At the Atelier (2)
At the Atelier (2)
The small tea room prepared on one side of the atelier held a cozy and warm atmosphere, unlike the vast space outside.
Low shelves and bookshelves were placed along the walls, and in the center, a small brazier and tea tools were neatly organized.
The winter sunlight streaming through the window faintly illuminated the rising steam, softly enveloping the space.
Emelyne was pouring water into the teapot with a face that was still slightly flushed.
"...Idiot. To make such a mistake."
She muttered to herself, her hands moving busily. As the water began to boil, she carefully took out dried winter flower petals from a small glass jar.
It was tea made from flowers that only grew in the North; its scent was subtle and its color clear, making it perfect for serving guests.
"Hmm... this much should do..."
She placed the petals in the cup and slowly poured the hot water. Inside the cup, the petals softly unfurled and began to take on a warm color.
Emelyne watched the sight with satisfaction, then suddenly turned her gaze to the side.
On a table in one corner of the tea room.
The Poinsettia bouquet Aiden had handed her was lying there.
The red petals caught the winter sunlight, sparkling like glass.
"...."
Emelyne's hand, which had been stirring the tea with a teaspoon, stopped.
She stared at the flowers for a long time.
Then, a thought suddenly occurred to her.
"Ah."
That's right.
The tea room bookshelf.
There was a 'Collection of Flower Meanings' there.
It was a book she had originally prepared to refer to when painting. It was a booklet that organized various flower meanings because she wanted to capture not just the shape but also the meaning when she drew flowers.
Emelyne briefly scanned her surroundings.
Of course, no one was there.
Even so, she cautiously approached the bookshelf and pulled out the book.
"Poinsettia... Poinsettia..."
The fingers flipping through the pages were a bit fast.
Her heart was thumping.
Just in case, just maybe.
Something like 'Love'.
Or 'Affection'.
Or perhaps there was a similar meaning.
Furthermore, the Poinsettia was a flower called the 'Christmas Flower'. If a man personally handed over such a symbolic flower... wouldn't there be some kind of meaning?
Emelyne's pale cheeks, which had been cooling down, turned slightly red again.
"Ah... here it is."
She found the page.
And the first flower meaning caught her eye.
—Blessing.
"Ah..."
Emelyne's excited shoulders slumped a little.
"...It's blessing."
Of course, it wasn't a bad meaning. However, because her expectations had been running in a slightly... no, quite a different direction, a hint of disappointment flickered across her face.
"Still... a blessing..."
She comforted herself, thinking it wasn't bad, and read the next line.
—Celebration with a hot heart.
"...."
Emelyne's eyes widened again.
"Ho... Hot heart...?"
She pulled the book a little closer.
"Celebration... with a hot heart...?"
Her mind began to race.
The original meaning was 'to congratulate with fervent sincerity'.
However, Emelyne's gaze was already fixed only on the front part of that sentence.
—Hot heart.
"...."
Her heart gradually began to beat faster.
"Could it be..."
Her clumsy and youthful imagination cautiously raised its head once more.
'A hot heart...? Could this be...'
Emelyne gripped the book tightly.
"A confession...?"
The monologue escaped her lips very softly.
A scene unfolded in her mind once again.
Aiden holds out the Poinsettia and says.
"Daegong-nyeo-nim."
"Yes..."
"Please... accept my hot heart."
"...Kyaa."
Emelyne's shoulders flinched.
But it wasn't over yet.
She immediately read the next line.
—A new beginning.
"...!"
Emelyne's eyes snapped open.
'A, a new beginning...?'
She looked down at the book again.
She re-read the short sentence from the beginning.
It was a natural progression for a virgin who had never experienced love for her imagination to run wild again.
The Aiden in her imagination says.
"Daegong-nyeo-nim."
"Yes..."
"I want to... share a new beginning with you."
"......."
Emelyne's face grew redder and redder.
She covered her mouth with her hand.
Then she shook her head.
'N-no. No way.'
Idiot, your delusions are going too far.
Are you this kind of girl?
Were you such a scandalous girl?
Don't you have any [Chastity], you dummy?
However, her fingers spread apart, and the gray-white pupils revealed through the gap looked down at the book again with a strange sense of anticipation.
And so, the last flower meaning caught her eye.
—Holy Night.
"...!"
Kyat.
Emelyne froze.
'Ho... Holy... Night...?'
Naturally, the original meaning was very ordinary.
A phrase symbolizing Christmas.
Holy night.
Emelyne was a Daegong-nyeo who had received the best education in the North.
Therefore, she knew that meaning.
She knew it.
And yet.
And yet.
"...."
Emelyne's brain, where the wings of meddling and delusion had spread, began to translate in a strange direction of its own accord.
Not the [Holy] meaning of [Seong].
But the [Sex] that starts with S and ends with X.
Emelyne's face became redder than the Poinsettia.
"Kyat—!"
She hurriedly covered her mouth.
The scream was barely blocked within her palms.
"...!"
Emelyne almost collapsed on the spot, shocked by the [Holy Night(?)] that had popped into her head without warning.
Another scene unfolded in her mind.
A feast of holy and very holy apricot-hued scents.
Warm steam was slowly rising inside the tea room.
And.
A 'holy(?) heat' that had flared up in an odd direction was filling the tea room.
**
Aiden had stopped his steps for a while in front of a landscape painting set up inside the atelier.
It was a painting of a vast meadow. It was a work capturing spring in the central region; from a distance, it looked like an ordinary landscape, but as he moved closer, a completely different world unfolded.
Aiden unconsciously took another step closer.
"......."
His eyes narrowed involuntarily.
The curves of the lush green ridges, the texture of the grass swept by the wind, even the shades of the faint clouds hanging over the distant mountains—everything was incredibly delicate.
It was hard to believe it had been painted with a brush.
A detailed painting that looked like an image created by a computer.
Aiden raised his hand and then stopped. Of course, he had no intention of touching the canvas, but the detail was so amazing that he wanted to check it up close.
Expressions were included even in spaces smaller than a fingernail. A single blade of dry grass bent by the wind, the shape of a small raccoon hiding among the distant trees.
"This is..."
Aiden muttered lowly.
"Truly amazing."
He slowly moved his gaze along the painting. He felt a refreshing sense of openness, as if a green plain were unfolding before his eyes.
After a moment.
Aiden nodded as if satisfied.
Seeing such a green plain after always seeing snowy landscapes felt like it was stimulating a sense of nostalgia he didn't even know he had.
He looked away, thinking that if it wasn't rude, he should purchase this painting and hang it in the mansion.
Just as he was about to turn back.
His gaze suddenly moved beyond the canvas.
"...Hmm?"
Looking back, it was an arrangement that felt somewhat out of place.
The space behind the canvas seemed excessively wide. It was a spot where a wall should actually be, but it felt like there was strangely a lot of empty space.
"......."
Aiden scanned the surroundings once more.
The arrangement of the canvases was also unnatural in some way.
In this atelier where everything seemed to be in its place, arranged neatly and cleanly without a speck of dust, it was an unnatural empty space that stood out.
Of course, it was a disharmony that wouldn't be strange to pass by, but since the first target of the Endermit terror had been Emelyne, it seemed necessary to check.
The first terror attack had been so elaborately planned, as if they had already grasped Emelyne's movements and habits.
It was possible she had been monitored or observed from the inside.
'Perhaps...?'
Aiden cautiously moved his steps toward the canvas.
And just as he was about to peek behind the canvas that came up to about chest height.
Jjaeng-geurang!
A sharp sound suddenly erupted from behind.
Aiden's body froze reflexively.
At the same time.
"N-no—!"
A hurried voice was heard, and in the blink of an eye, Emelyne blocked the front of the canvas.
A flushed face.
Shortness of breath.
And above all, she had an expression of extreme fluster.
"Daegong-nyeo-nim?"
She stood in front of the canvas and spread her arms wide.
"H-here, behind here, I haven't been able to organize it so it's messy, I'd prefer if you d-don't look."
Aiden took a step back.
It was a reaction that seemed excessive for hiding something unorganized, but he didn't bother to ask.
Rather, it felt as if his actions had been rude.
"I apologize. I have committed an impoliteness."
Fortunately, Emelyne lowered her arms as Aiden seemed to easily withdraw his curiosity about what was hidden behind.
Though her breath was still short and her heart, which had plummeted, remained on the floor, she thought she had blocked a major crisis(?).
The problem was that she had stopped too abruptly.
Her toe had brushed against the bottom of the canvas.
Tuk.
There was a small sound, and the sensation remained in her toe, but in her obsession with hiding the apricot-hued [sketches], she hadn't noticed anything.
One of the canvases set up behind began to tilt forward.
"Uh—"
Aiden's eyes snapped open.
The canvas was larger than expected.
And it was quite heavy.
The tilted canvas fell straight toward Emelyne.
Tung.
"Kyaa—!"
The canvas struck her head, and Emelyne let out a short scream.
There was no time to defend herself.
Her body leaned forward.
Aiden grasped the situation instantly.
He could have avoided it.
If he just took one step to the side, the canvas would simply fall to the floor.
But Emelyne was being crushed by the canvas and falling forward.
Aiden's body moved first.
One hand pulled Emelyne's waist.
At the same time, his other hand pulled her head into an embrace to protect her from the secondary impact that would follow.
Kwang!
The canvas covered the two of them just like that.
Because of the impact, the balance of the two collapsed.
Aiden fell backward, and Emelyne fell flat on top of him, held in his arms.
Hidden by the canvas, the inside of the atelier momentarily turned dark.
"...."
Aiden's arms were still wrapped around Emelyne.
Emelyne's face was pressed against his chest.
The distance between the two was close enough for their breaths to touch.
Close enough to feel the heartbeat.
Close enough to feel the texture of the body parts in contact.
Emelyne's breath hitched as she found herself held in Aiden's arms much more closely and certainly than during the terror incident.
She was crushed under the hard canvas, but lying there embraced like this, the hardness of the canvas felt as soft as if she were covered by a blanket(?).
At the strange and peculiar feeling, she also felt a tingling sensation as if something were connecting.
Emelyne couldn't say anything for a moment.
Her heart began to beat like crazy.
'This...'
'This is totally—?!'
Just as Emelyne's imagination was about to run wild again.
She felt something like a thin, reddish moisture leaking from under her nose.
"...?"
A single streak of a nosebleed slowly flowed down from Emelyne's nose.
Having spent the entire time with Aiden painting apricot-hued feasts in her own imagination, a nosebleed had finally flowed from her nose.
A woman whose first thing to shed while held in the arms of the one she loved was a nosebleed.
Even if she hadn't been having such vulgar and erotic thoughts, she could have blocked him long ago, but she was a woman who had finally caused a disaster while picturing a holy(?) night in her head.
Emelyne closed her eyes.
Leaning on the dull pain felt at the back of her head, she decided to quietly faint.
"...."