For Your Failed Unrequited Love

Felix shook his head when he saw the necklace Lucy pointed at.

“Well, I wasn’t looking for that.”

“No?”

Lucy tilted her head at Felix’s answer.

“The string of the constellation necklace I gave you was very rusty.”

The necklace she gave Felix as a birthday present nine years ago was now corroded and rusty, and the string was about to break. So Lucy guessed that he wanted a new necklace.

Lucy felt Felix’s neck.

“Huh? You don’t wear it anymore? Is the string broken already?”

“It’s been a long time, silly.”

“Then did you throw it away?”

“Why would I throw it away?”

Felix rummaged through his jacket’s inner pocket with an expression as if he had heard something absurd. Soon after, he took out a small case, he flipped it over on his palm and a small crystal fell.

The necklace had no strings and only the crystal decorations remained.

“Why do you carry it around when you don’t have a string? Now throw it away, I’ll buy you a new one.”

Lucy turned to the stand. But Felix grabbed her hand as she tried to take out her wallet.

“Why throw it away? I’m gonna keep it. I don’t need a new necklace.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not that expensive. Why are you carrying it around?”

“Because it always teaches me a lesson.” Felix replied with a grin.

“Lesson?”

“I will talk to you under any circumstances.”

*** 

As they held hands as they walked down the streets, Felix felt as if he had returned back to his school days.

A decade has passed since then, but his wife still exclaimed in an innocent tone whenever she found something strange. 

The two were already full even before they got to the restaurant because they walked around for a long time and bought some street food. Lucy patted her stomach and said, “I don’t think I can eat any more.”

Felix took Lucy to a bench and sat her down.

“So, what are you looking for?”

Lucy asked, sitting on the bench and rubbing her swollen ankle from walking for a long time.

As she walked down the street, Lucy noticed that Felix had been looking around as if he were searching for something.

Felix looked back at Lucy, taking his eyes off the flower vendor.

As she said, he was looking for something. What he was looking for was none other than a flower but he doesn’t even know the name.

“I’m looking for a flower…….”

“Flower?”

“But I only know the appearance and don’t know the name.”

“What does it look like?”

His wife knew everything about flowers and trees. Lucy stepped out with her eyes shining as if she would find out the name of the flower right away.

“Well, first of all, it’s not fancy. It’s a blue flower the size of a baby’s fingernail with a stem this long. I think I saw them all over the field when I was young.”

Felix explained the appearance of the flower, tracing his faint memories.

“I’ve been to a flower shop, but there’s no such flower. All of them are colorful flowers.”

“Ah… I think I know what that flower is.”

Lucy rose from the bench immediately as if something had occurred to her.

“I know where it is, that flower!”

*** 

On their way back to the mansion. 

Lucy suddenly asked the coachman to stop the carriage.

Felix looked out of the window with suspicious eyes.

It was still a long way before they got to the mansion, and there was nothing around here.

“Why are we stopping here?”

Felix asked the question, but Lucy had already opened the carriage door and stepped outside.

Felix followed her down without realizing it.

The sun was setting, and a cool breeze blew through the nape of his neck as clouds from somewhere obscured the sun.

It was a road that he had passed several times, but he had never paid attention to.

“Felix, this way.”

Lucy called Felix, who stood staring blankly at the wide field. She plowed her way through the unrelenting grass.

“Where are you going?”

“You said you wanted to find the flower. I think it’s somewhere around here.”

They walk for a long time. Lucy finally stopped and looked back at Felix.

She pointed her hand in front of her.

“This is the flower you were talking about, right?” 

At Lucy’s words, Felix approached where she was pointing. There were really small blue flowers huddled together.

He bent down and looked at the flowers more closely.

“Yes, I think it’s this flower.”

“Of course you wouldn’t have found this in the flower shop, Felix. It’s just a plant that’s close to weed. Of course, flowers are cute.”

Felix sat in front of him and picked a flower. And started making small bouquets. Lucy watched the figure and helped him pick the flowers.

After a while, a bunch of wild flowers that didn’t fully fit into Felix’s big hands, but were still pretty cute, were made.

“It looks pretty like this”

Lucy said, looking at the bouquet.

Lucy, who came back to the carriage, reached out to Felix.

“Give it to me now.”

“What?”

“That bouquet. Didn’t you make it for me?”

Lucy even nodded her hand as if to ask for it. Felix burst into laughter at the gesture.

“You still need more flowers?”

A few days ago, Felix gave Lucy a new glass greenhouse for their wedding anniversary. For he often remembered her envious expression, talking about all the rare flowers she had seen in the garden greenhouse on Everen Street.

There are all kinds of rare flowers inside the recently built greenhouse that would not envy either the botanical garden or Everen Street.

“That is that, and this is this.”

Lucy said so and held out her hand under Felix’s chin. Felix found it so cute that he almost gave the flower to her. Having barely recovered his senses, he hid the flower behind him.

“I’m sorry, but this isn’t for you.”

“There is no woman other than me who you can give flowers to.”

“When did I say I’d give it to some girl?”

“Heh, Knox and Eston would love it.”

Lucy jokingly waved again, saying, “So give it to me when there is someone who will accept it.” But Felix grinned and grabbed her hand and walked into the carriage.

“I’ll give you something else instead of flowers.”

Felix said, escorting Lucy to the carriage.

“What else?”

Felix, who followed her into the carriage, closed the door without answering. And straight away she pulled Lucy’s lips to his face.

*** 

The carriage came to a stop in front of the mansion.

As soon as Lucy got off, she entered the mansion where the twins were waiting.

Felix, who followed her into the hall, stood in place for a moment and hesitated. His hand was still holding a bunch of unsightly drooping wild flowers.

Immediately, he stepped away as if he had made up his mind and walked through the hallway and stood in front of a room.

He knocked on the door, but he couldn’t hear anything. Felix sneaked in the door and looked in the room.

In a quiet room, his mother was nodding off tiredly, leaning on the sofa. He crept up to his mother’s side so that she wouldn’t wake up and put the flowers on the table.

His mother didn’t seem to detect any signs of him. Felix looked down at his mother’s face.

His mother had a much younger face in some of his vague memories. Sitting at a table in the garden, she didn’t even raise her head when Felix approached her.

Her face, motionless, expressionless as a doll, her eyes empty as if empty.

A mother who doesn’t welcome her son at all.

Is my mother really not interested in me?

The young him wandered behind his mother’s back and finally approached her as if he had made up his mind. Then he put what he was holding on the table.

Then for the first time, his mother’s eyes moved.

His mother, who found a blue flower barely attached to the end of a slender stem, only looked down at it for a while. Felix’s heart beat.

Will my mom like it?

Felix waited. But that’s all.

Felix left his mother, who had no response, as if running away. But he clearly saw before he disappeared around the corner.

His mother slowly picks up the flower and puts it close to her nose.

Even though the ugly flower wouldn’t smell anything.

The memory flashed into Felix’s head today.

After his father died three years ago, his mother also began to lose her health. In addition, since Adrian left the duchy, his mother has come out of the room less and less.

His mother looked lonely.

So he thought that if he brought this flower, maybe it would comfort his mother.

Of course, he didn’t completely forgive his mother. There were times when he felt sad as he suddenly recalled the memories from back then.

There were times when he questioned himself if he should really be doing this. 

But at the same time, Felix didn’t want to stay in the same position. Whether the other person accepts it or not, he wanted to at least try.

The first time he felt that way was when Knox and Eston were born.Sienna