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WAYDTN? 12

The Fragrance of Elderflowers

While Edmund was lost in the mountains crying like a child, searching for his mother with tears the size of raindrops, Anna was tending to the garden of the red brick house, awaiting her son’s return.

No—she was uprooting the garden entirely.

Unlike most estate owners who followed trends and designed their gardens in Etunia’s geometric style, Anna, the new mistress of the red brick house, had a different vision.

She wanted to tear out the ornate artificial landscaping and recreate a natural, modest garden like those from her hometown of Queensland.

It hadn’t even been a year since she arrived in Westmyst, yet homesickness had already begun to creep in.

She hoped to soothe that longing by shaping a piece of her homeland into the garden she would walk through every day.

Wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat to block the sun, work gloves, and sturdy boots, Anna moved busily between the flower beds alongside the gardeners.

As she was inspecting the herbaceous borders—where various herbs had been planted together—someone called out to her from beyond the fence.

 

“Hello, Anna!”

 

“Oh my, Aileen!”

 

Anna greeted Mrs. Panning from next door with a bright smile and pulled off her dirt-covered gloves.

Aileen blushed shyly at the warm welcome, then held out a small basket over the fence.

 

“It’s nothing special. On my way back from Roder Town, I found some elderflowers in bloom, so I made cordial. I heard it’s a favorite among Queenslanders.”

 

“You made this yourself? My goodness!”

 

Anna was deeply moved by Aileen’s thoughtfulness and delicacy as she accepted the basket.

The moment she lifted the cloth covering it, a fragrant aroma drifted out.

It was a scent that evoked warm memories.

Looking at the cordial-filled bottles, Anna’s eyes grew red and misty.

 

“My mother always used to mix this with warm water whenever I had a cold. I haven’t tasted it even once since she passed.”

 

When Aileen apologized for bringing up something so painful, Anna reassured her with a smile, saying it was a long time ago—but her damp eyes shimmered with tender emotion.

Once she’d composed herself, Anna invited her inside for tea.

But Aileen politely declined, saying it was an unannounced visit and that she’d come by again another time.

 

“Oh, and every Saturday, there’s a ladies’ gathering at the town hall in Tonborne. All the ladies from Islesford attend.”

 

Aileen kindly offered the information, knowing that everything must still feel unfamiliar for Anna, who had just moved in.

 

“There are lots of other gatherings too. On Fridays, there’s an embroidery circle at Mrs. Serendon’s house. On Wednesdays, there’s a Bible reading group led by Mrs. Chamberlain at the vicarage.

If you visit Mrs. Serendon, she’ll introduce you to the others—she’s the chair of the ladies’ association.”

 

Though smaller in scale than the social events of the city, such gatherings were a vital part of rural life.

In the countryside, participating in these small meetups brought life to an otherwise monotonous routine. Without them, it was easy to fall into gloom.

 

Anna asked curiously, “What about you? Do you attend any gatherings? Could you recommend one?”

 

“Oh, I don’t go to gatherings,” Aileen replied awkwardly, adding that she was too shy.

 

But just for a moment, a bitter look crossed her face before quickly vanishing.

Anna caught that fleeting expression and sensed it intuitively.

 

Could it be that she doesn’t go—because she can’t?

 

As Anna studied the striking red hair that made Aileen stand out, she started to guess at the reason.

Meanwhile, Aileen smiled again and said goodbye.

But before the two of them could even finish turning away from each other, a sudden scream echoed from the direction of the beechwood house.

 

__________𓍯𓂃𓏧♡𓇢𓆸_________

 

“Ow!”

 

Edmund tried to stand, but a sharp pain in his ankle forced him to collapse again.

It was already the tenth attempt to walk, each time ending in failure because of the same stabbing pain.

Exhausted and drained of even the energy to be angry, Edmund gazed up through the dense canopy of trees at the fragmented sky above.

The sun had long since dipped westward, and the sky was fading into a dusky blue.

Sniffling, he shivered in the deepening cold of the forest. Once the sun disappeared, the temperature had dropped sharply.

He needed to make it down the mountain before night fully set in—but his ankle wasn’t healing. In fact, it was swelling worse than before, and any weight on it made the pain unbearable.

 

Do I really have to crawl down?

 

He was debating that desperate option when—

 

“Edmund!”

 

His head jerked up at the sound of someone calling him.

 

“Edmund!”

 

From the hill below came a small figure climbing up. It was snot-nosed Rose.

Recognizing her, Edmund nearly burst into tears. He’d never thought a day would come when he’d be happy to see Rose Panning!

 

“Rose!”

 

He shouted to let her know where he was.

It didn’t even occur to him that it was the first time he’d ever called her by name.

That’s how worn down he was—mind and body both.

Rose spotted him and started scrambling up the hill on all fours.

One look and it was obvious how exhausted she was.

Her clothes were filthy, covered in grass and dirt from falling and tumbling. Her face was slick with sweat.

She reached Edmund without catching her breath and immediately began checking him over.

 

“Edmund! Are you okay?”

 

Seeing Rose so worried for him made the lump in his throat swell.

 

“My ankle… I can’t walk.”

 

“This ankle?”

 

Rose examined the swollen ankle carefully, but quickly realized she had no idea what to do and stood up awkwardly.

Then, as if there was only one thing she could do, she turned her back to him.

 

“Come on. Get on.”

 

“You want me to ride on your back?”

 

Edmund was five—a stormy age when even riding on his mother’s back annoyed him.

And now he was supposed to let a snot-nosed girl carry him?

But there were no elegant options left.

If he wanted to make it down before dark, he had to get on Rose’s back.

Swallowing his pride, Edmund climbed onto her.

 

“Urgh!”

 

Rose gasped at the unexpected weight, then quickly pretended she was fine.

 

“D-Don’t worry, Edmund! I’ll get you home safe!”

 

Her legs trembled as they started forward.

Edmund, sensing her shaking body underneath him, asked quietly,

 

“How did you know where I was?”

 

“Luca told me! He said you hurt your leg and couldn’t come down!”

 

She panted for breath as she answered.

Edmund watched her walk carefully ahead, worried she might stumble.

He knew Rose was scared of the forest. Even now, the slightest sound made her freeze with fear.

And yet, she had climbed all the way up here just to find him.

Rose Panning really was a pathetic, foolish little girl.

Edmund bit his lip, trying to suppress the strange tightness in his chest.

Darkness thickened around them as Rose kept feeling her way down the mountain.

Then, a sneeze escaped from behind her shoulder.

 

“Edmund, are you cold?”

 

“No.”

 

He replied with a sullen tone, curling up as tightly as he could. But he sniffled right after.

Realizing he was lying, Rose looked around for a place to set him down.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

She gently lowered him to the ground and started taking off her jacket.

Edmund frowned in disgust.

It was covered in pine needles, dirt, and—worse—dried snot on the sleeves.

Still, he stayed quiet. He would rather wear something dirty than freeze.

As she draped the coat over him, he noticed she now wore only a thin shirt.

 

“You’re not cold?”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

Rose sniffled again, smiling as if to reassure him.

Feeling her hands carefully buttoning the coat, Edmund looked up at her face.

It was the first time he really looked at Rose Panning’s face.

Before, he always thought she was too messy and ugly to bother.

But now, in the dark forest, her face was somehow glowing.

Everything else—his fear, the cold, the pain—vanished.

Only her face remained, gently lit as if holding the last light of the world.

In that dreamlike moment, Edmund stared at her blankly—then quickly looked away as a strange shiver ran down his spine.

Rose hoisted him back up and started walking again.

Edmund wrapped his arms around her neck and rested his cheek against her small back.

Her warmth seeped into his skin.

Above them, the sky had gone completely dark.

A white moon rose quietly as silvery light trickled through the thick mesh of branches, seeping gently into the woods.

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Why Are You Doing This Now?

Why Are You Doing This Now?

왜 이제 와서 이래
Status: Ongoing Type: Author: , Artist: , Released: 2024 Native Language: Korean
𓍯𓂃 By CaradeLuna 𓇢𓆸 “I’m not marrying that guy!”   “…I’m a girl, though.”   I was seven years old when I got engaged to my father’s friend’s son. The boy, only five at the time, screamed like the world was ending and hid behind his mother, insisting—   “I’m going to marry Sophie, not him!”    ________________𓍯𓂃𓏧♡𓇢𓆸_______________   Edmund never loved me.   “Even if we get married, I’m living my life. You live yours.” He said that when we were thirteen.   “I think I wouldn’t care even if you died.” At sixteen, he still hadn’t changed.   “I’m not thinking about marriage right now.”   By twenty—the age we were supposed to marry as promised—he gave the same cold answer, asking for more time with an excuse that he wasn’t ready yet. Honestly, I thought it was a relief. I didn’t want to marry him anyway. So wasn’t this for the best? But not long after… My father introduced me to a new fiancé. It was… despair. But that despair? Compared to the look on Edmund’s face when he heard the news and came storming over— It was practically hope.

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