Flower of Steel

I asked him for an answer, and an energetic voice replied, “Earlier, I noticed that my documents were on your desk.”

“Huh?” I had to laugh. So, you means those documents sent to me were yours? But that seemed as though…

“Well, get back to work! We don’t have all day!”

“Alright,” I answered as he urged me to go back to work. I glanced at him on my way back and saw Rave wearing a satisfied smile on his face as he was organizing documents.

‘Does he love working on documents or something? What a weirdo,’ I thought.

***

After a long time, it was finally time to go home.

“Good work today, assistant. How about we go on a date now?”

Rave, who looked a bit drowsy and fatigued, tried to flirt with me. Wow, he was so energetic in the morning and now look at him. I realized again that Monday could be harsh even for a man like him. But of course, he had to do all those documents all by himself, so he obviously was tired. Actually, all officials would only work, looking forward to the weekends.

“Ugh, alright. How about some tea?”

Rave seemed shocked by me accepting his offer and looked with his enlarged eyes at me. Then he asked me with a dumb look on his face, “Er, I need to ask this because I need to know if I’m not dreaming. Will you have a dance with me? I think I’ll know if this is a dream or not if I get stepped on by your atrocious footsteps.”

Oh, that fool. I can’t like whatever words he throws at me, so I snapped, “Forget it then.”

“N-no! Where do you want to go? Eh? A salon by the downtown area? Or you can come over to my place…”

“There’s a drawing room at the palace,” I answered.

“Oh, that’s right. Yeah, let’s go!”

Rave seemed quite excited and began walking toward the drawing room. I watched him from behind him. He had no flaws when I looked at him from the back. With broad shoulders, his height, and… Well, he wouldn’t have any flaws in the front if only he didn’t speak. But, hmmm? His neck above his shirt was red. Is he hot or something? What is with him? He sure is weird. It has become quite chilly lately.

***

“Please sit, my assistant,” said Rave as he pulled the chair for me, a befitting action for the famous playboy of Internal Affairs.

As I sat on the chair, he sat across from me and began grinning. I was confused by his foolish-looking grin, then asked the servant maid for tea. Shortly after, our tea was served, but Rave’s gaze was fixated on my face.

“Why are you looking at me?” I asked him.

“Because you’re pretty,” said Rave.

He’s spitting nonsense again to flirt with me. There are so few days when he’s ever serious. I told him, “Stop the nonsense and speak out.”

“Huh?”

His eyes grew wide, and I took a sip of the tea. It was a bit bitter. “Wasn’t it because you had a favor to ask that you did some of my work?”

In response to my words pinpointing his behavior from earlier, Rave’s expression froze. Then he replied, “You misunderstood me. I didn’t want anything in return.”

“Then why did you do it?”

He became silent at my question. He was looking at me with a bit of disapproval.

“I don’t understand,” I said, telling him what I was thinking. Rave then made a very unusual, serious expression on his face and gazed at me.

“You don’t need to understand. I was just doing what I wanted to do.”

That made it even harder for me to understand him. ‘Why does he give when he wants nothing in return?’

Even when I was sacrificing myself for Kyles, I was hoping for a reward in return for how much I had done for him. I’m confident it is the same for most people. Even a family member, let alone a lover, would want something in return when giving something.