<Chapter 37>
#4. The Exchange Meeting (9)
“I like someone who is kind, gentle, and nice.”
When this clichéd statement flowed from Melty’s mouth, disappointment appeared on Lila’s face.
“…That’s an extremely ordinary standard.”
“Lila-ssi doesn’t seem to know, but they say the ordinary is actually the most difficult to achieve.”
Lila chuckled at Melty’s confident declaration with his nose in the air. If it had been someone with real dignity, it might have been different, but when someone with such a soft face tried to speak with gravity, it only looked cute. Resting her chin on her hands as she gazed at Melty, she asked with a lingering smile:
“So that’s the extent of Melty-ssi’s standards?”
At Lila’s question, Melty fell into thought again. Perhaps because they had been talking about Calix all this time, the image of his face teasing people with a lewd expression flashed through Melty’s mind. As soon as he recalled it, Melty scrunched up his face and articulated additional requirements:
“I’d like someone who isn’t a liar. I also dislike people who live for the fun of teasing others. And I’d prefer someone who doesn’t touch my ears or tail without permission, or pick me up suddenly just because I’m small. Not someone who likes to play pranks, but someone full of consideration.”
Having listed off qualities opposite to Calix without even taking a breath, Melty gasped for air. Lila, who had been staring blankly at him, laughed awkwardly.
“R-really? That’s… quite specific, as if you have someone in mind. Is there perhaps someone you’re interested in?”
“No! Absolutely not! There isn’t!”
Melty folded his arms firmly and turned his head sharply in the opposite direction. Confused by his behavior, Lila soon gave a small laugh.
“Come to think of it, there’s someone here who perfectly matches what Melty-ssi described.”
“Really? Who?”
“Well… Johaim Kun Sarvie…”
As Lila whispered with her voice lowered, an ominous shadow fell over her head. Feeling the surrounding temperature suddenly drop, Lila shuddered. Slowly raising her head, she discovered Calix standing there with a grim expression.
“So who is that supposed to be?”
Calix emphasized the word “who” and lifted the corners of his mouth. Though it was undeniably a smiling face if one only looked at the surface, his eyes were filled with murderous intent. While she froze, unable to speak rashly due to his intimidation, Calix’s gaze turned to Melty.
“I told you to bring food to me for approval if you wanted to eat, didn’t I? So what are you doing here?”
At the slightly gruff question, lacking the sharp tone he had directed at Lila, Melty blinked. Leaning his body slightly backward, Melty looked behind Calix. He was puzzled by how Calix, who had been over there just moments ago, had approached so closely.
“When did you get here?”
“Just now. But why are you here, I asked.”
“We’ve been talking continuously for a while. What, am I supposed to stand next to someone holding a plate while they’re having a conversation? I was waiting to talk to you after it ended.”
At Melty’s words, spoken with his lips protruding slightly, Calix’s expression instantly melted. Moving closer to Melty, Calix spoke with a warm smile:
“So you were waiting here? Ah, you could have just come and talked to me. You didn’t eat anything, right?”
“Thanks to you, I couldn’t even touch anything. Since you said not to eat carelessly.”
At Melty’s dejected response, Calix let the corners of his mouth rise freely.
“You really didn’t touch anything?”
At Calix’s question, Melty’s conscience pricked him. With delicious food smiling broadly and crying out to be eaten, it was impossible to just leave them alone. Recalling the tiny cupcake he had impulsively eaten, Melty rolled his eyes to gauge Calix’s reaction.
“…I ate just one small one…”
Far from being angry at this honest confession, Calix smiled slightly and raised his hand. His hand, habitually about to ruffle Melty’s hair, stopped in mid-air without achieving its purpose.
– I’d prefer someone who doesn’t touch my ears or tail without permission, or pick me up suddenly just because I’m small.
Melty’s voice, clearly articulating these words just minutes ago, flashed through Calix’s mind. Seeing his frozen position with a serious expression and awkward movement, Melty quietly lifted his head to look at the hand suspended in the air.
“What are you doing?”
“…Can I touch your hair a bit?”
“Why are you suddenly asking that? When have you ever asked before touching?”
“Well, you know. I can ask sometimes.”
Calix inwardly muttered that this behavior was absolutely not because of Melty’s “ideal type.” Of course, a polite person should ask for the other’s consent before acting, and he was an extremely courteous person.
At Calix’s words, Melty narrowed his eyes. Then he quickly raised both hands to cover the top of his head.
“You’re not asking because you’re planning to do something weird, are you?”
“Huh… When have I ever done anything weird?”
Calix asked with an aggrieved expression in response to Melty’s suspicious gaze. At his question, Melty briefly searched his memories before lowering his hands back to the table.
“…I feel like there was something, but I can’t remember.”
“That’s because there wasn’t anything, so of course you can’t remember.”
Despite Calix’s confident statement, Melty couldn’t erase his dubious expression. He definitely felt like he had been subjected to all sorts of weird things from him, but when he tried to recall specifics, nothing came to mind.
“My hair is fine to touch. You usually just touch it anyway, so why the sudden question?”
“I can ask sometimes. I’m naturally very considerate.”
Emphasizing “considerate person,” Calix rubbed Melty’s fluffy hair with his hand. He particularly focused on the areas where Lila’s hand had touched, stroking them more intensively. Seeing Calix looking at her with a triumphant expression, Lila barely managed to close her mouth, which had fallen open.
Having witnessed Calix’s behavior firsthand, Lila could accept the situation more easily. It was clear that he took better care of his people compared to others, but his actions toward Melty seemed even more intimate.
Belatedly realizing that Calix and Lila’s gazes had met, Melty hurriedly spoke up.
“Ah, right. Calix-ssi. This is Lila-ssi.”
“…I’m Lila McNeil. It’s been a while.”
Lila greeted Calix with an expression like she’d bitten into a rotten fruit. About to respond with a slight nod and a sour expression to her greeting, Calix kept his head stiffly upright instead of lowering it.
“…I’m Calix Kuse Padrian.”
Having complied with the tedious greeting, Calix turned his gaze to check Melty’s reaction. Following the movement of his gaze, Lila also looked at Melty. As both people who had introduced each other for greetings directed their attention to him, Melty blinked with a puzzled expression.
“Why, why are you both looking at me?”
“…Don’t you have something to say?”
“Me? Now? What am I supposed to say?”
At Calix’s question, Melty asked back, blinking rapidly without hiding his confusion. At his response, Calix swallowed a deep sigh with his lips tightly closed. He hadn’t expected an outright “You’re amazing!” but he hadn’t expected such a disinterested expression either.
“Forget it if you don’t.”
Melty, observing Calix’s downcast expression, turned his gaze to Lila. When Melty’s gentle eyes met hers, Lila could only let out a deflated laugh.
From Calix’s appearance and his complete focus on Melty from the moment he arrived, Lila could discern many things. She had always been perceptive, but even if she hadn’t been, it wasn’t difficult to infer the reason from Calix’s behavior, which was completely different from what she had observed at exchange meetings so far.
At first, she had suspected that Melty might have been lying to her. But such suspicions disappeared the moment she saw Melty’s gentle eyes.
‘To think Padrian is experiencing unrequited love…’
Many people had actively approached Calix in the past. His outstanding appearance easily captured the hearts of women attending the exchange meeting for the first time. Even his cold attitude was considered charming here. Having watched these scenes all this time, Lila found it hard to accept that someone who had received so much attention was now caught in unrequited love.
“Didn’t you say you wanted cake?”
Melty naturally opened his mouth for the bite-sized cake approaching his lips. While enjoying the soft, sweet cake in his mouth, Melty’s gaze naturally fell on Calix. Having drawn Melty’s gaze to himself instead of Lila, Calix wore a relaxed smile.
“Can I eat now?”
The cakes piled on the plate showed traces where Calix had taken small bites here and there.
“Yeah. But can you really eat all this?”
“Of course. Who can’t eat this much?”
At Melty’s confident declaration as he patted his stomach proudly, Calix was at a loss for words. Recalling his behavior so far, Melty did indeed eat quite well. Watching Melty adorably munching on cake, Calix thought he needed to earn more money in the future.
“If you want to eat at other times too, just tell me anytime. I can have several times more than this made.”
“…Even I wouldn’t eat that much.”
Squinting and glancing at Calix, Melty considered whether what he had just said was meant to tease him. Staring blankly at the cakes that had passed inspection being transferred to a plate brought by someone Calix had sent, Melty set aside his suspicions and lowered his voice to express his thoughts.
“I don’t usually eat this much, but since there’s nothing else I can do here except eat, it might seem like I’m eating more.”
Having conveyed the sentence he had been thinking about, Melty put another cake in his mouth with a lighter heart. The elaborate interior decorations and pleasant music had quickly become tedious. But it would be awkward to return to his room alone when no one else was leaving.
It didn’t seem right to tell Calix, who was essentially the host of this banquet, that he wanted to go to his room, so he had decided to endure in his own way. However, for Melty, who didn’t even have a proper conversation partner, the only thing to do here was to eat.
“Then why didn’t you come and tell me you were bored? Why are you only saying it now?”
“…You were having important conversations with people. How could I say anything?”
Melty murmured in a small voice as he eliminated another cake with a “nyam” sound. With a sigh, Calix wiped the cream stuck to Melty’s lips with his thumb and said:
“You should still tell me. It’s not like today is the only day I talk with other people. If you’re bored, we can go somewhere fun.”
“But…”
“Excuse me.”
A nonchalant voice interjected into the natural flow of conversation between the two. Frowning at the interruption of the conversation that had been flowing so smoothly, Calix turned his head to the side.
Lila, who had become an “invisible person” between the two for a while, frowned and spoke.
“Aren’t you treating me as someone with no presence right now? There’s a person here too.”
Following her voice asserting her existence in a stiff tone, a medium-low voice interjected:
“Please add one more person.”
