Mary closed the poetry collection with a hint of dissatisfaction.
She then turned her gaze back to Russell beside her.
After a moment of hesitation, she gently poked his arm.
Russell slowly opened his eyes and turned his neck to look at the girl next to him.
"What's wrong?"
He asked in a low voice.
"Nothing."
Mary shook her head. "Are you tired?"
"It's fine."
Russell yawned. "I'm just closing my eyes to rest a little."
"Mm."
The girl nodded and looked away.
"What do you think about the Phoenix newspaper?"
She suddenly asked again.
"I haven't seen it."
Russell said.
"All I can say is… if you applied for a job at that newspaper office on Fleet Street, you'd probably get hired right away."
Hearing this, the girl couldn't help but let out a small laugh, then lightly coughed twice.
"Um… the professor doesn't seem to have arrived yet. Shall we chat a little?"
She suggested.
"What should we talk about?"
Russell didn't refuse. After all, there was nothing else to do.
"Hmm…" Mary thought for a moment before saying, "How about we talk about you?"
"Talk about me?"
He couldn't help but ask, "What should I talk about?"
"Hmm… how about we talk about what was written in the newspaper."
Mary rested her chin on her hand and spoke with a smile.
"For example, the newspaper said that you and Charlotte are the perfect team, the golden combination, and that your relationship is more than that of ordinary business partners…"
She paused and glanced at Russell's face out of the corner of her eye. There was a probing—or perhaps teasing—nuance in her tone.
"So, I'd like to ask: what exactly is the relationship between you and Charlotte?"
Hearing this, Russell was momentarily at a loss for words.
He met Mary's blue eyes. Those eyes held curiosity and something he couldn't quite make out.
"She's… my partner and my neighbor."
He answered naturally. "We work together when investigating cases, but otherwise we each do our own thing. She lives across from me. I was only asked by Mrs. Hudson to look after her."
"Didn't you know this question has already been asked countless times? I'm already sick of answering it."
"Is that all?"
Mary tilted her head. A strand of silver hair swayed gently with her movement.
She ignored Russell's final complaint and continued with her questions.
"What specific aspects does 'looking after' include?"
Her voice was soft, carrying an innocent curiosity, like a child who simply wanted to know the answer.
However, there was a faint something flickering in those eyes, and a hidden undercurrent was stirring.
Russell didn't reply immediately.
He turned to Mary and looked at her delicate face right beside him with great curiosity.
Then he suddenly realized that the question wasn't as simple as he had imagined.
"It's… very ordinary care."
Russell carefully chose his words.
"For example, waking her up for breakfast, reminding her not to stay up late, occasionally helping to brew tea or coffee, tidying up her room, that sort of thing."
"Tidy up her room?"
Mary raised her eyebrows slightly. "You… helped tidy up her room?"
Russell suddenly realized he might have said something wrong and hurriedly tried to correct himself."
"Her room is quite messy, so I tidy it up for her from time to time. Otherwise, Mrs. Hudson will scold me.
To be honest… her room really needs tidying. You'd understand if you went to see it yourself."
Once he started speaking, he seemed to fall into a certain rhythm and began nonstop complaining about Charlotte's laziness and slovenly appearance.
The girl beside him, who had seemed completely unaware, gradually began to show a subtle expression.
"Oh."
The girl slowly voiced the word, but from her tone, it was unclear whether she believed it.
"Then, what about her?"
She then asked, "Does she also help tidy up your room?"
"What are you thinking?"
Russell shook his head. "Do you think Charlotte is that serious? The fact that she sleep in my bed is already good enough."
Hearing this, the girl was slightly surprised.
"She sleeps in your bed?"
"It was a joke. Just a metaphor."
Russell immediately said.
However, Mary's gaze grew even sharper.
That wasn't a joke. She was absolutely certain.
There were some things you couldn't come up with as a joke unless you had actually experienced them.
"In other words, 'that's all' means this?"
She asked in a complicated tone.
"Making breakfast for her, waking her up, tidying her room, brewing tea, making coffee… this is more than just 'that's all'!"
Russell was momentarily at a loss for words at her question.
"...I'm already used to it."
He instinctively said it.
Mary tilted her head. "You're used to looking after her?"
"It's not like that…" Russell thought for a moment before speaking. "It's just that we live close by, and she can't take care of herself.
Mrs. Hudson is elderly, so I can't let her worry about everything.
Mr. Mycroft has helped me a lot, right? Not only did he broaden my horizons, but he also introduced me to members of the royal family…
Ethically and logically, there shouldn't be any problem with me helping look after his sister."
"Ah, I see…"
Mary rested her chin on her hand and stared at Russell.
"Mr. Mycroft…" She quietly repeated the name.
"In other words, you felt indebted to Mycroft, so you looked after her?"
"Not entirely," Russell thought for a moment. "At first it was because Mrs. Hudson asked, but afterward… I just got used to it."
Hearing these words, the light in Mary's eyes dimmed slightly.
Why didn't he just nod and admit it?
If he had, the topic would have ended, and I would have gotten the answer I wanted.
But why… why do something so troublesome?
Why do you have to set your own heart on fire?
"Habit…" she murmured. "Habits are terrifying things."
The girl's gaze shifted from Russell to the blackboard on the podium.
"Getting used to someone being by your side, getting used to looking after someone, getting used to knowing who you'll see when you open your eyes every day…
Once you get used to it, your brain accepts it as something natural, and once that happens, you can't stop anymore."
She spoke in a very small voice, as though talking to herself or addressing the dull-headed man sitting beside her.
Russell paused for a moment and looked at the girl's calm profile.
"The way you're talking… you sound very experienced."
Hearing this, Mary turned her face, met his gaze, and gave a mysterious smile.
"Who knows?"
She said.
A faint silence fell between the two.
After a while, Mary finally opened her mouth and broke the silence.
"What do you think of Charlotte's evaluation of you that was published in the newspaper?"
"Hm?"
"It's… a necessary trouble."
Mary said.
"In Charlotte's eyes, you're nothing more than a necessary trouble to her."
"What do you think about this? Why do you think she described you that way?"
"Hmm… ask Charlotte."
Russell shrugged. "Why would I know?"
"I don't think you'll get an answer from Charlotte."
Mary said this, then deliberately drew out the final syllable. "So…"
"So?"
Russell looked at her curiously.
"Then let's make a hypothesis here."
Mary said.
"In Charlotte's eyes, you might really be a troublesome."
"That's a very hurtful thing to say…"
"But Charlotte can't live without you," Mary continued. "That's why she called you a necessary trouble."
When she said this, there was a subtle, ambiguous nuance in her tone.
"What do you think about the words used in the newspaper to describe your duo?"
She used her fingers to count them one by one, pausing her gaze on Russell's face each time.
"The newspaper…" Russell felt a little uncomfortable under her gaze and said. "To get people to read it, they have to exaggerate a bit. You shouldn't take it too seriously."
"Hm?"
Mary blinked. "But it seems like you have no intention of denying these things."
He said, "If the reporters are praising us and I suddenly say 'our compatibility isn't as good as you all think,' that would be too disappointing for them."
"I see…" Mary gave a small nod, as though she had lost interest in the previous conversation, and turned her gaze back to the podium.
Russell looked at her profile and felt that something was off.
"What's wrong?"
He asked cautiously. "Are you unhappy?"
"No."
The girl quietly shook her head.
"I suddenly felt a little envious."
"Envious?"
Russell raised one eyebrow.
"Yeah."
Mary turned to face him and smiled. That smile was still gentle, but there seemed to be some distance between her and him.
"I envy you two. You have so many stories worth recording and writing about.
Compared to that, I don't have many stories worth recording.
Every day is basically just repeating the same things. It's monotonous and boring."
She paused. Her voice grew a little smaller.
"That's why I feel envious."
That's why we feel longing.
That's why they're so desperate to make that boundary line even more, and more, ambiguous.
The bell rang at the perfect timing, preventing silence from falling.
"Let's go."
Mary stood up and smiled at Russell.
Before Russell could reply, the girl had already walked past him and taken his hand.
And then, without caring about the gazes around them at all, she openly pulled him up from his seat.
The curve of the girl's lips lifted slightly, forming a smile that hinted at possessiveness.
That curve hid many things.
Words she hadn't said aloud, and hidden feelings of envy and jealousy.
Just a little… just a little, like a child throwing a tantrum who wanted to leave some kind of trace.
Perhaps, in the eyes of people all over London, Russell Watson and Charlotte Holmes were an inseparable pair.
But at least within Imperial College London, she wanted to change that relationship.
Second, she wanted to make sure that when people thought of Russell Watson, the first name that came to mind wasn't Charlotte Holmes.
It was Mary Morstan.
The girl's hand was soft and felt slightly cool to the touch.
Those slender fingers slipped between Russell's fingers and gripped him gently yet irresistibly.
She deliberately walked slowly so that the surrounding students who hadn't completely dispersed yet could see her more clearly.
Look, Charlotte Holmes's assistant is being led away by me.
Mary's thumb lightly brushed the back of Russell's hand. The touch was casual, but impossible to ignore.
Russell looked down at the captured hand, then looked up at Mary.
The girl didn't look at him.
She simply turned her head slightly. Her gaze was fixed on the classroom entrance ahead.
She slowly and steadily led me through the crowd that hadn't completely dispersed yet.
"Excuse me, could you let us through?"
Mary raised her voice even more, drawing even greater attention.
The surrounding classmates turned their faces and glanced back and forth between the two. Various meanings were contained in each of their eyes.
Curiosity, surprise, ambiguity, doubt… and envy and jealousy.
When they left the classroom, the hallway was even more crowded, and naturally, the commotion grew even larger.
"Look, it's them!"
"Are they a couple?"
"Isn't Russell Watson Miss Holmes's assistant? How come he's…"
"This extremely sinful man…"
The buzz of discussion rushed in from all directions like a tsunami.
Mary didn't care at all——or perhaps she did.
However, what she cared about wasn't the emotions shown in those gazes.
What she cared about was simply being seen.
——You see, the clearer, the better.
It would be best to engrave this scene into your hearts and never forget it for the rest of your lives.
Therefore, she deliberately slowed her walking speed so that her figure could be seen more clearly from those curious gazes.
She wanted everyone to know that Russell Watson was not someone's possession.
It would be fine if he was drawn to Charlotte Holmes and became her assistant.
But that was simply because a genius had highly valued him——mutual admiration between talented people.
But at the same time, he was also drawn to Mary Morstan.
Standing beside a genius for a photograph was limited to newspaper articles, but standing beside oneself for a photograph was a realistic and tangible reality.
Newspapers were newspapers, and reality was reality.
The former was merely casual conversation, while the latter was something Imperial College students experienced and learned every day.
Russell followed behind her, being led by the hand, feeling the soft yet cool sensation transmitted from her palm.
He felt a sense of helplessness, but there was nothing he could do.
The girl gripped his hand tightly, as though afraid he would escape, making it impossible for him to break free.
And under the gazes of everyone present, the two left the school building and headed toward the cafeteria.
Even when buying sandwiches, Mary never let go of his hand.
It wasn't until they reached the familiar empty classroom, until there were no more witnesses around, and until her pounding heart could no longer endure it.
The girl finally let go.
Even so, her ears had already turned bright red like the sunset.
The moment the door closed, all the noise from the outside world was shut out.
All that remained was the sound of the wind blowing in from the window and the girl's unsteady breathing.
Mary said nothing and walked straight to the window with her back to Russell.
Cold wind blew against her face, taking away some of her body heat.
"Why did you suddenly change your mind?"
Russell walked over to her and stood beside her.
"Are you shy?"
Mary turned her face and looked at him teasingly.
"I can't say who's shy."
Russell said helplessly.
Hearing this, the girl silently looked away and gazed at the scenery outside the window.
"It's just that I feel this way," Mary began in a calm voice. "I think there are some things that need to be seen."
As she spoke, she turned to face Russell.
"Don't you think so?"
Hearing this, Russell looked at her. Seeing the stubborn light still lingering in the girl's eyes, he was momentarily at a loss for what to say.
'Are you angry?"
He asked cautiously.
"No." Mary shook her head. "What reason would I have to be angry?"
"In other words… are you jealous?"
"Why should I be jealous?"
The corners of Mary's lips twisted slightly, but her eyes remained calm.
"You and Charlotte are partners who solve cases together and experience events worth writing articles about.
Your relationship gets published in newspapers and becomes a topic of conversation all over London.
When people talk about you, they think of her. When people talk about her, they think of you."
"Then what about me? I'm your friend, your desk mate. What right do I have to be jealous?"
She spoke quietly.
"Every time I see those reports and descriptions about you, I can't help but wonder what it would be like if I were in the same position.
If I were the one standing beside you and the one being written about in the newspaper, how would I feel?"
When she looked at him, something flickered in those blue eyes.
"But I can't understand that. Because I don't have the right to imagine such things.
I don't like that."
Her voice trembled slightly, but she tried to remain composed.
"Russell."
She called his name.
"Please…"
She said this, but her tone was almost pleading.
Even if they weren't lovers.
Even if that relationship wasn't confirmed.
That's completely fine.
But at the very least, I want you to acknowledge that I have the right to feel jealous.
Please tell me that I might feel upset when you get close to other girls.
Please tell me that I might feel uncomfortable because you're looking after someone else.
Please let me know that I'm special in your heart.
Please give me a place where I can feel jealous of you.
…
PS: Read at least 72 advanced chapters at patreon.com/AbsoluteCode