Chapter 8
What a beautiful flower field. Even including my past life, I’ve never seen anything like this before. I never cared much about nature, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to come here regularly.
How many flowers should I give to my sister, I wonder? Enough to fill a vase would be nice.
I’ll just gather enough to hold in both hands.
“Phew, done!”
I carefully picked them one by one, taking my time.
“I think it turned out kind of cute. I hope my sister will forgive me…”
Forgiving someone who has done wrong is very difficult. In fact, even if the man who was my father in my past life apologized, I don’t think I could forgive him.
But it’s okay if I’m not forgiven.
What matters is reflecting on my mistakes, apologizing sincerely, and showing that I won’t do anything to hurt my sister again. That’s enough.
Rustle, rustle
I heard a sound behind me.
I stood up and turned toward the direction of the noise.
Standing there was a boy with the same pink-colored hair as Tiana, cut short just above his ears, and with beautiful ruby-red eyes.
His name was—
Liam Aster.
The second son of the Aster family. If I remember correctly, he’s seven years older than me, so he should be fifteen now.
Still, what a handsome face he has.
Even though he’s only fifteen, his features are already well-formed. He’s just too perfect, like a character straight out of a novel.
But in the story, Liam disliked how Tiana bullied Ellie for so long, and the two of them often clashed.
Liam never thought well of Tiana.
Running into him before I’ve even apologized to my sister is way too dangerous.
If I choose the wrong words here, his hatred for me will only deepen.
I have to avoid the future where I’m executed.
What should I do?
While I hesitated, Liam was the one who spoke first.
“Hey, Tiana. What are you doing in a place like this? This is the spot Mother cherished, you know.”
Does he think I’m ruining the place my mother-in-this-life loved?
“I wasn’t trying to ruin anything.”
I don’t want to argue with him. I should just tell him about my plan to apologize to my sister.
“As you know, I’ve bullied my sister until now. I’ve been reflecting on that, and I was picking these flowers to apologize to her.”
Liam turned toward me with a look that said he didn’t trust me one bit.
“You’ve hidden something inside those flowers, haven’t you?”
“That’s not what I—”
Smack!
“Huh?”
Liam knocked the flowers I had picked for my sister right out of my hands.
“A miss. Guess you didn’t put anything in them.”
That’s cruel. Too cruel. I worked so hard, carefully choosing flowers I thought my sister would like, and finally finished making them…
Of course someone who’s disliked me from the start wouldn’t believe a word I say.
Tiana felt tears welling up.
Maybe because I’m in a child’s body, the tears wouldn’t stop. My vision blurred. I didn’t want to let someone like him see me cry.
“…Hic… sniff…”
“What?”
He must not have expected me to cry. Liam looked surprised.
If I say anything now, he’ll just pick a fight again.
More than anything, I don’t want to stay here.
I carefully picked up the flowers he had knocked down, one by one, and straightened them back into shape.
“Tiana… that’s…”
Without saying a word, I turned and left.
He seemed like he was about to say something as I walked away, but I didn’t look back. I assumed it would only be another accusation anyway.
