First Love
Drip…….
The tea she had just taken into her mouth trickled out between her slightly parted lips.
Virena blankly raised her hand to wipe her mouth and swallowed the remaining tea.
“……A confession. So, Sha, you…… you confessed? You confessed that you like him.”
“Mm-hmm…….”
“And you received a confession too? This man named Ren confessed that he likes you, Sha?”
“Y-yes.”
“Oh my…….”
Virena barely managed to close her gaping mouth.
Her best friend in the world, who had left for a treatment trip, had returned after experiencing the emotion of love for the first time and even confessing. She was so flustered she didn’t know whether to hold the back of her neck or press her forehead.
A confession right after becoming aware of her first love. Wasn’t this too fast?
Sharti smiled awkwardly at Virena’s complicated reaction.
“It wasn’t an impulsive decision, and I didn’t say it lightly. Of course, he’s someone I don’t know as well as Virena, and we haven’t spent that much time together but…. Ren and I went through so much together.”
Starting with the mana poisoning, Sharti gradually revealed the existence of the hidden village and the nobleman with the scorpion crest who was entangled with it. She also spoke of the assassination threat, the seizure she had when she first heard the word ‘Gwendhill,’ and the Tower Master’s existence.
And she told her that Ren had always stayed by her side, protecting her through all those chaotic situations.
“Because Ren only has me. Because that Ren relies on me, I found myself relying on Ren without realizing it. Because he supports whatever I do and says he’ll be by my side, at some point I felt reassured.”
That’s why she could make that terrible voice in front of him, and her trauma-induced seizures no longer worsened.
Ren’s presence was undoubtedly changing her.
“I kept steeling my heart not to harbor false hope, but when my eyes went to him, my heart moved too. I hated myself for wavering, so I thought I should stop forcibly blocking that feeling and just let it flow…….”
“-But it wasn’t easy.”
Virena, who had calmed down considerably, let out a short breath.
Virena was her closest friend, someone who could confidently say she knew Sharti best. She understood what kind of emotional hardship Sharti must have gone through.
Sharti gently smiled as she fiddled with the silver ring she had removed in front of Virena.
“At first, I was grateful. But that gratitude became an unfamiliar emotion at some point, and it was so thrilling.”
Ren always told her she was pretty when she lacked confidence, and his expression of not knowing what to do with worry was exclusive to her.
There was no way she could dislike that special treatment.
“I just liked that thrill. I didn’t dislike the change I realized at some point either.”
“…….”
“I wanted to trust him as much as Ren trusts me, and I accepted Ren’s existence as much as he cared for me.”
She said she would think only of Ren’s present, not ‘Ren’s’ past.
“From the moment I decided to bear my own false hope, I became honest with my feelings and could more clearly guess Ren’s heart. So I gradually gained courage.”
Virena listened carefully to every word Sharti uttered.
Her confession, which she couldn’t have revealed to anyone else and had been building up all this time, was calm. However, Virena read the pounding excitement in that confession.
“I wanted to tell Ren. That I like him, that I also wanted to muster up courage and honestly let him know my feelings. Because Ren gave me the confidence that it was okay to do so.”
Sharti was a friend who had been afraid even to use her voice.
A friend for whom even opening her heart, let alone giving it away, was no easy task.
A friend for whom even going out into the world wasn’t easy, and who always stood one step back in human relationships.
“I confessed because I wanted to become Ren’s only memory and make him no longer hurt, to make him happy.”
That friend now shone more confidently than anyone.
With a clear face, beautiful eyes, and a soft voice that suited them, Sharti was just an ordinary woman who had fallen into her first love.
“……Sha-.”
Strictly speaking, Virena was both Sharti’s friend and guardian. She should have viewed her friend’s first love, who had just barely turned twenty and come of age, a little more rationally.
But facing Sharti, who shyly lowered her gaze, she was just moved.
Virena soon threw all her complicated thoughts into the trash.
[Someday when I get married, Sha will catch the bouquet! Promise!]
[Do I have to catch it? ……It would be a nuisance if I caught something like that. I’ll probably live like this forever.]
“I thought I knew a lot about Sha until now. I was confident that I knew more about Sha than Grandmother. Because we’re friends.”
Virena sniffled.
Really, she wanted to say something wonderful, but tears came first.
“So, what I want to tell Sha right now is!”
The moment their crimson eyes met, Virena smiled brightly with tears in her eyes.
“I hope Sha is happy.”
“…….”
“Sha being happy is more important to me than that man named Ren being happy.”
If she had studied hard following Sharti, would her grammar skills have improved? At least her vocabulary would have grown—Virena swallowed her regret.
“They say first love comes like spring, so I’m glad Sha’s spring came early.”
May the saying that first love usually doesn’t work out please not apply to Sharti.
Please don’t let it remain as a painful first love.
“If that man fills the parts that I or our family couldn’t fill, then I like it. I’ll support you!”
There was no reason to oppose someone who helped Sharti gain courage.
Above all, if Sharti liked him, what more was needed?
Virena nodded her head vigorously with determination in her eyes.
“So feel free to come to me with any relationship troubles. My heart is pounding at the thought of Sha’s romance.”
Virena, who had quickly stopped crying, grinned.
Sharti also erased her anxious look and smiled with her eyes. She was relieved that she had done well to confide in Virena, her one and only friend.
“Then bring him next time. He’s dating our Sha, so as a friend I should at least greet him once.”
I need to properly show him what a scary friend stands behind our Sha.
Virena swallowed those last words and laughed merrily.
She would threaten him that if he made Sharti cry, she would poke his eyes with a metal skewer. It was an inner thought she couldn’t quite reveal to Sharti.
On the other hand, Sharti blushed as if embarrassed and shook her head.
“W-well, strictly speaking, we’re not dating yet.”
“Huh?”
After they both confessed to each other? Then what kind of relationship were they in now?
Sharti fidgeted with her hands and avoided Virena’s gaze.
“Somehow the situation got a bit, twisted after that.”
Virena, who had been puzzled for a moment, quickly grasped the situation and understood.
As expected, since it was her first love, she must be fumbling around.
What was needed at a time like this was coaching from the self-proclaimed doctor of male-female relationships.
“Yeah. That can happen, Sha. First, can you tell me what got twisted and how?”
“Mm-hmm!”
Sharti, who had been just as frustrated as Ren about the twisted situation, nodded brightly.
Sharti explained the correlation between the purple poison herb and Ren’s memory loss as carefully as possible. And she explained the madness Ren had shown, beating around the bush as much as she could.
However, in the process of explaining, she inevitably ended up revealing an embarrassing secret.
“…….”
Virena’s mouth hung open and wouldn’t close.
As if realizing her mistake after speaking, Sharti slightly turned her gaze away and smiled awkwardly.
“It was artificial respiration! It was a situation where I couldn’t breathe if it weren’t for Ren.”
That wasn’t the important part. No, it was important, but what came after was more shocking.
“It was such an urgent situation that my body moved unconsciously first……. So he might not remember it.”
“…….”
Virena pressed her forehead. Then she silently ground her teeth while massaging her stiff neck.
It was fortunate that Vireta wasn’t there.
Otherwise, Vireta would have personally carried out what Virena was imagining in her head right now.
“Y-yeah……. Well, that guy, no, that person, it wasn’t intentional…….”
Virena, who barely closed her mouth, smiled with her lips trembling.
Since it was an error in memory combined with the special circumstance of an emergency situation, there was no use venting her frustration to Sharti. But it was also awkward to go find this man named Ren and grab him by the collar saying, ‘How dare you take Sha’s first kiss!’
“Phew, so?”
“When Ren said he didn’t remember……. I went blank for a moment and the conversation ended awkwardly. So maybe because of that, we haven’t had a proper conversation since then.”
“Is that all?”
“Huh?”
Virena, who was holding onto her last thread of reason, sighed deeply and propped her chin on her hand.
“You said he’s someone you like. But you couldn’t have wanted to maintain this awkward atmosphere until now. What’s the problem?”
At Virena’s sharp point, Sharti pursed her lips.
“If we build good memories with Ren, but at some point if one of us can’t remember a moment the other can’t forget, it will hurt not only me but Ren too. The more I’m reminded of that fact, the more I think what we need right now is to make an antidote……. I couldn’t focus on Ren.”
Sharti frowned in frustration.
“If we have a conversation right now, Ren will feel sorry for me, and all I can say is that it’s okay, that it will be okay. Rather than that, wouldn’t it be better to resolve all the problems first, reassure Ren, and then continue the conversation…….”
“Wait, Sha! Is that really the best option right now?”
Unable to bear listening to Sharti’s clumsy consideration any longer, Virena interrupted.
It felt like she had hastily eaten sweet potatoes and her throat was completely blocked.
For this kind of hesitation that novices in romance commonly experience, advice that refreshingly broke through was needed.
“Sha, in the early stages of a relationship, it’s important to just charge in.”
“Huh?”
“I know you can’t help but be cautious, shy, and passive. I know. But in the stage where you’re properly building affection and getting to know each other, that’s actually a minus.”
Virena decided to meddle.
“Honestly tell him everything. Start by matching things up one by one like that. So what if you get hurt? It’s better than accumulating misunderstandings and both losing your smiles!”
She couldn’t stand Sharti becoming depressed.
In this cold winter, shouldn’t at least a warm spring breeze blow through her heart?
“Of course, Sha, I understand your concern. But it’s a matter between two people. If it’s something that hurts both of you, shouldn’t you overcome that hurt together? The antidote too. You’re a doctor, but there are symptoms that only the patient can feel. Confiding in each other and matching up is the basics of romance, Sha.”
“…….”
Sharti blinked.
Virena, who had poured out everything she was thinking, felt refreshed and snorted strongly.
Sharti was lost in thought for a moment and then slowly nodded her head.
“Yeah. I think Virena is right. I’ll be leaving home again soon to travel with Ren, so I can’t just stay like this.”
“Huh?”
“I know I should be honest, but I keep hesitating. Thank you, Virena. I’ll try harder.”
Sharti took Virena’s teaching to heart and even clenched her fist tightly.
“A-and about dating, I’ll properly confess to Ren again officially and bring it up properly.”
Looking at Sharti blushing on her white cheeks, Virena regretted it just a little.
She was too pretty to give to Ren. Should she change her words, thinking that Sharti seemed to be taking too proactive an attitude? She was conflicted for a moment.
Sharti reached out both hands and grasped Virena’s hands tightly.
“Thank you, Virena. I’m glad I have you.”
The moment she saw Sharti, blushing and genuinely happy and relieved, Virena couldn’t help but smile along with her.
What could be more rewarding and good than a friend’s smiling face?
“But Sha, where are you traveling to?”
Virena asked with a smiling face.
“If I’m going to make new medicine, wouldn’t it be good to go somewhere I can get various kinds of help?”
She supported Sharti’s romance.
But since it was her first romance, didn’t the progress need to be slowed down?
“For example, what about a region famous for its academy?”
Virena quickly worked her brain while watching Sharti’s face brighten.