I Start with a Bad Hand!

Summer was approaching steadily. Days of early morning training were a continuous struggle; they were exhausting, sapping my energy, and weighing down my body. A breeze drifted in through the open windows of the drama club, ventilating the room. Unable to resist the drowsy feeling, I lay my head down on the drama club desk and closed my eyes. Soft murmurs of students talking drifted in from beyond the window. That noise briefly distracted me, and sleep poured over me.

*Tap.*

A light tapping on the desk jolted me from a light sleep.

‘…Is this a dream?’

Half-asleep, I couldn’t open my heavy-lidded eyes. Again, *tap tap*, the sound of someone carefully tapping the desk where I lay came. Barely gathering myself, I opened my eyes, and the first thing I saw were eyes as blue as early summer foliage.

“Dietrich.”

Klaus was looking at me affectionately, his eyes sparkling.

“Do you want to go see a play with me?”

Dietrich seemed not to remember, but Klaus had encountered him even before the semester had started.

It was the day of the academy’s entrance ceremony. Irene had threatened to leave if he was late and had eventually gone ahead, leaving Klaus to arrive at the academy alone.

‘I have documents to submit at the main building, and my sister really left without me.’

He was at a loss. Looking around for someone to ask for directions, everyone seemed to be either excitedly chatting or stiffly dressed in new uniforms.

Then, someone sauntering leisurely through the academy caught his eye. The relaxed demeanor suggested she wasn’t a freshman, so Klaus hurriedly approached her.

“Excuse me. I’m a freshman and don’t really know my way around. Could you tell me where the main building is…?”

“…I’m a freshman too.”

The student Klaus had abruptly stopped looked at him impassively and then quickly grabbed another passing student. This other boy, who was eating something while his glasses were smudged with fingerprints and his shoes slightly scuffed, seemed distracted.

“Excuse me, but where is the main building?”

“Ah, the main building… It’s that way.”

“You heard him, it’s over there.”

Her tone was devoid of any excitement or anticipation, which was his first impression. But before Klaus could reflect on that impression, following the student’s footsteps, expressions, tone of voice, and the direction he pointed, the student had already turned away and was walking off.

When they unexpectedly met again in Irene’s dormitory, Dietrich seemed not to remember him. So, Klaus did not mention that day’s incident.

‘My sister really brought someone like her.’

Listening to her monotonous responses and seeing his slightly downcast eyes, Klaus thought that was his second impression. Just a friend of his sister, similar in temperament. A member of the student council. That was all.

It seemed that this impression of him would remain quietly unchanged until graduation.

***

It was a particularly windy day. Just coming out of her room, Irene frowned at her brother’s somewhat informal attire.

“You should dress properly. Do you even realize that you represent a Duke’s family?”

“…Well, my next class is fencing, so…”

Her expression, tinged with mild disgust, softened. As usual, as long as her brother wasn’t too noticeable, she didn’t really care.

“While you’re out, tell Dietrich to come to my dorm instead of the student council room. He’ll be at the archery range while you’re at the training grounds.”

It wouldn’t do for him to make a wasted trip. With that, Irene left the dorm without waiting for a response. It wasn’t a difficult task. The archery range was just a bit further from the training grounds.

As Klaus walked from the training grounds to the archery range, the wind grew stronger. By the time he reached the archery range, the wind was strong enough to sway the secured tents and rattle the quivers filled with arrows.

Amidst the fierce wind, members of the archery club lowered their bows and began to withdraw one by one. Klaus scanned the students entering the tent at the archery range. Dietrich wasn’t there. Just as he was looking elsewhere—

Dietrich was still standing alone at the firing line. Her neatly tied hair fluttered in the wind. Amidst this, she was slowly drawing her bowstring, resisting the wind with a stubborn stance that captured Klaus’s gaze and stopped his steps.

‘In this kind of wind…’

*Thwang.* The arrow Dietrich released hit the outermost ring of the target. She didn’t seem to care. Dietrich pulled the bowstring again. *Thwang,* the arrows she shot were scattered haphazardly.

Thinking he had waited long enough, Klaus was about to approach when *thwang*—Dietrich’s arrow finally hit near the center of the target. “Wow,” Klaus marveled silently.

Dietrich picked up his last arrow, seemingly unsatisfied. And with that final shot, she too hit the target. Only then did Dietrich lower the bow she had been tensely drawing.

Klaus wanted to approach naturally with a compliment, “You’re impressive.” 

He then caught a glimpse of an expression hidden behind fluttering hair, a briefly visible, heartwarmingly radiant smile that soon disappeared.

‘Uh…’

At that moment, Klaus felt as if he had glimpsed an expression on Dietrich that no one else had ever seen—not Irene, not Dietrich’s close friends, nor anyone else at the academy. Klaus was certain of it.

Just then, despite being out of Klaus’s reach, everything about Dietrich momentarily tantalized his heart. The sway of her black hair in the wind, the hint of mint that seemed to reach her nose, and even her silent laughter that seemed to resonate deeply.

Klaus instinctively stepped back before Dietrich could turn around and face him, not wanting to be caught peeping at a very private moment. Even as he hurried away, his gaze and his heart seemed to linger somewhere he had just fled from.

From then on, Klaus became curious about Dietrich. He wanted to discover the different layers beneath her stoic exterior.

When a crow flew away with the watch Klaus had secretly taken from his sister, the sight of its glossy black feathers reminded him of Dietrich, Klaus thought.

***

Juliano: I am Juliano. Descendant of the Capulet family, rooted in the city of Verona, with a population of two thousand, nestled between mountains and waters, known for its potatoes, and home to numerous scholars, poets, artists, and politicians.

Juliano: So, let us kiss. I will prove my love to you. I will do my best. Please part your lips.

Juliano: The only reason I want a legal union with you is to leave you my death benefits. My heart, even every grain of rice from our family, is now at your disposal.

‘I have to say these lines?’

Klaus chuckled secretly while reading the script, which was embarrassing even to read. The lines, which someone with such a calm demeanor and indifferent tone would unlikely ever say, were unthinkable. Reading the notes exchanged between Dietrich and Agnes, like messages, was also entertaining.

「Agnes, please stop coloring every letter with an ‘e’. It smears all over the back.

 ┖ I do that so I don’t fall asleep reading. Make it more interesting, then.」

「P.S. And stop tallying numbers every time a potato is mentioned. The professor asked what those numbers meant last time.

 ┖ It seemed like there were more potatoes than the main characters’ names, so I counted. And there are indeed more potatoes.

 ┖ That’s ridiculous. Don’t lie.

 ┖ It’s true.」

Would Dietrich be hurt if I said these exchanges were more entertaining than the script itself? Klaus desperately suppressed his laughter as he read the script, and Irene passed by with a look of disdain.

However, even in that absurd play script, there was a part that resonated with Dietrich.

Juliano: …I was born into a family of writers, and the only ways I know how to express my feelings are through writing and speaking. However, you said that merely saying ‘I need you’ is not enough. You said that saying ‘I like you’ is insufficient. Thus, you declared that a love of mere words is futile, and in my way, I can never truly reach you.

There were moments irresistibly captivating, both Dietrich and the script she had written.