Childcare Diaries

Three days had passed since Brielle refused to listen to Kentrail and Marie.

“That’s right. Sister should have told him sooner.”

Ellie said to Marie, who confided her troubles to her. Even though she had Ellie go to Brielle’s room, it was in vain.

“…Does the Young Master not want to talk to you either?”

“It’s not like that, but that doesn’t mean I can make him feel better.”

Since the cause lies with the two of them, it was only for a moment that Ellie laughed at those funny words before the atmosphere immediately went down.

“I see.”

Ellie, who had always been on her sister’s side, sided with Brielle this time. It was because she felt like she would be offended if she was in Brielle’s situation as well.

‘Sister is hiding her boyfriend from me? No way.’

Nodding her head with a disapproving look, she then glanced at her sister.

It seemed that Marie was very worried that she couldn’t sleep properly and her eyes were dark. She regretted putting it off so long as she didn’t know what to say to Brielle.

As she sighed, a thought came to her mind, and she got up before striding towards the desk. Ellie looked at her sister’s sudden behavior incredulously. Marie suddenly stopped talking about her troubles and went to the desk and opened the drawer.

‘…I didn’t know I’d be using it this way.’

Marie stared at the items in the desk drawer as she thought so. At the time, she found a use for things she thought she might not use.

‘I don’t know if this will be a good way…’

Taking it out, she closed the drawer door.

* * *

While Marie was telling Ellie about this, Kentrail was knocking on the door of Brielle’s room.

“Brielle. Let’s talk to uncle, huh?”

Still, there was no sound coming from inside.

All he could tell from Ellie and the butler was that Brielle was still eating and seemed in a very bad mood. He wanted to talk eye-to-eye with his nephew, but he didn’t know how. As time passed, Kentrail became more anxious. It was because Brielle’s heart seemed very hurt.

“Just know that uncle is very sorry to Brielle, and it’s not that I didn’t tell you because I didn’t love or trust you.”

After uttering that, he walked away from the child’s room. When his uncle’s voice was not heard, Brielle, who was in the room, glared at the door.

“HNG!”

Even though he tried to vent his anger by lying on the bed with a snort and shaking his feet, his sadness was not resolved.

‘Then, why did you keep it a secret only from me?’

From the looks of it, everyone in the mansion seemed to know about the relationship between the two except him. How could this be? How much he wished uncle and Marie well, and how big of a heart did he concede Marie to?

For the time being, he didn’t want to talk to his uncle.

Marie also said she wanted to come and talk to him too, but Brielle didn’t feel like it.

Rolling half a turn and lying on his back, in the meantime, something that had become much smaller than himself caught his eye. It was the teddy bear lying on one side of his bed. Marie had washed it clean.

‘It smells pleasant.’

…Marie loved him like this, but why did she keep it a secret from him?

‘Am I too young? If not… because I’m not important…?’

When he thought about that, Brielle’s eyes welled up in tears.

‘It won’t be like that… Right, never.’

However, the still-scared Brielle hugged the teddy a little more. The child’s agony deepened as he lay back on the bed holding the teddy bear.

* * *

The next day, as someone knocked on the child’s door, Brielle still stared at his door without answering.

The next moment, something dropped something through the crack in the door. Curiosity moved Brielle to check it out. On the other hand, Marie and Kentrail, who had heard the child move, let out a sigh of relief.

The sound of bare feet stomping stopped right in front of the door.

“Huh?”

Brielle held up a familiar piece of paper.

‘This is the coupon I gave Marie.’

It was a forgiveness coupon. While Brielle looked at the coupon and was confused, Marie’s voice was heard.

“Young Master, you remember what it is. Of course, I’m not asking you to forgive me for that coupon. I just want you to listen.”

She didn’t want to force open the child’s heart, even if it was a forgiveness coupon. That would only have side effects later. She wanted to make him fully understand and tell her how he felt.

“….”

Brielle leaned against the door and sat down before raising his knees and burying his face there.

“Brielle.”

Then, following Marie’s voice, Kentrail’s voice came.

“Uncle is sorry… I had to tell you everything from the beginning though I couldn’t figure out what to do because I am clumsy.”

The child listened when his uncle, who was good at anything, said he was clumsy.

“To uncle, you’re like the first child. So I thought over and over again about the best way to tell you about this situation and what timing was right, and it got so late…”

First child…

Those words flew into Brielle’s chest.

“….”

“Just know it’s not because uncle never loved you… it was because I love you so much that I was afraid.”

Tears began to fall on Brielle’s face as he buried his face in his knees.

“…Isn’t it because I’m not someone who means a lot to you two?”

After a long time passed, Kentrail and Marie’s voices, who had been happy to hear Brielle’s voice for the first time in a while, changed to sadness. They never thought the child would be thinking like that.

“Absolutely not, Brielle. How precious you are to uncle.”

“Me, too, Young Master. You’re the reason I’m here in this mansion.”

Brielle wiped away the tears as the two voices spoke with sincerity. He then freed his legs from wrapping around him and rose up. As the child gently opened the door, the two of them, anxiously pacing in front of the door, saw the door opened by Brielle and gazed at him with trembling eyes through the gap.

“I can’t be mad at you for saying that.”

Tears welled up in the child’s eyes as the two looked at him. Feelings of regret and fear that perhaps they did not love him as much as he loved them flowed out in a complex mixture.

Marie hurriedly got Brielle out of the room and leaned over to hug the child.

As the warm arms embraced him, Brielle’s feelings softened. Kentrail also embraced the two of them with his broad chest.

“Do you really love me? You’re not just trying to get rid of me, are you?”

“Of course.”

“Of course.”

Only then did Brielle stop crying and smile a little. Because once his insecurities were gone, he realized that Marie could really be his family.

“Then, what about marriage?”

“What?”

“Marie said that not everyone who loves gets married.”

Hearing Brielle’s remark, Kentrail’s head quickly turned to Marie. She looked bewildered, not knowing that what she said earlier would get the two men hot stares.

To turn the subject, she quickly looked around, but her expression hardened.

“Young Master… By the way…that bag—”

Brielle was startled and quickly closed the door to the room. It was because Marie had found the bag he had packed to run away, just in case.

“Brielle… you…”

Kentrail, who watched Marie’s hardening face, turned his gaze after her and muttered with a look of astonishment that his nephew had tried to run away from home.

“…Uncle also ran away.”

The child answered in a very low voice, perhaps knowing that he was wrong. However, Marie and Kentrail heard it correctly. Only then did Kentrail avoid Marie’s stare as he realized that it was he who instilled in Brielle the idea of running away.

* * *

Marie and Kentrail held hands and walked through the garden. Now that Brielle had also found out, there was nothing to shy away from.

Meanwhile, the surrounding employees gazed at the two with envious expressions. Just by looking at each other’s eyes, they could tell how much they loved each other. A desire to have such a passionate love began to rise.

Taylor, in particular, was on fire to find a mate. Sometimes the Young Master joined him and said he didn’t know how painful it was to be so sweet.

“I’m glad that Brielle accepted us well.”

“I see. It seems like he left so that the two of us could be together right now, right?”

In the past, Ellie would be the one to take Brielle and disappear, but now, he would take Ellie and disappear instead.

“Yes. I can’t stop both of them.”

The two gazed at each other and laughed. In an instant, while Marie was unguarded, Kentrail’s face moved closer, and then she moved away.

“What is it?”

Her face turned red.

“Because you’re pretty.”

“…Not out here.”

When Marie said those awkward words, she hurriedly began to enter the mansion.

“So, you’re saying it’s okay inside?”

“Don’t tease me by making me lose my words.”

As she quickened her steps, Kentrail followed and began to enter the mansion.

“Then, if you’re not that pretty…”

“Aackk!”

Scream flowed from Marie’s mouth as she ran into him, and she covered her mouth.

“Don’t…”

“Hahaha.”

Smiling, he then pulled her into an embrace before he spun her round and round.

Marie’s face turned red beyond reach. Kentrail himself was reluctant to show intense skinship in front of others, but he wanted to express affection like this without worrying about his pride. He would express love and give her love so that she could feel his love always in the future.

Hearing the happy laughter, Brielle and Ellie were laughing heartily in the room.

— Brielle’s Approval ( END ) —

[ T/N: There will be more after stories, don’t worry! ]