To Be the Perfect Childhood Friend - Chapter 76

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It would have been nice to say that Anita tossed and turned all night due to a romantic encounter in the middle of the night, but as soon as her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep. Probably because she was exhausted. Anita, still half-awake, stuffed a piece of bread into her mouth and headed out the door.

“Hmm?”

There was a yellow box on the staircase railing. Anita, assuming it was a package that had arrived from afar, picked it up with one hand and opened the door with the other. With indifferent eyes, she rummaged through the box, intending to tell her mom where the package came from. But Anita’s eyes widened.

R.B

The initials, just two letters, were familiar. Anita stood still, holding the box. The drowsiness that had clung to her eyelids vanished in an instant. Caught between leaving for school and standing still with the package wedged between the door, Mrs. Rodel approached her daughter.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh. It’s nothing.”

Anita felt a prick and awkwardly hid the gift box behind her back. Mrs. Rodel, noticing her daughter’s gaze, took a step back.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. It’s just nice to see neighbors getting along.”

It didn’t sound like something related to the birthday gift from Rutger.

“There was a lot of snow last night.”

Trying to change the subject, Anita glanced at her mother.

“Of course. I was up all night writing my paper, and it snowed a lot.”

Seeing Mrs. Rodel’s smirk, Anita suddenly felt envious of earthworms in the ground.

“Well… I’ll be going now.”

“Sure thing.”

Mrs. Rodel shrugged her shoulders as if she had never held Anita back and went inside the house.

Passing by the gardener watering the trees with a hose, Anita suddenly stopped in her tracks. She remembered Rutger’s acrobatic and perilous stunt from the night before.

“Mr. Muller.”

“Yes?”

Mr. Muller, working in Anita’s garden, replied at length, focusing on watering the plants.

“Could you possibly get me a net?”

“A net?”

Despite Anita attempting to engage in conversation, Mr. Muller, who had been focused solely on his work, finally turned to look at her.

The man, muscular with his right arm covered in rose vine tattoos, appeared intimidating but was surprisingly kind. Since smoking was prohibited in the garden, Mr. Muller chewed on a piece of grass instead of a cigarette.

“What do you need it for?”

He squinted his eyes, looking down at the intruder who was disturbing his work.

“Just… There were some cats stuck in the trees, and I thought it might help them get down.”

“Cats, huh?”

Unfortunately, Anita wasn’t good at lying. She was blatantly showing signs of hiding something.

“I see. Not too difficult a task.”

“If possible, please make it sturdy.”

“…….”

“Hmm… I understand. Something strong enough to support even a leopard.”

Anita’s feeble excuse was quickly noticed by Mr. Muller, but he just nodded his head.

Though she knew she would be late if she didn’t hurry, Anita stopped every few steps. As she looked down, her boots left imprints in the snow.

It might sound somewhat sentimental, but the snow covering the whole street or the peaceful scenery of the street was romantic. Going to school and attending classes didn’t feel romantic at all.

Everyone thought Anita enjoyed going to school just because she was a model student. Contrary to their expectations, Anita didn’t like school at all. She yawned through the uninteresting economics class, and the students whispering to make boring classes somehow interesting annoyed her.

“Just skip it?”

Like most daydreamers lost in the world of books, Anita didn’t have much interest in the impending reality.

The snow on the branches was beautiful, and the sky was excessively clear.

Heading towards the rigid rectangular building for classes would ruin the perfect feeling she had just felt.

As Anita’s heart raced while walking in the opposite direction towards school, she wandered aimlessly through the streets. The morning scenery she hadn’t seen due to being confined to school or home was refreshing. After reading a book on a bench in the garden and buying a sandwich when she got hungry, Anita felt disgusted by the texture of the ham in her mouth and set it down.

Before she knew it, the sun had set. The day had passed too quickly. After tearing up the remaining bread and tossing it to the birds, Anita got up from her seat.

What deviation from the topic? Reading a book was no different from usual.

Her steps were light as she headed to the park, but they felt heavy on her way back home. The realistic worries she had pushed aside came back quietly.

And those worries turned into reality.

Like a thief trying to muffle her footsteps, Anita was about to climb the stairs to the second floor when she was startled. Someone was standing in the dark stairwell.

“Anita Rodel.”

The call came down like a death sentence, and Anita tightly shut her eyes.