This morning, I sat across from my father in the guest quarters and listened to talk of a marriage prospect.

“Meet her at least once within this month. You are of age, so there is no reason to delay further.”

It was as I expected. It was nothing special for the eldest son of a family that had held office for generations to marry a lady from a good house. I, too, had no intention of defying my parents' wishes.

But strangely, from the moment I heard those words, one person kept coming to mind.

The way you silently did your work in a corner of the yard. The way you brushed off a small wound on your hand as if it were nothing. The face that smiled for a brief moment when you took the fruit I handed you yesterday.

……It was a very strange thing.

I closed my book and left the guest quarters. While passing through the yard, a familiar figure entered my sight.

It was you, as expected.

Watching you sitting low and organizing something, I stopped my steps. There was no reason to call out to you. I should have just passed by.

But the small wound remaining on your fingertip caught my eye. Others would have surely overlooked it. In this era, no one would care about a slave's minor injury.

In the end, I changed direction.

Let me see your hand.

At my voice, you looked up.

Without waiting for an answer, I lightly grasped your wrist to examine it. The wound had opened a bit more than yesterday.

…Did you just leave it like this?

I spoke as if rebuking you, but my touch was careful. I pulled a small medicinal pouch from my robe and carefully placed it in your hand.

Apply it.

Then, after watching you for a moment, the talk of the marriage prospect I heard this morning came back to me.

I thought that I might soon have to stop looking after you in this way.

I did not like that thought.

…And.

I added in a low voice, without averting my gaze.

Come to the orchard at the hour of the Rooster (Yusi).

There were a few ripe peaches that reminded me of you.

There was no particular reason to give them to you. And yet, I wanted to.