TMBS 06💖

CHAPTER 06: After Seeing Everything…

Adele’s voice trembled.

“…What do you mean?”

Fortunately, her face remained expressionless, even in this moment. Grey gently pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

“You really don’t get it? It means you’ve got something to hide.”

Adele steadied her wildly pounding heart, as if it were about to burst through her ribs. Instinctively, she glanced at Grace, checking if she’d woken up.

Following her gaze, Grey glanced at Grace too and chuckled.

“Do you have some kind of tragic backstory or something?”

Adele shot out a response like a bullet.

“It’s just… my eye color changed naturally as I grew up.”

“Oh, naturally. Natural’s good. Nature explains everything. Even mutations are just part of nature’s plan.”

What is he even saying? Adele’s eyebrow twitched. Grey squinted one eye and leaned in with a smirk.

“I once met someone in Hallock with eyes like yours.”

“…”

“They were born that way. A mutation, apparently.”

Adele flinched.

“No, not me. I don’t know why, but my eyes were red at first, and then they just… changed. That’s the truth.”

Grey propped his chin up on one hand, staring intently at Adele as she rambled in flustered defense. It was only then that she realized: her desperate attempt to explain something so irrelevant—like Adele Nora’s eye color—might seem even more suspicious to someone like him, who probably didn’t care in the first place.

Sure enough, Grey let out a short laugh. This time, it was clearly mocking.

“No need to try so hard. I don’t care.”

“…What?”

“I said I don’t care. Whether your eyes are blue, or you’ve got three nostrils, or your skin is green—I really don’t care. So you don’t have to go to all this effort to hide it. I’m not going to go around talking about you.”

With that, he dismissed her completely. Just like earlier on the balcony, when he’d trapped her with nothing but a look.

“I’ve met a few people who live complicated lives like that. It usually ends up being a hassle.”

“…A hassle?”

“Yeah. Women like that. Just… exhausting.”

His full lips, flushed with color, twisted again in distaste.

“I really hate anything exhausting.”

One of his eyes narrowed slightly, as if just thinking about it annoyed him.

“Don’t worry. There’s nothing to be anxious about.”

And with those final words, he turned away from Adele without a second thought.

There were no friends around this time, no private conversation she couldn’t interrupt—yet Adele felt as though an impenetrable wall had risen between them, splitting the boat in two.

Grey looked around, then muttered as if he’d spotted something.

“Guess I’ll have to go get it.”

A single oar was drifting in the distance.

“What a pain. Should I just push the boat instead?”

A moment later, there was a heavy splash—something dropped into the water beneath the boat. When Adele snapped out of her daze, she saw only the back of Grey’s head as he swam toward the oar.

A shimmer of silver briefly rippled through the lake before it sank and disappeared. Adele silently followed the black waves it left behind with her eyes. She stared for a long time.

What is this… strange, unpleasant feeling?

He made it clear. He hated complications. He wasn’t going to mention her eyes to anyone.

She should have felt relieved. But instead—she felt filthy.

Adele frowned slightly as she looked out at the world, now tinged with darkness.

Come to think of it… wasn’t he being ridiculous? He says he hates complications, yet he was the one who put my glasses on and took them off. And all while staring at me with that weird smirking gaze, like he was drilling into my soul.

That’s not how you treat someone you don’t care about.

“Tch. Saw everything already, and now he says…”

Adele mumbled under her breath as she watched Grey climb out of the water and grab the oar.

“…Why act like you’re disgusted with me?”

Then she froze. Disgusted or not, why should that even matter? She had already decided to give up on him cleanly.

As she considered her own strange, over-sensitive reaction, Adele reached a familiar conclusion: the entire Ballonek family was completely insufferable. Maybe it was something in their bloodline—nothing but arrogant, twisted people.

Her heart, which had been pounding like crazy just moments before, finally calmed down like a lie told too well.

That night, Adele barely managed to return to the old house at the base of the mountain. Thankfully, she had left Lily at the city’s stables before going to Fullmoon Island.

Her body, soaked and exhausted from flailing in the cold water, sagged like wet cotton the moment she got on the horse. Luckily, Lily was smart enough to take her home safely without any direction.

She didn’t remember how she’d washed up or fallen asleep. Her last memory was of being in bed, under the covers.

And once again, Adele dreamed the dream she always had when she was this tired.

A dream of her younger siblings.

A bittersweet dream—joyful to see their faces again, yet painfully sad. The kind that left a soggy, lingering ache behind, like a marshland that never fully dries.

In the dream, Summer was still a child. She had no home. And having no shelter against the biting cold was already hard enough for her—but for her younger siblings, it was lethal.

Her little brother, Winter, clutched his frostbitten feet and cried.

“Summer, my feet hurt and itch so bad. I want to scratch them, but they hurt too much. And I can’t feel anything with my hands.”

Her baby sister, Autumn, who could barely speak yet, simply sobbed in Summer’s arms.

“Suh… Summer. H-hic.”

The night before, the children had cried and scratched at their frostbitten limbs until they bled. Their red, swollen skin cracked and tore, scabbing over again and again. The pain and itching kept them from sleeping, making them even more irritable.

“Winter, watch Autumn for just a bit, okay?”

“You’re going to get medicine?”

Summer sighed quietly at Winter’s tearful question.

“Yeah.”

“Okay… but come back fast.”

And with that, Summer left her siblings behind in a crumbling ruin and made her way to the slaughterhouse at the edge of the village.

The main gate was guarded by butchers. Knowing she couldn’t sneak in that way, she circled to the corner of the tall wall.

Climbing a nearby tree, she barely managed to scale the massive barrier. Inside, the stench and brutality of the slaughterhouse overwhelmed her senses. Crawling through that nightmarish place, the only thing she managed to steal was a lump of rendered animal fat—inedible offal.

The stench clung to her, but if she spilled any of it, the butchers might catch her. So Adele pressed the grease to her chest and ran with her entire body covered in the foul substance.

“Ugh, Summer, I’m gonna puke!”

Summer boiled the fat over a hot fire, then cooled it and applied it to her siblings’ chapped skin. But the smell made Winter gag again and again. Summer scolded him sternly.

“Just hold on a little longer. You’ll get used to the smell.”

“But even if I do… the village kids still throw rocks at me and say I stink.”

Summer paused. But then she hardened her face.

“Would you rather get hit with rocks, or actually get some sleep?”

“…Sleep.”

“Then deal with it. I’m not done yet, okay?”

She had to be strong. As their big sister, she couldn’t afford to look weak—not when she had to protect them. She had to pretend she wasn’t hurt by the mockery. Had to pretend the stench didn’t make her sick.

She rubbed the greasy ointment evenly across even the youngest, Autumn’s, delicate skin, and then headed to the river.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Her stomach convulsed, though she’d eaten nothing. She’d held it in for so long in front of her siblings, but now all she could vomit was bile—yellow and watery, which froze instantly in the winter air.

Her hands, pressed against the frozen ground, were numb. The wind was sharp enough to slice her face open.

“Ugh… ugh…”

Tears welled up reflexively from the retching, but even they froze before they could fall.

She couldn’t even cry.

Summer wiped her cheeks, which were more raw and cracked than her siblings’ frostbitten feet.

She couldn’t pull herself away from the riverbank, not yet.

And then, from far away—Winter’s voice rang out, shrill with panic.

“Summer! Summer! Something’s wrong with Autumn! I think she’s really sick!”

“What?!”

Summer jumped to her feet.

“She’s rolling around holding her stomach and crying!”

“Wait—just wait!”

She ran as fast as she could.

Back in the broken ruin, the fire she’d lit before leaving had already gone out. On the bed of straw, Autumn really was writhing in pain. Her tiny body curled even smaller, shivering.

“Summer… it hurts… I’m sorry…”

“Come here, now!”

Summer pulled her little sister into her arms. She rubbed her tiny back gently, but the words that came out were harsh.

“What did you eat? Did you pick something off the ground again?!”

“I’m sorry… I was just so hungry…”

“I can’t believe this! Do you want to keep making me worry like this?!”

It was because she felt guilty. She hadn’t been able to catch a single fish since the river froze. She was sorry, and it made her lash out.

Don’t be sick. Please don’t be sick, my baby.

Summer cried with Autumn in her arms. Please don’t hurt anymore, my baby.

“I’m sorry…”

“Summer…”

Autumn’s sobs began to quiet—no, they began to fade. Like her voice was drifting further and further away.

In the dream, Summer screamed.

“Autumn… Autumn!”

It wasn’t just Summer in the dream. It was Adele now—her unconscious mind pouring out. Because she knew the truth. Her baby sister had really died, in pain.

Don’t cry, baby. I’m sorry. Please don’t be in pain. I’m so sorry.

“Autumn… Autumn…”

I’m sorry for yelling. Please don’t be in pain, my baby.

“Hic… I’m sorry.”

I’m sorry I realized it too late.

“Autumn… hic.”

I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.

“Hic.”

I’m sorry.

“Hic.”

“Hic…”

“Hic… Autumn…”