I Became the Villain’s Childhood Friend Chapter 18

 

Rian chewed his lip and uttered a word.

 

His words made my face crumpled.

 

“Is that the problem now? Besides, do you think this fact will be hidden by hiding it? What are you going to say to Reynold when he wakes up? And do you think you can hide the smell of alcohol from the ashes?”

 

“Yeah, f*ck!”

 

Rian screamed all of a sudden. Anyway, his loud voice was one thing.

 

Rian muttered like a complete madman.

 

“If only we shut up, no one knows, if you, who is close to Reynard, convince him, that will do.”

 

Is he talking out of his mouth thinking that that makes sense, I wonder.

 

I sighed to myself and opened my mouth.

 

“Go tell Mother. I stole it because I wanted to sneak a drink, but Reynold accidentally drank it.”

 

“…What?”

 

“Instead, Brother, apologize to Reynold from the bottom of your heart.”

 

When Rian heard me, he looked dazed for a moment.

 

Apart from me disliking Rian, it was true that I felt a little sorry for him to be so scared of Mother like that.

 

It didn’t matter if I was hated by Mother anyway.

 

“Danae.”

 

Serik caught me in a hurry.

 

“Get out quickly.”

 

When Rian heard me, he blinked for a moment and left the greenhouse in surprise.

 

Looking back, Reynold was looking at me with his eyes open, as if he had been woken up by Rian’s roar.

 

“You…!”

 

Serik also seemed to notice him, so he strode up to Reynold and grabbed him by the collar.

 

“Are you out of your mind?”

 

His voice was raised uncharacteristically.

 

“Because of you, Danae is going to get all over her.”

 

At his words, Reynold replied without a wink.

 

“It’s all her choice.”

 

As if he was fuming, Serik let go of his collar with a snort.

 

I looked at Reynold’s face and realized all this was the situation he wanted.

 

How could he not have distinguished between alcohol and drinks…

 

The drink was said to have been brought by Rian at his own will, and the reason would have been that he listened to a conversation between Reynold and Lotte.

 

Rian wanted to be loved by Lotte, so she would have brought Mula that Reynold liked to listen to Lotte, who told him to watch over us.

 

However, the color of the alcohol was similar to that of Mula, and he seemed to have mistakenly brought alcohol.

 

No, more than that, Reynold, why the hell did he do this?

 

Whatever the reason, it was really ridiculous.

 

But there was still work to be done before I could find out. I hurried to get to Lotte and Madam Collin.

 

Yet as soon as I opened the greenhouse door, I saw Madam Collin running towards us.

 

She made a fuss when she found me.

 

“Danae! Are you okay?”

 

For a moment, I nodded cautiously, flinching at her urgent question.

 

“…Yes.”

 

“How surprised I must have been!”

 

Madam Collin clasped me in her arms.

 

Then she gently swept my back as if to calm me down.

 

…I think you should calm down more than I do.

 

Over her shoulder, I could see Rian, who seemed to be very nervous with Lotte.

 

“You’re supposed to drink alcohol when you’re an adult. Understand? You’re going to be in big trouble. Sweetie.”

 

“…I’m sorry.”

 

“Why are you sorry! It’s only natural to have a lot of questions when you’re young.”

 

Madam Collin said so and again asked not to do so next time.

 

Then she looked back at Lotte, who looked quite angry, and said.

 

“Don’t scold Danae too much. You grow up in an accident when you’re young, right?”

 

“…I just feel sorry. Is Reynold all right?”

 

“He’ll be all right, so don’t worry too much, madam. You have to think as much as you want when you’re young, you’ll grow up and prove more.”

 

Rian, standing behind me despite Madam Collin’s warm words, was restless, looking at me constantly.

 

Looking at Rian like that, I had a strange premonition that Rian would never bother me in the future.

 

And only then did I understand a little bit why Reynold did this.

 

***

 

The commotion in the greenhouse passed relatively quietly for what Rian and I were worried about.

 

Because Madam Collin didn’t want my punishment. Lotte also left me, who hasn’t had my debutante, with nothing but a message that we should go home and talk about it because she was worried how this could turn out to be.

 

And Reynold was resting in the guest room of the Chestain mansion under the pretext of not feeling well.

 

I went into the room where Reynold was resting, avoiding the eyes of adults.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

At my words, he turned back his body. Reynold, who had my eye contact with me, shrugged lightly.

 

“…You didn’t drink it?”

 

When I held out the water I had brought, Reynold shook his head.

 

“I didn’t.”

 

…Yeah, he couldn’t have drunk.

 

I let out a small sigh.

 

Then Reynold replied excusefully.

 

“But isn’t the result good enough? You don’t have to be enemies with Rian on purpose.”

 

“…Is that so?”

 

“It’s better not to make as few enemies as possible.”

 

“…Don’t do this next time. You’re just lucky enough. What if you got caught lying?”

 

Instead of answering, Reynold led me to a chair and sat me down.

 

My socks were pretty dirty because I took off the shoes Reynold had put on me earlier. Reynold took off my socks gently and poured disinfectant on the wound because of the heels.

 

I don’t know when he brought all this… 

 

I frowned in spite of the bitterness, but Reynold poured disinfectant into the wound once more.

 

“Hey!”

 

Who’s pouring disinfectant like that! I wanted to kick him in the face, yet it wasn’t possible because of Reynold holding my foot. I looked down at him with resentment and opened my mouth.

 

“…How did you know that I’d say I’d brought the alcohol instead of Rian?”

 

Reynold spoke in a calm voice, as if to say the most obvious fact.

 

“I thought you would.”

 

“…Then what about alcohol? How did Rian bring alcohol?”

 

Reynold took his eyes off the wound on my foot and looked up at me only then. Again. Reynold’s eyes were full of me again. In someone’s eyes, I always seemed frustrated with everything in the world. Yet in Reynold’s eyes, I didn’t look as frustrated as when I was reflected in others’ eyes for some reason.

 

Why, I wonder. After all, it must be Reynold who makes me feel frustrated.

 

“…I don’t know. Maybe it was just the place where Mula was.”

 

The hand of Reynold, holding my foot, seemed a little stiff.

 

“…Why did you do that?”

 

This rigid atmosphere was very awkward.

 

Reynold answered my question quietly, 

 

“You told me. Use a gentle way not to hurt anyone.”

 

It was only then that I remembered my first meeting with Reynold, who was eight years old. His words made me speechless.

 

Without letting my foot go, Reynold silently wiped the disinfectant with cotton and applied ointment. It was quite a skill. After wrapping my feet in bandages, Reynold got up.

 

Following him, I tried to get up, and Reynold pressed his hand against my shoulder and said.

 

“You behave yourself and sit there.”

 

“This is really.”

 

Reynold walked away without even pretending to hear me.

 

It was true that my feet hurt, so I sat back and waited for him.

 

Reynold returned shortly afterwards.

 

He had slippers in his hand.

 

He sat in front of me again and put the slippers on me by hands, as before.

 

Looking down at Reynold, I felt strangely strange.

 

Today was a very strange day.

 

Reynold, who had all the slippers on me, looked up at me and opened his mouth.

 

“If you’re going to wear shoes, wear low heels.”

 

I thought I became a troublemaker for no reason, so I said it as if I had to.

 

“…These wounds are caused by running with you.”

 

“That’s why if you’re with me, you’ll run around every day, so wear something low from now on.”

 

….It really doesn’t make sense.

 

Reynold, who was fiddling with the slippers he had worn me, opened his mouth carefully.

 

“I know you have troubles you can’t tell me.”

 

At his words, I clasped the sofa’s residence without realizing it. Reynold continued, ignoring me.

 

“I promised to tell you if anything happened, but you don’t have to tell me the truth. I… I just want you to be happy. We’re friends, right?”

 

“…Reynold.”

 

“You’re ugly, you’re not smarter than me, you’re not prettier than me, but…”

 

Reynold smiled brightly.

 

“But I like being by your side. I’m happy because of you, and I want you by my side to be happy, too.”

 

Reynold’s eyes shone brightly like stars in the night sky.

 

I couldn’t tell if the sunlight was reflected or if I was trapped in Reynold’s eyes.

 

***

[Don’t let this happen next time]

 

Indeed, Madam Collin’s breath was strong, and I wasn’t scolded by Lotte as much as I thought.

 

Well, scolding is something that needs affection.

 

However, Father scolded me quite a bit.

 

I was banned from meeting friends in addition to a two-week ban on going out, asking how I could only cause such an accident even in such an official place.

 

Thanks to this, the meeting with Serik continued to be postponed, and today was finally the day to meet Serik.

 

Of course, I’ve been sending and receiving letters over and over again.

 

I didn’t write to Reynold separately.

 

We’re not even close enough to write a letter saying we haven’t seen each other for two weeks…

 

Letters were very awkward between us in the first place.

 

If either him or I sent a letter, it would be because of a real personal problem.

 

Such a big deal that you have to check your life and death.

 

Still, it was the first time I hadn’t seen his face in so long.

 

We’ve seen each other at least once a week in the meantime.

 

In the past, Madam Collin and Lotte imagined, ‘If we have children, shall we marry them?’

 

Of course, just imagining it made me feel nauseous, so I quit right away.

 

So I concluded that they were so anxious to attach us to each other because they wanted their children to be close friends as much as they were close to each other.