Chapter 17
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The Male and Female Leads Broke Up - Episode 17
The Young Boy gazed at me with startled eyes, then slipped a flower ring onto my fourth finger.
"...It's beautiful."
"Hmm?"
As he placed the ring on my hand, the Young Boy murmured something softly, but I could only make out the word beautiful amid the rest of his quiet mumbling.
"...Next time, I want to give you a real ring."
"Ah... Yes, thank you."
I smiled and thanked him, wondering what the Young Boy could possibly understand about the significance of giving a ring.
"But is that why you came here?"
"...."
When I asked why the Young Boy was here, his lips, which had been answering so readily just moments before, sealed shut.
"Let's go inside and talk first."
It didn't seem like the sort of conversation to have outside, so I brought the Young Boy into the Inn.
Since it was late at night and I had nowhere to send him, I rented a room for the Young Boy to stay in overnight.
"Let's head up."
But as I led the Young Boy up the stairs toward the room, a loud rumbling suddenly erupted from his stomach like thunder.
Startled, I looked at him and saw his face flush crimson with embarrassment, the color spreading all the way to his neck.
"Have you really not eaten anything this whole time?"
"...."
The Young Boy offered no response.
I took his silence as confirmation.
"Mary, I'm going to head up to the room with the Young Boy first. Could you bring some food for him?"
"Yes, of course, Miss."
After asking Mary to bring food, I entered the room where the Young Boy would be staying.
"Come in."
I stepped inside first to inspect the room, but the Young Boy lingered outside, unable to cross the threshold.
"Come in, quickly now."
After I called to him twice, the Young Boy finally entered the room with hesitant steps.
"For now, you'll sleep here tonight."
"Yes...."
"Sit here."
I guided the Young Boy to a chair by the table.
I regarded him silently for a moment before finally speaking.
"Did you really come just to give me this?"
I held up my hand adorned with the flower ring and asked the Young Boy.
"I—"
"Miss."
Just as the Young Boy was about to speak, Mary's voice drifted in from beyond the door.
At my invitation to enter, Mary stepped inside carrying a tray in her hands.
Upon the tray sat bread and soup—a proper meal.
Once Mary set the food upon the table, I drew the bowl before the Young Boy.
"Eat."
At my command, the Young Boy hesitated at first, but the moment the aroma of food reached his nostrils, I watched his throat bob as he swallowed hard.
"Eat quickly now. Come, finish your meal and then we'll talk."
I pressed a spoon into his small hand and gestured for him to hurry.
The Young Boy then began scooping the soup into his mouth with desperate urgency.
Watching him eat, it was abundantly clear how ravenous he truly was.
I told Mary to leave, then quietly observed the Young Boy as he ate.
Though he occasionally glanced at me between spoonfuls, his appetite was hearty—he emptied the bowl completely in moments.
"Was it good?"
"...Yes."
"Shall I have Mary bring more?"
"No, it's fine..."
"Don't be shy. Eat as much as you'd like."
"It's fine. I'm full now."
At his claim of fullness, I fell silent.
I watched as he wiped his mouth clean, waiting for him to speak first.
"When you saved me yesterday..."
The Young Boy opened his mouth quietly, as though he'd read the intent in my gaze.
"When you asked why you bought me, that's what William said to me—that I had eyes pleading to be saved."
Since his words were accurate, I nodded slightly.
"That's right."
"The moment William saved me, I swore to myself that I would serve him as my master for the rest of my life."
"That's not why I saved you."
I thought I'd made myself clear to the Young Boy, yet he was being stubbornly unreasonable.
"I've told you repeatedly—from the start, I intended to place you somewhere safe. I'm not in a position to take you with me."
"Please. You bought me. You saved me. I want to go with William."
"What about your siblings—the ones you lived with?"
"..."
"You wouldn't mind never seeing those children again? You said you lived together, and if you come with me, you'll never see them again. Are you truly willing to accept that?"
"...It's fine. Those kids will be okay. I'd rather not be separated from William than stay with them."
The Young Boy had driven his point home with unwavering resolve.
Left speechless, I stared at him in silence when William's voice called out from beyond the door.
"Miss, it's William."
"Come in."
William entered the room.
He glanced briefly at the Young Boy, then fixed his gaze on me and bowed his head.
"So, what about that man?"
"When I went to the Inn yesterday, he was already gone."
"What?"
I had ordered William to find Aiden and bring him back when I brought the Young Boy into the Inn.
I had planned to entrust the Young Boy to him again.
But if he was gone, my plan had fallen apart.
"I searched the entire area around there just in case, but couldn't find him."
"But we clearly ran into each other earlier. Did he leave the Village so quickly?"
"It appears he left by that road."
"Ah... I see. You must be tired. Go rest now."
"Understood."
After William left, I stared at the Young Boy, uncertain what to do.
'Besides, I don't even know where the Orphanage is. I forgot to ask about it.'
I felt regret, but it was already too late.
I pondered for a moment about what to do with the Young Boy.
'Should I leave him at the Orphanage in this place.'
But as if sensing what I was thinking, anxiety settled across the Young Boy's face.
Then suddenly, the Young Boy dropped to his knees and began to cry.
"What are you doing?"
I rose from my seat with an astonished expression and exerted force to lift the Young Boy up.
But he held firm against the ground with a strength unbecoming of a child.
"Get up. Now!"
"Mary, please don't abandon me. Please? Sob."
"What—"
"I won't cause any trouble and will be perfectly obedient. So please don't abandon me...."
Not only had my thoughts been exposed, but now the Young Boy was crying because of it. I gazed at him, feeling helpless.
'What do I do.'
In that moment, the Young Boy's face overlapped with my own from long ago.
Memories of my past—already abandoned once, yet trembling in fear of being abandoned again, so desperately clinging to hope—flashed through my mind like a lantern show.
But that didn't mean I could take the Young Boy with me.
I steeled my resolve and opened my mouth.
"First, get up. Get up so we can talk calmly."
But the Young Boy showed no intention of rising.
So I lifted him up with all my strength.
Tears filled the Young Boy's face.
'I can't let my heart weaken.'
"I'm sorry. I really can't take you with me. My situation is what it is. So please understand."
At my words, despair instantly flooded the Young Boy's eyes.
"I'm sorry. Let's get some rest today, and tomorrow I'll look into the Orphanage here for you."
"...."
The Young Boy kept his head down and stopped responding to my words.
As I remained firm, he seemed to have accepted his fate.
I looked at the Young Boy with a pitying expression, then shook my head to clear my thoughts.
"Well then, sleep well. I'll see you tomorrow."
And with that, I left his room and returned to my own.
But even as I lay in bed trying to sleep, slumber refused to come easily.
The look in the Young Boy's eyes as he stared at me earlier lingered persistently in my mind.
"Sigh...."
A heavy sigh escaped me.
Because I understood the Young Boy's feelings all too well.
That despair—you cannot comprehend it unless you have experienced it yourself.
I thought I had grasped his hand, yet the sting of rejection, though it should no longer concern me, still made my chest tighten at the mere recollection.
I steeled myself and mentally listed the reasons why I could not take the Young Boy with me.
But in the end, there was not a single convincing reason.
It was merely an excuse called travel.
In truth, even while traveling, there was no reason I could not take the Young Boy in.
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