I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again!

…Huh? Vio-chan, you know Gia’s name?”

“Yeah. We exchanged names when I relayed my message to him last time.”

“I didn’t tell you?”

“I never heard of this.”

After making sure Violette wouldn’t notice, Yulan’s leg kicked Gia’s shin. It wasn’t painful since he only kicked him lightly, but Gia immediately noticed that Yulan was in a bad mood.

Gia commended how Yulan thoroughly made sure that Violette wouldn’t notice a thing. As expected from Yulan’s best friend, Gia didn’t even blink at how he suddenly changed his behaviour. He knew that the brunette would never show this side of him to the people he cared more than anyone.

Decided to pay no mind to Yulan’s kick, Gia said something convenient.

“But it’s unfair if only I know Princess Violette’s name, right?”

“First, do something with that nickname.”

“Then, ‘Princess’?”

“Not that.”

Violette found it a little unusual to see Yulan experated by the laid-back Gia. Usually, Yulan always acted like a faithful dog wagging his tail around her. Yet in front of his trusted friend, his tone was considerably more unrestricted. In fact, his behaviour towards her was special. He was generally quite rough with anyone other than her. But in comparison, Yulan was more open to Gia in his own way.

“Then how should I call her? How about I call her ‘Vio-chan’ like you?”

“Why do you have to go that far…”

“Do I look like someone who’ll call her ‘Violette-sama’?”

“But that’s the norm.”

“I don’t know that kind of norm!”

As Gia talked, he opened the wrappings of the breads and ate the pile of foods on his trays. He acted like it was nothing special, but seeing someone eating this much in this academy was strange. To be honest, he might be the only one.

Moreover, he was currently eating in front of two top students of this academy. Even if Gia was also a royalty, Violette wondered if he wasn’t a bit nervous since Claudia and Mirania were still his upperclassmen.

“Rather, what does the person herself think? Princess Violette, how should I call you?”

“…First, what’s with that ‘Princess’?”

Yulan and Gia referred her as ‘Princess’ like it was natural, but she was only confused. She didn’t remember doing something that would make Gia call her as princess. Plus, Violette was the duke’s daughter.

“You don’t have to mind that. I just used it because I didn’t know how to call you when I talked to Yulan.”

“Is that so…?”

“…Yeah, kind of.”

Yulan affirmed, but he was being evasive. Even if Violette demanded explanation from him, she was sure that he wouldn’t tell her anything. If he wished to tell her the reason, he would tell her from the beginning. If he was lying, then he wouldn’t make her realized something was fishy.

That means, Gia’s explanation was roughly true, but something was a bit different. Even so, voicing out that difference was hard. Violette decided to believe so.

“Well… People mostly call me as Violette. Only Yulan calls me with a nickname.”

Majority of the people called her as Violette or Violette-sama. Even the minority like Mirania called her Miss Violette. It was impossible for her parents to call her with a nickname, and Maryjun who called her the most used ‘Onee-sama.’

In the end, as far as Violette knew, only Yulan used a nickname when calling her.

“I’m fine with however you call me. Violette or Vio is okay. Please refrain from calling me as a princess, since it’ll be misleading.”

Calling someone who wasn’t the princess of the royal family could create a suspicion on being petty. It might created another misunderstanding since usually a man treated his beloved woman as a princess… Even if Gia only used that nickname with Yulan, Violette wished to clear any misunderstandings it might cause.

“Hmm… Then, I’ll call her as Vio-san. It’s easy to call, and I also use honorifics. Yulan, you don’t have any complains, right?”

“I have complains, but not in your reasoning…”

“You’re really narrow-minded.”

“Shut up.”

They leaned in to each other and sneakily had a secret talk. Looking at their banter made Violette smile, but she couldn’t hear what they were talking about. It wasn’t surprising, since Yulan intended to do so.

Yulan looked dissatisfied for a while, but he didn’t expect Gia to make him happy since the beginning. He decided to just accept the situation and moved his thoughts to Violette.

The sharp look Yulan had for Gia until now suddenly disappeared, changing into the smiling face of faithful dog that Violette always saw. Happy, fun, soft, and cheerful aura floated around Yulan. Gia wondered if it was only his imagination that small white flowers seemed to flutter around his friend.

Ignoring Yulan’s speck of happiness, Gia suddenly returned to his thoughtless self.

“By the way, are these two guys Vio-san’s acquaintances?”