Chapter 8 Safe World

The doorman looked flustered when the three of them arrived at the entrance.

Leyla showed him a friendly smile as though she understood why the doorman was staring at her in wonder as no one had ever brought a lousy bicycle to the city’s finest hotel.

Her bicycle was taken away after the doorman checked her and Claudine for several minutes. Leyla entered the hotel after voicing her thanks with a simple greeting.

The tea lounge was located on the right side of the main lobby. The manager led them in quick steps to the terrace that faced out across the riverside.

The last one to take a seat at the table was Leyla.

Not sure if she had bad luck today, but it so happened that his chair was right across from Duke Herhardt. To avoid his cold stare, Leyla hurriedly fixed her eyes on her thighs.

The summer sun reflected brilliantly on her thin, gold-frame glasses. The Duke continued to look at her casually as if nothing had happened at the river, absolutely amazing Leyla.

Shouldn’t the person who was caught naked should feel more ashamed than the person who saw it?

It was hard to deny that commoners and servants were nothing more than furniture or paintings to the aristocratic people.

They weren’t embarrassed to be naked in front of a piece of furniture. And there wasn’t a single piece of furniture that was shocked at the sight of a nude person.

The tea table had already been set up by the time Leyla came to her conclusion.

Even though Duke Herhardt hadn’t given an order, a cup of strongly scented coffee was placed in front of him. Then, he held the teacup handle with his smooth-tapering fingers and took a sip.

Like they’d forgotten about Leyla’s existence, Claudine and Matthias were engrossed in continuing their own discussion.

From the exhibition they saw today, the news about their relatives, till the plan about a weekend party at the mansion their conversation covered all these fleeting topics.

Matthias’s gentle-baritone voice and Claudine’s soprano high note overlapped at regular intervals.

Leyla was confused as to why they had taken her along if they were going to chat between themselves.

The acts of Lady Brandt were entirely beyond her understanding. Leyla had always failed to understand Claudine ever since their first meeting in that summer.

“So, Leyla. How’s your school? Are you having fun?”

Claudine’s voice and the sound of the cup being placed on the saucer both could be heard at the exact same moment. Although she was just a year above her age, she always talked to Leyla as if she were speaking to a child in an adult-like manner.

“Yes, Miss.”

For Uncle Bill.

Leyla chanted in her head when she was answering Claudine. She repeatedly answered with a constant smile every time Claudine posed a couple more questions about her school life and gave a nod out of satisfaction.

Claudine wanted Leyla’s answers to be a resounding ‘Yes, Miss.’ And Leyla also had grown accustomed to responding in that way.

“You’ll be graduating next year right?”

Claudine’s tone still sounded friendly, even though Leyla only gave a cursory answer.

“Yes, Miss.”

“After graduation, what do you want to do?”

“I will enroll into a program for a teaching certificate.”

“Oh, a teacher…?”

Claudine raised the corners of her lips while grabbing her teacup. Her nods rattled the ribbon and corsage that adorned her little hat.

“You’re a good girl, Leyla. That’s a wonderful goal. I believe that will be suitable for you.” Claudine smiled once more, praising Leyla for her admirable dream. “Isn’t that right, Duke Herhardt?”

Unintentionally, Leyla moved her focus onto Matthias. His blue-colored eyes were more lucid as she wore her glasses.

Leyla hurriedly lowered her eyes as she realized she had been looking at the Duke for way too long.

“I see.”

In a calm manner, Matthias agreed.

Leyla’s presence then faded away again. She was relieved because she wanted this uncomfortable teatime to be over with as quickly as possible.

Kyle had gone out to play tennis, and she was supposed to meet him in town. So Leyla was worried that she was going to be late for her appointment.

Leyla, who was anxious, lifted her head. At the same moment, Matthias turned his head and looked at her. Leyla didn’t avoid his eye contact as she had done before and returned his stare in silence.

When she was young, Matthias’ blue eyes reminded her of a round mazarine-colored crystal candy that tasted sweet like sugar. Leyla shook her head in disbelief at her youth’s stupidity.

“Well, Duke Herhardt and Lady Claudine, please excuse me.”

Leyla had enough of sitting quietly and opened her tender lips.

“Do you mind if I excuse myself?”

She felt as if she could breathe again after moving her eyes from Matthias’s eyes to Claudine’s.

“I promised my friend that I’ll meet him this afternoon.”

Leyla chattered with an anxious look on her face. But soon, her nervous expression dissipated and she heaved a sigh of relief after Claudine smiled, nodded, and granted her permission.

She dashed out of the hotel and immediately pedaled her bicycle through the crowded streets after politely bidding her goodbye to the two.

Yet there was something strange about it; the more Leyla pedaled further from the Duke, the more unforgettable his face became in her mind.

Is it because of the glasses?

With a deep sigh, Leyla pondered. The biggest explanation she was hypnotized by the Duke, she believed, was because of her glasses. With her enhanced eyesight, it was normal for her breath to be halted when she saw him.

Leyla arrived at the meeting point right as she was going to faint from the tiredness of all the pedaling she had done.

Kyle, who first arrived before her, was flashing a broad smile and as he waved his hand.

Finally, she’d made her way into her safe place.

*.·:·.✧.·:·.*

“She has grown up, right? She looks like a lady now.”

Claudine shifted her eyes in the direction Leyla had left just a while ago. She sounded like a mother looking at her daughter even though she was just a year older than her.

Matthias flashed a proper smile, “Because she’s a lady.”

He gave a moderate, impassive answer.

“Yes. She is.”

Claudine then paused for a second, lost in thought, before showing her smile that was as bright as the summer sunshine.

“Oh. Did you hear? Riette has just purchased a brand-new car.” She deftly changed the conversation’s topic.

In the world they shared, the two continued their talk. It was as if Leyla Lewellin, who used to sit across from them at the table, had never been there at all.

But Leyla and Matthias strangely had met each other again in an unexpected place.

Matthias was on his return trip to his mansion after enjoying a relaxing tea break. He casually glanced out of the car passenger window as his car came to a halt due to the overcrowded road.

On the sidewalk, he observed at a glimpse, Leyla who was dragging her bicycle.

She was walking down the busy street with a boy. That familiar young man he had seen before in the past seemed to be the friend she had promised to meet.

Matthias then recalled the name of the familiar-looking boy.

The son of Herhardt’s doctor. Kyle Etman.

Leyla Lewellin yelled at the boy who kept tapping on his glasses, but the boy looked like he had said something even more mischievous, prompting Leyla to sigh in annoyance, followed by a chuckle.

The two stalled in front of the library stairwell after spending a long time laughing and kidding around.

Leyla sat at the bottom of the stairs after parking her bike. The boy was following her with a paper bag in his hand and took out two bottles of soda and a sandwich from inside it.

Leyla Lewellin and the boy were sitting next to each other at the stairs and sharing their food. She burst out laughing every time the boy said something. When Leyla chuckled, the boy joined in her laughter.

Meanwhile, traffic on the busy road began to disperse, and the car started moving again.

Matthias turned his eyes away from the window and looked at Claudine who was sitting across the car window on the opposite side.

After a brief exchange of smiles and then some, the two resumed their nice little chat.

Matthias unintentionally remembered his memories from their teatime at that moment -Leyla Lewellin sat still in an upright position with her hands on her knees and then left quietly without touching the teacup in front of her.-

‘Hmm, she left me for that boy.’

That painful truth evoked his recollection of Leyla’s nervous and agonized expression.

‘So she chose to see that boy….’

As his thoughts reached this point, Matthias recalled her back as she walked away from the hotel terrace, rushing as if she were running away from him.

‘So, she left me just to go to meet that boy.’

While he was engrossed in his thoughts, their car had already passed the Platanus road leading to the Arvis estate.

As the car drove along the road where Leyla fell off her bicycle, Matthias emphasized to himself that the girl.

Leyla Lewellin was nothing to him.

However, for some reason, he wasn’t too pleased with the unsettling feeling that had lingered in him at that moment.

*.·:·.✧.·:·.*

“I’ll buy you ice cream since I ate your sandwich.”

With a light smile, Leyla stood up from the library stairwell. She packed the empty paper bag, along with the bottled beverages, into her bicycle basket with care.

“No thanks. You don’t have to buy me anything.”

Kyle hopped on her bike with a mildly awkward grin. Leyla sat in the bike’s back seat, which was her usual position.

Even in the midday summer sun, Kyle could distinctly sense her body temperature being transferred to his back.

Kyle began pedaling to lessen the heat on his cheeks.

‘Gezz, she could hold me a little tighter.’

He muttered to himself as Leyla gently grasped the brim of his shirt as if to tease him.

Kyle was delighted with her grip, even though he was a little hopeful.

Truthfully, he had deliberately left his bike at home to ride Leyla’s with her.

Leyla, of course, was utterly clueless about his intentions.

“You know what, Kyle.”

Leyla’s soothing voice suddenly seeped through the swirling wind.

“Hmm?”