Chapter 56: (・｀ヘ´・)
Even though it sounds kind of silly—
Armand really did end up losing more sleep.
Evelia had wanted to help him rest better, but instead, Armand was now completely wide awake, feeling overwhelmed.
“Ughhh—”
Armand lay in bed, groaning in frustration.
Before, his mind was filled with memories of the past chasing him down. But now, Evelia had squeezed her way into his thoughts too.
The moment he closed his eyes, one second he was haunted by the blame of an old friend, and the next, Evelia, with her superhuman strength, just shoved that shadow aside like it was nothing.
He even had a weird dream while half asleep. In the dream, Evelia kicked his old friend out of the way and started chasing him, trying to pull down his pants.
At this rate, was he going to dream about Evelia... doing who-knows-what to him?
“Arghhh...”
He couldn’t stop making frustrated noises. Armand tossed and turned in bed, rolling back and forth, but no matter what he did, he just couldn’t fall asleep.
“Forget it…”
He rubbed his hair in frustration and sat up. Even though it had already been a few hours since that moment, he couldn’t help but glance at his fingers, as if the warm, soft feeling from earlier was still there.
“She totally took advantage of me…”
Armand muttered, sounding like he was complaining. But strangely, there was a faint smile on his lips. It was still a tired smile though, his eyebrows drooped like someone who had just given up.
He lit a candle and walked over to the full-length mirror, staring at his own face. He ran a finger under his eye, and just like Evelia said, the dark circles were definitely there.
“I really do look kind of worn out…”
But even so, he still couldn’t sleep.
He pulled on his coat, making sure he was warm enough, then walked out of the house and out of the mansion’s main building, heading alone to his usual spot in the back garden.
“Ah geez… This is so embarrassing.”
“It’s just a kiss, just one, okay? There’s no one around anyway.”
“Ugh, you’re so annoying… Fine, just one! Eek—what the heck, you said just one…! That tickles…!”
Before he even reached the garden, Armand could already hear the playful voices of a couple nearby. He wasn’t the kind of person who enjoyed eavesdropping on that kind of thing. As soon as he heard the kissing and teasing, he stopped walking and looked up at the moon high in the night sky.
He hadn’t expected there would still be people having a date out here at this hour.
Oh well… as long as they’re being careful, it’s fine.
Shaking his head, Armand kept walking and stopped under a tree not far from the garden.
According to the spies following Evelia, she often came to this exact spot. Just standing under the tree, not doing anything, not saying a word. She’d stay there quietly by herself.
Curious, Armand walked over and looked at the not-so-tall tree. He gently tapped the trunk with his foot, and the leaves rustled softly in response to the movement.
When Armand heard the sound, he finally noticed that the tree already had green leaves. He hadn’t paid much attention before. Without realizing it, he had made it through another winter.
Unlike Evelia, who usually just stood silently under the tree without doing anything, Armand reached out and broke off a small branch. He started playing with it in his hand, not really doing anything important.
“Phew…”
The air tonight was warmer than expected. At least it didn’t make the night wind feel painfully cold.
He squatted down and began poking the ground with the stick, completely bored. It reminded him of when he was a small child, maybe five or six years old, when he liked poking at ant holes in the cracks near the roadside.
He dug up the dirt and then pushed it back in to make it flat again. He drew a spiral shape in the sand, then messed it up with the stick. Armand was so bored that he kept playing with that little patch of sand. He would rather do these silly things than try to fall asleep.
The quiet before sleep was the hardest. When everything around him became still, the memories he didn’t want to think about started playing in his head, page after page. His brain acted like an angry woman looking through old arguments, replaying all the things he didn’t want to face. The more he thought about them, the more upset he felt. And the more upset he got, the more he thought about them.
Back when he was little, he might have even peed in the mud just to pass the time. But now, Armand couldn’t just take off his pants in public. He kept moving the stick around lazily in the dirt and, without meaning to, drew a circle.
Then he got a silly idea.
He added two dots for eyes, then a nose and mouth. After that, he drew some long hair. His drawing skills weren’t great, but in his mind, this was the best he could draw Evelia.
He added a neck next. When it was time to draw the body, he couldn’t help but laugh while he gave her huge, fridge-like shoulders under that round and somewhat cute face. With his strange drawing style, he did his best to show just how incredibly strong Evelia was.
Still laughing, he gave her a very “heavy” chest and strong arms that looked like they could snap someone’s waist using just her fingers.
“Pfft… haha…”
Looking at his masterpiece, Armand couldn’t help but laugh out loud. His weird half-suppressed giggles in the middle of the night might have scared someone if they were walking by. He was even wearing all white, definitely creepy at a glance.
Next, he remembered Evelia’s classic frowning face. So he added two tightly drawn eyebrows to the picture and made her mouth curve down even more. The drawing now looked like she was about to use those strong arms to steal someone’s mom away.
“Pfft… What is this even…”
Armand laughed so hard at his weird drawing that he almost couldn’t stand up straight. Holding his mouth with one hand, he kept adding more to the picture in the sand, little details to her clothes, including something he secretly paid attention to, those stockings that squeezed her legs. Maybe the face looked funny and the muscles were oddly drawn, but when it came to those tights, he actually tried really hard.
“Alright—done!”
And just like that, his drawing of “Double-Door-Fridge Evelia” with a grumpy face was finished. Feeling proud of his silly art, Armand sat under the tree and laughed for a long time.
It wasn’t until the couple from earlier came walking out, one of them red-faced, the other holding their back and groaning, that Armand quickly tossed the stick away and hid to the side. Running into someone at a time like this was embarrassing for both sides. Taking the chance, Armand quietly walked a roundabout path back to his bedroom.
He still didn’t get deep sleep, but at least that night, the last thing on his mind wasn’t the mess from his past. It was the picture of Evelia in the dirt.
And even when he was half-asleep, the thought of that drawing made him chuckle a bit.
The next morning, everything went on like usual. Evelia walked out of the mansion just like she always did. But when she passed by the tree she often stood under, she saw the drawing Armand had made the night before.
Even though it was super abstract, she could tell right away from her gut feeling, it was supposed to be her.
She didn’t know who drew it, but the strange look of the picture made her frown just like the face in the drawing.