Chapter 55: Guilt

Ethan approached Nora and placed a small juice box on the table beside her. She raised her head and looked at him, narrowing her eyes.

Ethan said nothing and walked away, choosing to sit on a couch opposite her.

She stared at him some more, then ignored him. She didn’t touch the juice box either, focusing on her book.

Ethan pretended to scroll through his phone as he checked the update on today’s task which he had just completed.

[You have completed today’s task!]

[You have received Korean Language Mastery. Claim Reward?]

His brows furrowed. ’Do I actually need this?’

He wasn’t very sure. Still, he couldn’t leave the reward hanging. He calmly accepted it and closed his eyes.

There was no flood of information rushing through his mind. Instead, it was as if he remembered something he had always known.

’Huh... very strange. Very, very strange.’

Shifting his attention from the system, he returned to browsing on his phone.

Meanwhile, Evelyn had already joined Cassandra at the counter, and they chatted idly while watching out for potential customers.

In the evening, they closed the shop and went home. Cassandra was picked up by one of Vincent’s men in a relatively modest car, and the family of three waved her off.

Holding the juice box, Nora frowned as she felt her stomach rumble. She was starting to feel hungry, and the juice she had refused to drink now seemed to be her only option.

She walked between Evelyn and Ethan as they headed back home, then reluctantly opened the lid. She inserted the straw and began sipping.

Ethan noticed this from the corner of his eye and smiled. ’Not so resolute, are we?’

In the end, she was still a young child.

Once they got back, Nora settled into the couch in the living room while Evelyn went to check on the growing flowers in the balcony.

Meanwhile, Ethan took a shower and changed clothes before immediately moving to the kitchen to put on an apron and start cooking.

He had made it a routine for them to have dinner early so the food could digest before any of them went to sleep.

Today, he decided to prepare something different—yam, fried eggs, and sauce.

Aside from boiling the yam slices, everything else was quick to prepare. By 7:30 p.m, dinner was ready to be served.

Evelyn, now refreshed after a cool bath, helped him carry the food to the dining table, and they all sat around it.

"I don’t like yam," Nora suddenly said, surprising her parents.

"You don’t like yam?" Ethan looked at her in surprise.

She had never rejected yam before. Why was she suddenly doing that?

Evelyn frowned slightly. She had a feeling Nora was just being bratty and wanted to scold her.

However, Ethan shook his head and asked Nora, "What do you want to eat, then?"

She closed her eyes and thought about it. "I want gumbo."

Evelyn’s eyes widened. "Gumbo? Nora, that’s a lot. We don’t have the ingredients and it’s late already."

Nora turned to her mother and smiled. "I’m not saying I won’t eat the yam. Just saying that I’d prefer gumbo to it."

Ethan sighed, then stood up. He picked up her plate of yam, then walked into the kitchen.

"I’ll prepare the gumbo. But you have to wait for a while."

Evelyn and Nora looked at him in surprise.

"Wait, Ethan. We don’t have the ingredients. Are you going out to buy them?"

He returned from the kitchen and nodded, cleaning his hands with a rag.

"I’ll be back quickly. It shouldn’t take long to find them."

Evelyn frowned and said, "Let me go with you."

"No," Ethan shook his head. "You stay at home with Nora. I’ll be back in a few minutes."

Before she could protest, he was already at the door and stepping outside.

Evelyn sighed in defeat. ’I don’t know why this girl suddenly became picky tonight.’

Ignoring Nora, she began to eat. Not even ten minutes later, rain began to fall. Her expression hardened, and she immediately stood up. Picking up her phone from the couch, she prepared to call Ethan only to see that he had left a message for her.

— You don’t need to come find me with an umbrella. I’m somewhere safe already. Thnx.

She read the message twice, then sighed. She cast a resentful glance at Nora, then shook her head. If only the girl hadn’t been picky.

However, there was no point getting upset.

She returned to her seat and continued eating. Nora lowered her head quietly, knowing that she had forced Ethan into a difficult situation.

It was supposed to be satisfying, but she felt no joy in the slightest. Instead, she felt a little guilty and kept asking herself, ’Was that necessary?’

Evelyn also intentionally ignored her, letting her realize that what she did was bad. The rain kept falling for over an hour, and just as she was starting to get worried, Ethan finally returned home.

He was soaking wet, though, like a stray cat with nowhere to stay.

Evelyn’s eyes widened, and she rushed to his side. "I thought you said you had somewhere to stay!"

Ethan sighed as he wiped his hair with a towel. "Yes, but then the mean shop owner chased us away because she wanted to close her shop. I just had to start coming home."

"You... ugh," She touched his wet clothes. "Come. I’ll prepare a warm bath for you."

"Thank you," Ethan smiled slightly and followed her.

A while later, she returned alone and immediately began boiling water for tea. Nora hesitantly approached her and asked, "Is he alright?"

Without looking at her, Evelyn answered gloomily. "No. He already caught cold. He’s probably going to have a difficult day tomorrow."

Once she prepared the tea, she left the kitchen and took it to Ethan who was dressing up in the room.

Nora quietly returned to the dining room, her heart heavy with guilt. When Ethan reappeared, he was already wearing a sweater and calmly drinking the tea.

He turned to Nora and smiled. "You’re lucky. I was able to get all the ingredients."

The look on his face only made Nora feel guiltier.