chapter 36
36 – Recreation – 4
Even though it was still March, the sun was nice so it wasn’t cold at all. Rather, I rode the mountain a little bit and started sweating little by little. This body is strong, so it was still okay, but Seria was already sweating profusely, probably because she usually built a wall with her exercise. She took off the blazer of her school uniform and wrapped it around her waist as she was sweating quite a bit.
I looked back at Hestia and asked how they were doing. It’s because Hestia doesn’t usually seem to work hard like her.
“Hestia, are you okay?”
“Yes. I can still hold on.”
Hestia was also sweating quite a bit, but she still looked more capable than Seria. I took her handkerchief from her bosom and handed it to her.
“Come on, wipe your sweat.”
“Thank you. When did you get her handkerchief again?”
“Today is a good day. I brought it because I thought there might be something to sweat.”
Hestia took her handkerchief from me and wiped the sweat off her face and neck. She casually gave her handkerchief to me again, hesitated, then slipped it back into her arms.
“Why?”
“I’ll wash this and return it later.”
“There is no need for that. Just give me Aren’t you embarrassed?”
I think it would be quite uncomfortable to put a handkerchief that wiped sweat inside your clothes like that. I held out her hand to Hestia to give it to me. But she clapped my hand and asked for her handkerchief back.
“I’m giving it back!”
“Hestia?”
“Oh, sorry…”
She was taken aback as if it was something she had done unknowingly. I wondered, so I asked quietly.
“Are you bothered by sweat?”
She shrugged her shoulders as if my words were on point.
“No!”
“I don’t care at all.”
To be honest, it’s more like a reward. No matter how much it was, I wouldn’t leave it unwashed or smell the handkerchief.
“Ah, anyway, I’ll wash it well and return it.”
As if she didn’t deserve to hear it anymore, she turned her head away and took her handkerchief to herself. Her slicked back ears are red, visible through her hair.
I stared blankly at her profile and realized that her hair looked pretty uncomfortable. She had her usual long hair that reached her chest. If she stays that way, won’t her hair get annoying when she climbs the mountain?
“Hestia, doesn’t it bother you?”
“Yes? Oh, it sure is a bit annoying.”
“You can tie it up.”
Hestia listened to me and touched her hair for a moment, then she looked at me with subtle eyes.
“Mikhail, you don’t have any strange intentions, do you?”
“Weird intentions?”
“Like the previous massage….”
“Massage? Ah.”
I remembered the time I gave Hestia her massage. Her hair kept falling down her shoulders, making it uncomfortable for me to massage, so she tied her hair up so that I could massage it.
But despite her deep consideration, I didn’t massage her and just stared at the nape of her neck. It seems that it left a pretty strong memory in her head.
“I didn’t mean to do that, but after hearing that, I really need to see him tie his hair.”
“Sorry, but not today. I didn’t bring a hair tie.”
She spread her hands out in a gesture of nothingness. The girls always put each of her hair thongs in her pocket, but she doesn’t.
“Then will you tie it up with a hair tie?”
“Yes, what. Hearing and seeing it makes me uncomfortable.”
She gladly accepted, probably thinking that I wouldn’t be able to get her a hair tie. However, it wasn’t that I didn’t have a place I believed in at all. I immediately saw Seria panting at the far end of the group.
“Sunbae…. When are we taking a break?!”
Just then, Seria said she couldn’t go any further, and she cried out as she just lay flat on the wide, flat rock next to her. Senior Anthony, who was at the front of her group, saw her and scratched her head.
“Sorry, I didn’t pay much attention. Then let’s take a break for a while. If it’s too hard, you can just hang out here and go.”
In the end, we decided to take a short break here. I approached Seria, who was still breathing heavily with her tongue hanging out. Her chest visibly rose and fell with each breath she took.
“Lady Richthofen, are you having a hard time?”
“Yes. I should have taken care of it too.”
“What are you talking about?”
Seria rolled her eyes.
“You two are very sesame-poured. Just bring a handkerchief.”
Looks like I was watching everything Hestia was doing with me at the back.
“Since he is my fiancé, it is natural for me to take care of him. Why am I even taking care of the young lady?”
“I know, right? But since they salted it right in front of me so sweetly, my stomach hurt for no reason. I’m really sad.”
She groaned. It’s shocking to see someone like that who can make a boyfriend as much as he wants.
“Then make a lover or something.”
“It will happen even if you don’t tell me.”
Seria replied bluntly.
“Rather than that, why did you come to me instead of with Miss Hestia?”
“I have a little question for you.”
I got to the point.
“Do you have any spare hair ties?”
“A hair tie?”
She rummaged through her pockets and pulled out one of hers and handed it to me.
“Here. But what kind of hair tie is that all of a sudden?”
“Hestia didn’t have her hair tie, so I came to borrow it.”
“Hmm. Do you like to tie your hair up?”
She smiled provocatively and pretended to tie her own hair.
“How is it?”
She raised her arms to pretend to tie her hair up. As a result, her armpits were naturally exposed. Looking at her, she turned her eyes to the embarrassing sight.
“Do you really like this? Aren’t you shaking me?”
“Lady Richthofen.”
“Why?”
“That armpit….”
I said with my eyes still averted. I thought I should just move on without telling you, but I thought it would be more painful to not know like this, so I told him. Seria’s shirt was wet with sweat, showing only the area around her armpits.
“Armpit….”
She looked down at her own armpit. Her face hardened as she checked out the water park. It didn’t take long for the slightly provocative smile to turn into a completely expressionless expression, and then to an expression full of shame.
I tried my best to thaw this frozen atmosphere.
“The weather was very nice today.”
“Shut up.”
“I don’t really care.”
“Shut up. Quickly grab that hair tie and go away.”
Seria, who couldn’t overcome her shame, eventually issued a congratulatory order to me. She blushed and undid the blazer that had been tied around her waist and draped it over her shirt. It still looks hot to anyone, but I feel sorry for some reason because I seem to be overdoing it. Is there such a thing as deodorant in this world? I’ll look for it later if I have something to give as a gift.
“Hestia, I brought her hair tie.”
Hestia looked at me with a puzzled look when I went to Seria to borrow her hair tie.
“I never thought I would borrow it from someone else.”
“I thought Lady Richthofen would exist.”
“Do you want to see me tie my hair up like that?”
“Of course there are things I want to see, but they look a bit hot and uncomfortable, right?”
“Phew, if you can’t talk….”
Hestia let out a deep sigh and tied her hair up with the hair tie she had given her. Like Seria earlier, her armpits were naturally exposed. Fortunately, her armpits were still dry.
She gathered her long, silver hair in her hand. The white nape of her neck and shoulder line, which had been hidden by her hair, were revealed.
“Stop staring.”
Hestia turned her head away as if my gaze was burdensome. But this time she showed her coveted back. She gave up and moved her hand, perhaps realizing that she would not be able to escape my sinister gaze unless she disappeared from my sight.
“It’s done.”
It didn’t take long for her to tie her hair up.
“So good?”
“Yes. But looking at it like this, I want to see another head. I think anything will go well with you.”
I imagined Hestia with her hair neatly braided, Hestia with her hair cutely tied back in two pigtails, and Hestia with her hair neatly tied back in a bun. In my imagination, she looks good with any hairstyle.
“Unfortunately, that seems difficult. This is all I know how to do.”
“You can ask the other maids.”
“I hate that. Everyone must be busy with work, but I don’t want to spend time tying my hair.”
She refused my offer because she couldn’t disturb the maids. When she gets married later, she should have a dedicated maid who only ties her hair. I spread the wings of a happy delusion.
I thought of someone other than the maid who could tie her hair.
“Lady Deneb… , no.”
“Miss Cordelia, like me, only knows how to do this.”
The fact that Cordelia knows how to do a ponytail herself is even more surprising. The hair she saw last time she did her morning workout, she honestly thought she would have asked someone else.
“Oh, then how about Lady Richthofen over there?”
I pointed to Seria, who was still lying on the rocks to cool off in sweat. Since she is infatuated with Hestia’s looks, wouldn’t she be excited about tying her hair?
“When did you two become so close?”
“Who is close?”
“Obviously, when we were playing games in the morning, we showed off our dislike.”
Hestia looked at me suspiciously. I must have felt a sense of incongruity when I, who had been showing my hostility and told her not to be friendly with me, suddenly asked me to borrow her hair tie and tie her hair.
I made up the words moderately.
“After talking about it earlier, I don’t think he’s such a bad person. We’ll be seeing each other for a semester anyway, but isn’t it better to be close than awkward?”
“That’s true.”
I pushed Hestia on the back before she could say anything. If you ask what she talked about earlier, she can’t honestly say that she made a deal because she wanted to speed up the skinship with you.
“Now, now. Let’s go quickly and ask.”
“Wait a minute! Stop pushing!”
Seria got up from her seat and was staring at us, as if she had heard us making a fuss.
“What are you two doing?”
“Lady Richthofen, do you know how to tie your hair?”
“Hair?”
I explained the conversation between me and her Hestia to her. After hearing her story, she asked Hestia with a slightly shocked expression.
“Ms. Hestia. Do you really not know how to do another haircut?”
“Yes…. At the main house, with the help of other maids….”
“No, you don’t have to be so sullen!”
Seria hurriedly soothed Hestia, who quickly became sullen.
“Then um, please sit here for a minute.”
Seria stood up, looked around her, and pointed at a reasonably sized rock. Hestia hurriedly walked away.
“There were no maids in our house. So she learned to braid or tie her hair like this directly from her mother.”
Seria said while combing Hestia’s hair with her hand. Hestia put on a pleasant expression, as if her touch was comfortable. I sneaked up to the side and observed Seria’s hand.
“What are you staring at?”
Seria stopped her hand as if my gaze was burdensome.
“Never mind me, go ahead. If I watch and learn like this, won’t I be able to do it myself in the future?”
At my words, Seria and Hestia simultaneously looked back at me with angry expressions.
“Why is that?”
“I can see that Miss Hestia is extremely loved.”
“I just want to learn it myself.”
Why are both of you reacting like this? Isn’t it quite common for a man to tie his girlfriend’s hair? Isn’t it rather exciting?
Seria said in a pathetic tone, as if she had read all of my expressions.
“I don’t know if the Archduke is tying Miss Hestia’s hair with a pure heart, but if you say something like that with such a sinister look….”
Hestia nodded her head in agreement. I was unhappy. How sinister!
“I am saying this with very pure intentions.”
“Oh, yes.”
No one listened to my explanation. Seria treated Hestia as someone who didn’t have one and worked hard to braid Hestia’s hair. She pinned her Hestia’s braided bangs to her side. Then she took out her hand mirror from her bosom and held it in her hand.
“Wow, even I was surprised. She suits Miss Hestia perfectly.”
“Is that so?”
Hestia looked at her own head here and there with the hand mirror given to her by Seria. A soft smile appeared on her lips as if she was also satisfied.
“Yeah, it’s really pretty, isn’t it? I really want to learn this.”
The slightly exposed forehead looks very innocent.
“Then let’s try another hairdo. What would be good this time?”
“How about a half head?”
“Nice!”
Seria was excited about my suggestion and untied Hestia’s hair. She is already obsessed with Hestia’s hair, which seems to be able to digest any hairstyle.
Hestia screamed as if she was taken aback when she saw the eyes of Seria and me.
“My head is not a toy!”
However, Hestia’s screams did not reach the two of us.
After that I tied her hair up incredibly.
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