Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 105

Casey tilted his head, looking at the two of them.

“Actually, I don’t understand what ‘cute’ means. Are rabbits cute?”

Lilliana pointed at the rabbit ears on her head and asked,

“Then why did you buy this headband? Didn’t you buy it because it’s cute?”

“Because other people were wearing them. I was imitating them.”

“Hmm…”

“I still don’t understand human emotions very well. So I’m just imitating the reactions and emotional expressions that humans make in certain situations.”

In that respect, he was no different from the 18-year-old Casey. Lilliana still didn’t know what had happened to make Casey think of her as his ‘sister.’

“Then maybe seeing a rabbit will help you understand what ‘cute’ means.”

Lilliana then walked ahead of them. Damian whispered to Casey,

“Lilliana seems to be quite comfortable around you.”

Considering Lilliana’s personality, she wouldn’t refuse her estranged brother’s attempt to improve their relationship. Damian admired her friendliness, thinking it was just her personality, but Casey shook his head.

“No.”

He looked at the back of Lilliana’s head as she walked ahead, his eyebrows slanting downwards.

“She seems to be forcing herself.”

Damian looked puzzled, and Casey shrugged.

“She’s not walking side by side with us.”

Damian finally realized what he meant.

Lilliana wouldn’t walk five steps ahead of someone like that. She would stay within three steps, circling around them. She wasn’t the type to keep an ambiguous distance, neither too close nor too far.

He also noticed that Lilliana’s pace was a bit fast. Damian had often slowed down to match Lilliana’s pace, but he remembered that he had never sped up to catch up with her.

Casey looked somewhat lonely.

“I guess she still doesn’t know how to treat me.”

“At least she’s not scared of you.”

Damian didn’t know how to comfort him, so he just said something. Casey gave a wry smile.

“I wonder.”

Casey said, looking at the back of Lilliana’s head as she gradually moved further away,

“I feel like we’ve grown apart again after finally getting closer.”

“Then you can just get close again. If you were close once, you’ll know how to become close again.”

Damian replied indifferently, but Casey let out a small sigh.

“I don’t know. It’s difficult. I thought we became close because we traveled together for two years, but look. We even came to an amusement park, but she’s keeping her distance from me.”

“We just met you yesterday. Isn’t it strange to expect us to treat you like a childhood friend already?”

At Damian’s words, Casey had a ‘why not?’ expression on his face. Damian retorted with a ‘what kind of idiot is this?’ look.

“I still don’t understand Lily… or humans, for that matter. I don’t know much about humans. I’m 22 years old, and humans are still difficult. Or maybe it’s because I’m only 22.”

Damian frowned. He also found humans difficult. Dealing with people was hard. Sometimes he even had trouble defining his own emotions.

Damian murmured without thinking,

“I’m the same…”

It wasn’t meant to be comforting or empathetic, but Casey’s eyes widened as he looked at Damian.

“But you’re human.”

“That’s why… I don’t understand myself very well either.”

“Why don’t you understand yourself? I think I know myself pretty well.”

“I don’t know.”

Casey, intrigued by this new type of human, began to ask him questions.

“By ‘I don’t know,’ do you mean you don’t know yourself well, or do you mean you don’t even know what you don’t know about yourself? How is that possible? What makes you, you comes from you. So shouldn’t you know yourself best?”

“Well…”

Damian pondered inwardly, then, annoyed that he didn’t understand why he was having this conversation with Casey, he retorted,

“Humans are more complicated than you think. There are things we don’t even know about ourselves.”

“Lily isn’t like that.”

“That’s Lilliana.”

As they were chatting, Lilliana’s voice cut in.

“Oh my, why are you two so slow?”

Lilliana, who had doubled back at some point, stood between Casey and Damian with her hands on her hips.

“We have to hurry to see everything! We have a lot to see.”

“Lilliana, you’re the one who’s fast. We’ll catch up, so you can go ahead.”

“But there are a lot of people, and we might lose each other. So we need to stick together.”

She then grabbed Damian’s arm and pulled him along.

“Brother, don’t dawdle and follow us.”

Seeing Damian being dragged along by Lilliana, who was walking briskly, Casey said quietly,

“I’m annoyed with you.”

“What part of me?”

Damian, who was suddenly being scolded, narrowed his eyes, but Casey just stood next to Lilliana with a sullen face.
They soon arrived at the area with the rabbits. Rabbits and guinea pigs were roaming inside a low fence, eating the food people were giving them.

Lilliana practically jumped over the fence, and Casey followed her. Damian paid for the rabbit and guinea pig food at the booth and approached them.

“If you stimulate them too much, the animals will get stressed, so be calm…”

Damian rubbed his eyes at the sight of a large human rabbit with a rabbit headband among the rabbits. Beside her was a giant cat with perked-up cat ears.

Seeing Lilliana with her round eyes wide open, holding out her hand for the rabbits to sniff, and Casey observing the guinea pigs while petting them with both hands, Damian felt a sense of peace wash over him.

Despite being annoyed with Casey’s dubious behavior.

“Ah, the rabbits are going the other way! Damian, quickly give them some carrots.”

Lilliana frantically held out her hand to Damian. As he offered carrots and hay, the rabbits that had lost interest in Lilliana and left came back one by one.

Lilliana’s face was flushed with excitement, and she couldn’t contain her joy at the sight of the rabbits munching on their food. The rabbit-like person surrounded by rabbits was quite a cute scene.

Damian, realizing that he had been staring at Lilliana for too long, spoke to Casey, who was still intently watching the guinea pigs.

“You said you didn’t understand ‘cute,’ but you find guinea pigs fascinating?”

Casey, with his usual glass doll-like expression, opened his mouth.

“These… are originally raised for food in other countries.”

Damian looked at the guinea pig nibbling on the hay.

Short legs and a chubby oval body. Brown, black, and white fur harmoniously patterned. The unique squeaking sound.

It was indeed incredibly cute.

Casey pointed at it and tilted his head.

“I wonder if it tastes good?”

“…”

Damian didn’t know how to respond.

Instead, he nudged Lilliana and called her,

“Lilliana, please say something to Casey. I don’t know what to say.”

“Oh my, brother. What are you talking about? Is that all you can think about after seeing these cute creatures?”

Lilliana handed Casey a piece of carrot.

“Give them that and tell them they’re pretty.”

Casey did as Lilliana told him, giving the carrot to the guinea pig and observing it.

“I still don’t quite understand, but I learned that guinea pigs are cute, so that’s enough.”

“Are you sure he’ll be okay?”

Damian asked Lilliana, but she didn’t have a solution either.

Casey said to Lilliana, who was smiling stiffly,

“Well, I’ve lived without any problems so far, even though I don’t understand these things. I can distinguish between actions I can and cannot do. And I promised Father that I wouldn’t do things I shouldn’t do… but…”

Damian knew why Casey trailed off. He was feeling guilty for breaking his promise not to kill.

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