To Be the Perfect Childhood Friend - Chapter 71

In front of Sarah Baylan, whose brow was furrowed in concern for him, he casually muttered, “I’m back anyway, so that’s good, right?” and went into the house without giving his stepfather a second glance.

This left Anita to be interrogated by the adults. Anita wasn’t shameless enough to pretend she didn’t know what she’d done wrong.

After less than four minutes, Anita’s face turned even paler as she struggled to explain her confrontation with Trey, leaving out the part about Rutger stomping on him. Mrs. Rodel sobbed while holding her daughter, and Mr. Rodel turned away, apparently because he was one of those people who find crying disgusting.

In the end, Anita couldn’t leave the room for three days. And after Mrs. Rayburn, Trey’s mother, bravely visited the house, three days turned into a week again.

The next day, Anita was lying in bed, dazed, when she suddenly picked up a package that fell into her arms. It was wrapped in pretty green packaging with a yellow ribbon.

‘Oh, right. Lemon pie.’

Luckily, it’s been cold lately, so it’s not spoiled. It should have been given yesterday…

Hesitantly, Anita opened the window. The opposite window was about two meters away. Judging the distance between the rooms, Anita searched the room. Finding the net she used when she was immersed in collecting, Anita inserted the gift box into the net.

Since the box was heavy when caught in the net, and the thin rod was not sturdy, the net wobbled anxiously in the empty air. Shaking the net hesitantly, Anita finally got it across onto Rudger’s window sill.

After knocking on the window a few times, the opposite window opened wide. Looking at Anita and the net with a face wet from laziness, Rutger’s expression changed from surprise.

“What the hell are you doing….”

“Take this.”

Anita, desperate because her arm was about to fall off, hastily said. Not wanting to delay any further, Rutger picked up the box trapped in the net.

“Ouch.”

In an attempt to extend the net, Rutger’s grip on the handle’s end was precarious, perhaps that’s why the pole fell to the ground as soon as Rutger accepted the gift. Looking at the net caught in the bushes below, Rutger seemed puzzled as he looked at Anita. In his gaze, Anita forgot the words she wanted to say.

Confusion lightens the brain, making the mouth light. Anita was flustered.

“I found it while searching the room. It was the longest thing I could find. And I didn’t purposely let it slip, it just happened…”

“What is this?”

Rutger interrupted Anita and asked, shaking the box.

“No! Don’t shake it. It’s a lemon pie. It’ll crumble.”

“Lemon pie?”

Rutger put down the box he was shaking. Anita, worried that the pie might have lost its form, wasn’t paying attention to his words.

“Why?”

In response to Rutger’s question, Anita replied matter-of-factly.

“Because you like it, so I bought it.”

“Really?”

Anita didn’t notice Rutger’s peculiar expression.

***

Twelve-year-old Anita was obsessed with adventure novels and fantasized about a fancy house in the trees. At the age when you should try what you want to do, twelve-year-old Anita wanted a treehouse. Fortunately, Anita had a way to make that fantasy come true.

Not Anita herself, but with the help of an accomplice.

“Mr. Mueller.”

Mueller, holding long pruning shears that were about half the length of Anita’s body, stopped trimming. He had been tidying up the surroundings of the fence, and now he placed the shears on the tool shelf and turned around.

“Could you please build a treehouse for me?”

Mueller, with a rough beard on his chin and a rose vine tattooed on his arm, was the gardener at Anita’s house, and his intimidating appearance kept the neighborhood’s gangs of mischievous children away from the house.

“A treehouse? In the middle of this urban area?”

“Isn’t our neighborhood pretty rural?”

When Müller bluntly refused, Anita clung to him. She’d been chasing him all day, flipping through gardening books wherever she could find them.

“Mr. Mueller, do you know the advantages of a treehouse?”

“…….”

“You can help protect wildlife. Animals with nowhere else to go….”

“Why would wild animals want to come to a place that smells like people?”

As persuasion showed no signs of working, Anita desperately presented another reason.

“There’s another advantage of a treehouse!”

“…….”

“If you get tired while working in the garden, you can take a short nap.”

“Oh. Then get caught napping, lose my job, and end up unemployed?”

“I’ll hire you again when I grow up. Maybe in about 10 years?”

“Really? Are you telling me to be unemployed for 10 years?”

“If you can’t find a job for 10 years, someone else will take you on.”

In the end, Mueller laughed and agreed to Anita’s proposal. And not long after the construction of the treehouse began, one day.

Rutger, who had shown no interest in anything, whether someone was dying next door or construction was happening, couldn’t resist Anita’s persistence. Looking at the large, beautiful oak tree rooted in Anita’s backyard, Rutger spoke with a hint of admiration.

“It’s a tree. It’s been there since the day I moved in.”

“Technically, it’s over 100 years old. Anyway, what do you think?”

His gaze wandered up the tree trunk.

“It’s impressive. It even has foothold.”

“That’s right! Now, like Andy, we can live in the trees…”