A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 42

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 42.
Though she knew Michelle would soon put a stop to it anyway, Caroline couldn’t suppress the bitterness rising in her throat.
And while Caroline wrestled with these thoughts, Aiden had already filled an entire box.
Unlike her, struggling and slow, he dusted off his hands after clearing one entire shelf and spoke.
“You certainly seem practiced at this sort of thing.”
“Don’t I?”
“But you don’t look very skilled at it.”
“My goodness!”
Caroline’s face flushed crimson as she turned to look at him.
He was clearly teasing her.
He laughed like a mischievous boy you’d find in any neighborhood, then turned his attention to another shelf.
‘Have I become easier for him to be around?’
If so, that was a relief.
Even as a Player, Caroline wanted to be a comfort to him.
“What will you do with this room once it’s empty, Aiden?”
Caroline decided to apply herself more earnestly, glancing sideways at him as he swiftly filled another box.
It seemed she wasn’t being much help despite coming to assist, so she asked the question hoping to give him a moment’s rest.
“I’ll auction off the paintings or give them as gifts. If any profit comes from it, I’ll donate it to support single mothers.”
“That’s wonderful. You’re not attached to the paintings?”
“They were never mine to begin with.”
“Then what will you fill this room with once it’s empty?”
Finally, he finished packing another box.
Caroline turned to him with a pleased expression, but stopped short when no answer came.
The man stood with a Picture Frame in both hands, lost in thought as if it weighed nothing at all.
“…Aiden?”
“…I’ve never really thought about it.”
It seemed he had no plans for what to fill this room with.
Caroline approached Aiden slowly, took the Picture Frame from his hands, and placed it inside the box.
“Use the time you have left to imagine it. What you like. What you’d want to buy and put in here.”
It was an indirect form of holding on.
Though she didn’t know why he was meant to die, Caroline suspected it would be by his own choice.
That’s why she wanted to help him find meaning in life.
After all, he’d lived a difficult childhood, and even as an adult, despite earning enormous sums of money, he’d spent so little on himself.
Even though Michelle had indulged in luxuries with his wealth, he still ranked first among actors paying the most taxes.
‘Yet he never spent it on himself.’
“You seem to have lived very frugally, don’t you?”
At her words, Aiden met her eyes.
“Was there nothing you wanted since childhood? Objects, experiences, even travel?”
“…I suppose not.”
“Then do those things. Make your room, your life more colorful and vibrant. Make the time ahead of you enjoyable. Doesn’t that sound exciting?”
He seemed lost in deep thought.
On his behalf, Caroline reached up to tidy a Picture Frame sitting at the very top of the shelf he’d been working on.
But it was higher than she’d anticipated, and the frame was larger than expected.
“!”
It was falling.
A golden Picture Frame with an olive-branch relief—as large as Caroline’s upper body—tumbled down.
From a height even above Aiden’s head.
The edges were sharp, the canvas and frame were heavy…
And Aiden, positioned directly below it, was still lost in thought.
‘No!’
His head would crack, or he’d be badly injured.
That could not happen.
With that thought, Caroline—who had never once moved with any grace in her entire life—acted with sudden presence of mind.
“Watch out!”
She shoved Aiden toward the window, pulling him clear of the Picture Frame’s deadly path.
She herself tried to quickly retreat in the opposite direction, but—
“!”
An unexpected grip seized her arm and yanked her back.
With her eyes squeezed shut, Caroline was helplessly pulled until her back collided with the window frame.
And then came the sharp crack of something shattering.
Caroline opened one eye, then the other.
“……”
He was closer than he’d been that time they danced in the Recreation Hall.
Aiden held her shoulders and waist, pinning her against the wall, his body blocking the space between her and the picture frame.
The shadow that fell from him.
His distinctive soap scent.
Not knowing where to fix her gaze, she lowered her head in confusion, and behind his shoes she glimpsed shattered golden fragments.
“Right, anyway. I wanted to tell him to fill the rest of his life with things he wanted to do and have…… but I’ve ended up interfering with what he was doing.”
Her face flushed with embarrassment.
At the same time, she felt her heart racing.
Not from shame, but because of this man standing before her.
“I’ll think carefully about what I truly want. Thank you, Caroline. By the way…… are you all right?”
He soon withdrew the hand that had touched her.
“Yes, I’m…… are you?”
“I’m fine, thanks to your help.”
Aiden spoke calmly as he gathered the shattered pieces and canvas, placing them into a box.
They were things she had dropped, so propriety dictated she should clean them up herself.
Caroline remained rooted in place, her hands trembling.
Whether from surprise or from the flutter of being cared for by an actor she admired—
her heart beat irregularly fast.
“I’m sorry. It’s because of me……”
“Not at all. Blame whoever put the painting there. It’s meant to be seen, yet here it sits crammed in a corner.”
He pushed the filled box toward the door and removed his white gloves, setting them atop the bookshelf.
Then he extended his hand to Caroline.
“?”
The sort of gesture one makes when asking a puppy to give its paw.
Not understanding what he wanted, Caroline reflexively offered both her hands.
Aiden then gently slipped off the white gloves she wore and placed them on the bookshelf beside his own.
“Thanks to your help, I’ve saved myself the trouble. But quite some time has passed—shall we go have dinner?”
“I’d like that.”
The two of them left the room and walked toward the Dining Room.
Caroline brushed the dust from her own clothes, and naturally brushed away what had settled on Aiden’s hair and shoulders as well.
‘We’ve really grown close.’
It almost felt as though they had truly become friends.
“Listen, Aiden. If you need help filling that room later, or doing something new, just say so. Just like I said I’d be with you on your birthday, I’ll be there the same way. I’m not sure how useful I’ll be, but.”
“Thank you. But you knew my birthday?”
“?”
Caroline stopped in her tracks.
“Of course—I mentioned it just now. When I spent today with you on your birthday…… oh.”
Only then did she understand the situation.
Aiden had forgotten before that she was his devoted fan.
It wasn’t a matter of willpower or mental capacity.
‘He can’t remember what I’ve said to him, unless I’m repeating information he gave me.’
Perhaps it was only natural.
He wasn’t the one meant to gather information; he was the one meant to provide it to Caroline, the Player.
‘Even though I knew.’
Caroline felt the pleasant mood she’d held moments ago beginning to drain away.
The person who had believed she’d grown close to him now felt like a fool.
If Aiden showed the limits of his role as a Target Character—
then Caroline must do her utmost as a Player.
So she decided to directly ask the question that had brought her to leave the room in the first place.
‘The purpose of the key.’
“Aiden, I have a question. You said one of the locked rooms is your mother’s, but what about the other one?”
[▲]
The moment she finished speaking, a red triangle appeared before her eyes.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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