Glocara-8

Elaine did bring her sketchbook, but Glocara never had the chance to see her portrait. The girl sat on the edge of the bed and sketched for a while, her gaze hesitant as it occasionally met Glocara's. After the first ten minutes, the sound of the pencil on paper became sparse, and Elaine would occasionally bite her lip and glance at the floor. Another ten minutes passed before she said, "I have to go now," and hurried out of the room with her sketchbook. Glocara asked, "Are you finished with the drawing?" but received no answer. Elaine's footsteps continued until they faded on the second floor.

Glocara got up, dressed, and shook the bedsheet to remove pencil shavings. She sat on the bed, recalling the events of the previous night, feeling a sudden chill with the draft from the window. She went to the living room, observing the walls adorned with paintings. One or two less noticeable ones were missing, though Glocara couldn't recall their content. The clock read eight ten, unusually late for her. She thought of going upstairs to check on Elaine but changed her mind while touching the stair railing. Since the previous night, whenever Elaine wanted to escape a situation, she would run upstairs, even if Elin didn't immediately disturb her once she reached the second floor. Though hiding over minor friction or embarrassment seemed a bit melodramatic, at Elaine's age, she had every right to do so.

Now, only Glocara remained in the living room, surrounded by silence. The dining table, sofa, candlestick, and all the furnishings seemed to have changed since last night, appearing brighter and more cohesive in the sunlight filtered through the falling snow. It was an ordinary room with ordinary furniture, yet Glocara felt as if she were in an extraordinary place she had never imagined. Like the door; in her experience, doors primarily served to confine certain individuals or mask the smell of corpses. But as she looked at the several doors in front of her, her primary impression was that they were points of connection between two rooms, even if temporarily closed, they still facilitated communication.

Glocara wanted to stay, but upon reflection, she began to feel uncomfortable. Her position in this room was defined by Elin, but Elin wasn't there. Perhaps someday in the future, she could communicate genuinely with everything in the room, including Elaine, without Elin's help.

"I'm leaving, Elaine. Tell your father I've gone back," she shouted upstairs, not expecting a response. She decided to leave temporarily, before the disappointment of not seeing Elin completely overwhelmed her.

At that moment, she didn't know that the disappointment in her heart would have enough time to accumulate because the next time she saw Elin would be a month later.

Before knocking, Elin adjusted his tightly closed collar. He had planned to maintain a smile, but suddenly felt it more appropriate to smile after seeing her, so he let the corners of his mouth drop. He had anticipated the possible conversation, and when the woman, with a hint of resentment, said, "Why haven't I seen you for so long?" his usual response was to counter with, "Does that mean I don't miss you?" With the addition of a small gift, this often smoothly redirected the conversation, far more effective than the forced "I've been thinking about you" which sounded strained. But today, Elin didn't have time to prepare a gift, and suddenly felt that this approach wouldn't work. He knew he had genuinely missed her in the past month. Emotions would hinder the smooth expression of all patterned language and make it difficult for himself. Finally, Elin brushed his hair down from his right temple, covering the stitch there. He knocked on the door.

"Who's there?"

"It's me. Elin."

Half a minute later, the door opened, giving him an idea.

"You shouldn't have kept me waiting for so long, Glocara. I've been waiting long enough."

Glocara glanced at him and stepped aside. "Come in."

It didn't work. Elin didn't know whether to maintain the smile on his face. He entered the room.

"You promised me you'd find another place to stay," he said. "Of course, this saves me the trouble of finding out, but..."

"I looked for one, but couldn't find anything suitable for the time being. Besides, I've stayed here so long, the landlady agreed to give me a discount."

"Really. She looks like the prime suspect for ripping off customers by appearances."

Elin sat on the edge of the bed. Glocara remained standing with her arms crossed.

"Come, sit here and talk," he patted the space beside him on the bedsheet.

Glocara didn't comply. "Are you going to explain?"

"I went out of town for work. That's it. Being away for a month isn't common, it's just my bad luck, Glocara. When I should have been with you..."

"Since you're going to disappear for a month, don't make our relationship sound so serious. Living with you isn't something to say lightly."

"Of course not. Do I look like such a fool to say that knowing I'll be away for so long, Glocara? When I asked you, it was one hundred percent serious, it's just... damn coincidence. This job made me look like the world's biggest idiot."

"You're definitely not stupid. I'm just curious why you didn't have someone inform me. Do you think our relationship isn't worth letting your colleagues know?"

"That's not it. I thought I'd be back in two or three days, at most a week. But trouble kept piling up. Our trusted informant turned out to be lying, and there was another... forget it, you wouldn't listen to all the details. And besides, I was already outside, couldn't exactly tell my colleagues, 'Hey, stop working and go back to Stormwind to tell Glocara I'm not coming home today. What? You don't know who Glocara is or where she lives? Get lost.' On the last day before returning, some reckless idiot swung an axe," he lifted his hair to reveal the wound, "missed my head by a second. I'm really pissed off about what happened to me, Glocara, so you absolutely shouldn't take that question lightly. Just a string of unfortunate events that made me look like an idiot with an extra scar."

Glocara exhaled heavily, sitting beside him, shaking her head. "It's quite unfair, Elin. I almost slapped myself in the face when I opened the door. And now you're telling me you almost died."

"I'm not trying to gain sympathy or anything, it's just the way it is. And let me tell you, using my misfortune to calm down and argue with women is the last thing I want to do, so I never intended to say those words just now. You pushed me. If you want to comfort me with a hug or something now, do it quickly, or else I'll regret revealing these things."

"I don't know, Elin. Being separated for a month makes me have to rethink our relationship."

"Oh, really? Do you have any genius conclusions?"

"You sound like you're deliberately looking for trouble. We can't talk like this."

"I usually don't. Damn it, this is the first time I've done a case and felt my dignity was compromised." Elin paused for a moment, looking at her. "Glocara, I know what you're thinking. You probably think we're moving too fast, and my reputation in this regard isn't good. But you have to know, some people might like to wait, but I'm not one of them. If I want you, if I want to introduce you to Elaine, then I'll do it immediately. It's not that I don't believe in taking time to build things up, but the longer the time, the more uncertainty there is. That night, firstly, we had a great time, and secondly, making Elaine completely like you will take effort but it's not difficult, so given the situation, why can't I try to keep you with me immediately? Why should I wait until things have progressed? Time is just a number, I don't need it to approve my decision to keep this woman. If in the end things don't work out between us, at least we had a good start. I know, many people would say I lack foresight or I'm just after short-term happiness, maybe they're not wrong, but what I'm proud of is that I'm one step ahead of them in making efforts, one day closer to success. Can you understand?"

"You... you're really selfish." She adjusted his hair, covering the scar again. "This isn't something to gamble with. You're gambling, and you're dragging me into it."

"Glocara, I'll make you see that our relationship can work. That's the truth, you just haven't seen it yet. I only have a few hours of free time today and I'm about to go back to work, maybe for a while. After that, I'll have a week off, and things will be different then. I promise."

Glocara looked at him. "You promise."