The Bed in the Aide’s Office
The night had grown deep. Silence hung heavy inside Chloe's aide room. Usually, silence was a welcome companion to the late hours of the night. But the current silence only made Chloe feel as if she were suffocating. Unable to bear it any longer, Chloe finally spoke up.
"Just to be clear, I wasn't crying."
From right beside her, a response came instantly, as if he had been waiting for her to speak. "I know. Go to sleep."
"I'm serious. I wasn't."
"I said I got it."
His voice was laced with irritation. If you got it, why do you sound like that! Chloe snapped her head to the side. Even in the dim light, she could clearly see the man, who had been stubbornly staring at the ceiling, glance over at her.
"I really wasn't crying, you know."
"And I said I believe you. It's cramped enough as it is, so just lie still and go to sleep."
Lying perfectly straight right beside her on the narrow cot, Curtis Shan Berk snapped in frustration.
How on earth had things come to this? The explanation wasn't particularly complicated. The exchange that had brought them to this point went something like this:
“Are you crying?”
Chloe, who had been hiding her face while agonizing over whether to use her remaining two chances, had looked up in sheer bewilderment. “What? No, I'm not.”
“Like hell you aren't. Your eyes are completely bloodshot. Damn it.”
It was the truth. While it was true she had wanted to curl up and die of embarrassment, she hadn't thought this was something to cry over. But Curtis had been dead serious. “I didn't realize I'd push you to tears. I'm sorry for teasing you.”
She had probably rubbed her dry face a little too hard. Or perhaps, without her realizing, her shoulders had trembled from the sheer weight of her existential dread. Either way, she had never expected him to apologize so earnestly. Chloe had tried to assure him otherwise, but that had only made Curtis look even graver. “Uh, no. I really, truly wasn't crying.”
“Damn it. Don't make a fool out of me. I know full well I behaved like a brute forcing himself on someone who clearly wanted no part of it.”
Well, she wouldn't go that far... Besides, if he put it that way, what did that make her, who had practically whipped him with her hair after claiming she didn't want to? Flustered, Chloe had ended up grabbing Curtis as he turned to leave, claiming he would just sleep sitting up in his office.
“No! It's perfectly fine! In fact, I'm so fine with it that I could easily share a bed with you, Your Grace!” She had desperately blurted out the claim to prove her point. “It's not like you actually intended to write some grand history with me tonight anyway, Your Grace!”
“Well... no, of course not.”
“See?! And I didn't react like that because I actually hated it either!”
...She only realized the gravity of her mistake when they actually lay down side by side. Damn it. No matter how you look at it, this was a terrible idea...
Naturally, the cot was never meant to accommodate two adults. It was incredibly narrow, and to make matters worse, it creaked at the slightest movement. Even when she used to pull all-nighters in the aide's room, she had always found it cramped. It was a spartan cot, barely long enough to keep her feet from dangling off the edge when she slept alone. With two of them squeezed onto it, Chloe, who had taken the side against the wall, found half of her body practically squished into the crevice between the mattress and the stone.
Yet, Chloe was the lucky one. Curtis, on the other hand...
"...Your Grace. Are you actually comfortable like that?"
Nearly half of his torso was hanging off the edge of the cot. It was a miracle he hadn't slid onto the floor yet.
"It is not your concern, Warrant Officer. Just go to sleep."
For someone speaking so dismissively, he looked excruciatingly uncomfortable. If he was miserable, he should just admit it. Why was he being so stubborn? Of course, she conveniently ignored the fact that her own stubbornness was what had landed them in this predicament in the first place. Chloe couldn't help but needle him with a playful, teasing tone.
"I was just worried you might faint from disgust, Your Grace, considering how dirty you must find someone else's bed."
"Ha." Curtis let out a dry, incredulous chuckle, his eyes still fixed on the ceiling. "The servants changed these sheets just this afternoon."
"But I already lay on them once."
To avoid even the slightest chance of their shoulders brushing, he had folded his arms behind his head. Keeping his eyes glued to the ceiling, he replied gruffly, "I do have some standards, you know."
"I know. But you usually refuse to touch anything that's been used by someone else, even once."
Curtis let out another soft, amused huff and glanced sideways at her. Chloe continued, trying her best to suppress a smug grin.
"Whether you've used a bed or not, the sheets must be changed twice a day, and there absolutely cannot be a single strand of hair on it."
"..."
"No matter who sat on a sofa, you never sit on it unless it's been thoroughly cleaned first. You never touch carpets with your bare hands, and the same goes for tapestries."
Taking the opportunity, Chloe rattled off his habits one by one. She mentioned how the office curtains had to be changed once a week, and how she had seen him personally wipe down the leather desk mat with an oiled cloth every single day because the servants' cleaning never met his standards. He dusted the bookshelves daily with a fresh feather duster, and any teacup left out for more than an hour after pouring was immediately discarded. Even though he claimed his own hair didn't bother him, he couldn't stand the sight of a stray strand and would immediately pick it up to throw it away. Knowing that finding a stray hair would inevitably put him in a foul mood, Chloe had made it her mission to aggressively hunt down and dispose of any stray strands she spotted in the office.
When working, clutter and scraps of paper naturally piled up on the desk. While clearing it was technically the servants' duty, Curtis couldn't stand the sight of it for even a second, keeping a wastebasket right beside his desk to throw everything away immediately.
The deputy ministers who occasionally dropped by often complained that the office chairs were all made of bare wood, muttering about whether they were in a royal palace or a peasant's hut. But Chloe knew the real reason: wooden chairs were far easier to dust off instantly. They kept a single sofa to accommodate high-ranking guests, but its covers were changed daily. Even then, the moment a guest got up and left, Curtis would immediately order the covers to be replaced again.
"Chloe. You..."
You really are a ridiculously high-maintenance man, but I'm a remarkably competent aide, aren't I? Ahem.
"Do you... perhaps have feelings for me?"
"I'm going to go sleep on my desk. Now that I think about it, that sounds like a much better option."
"I was only joking."
"Well, it wasn't funny in the slightest."
When she made a move to scramble off the cot, Curtis chuckled softly, catching her by the arm and pulling her back down. Chloe grumbled under her breath as she settled back onto the mattress.
"How do you think I managed to survive as your aide for three whole months, Your Grace? You should be giving me a medal, not teasing me."
"Do you want one?"
"Do people only get rewards because they need them? It's a morale-boosting item."
"Fine. As a reward, I shall buy you a new bed for this room."
"Ugh!" Chloe groaned in frustration. Curtis looked at her, bewildered by her reaction, but she couldn't help but be annoyed. "How is buying me a better bed to work overtime in a reward?!"
"...Is it not?"
Her superior, whom she had expected to shamelessly retort with “You should consider it an honor” or “Be grateful for what you get,” merely blinked in genuine confusion. It was utterly absurd, yet at a moment where she would have normally muttered “What a lunatic” under her breath, she found herself stifling a laugh.
"Do you finally understand the struggles of your poor, suffering aides?"
She had meant it as a joke, but his response was surprisingly quiet.
"...I wasn't entirely ignorant of it before."
"You knew?"
"You seem to be under a misunderstanding."
The man turned onto his side to face her. Chloe instinctively pressed herself even flatter against the wall, looking as if she might try to phase right through the stone. Seeing her reaction, Curtis let out a soft chuckle and settled more comfortably on his side.
"It's not as if I stay up until dawn reviewing paperwork in the Royal Guard building because I enjoy it."
"..."
"What is that look for?"
"Oh dear. I thought it was too dark for you to see, but I guess I've been caught."
Chloe made a show of rubbing her chin to smooth out her expression. Of course, she was lying about being caught. Even though they had settled down to sleep, the magic stone lamp on the desk at the head of the bed was still lit, casting a soft, amber glow over them. Naturally, she could see the slight furrow of Curtis's brow perfectly well.
"Objectively speaking, the Royal Guard is a complete mess. It is likely far worse than the Navy you came from."
Chloe hesitated for a moment before nodding. "...I have to agree with you there."