Chapter 41
After finishing the modest party and celebration, and sharing various trivial stories about each other’s birthday cultures, it was already time to prepare dinner.
Idris naturally went to the sink and began preparing to cook. Irene hovered by his side and spoke to him.
“Is it alright for the birthday celebrant to go through the trouble of making food?”
“Rather, as it is my birthday, it is only right that I prepare food to serve.”
“I do not think I gave you a gift good enough to be served like this.”
Since it was merely a single pair of cuff links she had hurriedly pulled out, it was a stretch to call it a proper gift.
“You gave me an expensive gift, so what are you saying? It is more than enough.”
‘In the first place, those cuff links are not mine but the previous owners of this cabin, so it is a bit awkward to take credit for them.’
However, Irene, who could not explain the long-winded story of the cabin’s change in ownership, simply laughed.
Since Idris had been preparing the meals lately anyway, would it not be fine? She felt it was awkward to step forward and say she would do it now.
“Then I will leave dinner to you today as well. I will step outside for just a moment and come back. I remembered something I forgot.”
“Yes, I will be prepared and waiting.”
Irene picked up a brown basket with one hand and headed for the entrance. Having put on pitch-black low boots, she waved her hand lightly to Idris, and he responded with a small nod. Irene smiled and stepped out of the cabin.
As soon as she opened the door, Irene instinctively narrowed her eyes at the pouring sunlight. Today especially, the sky seemed exceptionally clear and sunny without a single cloud.
Irene, whose mood improved in the warm sunlight, pushed through the forest with a light step. Her two hands swung cheerfully at her sides in time with the speed of her walk.
“Was it around the direction of the cliff by the lakeside?”
Having reached the front of the lake before she knew it, Irene narrowed her eyes to examine the opposite side of the large ripples. Her good eyesight clearly showed the landscape near the left side of the other side of the lake.
“Ah, there are many. Thank goodness.”
Irene’s face brightened considerably. She arrived across the lake in an instant, almost running.
While walking the long way around, she thought that swimming straight across the lake would be the fastest. But since she was dressed in pretty clothes now, she could not swim, so the idea was rejected.
“It really is just a little further to the place where I found Mr. Idris.”
Looking at the sheer rocky cliff, Irene was briefly lost in a strange sentiment. She soon turned her head and crouched down among the flowers.
In the midst of the full bloom of colorful, bright spring flowers she had tended with care, Irene reached out her hand. A white hand picked out a single flower and snapped it off. It was a flower with thin, red petals spread wide as if welcoming the sunlight.
“I am glad I planted plenty of anemones in various colors.”
She had contemplated planting only blue, purple, and white, so it was a great relief that she had not done so.
“Mr. Idris said that among flowers, he likes red anemones the most, surely.”
She planned to pick an armful of bright red anemones and arrange them beautifully in a vase. She thought it would be just right to mix several colors for the dining table and fill the vase in Idris’s room with only red anemones.
“It is a bit much to end the birthday with only a pair of cuff links.”
So she planned to pick an armful of beautiful flowers and hand them to him. Since it would likely be his last birthday in this life to just let today pass by, as the cause, or rather, the near-cause, she felt a bit of a sting.
It was her last remaining bit of conscience.
Before she knew it, the inside of the basket was dyed full of diverse colors. Rising to her feet and brushing off the grass that clung to her, she moved her feet quickly.
The closer she got to the cabin, the more her heart pounded for some reason.
‘Will he like it?’
The image of him showing a visibly pleased reaction earlier comes to mind. Irene’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.
She lightly ignored the small cry of reason that he would never show it even if he disliked it.
“I am back.”
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