A little while later, the whole group gathered in the living room to enjoy afternoon tea.
Lily glared with intense displeasure at the pudding in Joshua's hand. If it weren't for this little crybaby, she'd have gotten to eat both portions of pudding today.
Sensing the fiery glare aimed his way, Joshua quickly clutched the pudding cup protectively to his chest. "This is mine."
How annoying. I'm just looking. What's the big deal? What a stingy little miser.
Juliana keenly noticed that these two always seemed to end up bickering the moment they got close to each other.
Cedric just smiled and let slip a little secret. "Every time he comes over here, Joshua is always the first one in the house to wake up and get ready. Looks like he doesn't hate Lily one bit."
With his little secret suddenly exposed in front of everyone, Joshua turned red with embarrassment and anger. Lily smirked knowingly, as if to say she'd known all along.
Honestly, what era is this? If you like someone, stop picking fights with them. Be gentle instead.
While the little girl was still lost in her own theories, Aiden gently pushed his own portion of pudding over to her. "You can have this."
"Oh, thanks, Aiden. You're my favorite kind of person, someone who actually cares about others."
In truth, beneath the thanks, there was also a not-so-subtle jab aimed directly at a certain someone.
Joshua secretly glanced over at Lily, happily eating away, engaged in an intense internal battle for quite a while, before finally, reluctantly, pushing his last remaining cup of pudding forward, too. "Do you want to finish this one, too?"
"Sure, why not?"
Turns out this kid wasn't so dense after all.
Getting back to the upcoming party, Lily found herself wondering whether she'd need to wear a ball gown for dancing. Suddenly, Juliana's expression turned deadly serious.
"Oh no. It seems we haven't prepared a dress for Lily at all. This would be our precious girl's very first ball. We absolutely must dress her up as beautifully as possible."
And so, over the following days, Lily was spun around endlessly like a living doll, dragged this way and that until she was completely worn out. The dress needed to be not just eye-catching, but practical enough for dancing and moving around freely, too. However, after trying on nearly a dozen different old-fashioned gowns, none of them quite fit the bill. In the end, Juliana decided she would personally commission the most gorgeous, perfect dress ever, made just for Lily.
In no time at all, the day of the party arrived, and the two sisters walked in wearing stunning outfits, radiant and dazzling from the moment they stepped through the door.
However, compared to Lily's unrivaled adorable charm, Juliana's mature, elegant grace naturally proved far more effective at stealing the hearts of all the young noblemen there.
Just as several men nearby began making their move toward her, Cedric cut in first, beating them to the punch with a sweet invitation for this beautiful young lady. "Would you do me the honor of a dance?"
Since she had already promised earlier to be Cedric's dance partner, Juliana happily accepted and stepped out onto the dance floor.
Seeing this, and not wanting to intrude on their private little world, Lily led the rest of the kids off to enjoy some sweets instead.
However, no sooner had she settled comfortably into her seat than Michael and Ellen started bickering with each other. The two of them argued loudly over who would get to go fetch cake for Lily, and who would stay behind to babysit the kids.
Lily was far too clever not to see through their obvious scheme. Fetch cake for me? Sure. Clearly, they both just wanted the chance to go spy on Cedric.
Oh, well. Don't say I never gave you two a chance.
And so she waved her hand dismissively and said, "You two go together, then. We'll behave and stay right here."
As a result, no sooner had she sent the two men off than she turned around and was startled to realize someone was missing. Joshua had vanished into thin air.
"He said he didn't like crowds, so he just stepped outside a moment ago."
Lily clenched her fists in frustration. This little troublemaker really was impossible to keep track of. Right after, she told Luca not to wander off, and went alone to drag Joshua back herself.
Since it was pitch dark outside and she didn't know her way around, Lily ended up running around aimlessly like a headless bat. Suddenly, she spotted a figure of a similar build up ahead.
"Joshua, finally found you."
As she spoke, she reached out and patted the person's shoulder. But when he turned around, it was a completely unfamiliar young man.
"Who are you?"
Lily froze in place, terrified, for a full five seconds. That strange half-black, half-white hair, and those ruby red eyes. There was no mistaking it. This had to be the legendary second prince. If she said even one wrong word, she might just lose her head over it.
With that thought, she quietly began backing away, trying not to make a single sound, muttering to herself something along the lines of having mistaken him for someone else.
Unfortunately, such a childish little trick was never going to fool the second prince. He glared at Lily with obvious irritation.
"I'll ask again. Who are you? And how dare you lay your hands on me so boldly just now."
With no other option left, she had no choice but to bow obediently and greet him properly. "This — this humble servant is the second daughter of Count Long, Lily. My sincerest apologies, Your Highness. I mistook you for someone else by accident just now."
To her surprise, he simply kept staring at her without saying a single word. Lily instantly felt her scalp go numb. Don't tell me this guy's fallen for her, too. Dealing with Aiden and Joshua alone was already exhausting enough as it was.
The very next second, she suddenly remembered the whole reason she was out here in the first place. Looking for someone. She quickly bowed once more in formal greeting.
"This humble servant has an urgent matter to attend to right now. If there's anything else, let's continue this next time we meet."
With that, she immediately turned and bolted off as fast as her legs could carry her, leaving the second prince standing there alone, frozen like a statue in the blowing wind.
But given Lily's ridiculously short little legs, she barely made it any distance before she was already exhausted, panting heavily. Finally, with a thud, she collapsed onto the ground, completely worn out.
Just then, a figure leaped down from a tree. There, standing before her, was none other than that very Joshua she'd been desperately searching for this whole time. And what infuriated her even more was the fact that Joshua had actually noticed Lily searching for him ages ago, but had deliberately kept hiding, refusing to show himself.
Without a moment's hesitation, Lily delivered a loving punch straight to the boy. Then, puffing her cheeks in a sulk, she dragged him back to the party hall by force. Knowing full well everyone would worry, and he still dared run off on his own.
The more Lily thought about it, the angrier she got. Just as she opened her mouth to scold him properly, she suddenly remembered the time before, when her sister couldn't find her. Had she felt just as heartbroken and panicked as Lily felt right now?
With that thought, she gently reached out and touched Joshua's forehead, mimicking exactly what her sister had done that day. She comforted him gently. "Don't ever do that again, okay? Do you know how hard it was for me to find you?"
Seeing this, Aiden, standing nearby, couldn't hide his surprise. Who would have guessed Lily actually knew how to comfort someone?
Then she noticed Aiden's hands were full of her favorite sweets. Lily instantly tossed the whole Joshua matter to the back of her mind, gushing with praise. "Well, this little Aiden really is the sweetest, most thoughtful one of them all."
Very soon after, the party was drawing to a close. Juliana and Cedric had finished dancing and returned to the group.
At this point, Aiden noticed with sharp attentiveness that Cedric was wearing an unfamiliar tie he'd never seen before. Cedric scratched his head bashfully and laughed it off.
"Well, this formal outfit, I had it tailored years ago. Wearing it again now, it's a bit tight around the chest. We had to stay behind a while to adjust our clothes, which is why we came back so late."
Watching the two of them play off each other so smoothly, the air around them practically dripping with sweetness, Lily's jaw dropped in astonishment. This time, there's no doubt about it. Something's definitely going on between these two. It could safely be said things had progressed quite a bit further.