Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 108

Lilliana only then realized she was holding Damian’s right hand. She smiled brightly at him, as if to reassure him, and said,

“No, it doesn’t hurt. You’re holding it with just the right amount of strength, so don’t worry.”

It seemed Lilliana thought Damian was concerned about misjudging the strength in his right hand and hurting her hand again.

However, Damian silently transferred her hand to his left hand and gripped it tightly, as if he never wanted to let go.

Lilliana suddenly saw Damian in a new light.

‘This is… it feels like he’s holding it with the same strength as when he held it with his right hand before… Didn’t he want to hold it more gently?’

She was a little confused.

“Help me, Damian.”

At some point, Casey had come within reach of them, but he was stuck among the crowd, unable to move, and only his arm was outstretched.

Damian, using only his right hand, pulled Casey out as if he were pulling out a carrot. Casey, wiping away sweat, stuck close to Lilliana’s side.

“Why are you two holding hands alone? I want to join too.”

“Sorry, Lilliana was in a hurry, so I didn’t think of you. As you can see, Lilliana is small and can easily get pushed around, right?”

‘No, it wasn’t that urgent…’ Lilliana thought to herself. As for being small, Casey was also slender for a man and could easily get bumped around.

“I’ll take care of you from now on, so don’t worry.”

Lilliana said reassuringly, linking arms with Casey. Casey smiled brightly and walked beside her.

However, Damian had a somewhat displeased look on his face.

Lilliana wondered what was wrong with him now. Just then, Damian’s hand, which was holding hers, started to fidget. Then, he began to slowly intertwine their fingers, one by one.

Lilliana, flustered, flinched and looked at Damian, but he, with an indifferent expression, interlocked his fingers with hers, just as Lilliana had done to him about a week ago.

“Da, Damian?”

As Lilliana fidgeted with her hand, unable to do anything, Damian replied with a nonchalant expression,

“Yes.”

“Um…”

“Is something the matter?”

“Well, you see…”

As Lilliana hesitated, unable to speak properly and only mumbling, Casey also looked back and forth between her and Damian.

However, Damian’s expression was so calm that Casey didn’t notice he was holding Lilliana’s hand.

Lilliana didn’t want to tell Casey about this. It was because he happened to be her brother.

“No, I was just calling you.”

“How boring,” Damian chuckled. His face, once again, was so handsome that Lilliana’s eyes darted up and down.

‘No, there’s no reason to hold hands like this now! Holding them normally is enough!’

Lilliana felt her face flush, but she couldn’t fan herself. Her right hand was captured by Damian, and Casey was clinging to her left arm.

“Don’t leave me behind.”

Then, Casey started to lead the way this time.

As she was being pulled along by Casey, Lilliana thought ‘I did initiate this kind of hand-holding last week. Did Damian feel as flustered as she is now back then?’

Lilliana reflected on how Damian might have perceived her suddenly interlocking their fingers without warning, even if it was for medical purposes. She felt like kicking the air in frustration.

She had told Damian that it was just holding hands, but now that she was conscious of it, it was more embarrassing than she had thought.

She wondered what Damian was thinking.

Why is he doing this? Why? Suddenly?

As Lilliana was being led by Casey, unable to do anything, Damian leaned towards her face.

“Let go if you don’t like it,” he whispered.

Looking at him, she noticed his ears were slightly red. Damian straightened up without waiting for her reply.

Even though he said that, Lilliana was caught in a dilemma, agonizing over what to do.

Let go if you don’t like it? Shouldn’t he have asked before doing it?

Lilliana knew she had done it first. But she wasn’t foolish enough to think this held the same meaning as it did a week ago. And she knew Damian wasn’t that foolish either.

Is he crazy!

“Lily, look! Blue roses!”

Casey stopped in admiration at a flower bed full of blooming blue roses. However, Lilliana could barely hear what he was saying.

“You wanted to plant these in the garden when you heard the news about this variety being developed, remember? We couldn’t plant them then because they were too rare to obtain…”

“Oh, oh… They’re beautiful.”

“Even if you have the money, they don’t sell them to just anyone, so I thought we wouldn’t be able to see them for a while, but here they are. That’s great.”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s right.”

Lilliana wanted to focus on Casey’s words, but her thoughts kept scattering. She wasn’t even fully aware of which period of time Casey was talking about.

“Would it be easier to get seedlings in Nichio? The market is bigger there, after all…”

Fortunately, Casey was a bit oblivious. If he were more perceptive, he would have noticed that Lilliana wasn’t quite herself.

Damian, watching Lilliana flustered and at a loss, quietly let go of her hand. Then, he discreetly clicked his tongue, as if in regret.

With her hand suddenly free, Lilliana looked back at Damian, puzzled for a different reason this time. Damian, still with an indifferent expression, shrugged when his eyes met Lilliana’s.

Lilliana wanted to say something to Damian, who had put her in such an awkward position and then let go of her hand first, but she didn’t know what to say.

***

To cut to the chase, Lilliana quickly recovered and enjoyed the amusement park to the fullest. Her ability to quickly bounce back was one of her greatest strengths. However, she spent more time with Casey than with Damian.

“Brother! Look over there.”

“Brother! Won’t you do this with me?”

“Brother Casey! I want to go over there.”

As if she didn’t want to be conscious of Damian anymore, Lilliana enjoyed herself with Casey. But Damian didn’t seem to object or show any signs of displeasure.

He knew why Casey had brought Lilliana here, and he didn’t want to interfere with them out of his own selfishness.

It was a good thing that the siblings were getting along. After letting go of Lilliana’s hand, he willingly took a step back and didn’t hinder their enjoyment.

The three sat on an outdoor terrace with a good view of the sunset, eating ice cream for dessert.

Lilliana and Casey chose the largest cup size and filled it with various flavors of ice cream. The act of scooping the ice cream with a spoon and putting it in their mouths was more accurately described as “shoveling” than the polite expression “eating.”

Damian, who didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, didn’t join them; instead, he licked his non-sweet mint ice cream beside them.

After eating more than half of her ice cream, Lilliana realized that Damian was being excluded from her and Casey’s world, so she spoke to him.

“Come to think of it, Damian, why are you still so formal with me when you speak casually to my brother?”

At Lilliana’s innocent question, Damian couldn’t help but be flustered. She spoke as if there was no reason to be casual with Casey, but now that he thought about it, there was a reason he should use them with Casey.

When he couldn’t shake off the suspicion that Casey might be a dangerous presence for Lilliana, he didn’t want to show him much respect. But now, he knew that Casey was someone he could trust to a certain extent.

And since he was “Lady Lintray’s” family, he thought Casey deserved respect. More precisely, he wanted to score some points with Casey by doing so.

The thought of Casey disliking him and badmouthing him to Lilliana made him quite uneasy. So it was far better to win Casey over and make him like him, so that he would only say good things about him to Lilliana.

That’s right. Damian wanted to appear as favorably as possible in Lilliana’s eyes.

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