Abigail Romanova's Monologue and death. [Nicholas Hawk]

This is a brief memory of January of this year.

Mom was so busy running the restaurant, so she couldn't be home until the next day. Even to be the owner of the place, she can still keep quite busy.

Snow was piled up around the house. It wasn't until recently that I started my fake relationship with Sophia.

And of course. Today is a special day.

On January 8, for the Hawk family, the birthday of the family's only three grandchildren is celebrated. With no cousins to live with or uncles to meet, my brothers and I are our grandparents' darlings once a year.

While Chris was helping our grandmother with dinner tonight and John was playing chess with grandpa. I was being the errand boy. This year it was my turn. The three of us take turns from year to year to be the errand boy to make sure things are very well distributed.

But of course, he was not alone.

─Your grandparents are very nice people, I can't wait to meet your mother. -. Sophia helped me by carrying a couple of the shopping bags she brought.

The bags she is carrying have the gifts I have hastily bought for my brothers with the money Mom gave me last night. I completely forgot even my own birthday.

It was a complete surprise this morning to see my siblings coming home and later my grandparents as well. Which forced me, in the greatest of my needs, to have to ask Sophia for a favor. The terms of our agreement were not yet fully validated, so a little collaboration without compensation was not going to do any harm.

Besides, it was a good opportunity.

Sophia had been bothering me by saying that she wanted to meet my family, the unfortunate thing is that she looks like she will have to meet the head of the Hawk family at another time.

Graduation is a few days away, but we had already taken care of those preparations. Apparently my brothers are going to stay until after my graduation to celebrate with the youngest of the three who were finally going to graduate.

Our father was the first to go to the family college, my mother never attended. So to the joy of my grandparents, our parents had three children, thus adding another three to the list of people with a family graduate certification.

The truth is, I am surprised that my family is the owner of a foreign land company. By the way, the reason they don't pass me a single penny from that company is because at some point I will be one of the owners, so all that is lacking is patience.

I am not like a certain rich young woman who is allowed to squander a huge amount of money to fulfill every whim.

─You haven't talked enough to my brothers yet to go straight for the final boss. If you want everyone to buy the lie that we are dating, then you have to make my brothers believe it and the rest will be easy.

─You make it sound easy... but, there is something about your brothers that reminds me of you. And, I kind of get nervous just being around them...

Ugh...

─You are saying it as if you are nervous to be with me. -. I choose to tease her to avoid discomfort.

Then Sophia elbows me on the right side of my belly.

Ouch.

─Of course... I get nervous to be with you...! I-it makes me nervous... just thinking you're looking at me and my heart is pounding even if we're just walking like this.

─Ah... -. My breath escapes me looking at Sophia.

Of all the people, this woman who presented herself unashamedly in front of my grandparents as my girlfriend, has turned red as a tomato because of my little joke.

She's my "girlfriend". Even if it is something false.

It's absolutely not wrong that I... drop the bags on the snow and jump right in to hug her, right?

It's just my hypothesis, but doesn't Sophia look too adorable in this situation? It's my first time seeing her this way. Pouting and not wanting to see me. So cute... it even makes my mental fortitude waver from what I'm seeing.

I swallow hard.

I know... it's off terms, but it's my birthday... so I can be a bit selfish, right?

She is usually always on her guard, just like me. But she now herself she is so helpless that...

─Nicholas...? -. I hear her cute voice calling my name at a low volume.

I lean slightly toward Sophia. I take a step toward her, and she recoils just the same. Her nervousness is palpable even to me.

Me too...

In actuality, I think it was a waste not to have kissed her then. A real waste that I wonder, if it would have been feasible for the two of us to have had something special if she had kissed her on my own.

Since then, we have not had a moment as mellow as that, as we both avoided dying to show ourselves weak to each other. Not again.