To Be the Perfect Childhood Friend - Chapter 80

When Anita removed the book from her eyes, Rutger was already gone. She picked up the book with a look of frustration, finding herself several pages away from where she had been reading.

A few days later, Anita woke up feeling tired. The chirping of the birds outside her window seemed unusually annoying that morning.

Knock, knock.

Someone was knocking on her door.

She could no longer delay getting up. Anita rubbed her eyes groggily and got out of bed.

It was a sunny Sunday morning, but she wasn’t feeling very happy.

“Are you going out today?”

“Yes.”

“Where are you going?”

“…I’m not sure.”

At the dining table, Mrs. Rodel seemed intrigued by her daughter’s plan to go out so early on a weekend morning, persistently asking about her destination.

“Later.”

Anita responded briefly and left through the front door.

She regretted impulsively making plans with Finian, even though it was due to Rutger. Once she made a commitment, she had to stick to it.

Before leaving the garden, Anita looked back at the house with a tinge of regret. She imagined leisurely eating cookies and relaxing at home.

Honk, honk.

The sound of a horn from outside the garden made Anita turn around.

“Here.”

An expensive car, incongruous with the quiet and still street, was parked in front of her house. Anita approached the car and, before opening the door, curiously touched the smooth door handle. It felt unfamiliar.

Her father, Nathan Rodel, disliked cars and often complained about entrusting one’s life to a fast-moving piece of metal.

“Will you open it?”

Finian, with his usual sly smile, asked Anita.

“No.”

Anita got into the car.

“Can you drive?”

As she slid into the seat and fastened the seatbelt hanging from the ceiling, Anita asked him. There was no immediate answer, and after she managed to close the heavy door, she looked over at him.

Finian was tapping the steering wheel with his fingers while keeping his gaze fixed ahead.

“Of course I can. Why are you asking such obvious questions?”

After a moment, Finian confidently replied. Although his attitude was highly suspicious, Anita was reassured by the way he skillfully handled the steering wheel and operated the gearshift.

If Finian Nigel had any sense, he wouldn’t be driving a car if he didn’t know how. After all, not just Anita’s life, but his own was at stake.

Moreover, he lived in Henderson, not Anita’s neighborhood. He had driven over 10 kilometers without any mishap, so it should be safe to trust him.

The car moved forward. Anita, who had ridden in carriages and trains before, found the motion of the automobile fascinating. It was a metal box without horses or coal, and it was moving on its own.

“Where are we heading?”

“…Shouldn’t you have asked that earlier? What if I turned out to be a strange person?”

Of course, Anita wasn’t so naive as to follow a stranger without question. Although she hadn’t had many conversations with him, Finian, who had been around Rutger since childhood, didn’t seem all that unfamiliar.

“I don’t really care where we go.”

“What happened to the answer to my second question?”

Anita rested her chin on her hand and watched the rapidly changing scenery outside. The familiar streets and shops she had seen many times before appeared new today.

“And what makes you think you can trust me to drive? What if I turned out to be strange?”

“Well… that’s a tough question.”

He laughed heartily, seemingly amused. Even though Anita looked at him with disdain, the corners of her mouth twitched upward slightly.

She had expected that Finian’s persistent advances would make today uncomfortable, but contrary to her worries, he hadn’t crossed any lines.

“You probably didn’t want to come out today, huh? Since you have no interest in me.”

“……”

Finian spoke in a light tone.

Anita hesitated before answering. It was true that she didn’t want to come out. She didn’t want to waste a perfect Sunday with Finian, and the thought of Rutger only made her mood worse.

Still, she wasn’t inclined to express her feelings directly to Finian.

Even though she knew Finian was seeing many women, she didn’t want to admit her true feelings. After all, his friendliness might just be a momentary amusement, and she didn’t consider herself attractive.

“I…”

Anita fiddled with the tips of her fingers, trying to choose words that wouldn’t hurt his feelings but wouldn’t give him false hope either. Her gaze happened to fall on the shopping district.

“What about me?”

Finian pressed for an answer, but Anita didn’t hear him. Her gaze was fixed on one spot.

She locked eyes with a person coming out of a shop in the shopping district. The person, dressed in a light summer shirt and holding a bundle of letters, looked straight at her with blue eyes.

Anita instinctively reached out her hand, but it was withdrawn before it even touched the car window. The distance was too great.

Surprised by the unexpected encounter, the person had stopped walking and stood staring in her direction. The car soon passed by Rutger. The brief eye contact was quickly over.

Anita, turning around unexpectedly, looked back at the front. Her heart pounded even though she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“What’s wrong? Did you run into someone you know?”

Anita, lost in her thoughts, didn’t even notice how suspicious she looked.

“No… I didn’t see anyone.”

She was so absorbed in her own world that she didn’t realize how transparent her anxiety was.

“Really, I didn’t see anyone.”