[TIDK] 99 – I Missed You

Early in the morning, Scarlett finished her usual morning routine: breakfast and reading the newspaper.

“I couldn’t sleep at all because of him.”

Scarlett stood up, grumbling. He came bleeding in the middle of the night, shocking her and then disappeared on his own.

After spending some time cursing Viktor, she looked at her watch and realised it was still quite early. She was going to begin focusing on her work right away, but Viktor’s strange appearance the previous night still bothered her.

On the other hand, she thought she should warn him not to come to her store at will again, but the wound on his white neck and the blood flowing came to her mind. -Along with the bitter expression on his face.

Scarlett went to Liv’s bakery to buy some bread for lunch and unwittingly picked out some dry buns that looked like they would soak alcohol. Then Liv came running and asked.

“What, Scarlett? Did you drink?”

“No, not me...”

“Earl Isaac”?

Liv asked with a slight smile. Scarlett shook her head.

“My ex-husband got drunk and came to see me.”

“What?”

“I didn’t intend to give them to him; I just wanted to eat them all of a sudden.….”

While Scarlett was speaking, Liv’s eyes widened.

Scarlett asked with a straight face.

“Why that look?”

“It’s a shame, it’s a shame,” Liv spoke despondently.

“…what?”

“You! Don’t you have a grudge against your ex?”

“Oh, no. What a scary thing to say! I don’t have any such resentment. What did he do to me?”

“Why are you buying bread you’ve never tried before?”

“I’m really going to eat it,”

Scarlett said as she hurriedly paid Liv for the bread. Then she rushed out of the bakery as though she had committed a crime.

She opened the paper bag and smelled the bread; the freshly baked bread smelled delicious. She could smell the homey hint of what it was made of – potatoes.

“It looks delicious. I’ll eat it.”

Scarlett promised herself as she headed home when she found Viktor standing in front of the building and stopped. After having made such a fuss the previous night, it seemed he had come back to apologise.

Scarlett unconsciously hid the bag of bread behind her back.

Leaning a little toward her, Viktor asked.

“What are you hiding?”

“…Bread.”

“Bread?”

“I’m afraid you’ll steal it from me,” Scarlett said, biting her lip in embarrassment.

Viktor Dumfelt was someone who would rather starve to death than touch other people’s plates. Perhaps he didn’t understand the phrase ‘taking away bread’. No, he had encountered many pirates, so he must be used to looting...….

“You’re going to eat the bread?”

As expected, Viktor asked with glee.

Scarlett sighed in embarrassment.

“Y, you came in all of a sudden yesterday. So you may want to steal my bread all of a sudden... Isn’t it?”

-Alright, that seemed convincing enough.

Satisfied, Scarlett looked at Viktor, and he was smiling. No, he was laughing.

“Why are you laughing? What’s funny?”

” I apologise for my behaviour last night. You seemed very surprised.”

As she’d expected, he’d come to apologise.

Scarlett nodded. She tapped his neck and asked.

“Does it hurt?”

Upon Scarlett’s questioning, Viktor untied his scarf. The clean cotton cloth was well-wrapped.

Scarlett asked again.

“Why did you do that?”

“My mother stabbed me.”

“What?”

Scarlett was speechless at his response. Viktor motioned at the bag of bread in her hand.

“Are you not going to share some?”

“...well, I don’t have a tray on me and aperitifs to have before the meal. All I can do is serve you some coffee.”

She said as she led the way into the store.

“It smells good,” Viktor said.

“Because it’s freshly baked. Eat it; it’s made of potatoes. It’s very soft and chewy.”

Viktor took the bread out of the paper bag, looked for a moment before opening his mouth and began to eat. Seeing that, Scarlett also took out a loaf of bread. Then she tore it apart, put a piece in her mouth, and mumbled.

“It’s warm and delicious.”

Viktor didn’t answer. He simply put the bread in his mouth as if leisurely eating the bark of a tree*. Now that she thought about it, Scarlett had never seen Viktor say anything was delicious.

*for all it could be, Viktor, it’s like it could be bark. He has no response, whether it be bread or bark.

“Does it taste bad?”

“No.”

“Is it tasty?”

“Mmm.”

“Just okay?”

“Yes.”

He seemed to feel that most of the food was just that.

Always in a perfect environment, people brought him anything with a flick of his fingers, and he had an appearance coveted by everyone.

She thought perhaps everything felt alright to him because he was so perfect himself.

Scarlett, who had been watching Viktor for a while, took a chess set from the shelf and placed it on the table.