Since that day, sometimes I can feel Dillian’s gaze at me.
His gaze was persistent, but he only looked at me and didn’t come closer than necessary.
It was like, he is exploring me.
What kind of person I am and what I am hiding.
My blood dried up at the sight of someone digging into me.
“Miss Lia, you said that you didn’t use perfume.”
While taking a big bite of meal, I put down my spoon at Dillian’s question.
“Yes. I’m not relaxed enough to wear perfume.”
“Do you use bath bombs?”
Why you don’t eat but talking about bath bombs?
“I’m an ordinary small citizen who is busy make a living, so I can’t even dream of luxury items like bath bombs.”
So, just shut up and eat, you jerk.
“Then is it the scent from the greenhouse?”
Why has he been obsessed with scent since yesterday?
“…”
Again, that gaze again. I can get indigestion looking at the eyes that tried to dig into me.
I was uncomfortable with Dillian’s interest in me.
This is when a thief’s legs go numb*. That was exactly me.
*South Korean saying means the state in which someone is automatically feeling uncomfortable if he/she has done something wrong.
If Dillian found something about me, at that rate…
‘… Let’s stop thinking.’
Having tried to shake off my thoughts, I focused on the meal. Dillian no longer talks to me, perhaps he feels silent pressure while seeing me eating combatantly.
I took a peek at Dillian’s room.
‘It’s still okay.’
The white blossom flowers brought to Dillian’s room were still clean and clear.
But I couldn’t relax.
I got nervous because of Nathan’s words that Dillian might get a runaway again soon.
‘It will not explode suddenly, but I am still anxious.’
At the time I took a big bite of the omurice made by Dillian.
Bam, bam, bam!
Someone knocked on the door roughly.
I was surprised and dropped my spoon. My eyes frowned at the ketchup and rice which stains my clothes.
“Who knocked on the door like that in the morning?”
While mumbling, Dillian blocked me from standing up.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s snowing like this, isn’t it weird for someone to come to Miss Lia’s house?”
Isn’t that right? It’s hard to move forward due to the snow pouring heavily, yet who is coming to my house near the forest.
I quickly ran to the kitchen, bringing the frying pan, afterward I stammered at the corner.
A hard, cold iron rod was caught on the fingertips.
“What is this?”
“This is a crowbar. It is a great self-defense tool.”
I took out the crowbar and handed it over to Dillian.
“If that is a bad guy, use this to hit his head. You get it?”
“… You are more aggressive than you look.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Dillian giggled at my shameless attitude, then grabbed the crowbar.
I stuck on Dillian’s back and stared at the door.
Click, Dillian opened the door.
At the same time, a white creature collapsed inside with a strange sound.
“Ia, iaa!”
“Ugh!”
“What’s that! Monster?! Is that snowman!”
“Isn’t monster couldn’t come! Snowman! It must be a snowman! Sir Dillian, hurry hit it with that! Headshot, headshot!”
Unlike me and Nathan, who were making a fuss, Dillian was frighteningly calm.
Dillian lifts the snowman’s chin with the tip of a crowbar.
“Please calm down, this is a person.”
“Person?”
“L-ia!”
When I listened closely, the strange sound was calling my name.
“… Claude?”
“Li, a!”
When his normal pronunciation was finally heard the snowman fainted.
“Do you know this person?”
“… Yes, my business partner.”
That’s right. The snowman’s identity is Claude, a herbalist.
***
“Haaa, now I can live.”
Claude, who had a sip of tea, breathed a drowsy breath. His blue lips trembled as if the cold hadn’t gone yet.
While filling the cup which was showing on the floor, I quickly asked.
“Claude, why did you come all the way here when the weather is like this?”
“There’s only one reason why I’ll come to your house. What could it be?”
Such ignorance. No matter how urgent you are, how can you be thinking of breaking through the snowstorms with your bare body?
This guy is also out of his mind.
“What is it this time?”
“Sky wild ginseng. You have it?”
“Sure, there is.”
I nodded affirmatively, Claude smiled satisfied as if he knew it.
“Sell it to me. I’ll give you 1.5 times the market price.”
“Double.”
To the point where he comes through the snowstorm means that the herbs I grew are worth it.
I tried to negotiate, showing my index finger and middle finger.
“… Sure. Sure you are Lia Delice. Good. Double!”
It was as expected.
‘It must be really a big shot.’
After finishing the deal, I raised my bent knee.
Approaching Dillian, who was leaning against the wall, I pressed down on him.
“Stop staring at him. He’s feeling pressured.”
I thought Claude might have a hole in his face because Dillian stared at him so hard.
“Even though you have a work relationship with him, you are so defenseless to let a man who is not your relative into the house.”
I blinked with a blank face at the pouring words.
Now, is he nagging at me?
“What should I do then? Should I let him freeze to death?”
“Yes, you have to.”
Hoo, what are you sayin’? Then aren’t you also going to freeze to death? Or die because of excessive bleeding.
‘Isn’t this whataboutism*?’
*a conversational tactic in which a person responds to an argument or attack by changing the subject to focus on someone else’s misconduct, implying that all criticism is invalid because no one is completely blameless.
Even in my absurd gaze, Dillian did not hide his displeasure.