid, but not quite like you…”
Ah, right. Her mom used to tell her that story often. She thought she’d forgotten everything about her mother, but—
Sophie, did you know? Big flowers like that can grow even bigger at night and might eat you.
She first heard that when she insisted on sleeping alone. Her mother, wanting to stay close, whispered that scary tale.
Even though she knew it was nonsense and didn’t really get scared, her mother hugged her tightly as if she had been the one trembling.
It’s okay. I’ll protect you, Sophie. So tonight, let’s sleep together again, okay?
She said it because she wanted to stay close. Sophia had felt that warmth through her mother’s touch, so after that, she never insisted on sleeping alone again.
How could she leave someone like that alone? She needed to be by her mother’s side.
With just that thought, she always fell asleep in her mother’s arms.
Yes, in her memories, her mother was a lonely soul. She was kind and smiled often… but how did she look, again?
I can’t remember the important parts.
As silence suddenly fell mid-sentence, Shion carefully observed Sophia’s face.
Had the cool breeze worsened her cold? Was she feeling dizzy again?
Worried, he gently brushed her bangs aside and spoke.
“Miss… Are you alright?”
“Ah… yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”
Sophia, pulled out of the depths of a forgotten memory, looked around belatedly and shrugged.
“Guess I didn’t get enough sleep. I almost nodded off.”
“Oh, Miss! You can’t sleep out here like that. You’ll get sick.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t very smart of me.”
How long was she going to hold on to time spent with someone she no longer needed to care about? If she couldn’t bring them back or meet them again, wouldn’t it be better for all those memories to fade away with time?
As he watched Sophia’s expression sink under that weight, Shion spoke again.
“Shall we go inside now? It’s almost lunchtime, and you’ve gotten quite cold.”
“Already?”
“Of course. At your age, you should eat plenty and on time! That’s how you’ll grow tall like me!”
Shion, already towering like a beanpole, even stood on tiptoes as he said it with a grin.
“I’m not really aiming for that kind of height.”
“But isn’t being tall nice?”
“Hmm…”
It was convenient being tall. You didn’t need to climb shaky ladders in the library or strain to reach high shelves.
“Being tall… is pretty nice, yeah.”
“Right?”
“Yeah.”
Watching Sophia answer with an oddly serious face, Lun tapped the top of his head absentmindedly, thinking about his own height, which wasn’t much different from Sophia’s.
He really hoped he would grow tall.
