小嫂子的味道

Ellyn was the person sitting in front of me. And I kind of knew about her because of the info I have of the novel so she wasn't a complete stranger.

I took a look at her face, there was a slight expression of frustration on her face; it was so vague that you couldn't have seen it from far. I was able to precisely because I was sitting before her.

I knew the reason behind this frustration though, and it was not because she was angry at those girls who were badmouthing her. But rather, she was angry at herself.

Ellyn was a bit dense; probably that's why she wasn't able to figure out why Seiren and her friends were blaming her. Though, since she is also a kind and calm girl, showing that expression on her face wasn't an option. A part of it also involved her being from the Rosenberg family.

You know, the whole heiress should always have a smile on their face thing.

"Tch! I don't know what they are so pissed off about. I mean, it's not my fault that I'm with Leon; I have a solid reason for that. But being with him doesn't mean…I'm dating him or something! If they want to date him then why not just do it?"

She mumbled as folded her arms, looking down at the table. I guess this is what they call self-talking.

"What's all blaming everything on me!" she said as she smacked the table lightly.

The hit didn't carry much force but it was good enough to spill a little bit of coffee from the cup. It spilled in a way that the liquid fell on one of my sandwiches.

'Great! Now I have a vegetarian coffee-dipped sandwich.'

All this snapped Ellyn back to reality and she noticed that she wasn't alone at this table. Noticing this and the fact that she spilled my coffee, she hurriedly looked up—facing me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I'll clean this up," she apologized.

"No, it's fine."

"You…" staring at my face it looked as though she suddenly remembered something. "You're Anya's brother, right?"

"Apparently."

"Is she alright? I mean, those boys didn't trouble her again, did they?"

"Nope, they didn't. She's alright."

Then she realized that I should've been able to hear all that self-talking she was doing. This made her lose her composure, but it only lasted a second. And I mean literally a second. It was almost unnoticeable as it was quickly replaced with her usual smile.

"I'm sorry…if, you heard all that. I was not in my right mind," she stated.

"Well, it's good to let it all out if something's bugging you. I don't blame you for it."

"I see," she nodded.

"…"

After that, there was pin-drop silence between us. She went to buy a drink for herself—I don't know which drink it was—and I kept eating my last two sandwiches.

It didn't take long to finish then as I was done by the time she came back, and yeah I also ate the coffee-dripped one.

'Can't afford to waste food; especially when I paid for it.'

She seated back on her seat—in front of me—and drank whatever she bough as I sipped my coffee.

"I might be poking my nose where it doesn't belong but… were those girls bullying you or something?" breaking the silence, I appealed.

"So you saw that," she sighed, placing her cup back on the table.

"I guess I did."

"…" narrowing her eyes she fell into deep thought.

"So? Were they bullying you? You can share it with me if you want. You saved my sister the other day and I can't thank you enough for that, so I'll try to help if it's something I can assist you with," I said as I stared at her.

"Well…thanks for your concern but they were not bullying me. And you don't need to do anything for me, what I did back then was morally right. It's just that," she replied; that smile remained on her face all the time.

"Ah, I see. Then I was worried over nothing I guess."

I sipped my coffee after that but she sat still like something was on her mind. A few minutes she stood up, probably to leave.

"You said something about being morally right, didn't you?" I questioned, just when she was about to leave.

"Hmm, yes, I did say that saving your sister was a morally right thing. Anyone would've done the same thing, not just me," she replied.

I looked into her eyes, after hearing her maybe just for a second, my that side surfaced; though I was not sure about it, not sure about what expression I had.

"You talk about morals but…do you, as a person, really believe in them? Or are you just following them blindly because someone told you to?" I said.

"Huh?"

Her face went blank; she wasn't able to reply to me.

"I said something strange, sorry about that," I apologized.

"Oh, okay. No, it's alright…Now, if you'll excuse me," with that she left.

I kept sitting in my seat even after I finished my coffee. I kept wondering about her.

'Her personality is a bit different from the Ellyn in the novel, but the core is the same.'

'This girl was hard, confused to be honest. It'll take some time for me to get inside her.'

…Don't know why but I don't like the sound of that.

***

Leaving the cafeteria I went to the library. The library this academy provides us with is big and has a lot of books. It was bigger than the library I saw in the Hogwarts.

Also, there is a certain book I want to check on, maybe I'll borrow it also. And there are quite a few things I have to look into.

There are a lot of things I have to do, and things I have to manage. But soon I was gonna take one load off me.