the air that touched valérez forearm, which revealed that summer was coming to an end, was as cold as his likeability. when i returned to adrian with the money bag that the clerk gave me, i finally heaved a long sigh that i couldn’t hold back any longer.

    “haa…”

    “.”

    “haaa…”

    “!”

    adrian noticed that my expression wasn’t good, and he groaned and slammed his head at the palm of my hand. aware of adrian’s condition at that sound, i untied his leash from the street lamp.

    “shall we go?”

    he didn’t seem to understand me, and only blinked his big eyes. although the hair dye covered the prince’s brilliant blonde hair, it was the same that nothing could hide his shining red eyes.

    “shall we go home?”

    his head slowly nodded at my repeated words. of course, we didn’t have house to go home to, but i moved on with him, hiding the frivolous situation i am in from him.

    the long dusk comforted my drooping back.

    * * *

    food, clothing, and shelter were basic human needs. among them, i had to solve the ‘shelter’ first. neither adrian nor i were naked, and we still had chocolate, so what we needed for now was a roof over our heads.

    ‘as real estate would say, it’s old, but it’s not bad.’

    the house that i obtained for a thousand from the three thousand resos earned from pawning the dress was a small house located at the outskirts of the imperial capital.

    “hey.”

    i stared blankly at adrian, who jumped over the creaky white fence and began digging with his hands then opened his mouth.

    “excuse me… hey?”

    only then did he notice that i was calling him, so he looked up at me. i pursed my lips at the thought that i couldn’t keep on calling him, ‘hey’.

    “since you say you don’t remember your name, i’ll just name you myself. okay?”

    adrian neither approved or disapproved. i decided by myself that his original name, adrian, should be shortened to rian.

    “rian, this is our home for the time being.”

    the two-story house for a family of four was far smaller than marquis abina’s residence or where adrian used to live. if socks were thrown into a hotel room, the marquis abina was the hotel room, and this house was the sock.

    is the imperial palace about the size of a hallway that contains all the hotel rooms? there was that much of a difference.

    ‘of course, it’s much bigger than the studio i originally lived in…’

    i could get along in this space without a problem, but adrian might be different. still, i wanted him to feel a little less stuffy about the situation, so i chose an old house with a yard, and not a new place with the same price but a little narrower.

    ‘it wasn’t a bad price if it was a thousand resos to rent a month.’

    i wasn’t an expert on the monetary value of this world very well, but a bottle of medicine that i liked to buy in experience! life cost a thousand resos, so i think the house i bought was good enough for its price.

    “rest for a while. i’ll get you some medicine.”

    leaving adrian, i quickly looked into the living room and picked up my robe again.

    “!”

    then adrian, who had been sniffing under the kitchen shelf, ran to me in fright. the leash that hung from his choker dragged on the dusty floor.

    “huuu…”

    adrian clung on to my leg in front of the door and cried. tears soon formed in his big, round eyes, and they fell down and wet the top of my feet.

    “why are you crying?”

    i felt like a terrible person who left a puppy at home and went out alone. if a dog like this was at home, he’d end up getting his throat hoarse from all the crying. i sat down, pressing  one side of my throbbing chest.

    “i’ll be right back. you kept your promise at the pawnshop earlier.”

    “huuu!”

    as if telling me not to lie, adrian’s whining grew louder. then, he pushed me out of the door and started banging his head on the floor.

    thud!

    “okay, wrong.”

    thud! thud!

    “wrong, wrong… throw away, throw away, don’t.”

    adrian’s forehead immediately started to bleed as he hit hard. startled, i ran to him and pressed my palm on his forehead where the blood was flowing.

    “stop! stop!”