A Deceptive Berry and an Unexpected Encounter
The story I was rewriting continued as we arrived at the villa for a relaxing getaway. Mother and Father, making up for all the time they’d missed due to their busy schedules, stuck close together like a pair of lovebirds. They took long walks or shared tea, never straying far from each other.
“Oh my…”
Their tender display made the villa’s staff squeal with delight. As for me, I couldn’t exactly wedge myself between them to keep René from causing trouble—not when my stated reason was reducing her mischief. So instead, I handed the responsibility over to Arlan and Aran, who had already made themselves scarce early on.
“Play with me!”
“Out of nowhere, what are you even—”
“I’m bored! Play with me!”
René, convinced that Arlan and Aran must be bored too, had listened to my gentle coaxing and immediately sought them out. She kept repeating her demand to play, pestering them without mercy. The two boys couldn’t bring themselves to shake off a little sister who clung to them so persistently. In the end, they raised the white flag and did exactly what René and I wanted.
“You know you have to count every single number before you start looking, right?”
“Yeah, yeah. Go hide already.”
After some debate over what to play, we settled on hide-and-seek. René, who got to hide first, reminded the seeker—Aran—once more.
“If you give up halfway and say you can’t find me, you’ll be a pathetic loser.”
“I got it, so just go hide. I’m already counting, you know.”
“Ah! You should’ve said that sooner!”
Aran answered her with a bored expression, then watched as René scampered off. His gaze then turned to me, silently urging me to hurry. Taking the hint, I quickly slipped away and ducked into the nearest room, hiding inside a wardrobe.
I’d thought Aran looked unmotivated and that this would be easy enough, but that assumption crumbled the moment I saw his grinning face open the wardrobe door not long after.
“Wait, how…?”
“Your clothes were sticking out.”
What had looked like a lack of enthusiasm must have been a trap. Once the game actually started, he took his role seriously.
“And a wardrobe, really? Isn’t that way too obvious?”
“Ahaha…”
Having been caught first in such an embarrassing way, I trudged after him while we chatted. Soon we spotted Arlan wandering down the hallway.
“Brother. I know you’re playing with the kids, but at least show some sincerity when you hide…”
“Ah, perfect timing.”
Aran approached Arlan and began speaking, only to tilt his head in confusion when his brother greeted him with a cheerful “You came at just the right time.” Then his eyes widened at the sight of the old wooden sword Arlan was holding.
“Wait, that’s…”
“Do you remember this?”
“Of course I do.”
Aran’s face lit up with nostalgia as he recalled how he’d lost this cherished childhood toy during a previous visit to the villa. The two brothers began reminiscing about old times, completely forgetting about the game of hide-and-seek. I quickly reminded them what we were supposed to be doing.
“So let’s finish what we started first…”
But my efforts were in vain. The brothers discovered an old but surprisingly decent fishing rod and tackle in a storage room, and the hide-and-seek game dissolved into nothing. Mesmerized by the gear, they suddenly declared they were going fishing, grabbed the equipment, and headed straight out of the villa.
“Hey! Where are you going?!”
René, who had finally emerged from her hiding spot after noticing their departure, grumbled at their retreating backs before whipping her head toward me.
“René. Since our big brothers are going outside to play, let’s go out and play too.”
I hadn’t let them go without protest—I’d even shown my palms in surrender—but René’s suggestion made me blink in surprise.
“Hmm, I’d like that too, but wouldn’t it be dangerous for kids as young as us to go out and play?”
Going outside would double—no, multiply—the number of things I’d have to worry about. I carefully hid my growing annoyance and offered a reasonable excuse. René thought about it for a moment, then nodded as if she agreed.
“Then, at least we can play inside by ourselves…”
“Let’s go find that girl we saw in the hallway yesterday instead.”
“Actually, now that I think about it, going outside sounds totally fine.”
“Huh? That’s completely different from what you just said.”
“I said I thought about it again, didn’t I?”
I quickly calculated that wandering around outside would be far better than searching every corner for some unknown entity. As I took the lead and started walking, René giggled and stuck close to my side, clearly pleased with this new plan.
“Um, we’re going outside to play for a bit.”
“Hehe, understood.”
Just in case, I told the staff we encountered that we’d be playing outside. They warned us not to go too far. When I looked puzzled at how easily they gave permission, they explained that the soldiers who had arrived on the island earlier had already cleared out any dangerous areas, and they had confirmed it together.
With a solid reason behind their confidence, we stepped outside and wandered around the nearby area, taking in the sights.
“It’s not bad at all…”
I was enjoying the quiet, peaceful scenery when René began spotting wildlife. She started with a small bird preening on a branch, then moved on to wild animals that looked strangely familiar yet oddly alien.
Eventually we stepped onto a well-maintained walking path that felt like something out of a fairy tale. We strolled along it at a leisurely pace.
“Sniff sniff… Something smells delicious.”
“Where… You’re right.”
A sweet fragrance tickled our noses as we walked, drawing us forward as if we were under a spell. We followed the scent until we found a bush heavy with ripe wild strawberries. I swallowed the drool that had pooled in my mouth.
“These should be okay to eat, right?”
“Yeah. They’re strawberries.”
Claiming we’d gotten hungry on the way or that our mouths felt empty, we quickly picked the berries and popped them into our mouths.
“Ugh! Ptooey! Ptooey!”
“Ewww…”
Despite their appetizing appearance and mouthwatering sweet aroma, the strawberries filled our mouths with an intense astringent bitterness that made us scrunch our faces in disgust. Even after spitting them out immediately, the awful taste lingered. We chewed at the air desperately before deciding this was unacceptable and sprinting straight back to the villa.
We dashed all the way to the kitchen, where the staff were busy preparing lunch, and begged for water and something sweet. At first they looked puzzled by our sudden request, but when they caught the sweet scent wafting from us every time we spoke, they seemed to understand exactly what had happened. Smiling, they mixed a spoonful of syrup made from real strawberries into cool water and handed it to us.
“Haa! I feel alive again!”
“Thank you so much.”
After drinking it and finally ridding our mouths of the terrible taste, we offered our sincere gratitude. The staff chuckled and asked if we had eaten the wild strawberries. It was obvious they already knew and were just confirming, so we nodded honestly.
“Ah, as expected… Those aren’t real strawberries. They’re liar strawberries.”
“Liar strawberries?”
“Yes. They look just like strawberries but are completely different.”
When we looked confused, the head chef kindly nodded and explained exactly what we had eaten. They resembled real strawberries and gave off a sweet scent that made your mouth water, but they only tasted bitter. Even animals avoided them, which explained why the bushes were so full.
“Then they shouldn’t be called strawberries…”
“But they really do look exactly like them, don’t they?”
“Ugh, why on earth do things like that even exist…”
René shivered and muttered that it seemed like someone had made them as a cruel prank. I wondered if the original author knew about them and let out a small laugh at the silly thought.
“Still, if you dry them properly, the scent fades a little and the bitterness disappears, so they’re often used to make sweets.”
The chef added that they did have their uses after all. As we prepared to head back outside, he warned us that while none of the fruits growing nearby were dangerously poisonous, they all tasted terrible, so we shouldn’t eat any of them.
Having learned from bitter experience not to judge by appearance alone, we nodded firmly and stood up.
“It’s getting hotter now that it’s almost lunchtime.”
“Yeah. Let’s rest in the shade for a bit before heading back.”
After wandering around a little more, we ducked into the shade to escape the blazing sun. Suddenly, something fell in front of us with a soft thud. We turned to look—and the moment we realized it was a bug with an instinctively repulsive shape and garish colors, we screamed in unison and bolted.
We burst back into the villa in a panic, gasping for breath, and rushed into the bathroom. There we were greeted by a girl who looked about our age. The sight made us scream again.
“W-what’s going on?!”
A staff member came running at the sound of our screams. Even though we were pointing right at her, the girl didn’t seem to be visible to them. The employee only looked at us with concern.
The girl gave us a bitter smile as we stared in even greater shock, then waved her hand and vanished on the spot.