Milly was having a really bad day. Or more like week. Lucas had gone off to do something involving hunter work about a week ago. The problem was that he never returned. What’s more, according to the agency his tamed beast was found wild. That meant he was likely dead. This news struck Milly like a hammer.

Her mind couldn’t wrap around that fact for the first three days. It wasn’t until she realized he wasn’t coming back and that she only had limited funds that she panicked. She sold all of the expensive jewelry and clothing Lucas had bought her and planned to buy a ticket home. She knew she would never survive in the city without someone to take care of her. She had gotten too used to living the good life and lazing around to find a hardworking job here in the city.

As for getting someone to take her in, she refused. She still loved Lucas after all. She knew what he was doing, playing around behind her back. He wasn’t as clever as he thought he was. Even back in their hometown. However she fell in love with him and being the naive country girl she was she had thought once they got to the city and he had promised to be with her that he would stop.

When he didn’t stop she didn’t know what to do. She still wanted to be with him, but she felt betrayed. On top of that the only way she could get home would be to ask Lucas so she couldn’t complain to him about it. He held her life in his hands. In the end she succumbed to fate and let things continue as they were and fooled herself into believing she was okay with this.

It was during the time when Lucas had begun cheating on her that she thought of Owari. This happened more and more often as the days went by. She would remember the way Owari treated her growing up. While Lucas gave her the materials of a princess, Owari had genuinely cared for her and devoted himself to her. It was only when she was in the deepest pits of depression that she realized this.

For a while she fantasized about how a life with Owari would have been. Struggling in the city as he made just enough to make it by. At first she thought this would have been romantic. But eventually her mood shifted. She began to blame Owari for not fighting for her harder. She rationalized it in her mind that she would have accepted if he only tried harder.

In the end she could only delude herself once again and refuse to face reality. It wasn’t until she met Owari again that her fake reality was shattered. Owari had been with a stunning girl who made other girls around her look like a blobfish. Even Milly had felt inferior to a large degree. Yet Owari and her seemed close as can be, and she even seemed to want to be with Owari more as she kept pulling him closer and hanging off of him through the encounter.

What really broke Milly was his rank. It was even higher than Lucas’ rank. That meant if she had gone with him she would have been even better off. Not only that but Owari would have treated her so well. Yet here she was with a scumbag she couldn’t help but love while Owari found such a beautiful girl who couldn’t keep her hands off him for some reason. It baffled Milly.

However she had little time to consider this as shortly after Lucas came up dead and here she was. She obviously didn’t put two and two together about how little time passed between meeting Owari that Lucas died. She would never believe Owari would kill an old friend. It wouldn’t even register in her mind. This showed how truly naive and airheaded Milly could be.

When she finally worked up the courage and began gathering money she went and bought the ticket back without hesitation. It took her a long time to get home and she had to work on a tight budget. But when she finally saw her old house she couldn’t help but cry. She went and knocked on the door. When her mother saw her crying it took almost an hour to calm her down.

When Milly explained what happened her mother was shocked. Not only about Lucas’s death but also about Owari’s rank. She already knew about Noel, everyone in town did. When Milly heard that it was her turn to be shocked.

“How did you know?” She asked with surprise in her voice.

“He came back on appreciation day with her. They were visiting his mother. After they left his mother bragged to everyone in town for a week.” She answered.

“His mother?” She thought for a moment. “I should go see her.”

“Why?” Her mother was surprised.

“Because it’s been so long since I saw her. She would probably want to know about Lucas.” Milly reasoned.

Her mother was sweating bullets. She knew Owari’s mother would be ecstatic to hear such news. She had never once held back on saying exactly how she felt about Lucas and Milly. She was even willing to be ostracized from the community to talk down about the two. The problem was that she was the only seamstress in town so everyone had to put up with it. The only saving grace was that she never down talked them to their parents.

“I’m sure you should visit Lucas’ family first.” She didn’t want to be the one to tell Lucas’s family nor the one to tell Milly about Owari’s mother disliking her.

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“Oh right. I’ll go now.” She smiled a bit forcefully. Her mother didn’t stop her as she made her way to Lucas’ old house.

“Milly?” It was Lucas’ father who answered the door.

“Yeah it’s me.” Milly almost burst into tears again. “I have some news, is Lucas’ mother in?”

“She’s here, she just got back from shopping. Why?” He felt uneasy for some reason.

“I think I should tell you both together.” Milly sucked it up, these were his parents, they had more right to be upset than her.

“Alright.” He led Milly inside and got his wife and the three sat down at the dinner table. “So what is it you need to tell us?” He asked after a few moments of awkwardness.

“Lucas is dead.” She decided to just come out and say it, like ripping off a bandage.

His parents froze up. “Did I hear that right? You said Lucas is dead?” His mother asked.

“Yes. He died during a hunt. The agency already confirmed it.” Milly said with finality. She didn’t want to give them false hope.

“What happened?!” His father understandably got angry. His mother started to cry.

“While he was on a hunt he died. That’s all I know. You’ll have to ask the agency for more!” Milly panicked seeing his father so angry. He was a lumberjack so he was quite a big man.

“Sorry.” He immediately apologized seeing how scared Milly was. But his anger was still there.

Milly didn’t know what to say or do as the two comforted one another. His father went on and on about how he would get answers, while his mother just wept. Milly was feeling very awkward and eventually when he realized this was going to drag on, his father told her to leave them to themselves.

She happily obliged and ran out the door ready to cry. When she was done there she immediately went to Owari’s old house. When she knocked on the door the familiar and previously warm and kind aunt like figure from Milly’s childhood answered the door. When she saw her Milly was shocked. As soon as Yunis recognized her, her eyes went cold.

“Why are you back?” Yunis asked trying to force a kind tone, but that only made it worse.

“Lucas died. I had nowhere else to go.” For some reason Milly felt something was wrong.

“Is that so?” She stopped pretending. She showed no reaction to hearing about the boy’s death. She was neither happy nor upset.

“I was wondering…” Milly had trouble asking what she wanted.

“What is it?” Yunis asked with fake curiosity.

“I was wondering if you would teach me how to work.” Milly finally worked up the courage.

“Why? So you can steal my job when you gain the skills? You already broke my son’s heart once, I won’t let you damage this family again.” With that Yunis slammed the door in Milly’s face.

Milly was shocked. Not once through this whole event had she thought about Owari. She had been so busy with her own problems that she ignored his very existence. When she was forced to remember she realized the ramifications of her actions. It hadn’t occurred to her how it made Owari feel when she refused him. He was always so calm and collected that she assumed he took it in stride. But thinking back, how could he?

She was even more depressed when she realized this and went back home. Her parents had saved her room for when she came back home. This only made her feel guilty since she hadn’t come back one time since she had left. She had barely even written to them. She laid in bed as she thought these things and cried for hours.

This however was only the start of her troubles back at home. She found that nobody would hire her. Nobody wanted to piss off Owari’s mother. If they did they would have nowhere to buy clothes except the general store. The general store barely had anything good, it was usually stocked with cheap temporary wear. This mostly had to do with Owari’s mother being so good at her job that everyone went to her.

Not only would nobody hire her, but a lot of people avoided her. All the girls even close to her age resented her for being the only one Lucas chose to bring with him. Meanwhile the boys saw her as just another one of Lucas’ trophies and would often catcall at her or try to solicit her for various ‘favors’. She felt more ostracized than ever, a feeling she now knew was similar to what Owari must have felt for years.

As the days turned to weeks she felt more and more miserable. She felt like she had been wronged at first. But eventually she admitted that she deserved no better. It was while she was considering why she even bothered to live that there was a knock on the door. She walked over like a zombie and opened it only to find Yunis standing there looking down at her. She smiled bitterly and wondered if she had come to mock her.

“Come with me.” Yunis turned and didn’t bother looking back. Milly cared so little that she just followed her. When they got into her home and Yunis sat at the table full of threads, needles, and various textiles she finally spoke again. “Sit down and watch me.” Without even waiting for her to answer Yunis began working the various materials into different designs.

“What are you doing?” Milly asked with a guarded tone.

“I’m teaching you how to make a living. You look so pitiful that I felt like you had suffered enough.” Yunis said with a bored tone. “Except that’s a lie. The only reason I’m doing this is because my son said as such.”

“He did?” Milly’s eyes brightened a bit before they dulled again. Why would he care about her anyway?

“He’s a very forgiving person. Plus I think he is right actually. Not about you suffering enough. But he said you did need to learn to live on your own.” She was a very vindictive person and would never forgive someone who harmed her family.

“Oh.” Milly didn’t know what to say. So she just sat there and watched, trying to learn. A while later she finally spoke up. “Didn’t you say you were afraid I’d take your job?”

“That was just an excuse to kick you to the curb. Plus now I know that even if you tried enough of the town hates you that they wouldn’t go to you.” Yunis explained.

“Oh.” Milly seemed to really liked that word lately. It was easy to say and didn’t require much effort.

“Now then let me teach you using words. Now that I see you’re serious about learning I’m not afraid to teach you. Even if you stole my job my son makes enough money to let me retire in peace.” When Milly heard that she flinched. Owari made that much? Were her thoughts.

Soon Yunis started teaching Milly and her life seemed to change for the better in the coming month. People stopped outright avoiding her, though girls her own age still resented her, enough didn’t fall for Lucas that she was able to find a few friends. She learned seriously from Yunis and soon even she stopped being so cold, though she was never kind, only strict and demanding. However Milly was elated. It felt like she was finally living again, and she realized only later that it was only because of Owari’s kindness. She would likely feel guilty for the rest of her life. But at least now she had a life to feel guilty with. This was how Milly started a brand new life.