小嫂子的味道

It was one of those perfect autumn evenings, so common in stories yet so rare in reality.

In the open hallways of the Mains, a girl walked hugging a clipboard and a couple of papers in her hands. She was not alone, but surrounded by a cluster of other girls who walked around her in a circle.

The girl in question had true-red hair, it went down to her waist and covered her back elegantly like a queen\'s cape. The girl\'s expression was light and friendly. She had a cheerful smile covering her face as she talked and chatted with the girls.

They laughed and gossiped as they walked together. The talk was about what girls their age usually talked about. Who is dating whom, which teacher do they have a crush on, who is bitching about whom behind their backs, who is acting like a traitor…things like that.

The girl with red hair took in the information and returned it equally. It might not seem like it, but she was the center of the conversation. Most of the topic revolved around her and things going on with her life.

It was not direct, of course, the other girls made sure of this. Yet they tried to dig deep and make her say things she wasn\'t supposed to say or didn\'t want to. What they wanted was information about her private life—even if what they got were in bits and pieces.

Such was the way of the world. The girl in question carried a high reputation in the academy. As a result, some girls admired her while some despised her. Those who counted on the latter tried to find an immeasurable number of chances and ways by which they could pull her down the social ladder and ruin her image.

They tried to do this in a way she wouldn\'t notice, talking and letting out secrets about others was one of those easy ways. But all this was a pretty normal thing.

And the girl knew what she was getting into, she knew what the others were trying to do. That\'s why she already had a set of secrets related to her life that were meant for people like these. Secrets that were private enough to satisfy the girls, but not quite powerful to ruin her own life. In short, they were secrets meant to be leaked.

This was a way she\'d learned over time by trial and error…it was one of the things she had learned with time by trial and error.

The group of girls walked and talked and laughed together before they reached a certain point where the hallway parted into three different ways and in front was the garden that led to the other buildings.

They bid their short farewells to each other—albeit the fact that they barely knew the other person, and all had forced smiles on their faces. Everyone knew this, probably, but no one mentioned a word related.

The group of girls divided into several parts and went their ways, leaving the red-haired girl alone at the center of the different paths. She stood still at her place for a moment, waiting until she made sure the girls were far enough.

Once that was confirmed, the smile and cheerful expression she had on her face melted down in a matter of seconds. And what remained was a tired, weary look of a girl who seemed like someone who just wanted to be left alone.

Ellyn sighed, as she looked down at her feet—at the small trampled in the garden before her, they had most likely been crushed by the girls who left a while ago.

She shrugged and relaxed her shoulders, then taking a deep breath, she moved forward. All this was something she faced daily, therefore she was quite used to the process. Though it wouldn\'t have hurt if she got to take a break in between.

The girl walked through the garden, this time her pace was slow and reserved, probably because she wanted the moment to last as long as possible. Since there was no telling when, she was pursued by another horde.

It turned out she was used to the process, as her guess had hit right on the mark. A couple of minutes of lone walking later, another cluster of girls spotted her and came to chat.

Fortunately for her, this wasn\'t the same type of group as before. These girls counted among those who were affected by Ellyn\'s reputation positively and admired her for it. For them, she was a role model, not a person they could imagine going against.

Still, it only lessened her troubles, not erased them. What changed was that she didn\'t have to secretly defend herself from all the hidden attacks the girls might try. She was not yet free from faking her smile, expression, behavior, and body language.

She was their role model, after all; she had to act like one. Even choosing what words to speak was a difficult game, as you don\'t know what the other person might and might not like.

However, as mentioned before, Ellyn was used to all this as a person is used to breathing. It tired her out, but that was the most of it. This walk too didn\'t last much longer, as after a certain amount of time and distance was covered, and the girls were satisfied with the talk they had with their ideal. The group disbanded and each went their way.

Now Ellyn was alone again—not exactly since other students were strolling around on the grounds, but what it meant was she was no longer accompanied by anyone and there were no signs of it happening anytime soon. It set her heart at ease.

The young girl took a walk to the dorms and then to her rooms. She rested all the papers she was carrying on the desk along with the clipboard holding them. Then she removed her blazer, hung it inside the wardrobe, and slumped down on the bed.

She let out a sigh of pure exhaustion as stared up at the ceiling. This was the life of Ellyn Rosenberg behind the curtains. She, too, was just a normal human being, after all.

All the endless talking and keeping the best expression sucked her energy like the sun sucks a farmer out in the fields on a hot day of summer. She closed her eyes, and let her body relax for a span of barely five minutes before she rose back to her feet.

She opened the wardrobe and, after a bit of thought, picked one of the many expensive-looking jackets. It was dark brown, like the soil a hundred feet deep.

She hadn\'t gone through the trouble of removing all of her academy uniform—just the blazer, and she wore the jacket over her full-sleeved shirt. She looked at herself in the mirror that hung on the wall behind a small desk full of cosmetics and beauty products.

Her final thoughts were that wearing it along with the uniform was fine, and it didn\'t make her seem out of the place. The clothing was comfortable too and suited to her tastes.

Ellyn titled her body a little to take a final look, combed and adjusted her sleek red hair until she was satisfied, got over a few things in her mind to make sure she was not forgetting anything, and then left her room.

Just like most of the students did these days, she was also headed to the cafeteria. It wouldn\'t be too much to say that within the academy\'s campus, the café was a place favored by all the students. After the Mains and the dorms, it was also the only building that you would never find empty.

​ It was reasonable, too. You had good food, a neat and spacious sitting arrangement with well-furnished tables and chairs, and a delicately polished floor, combined with the overall \'open themed\' architecture of the buildings, was just what a young student might need to soothe their minds.

The place where the café was built was the cherry on the cake. It was on the western side of the campus, with the dorms at the left and the coliseum at the right. The Mains also stood diagonally on the southern side.

All in all, it was easily accessible no matter what work you had or where you\'re headed; a nice thing for a place where you might want to stop by.

The area inside the campus that wasn\'t covered by the buildings was left plain for the grass to grow. There were flowers and trees planted at regular intervals, but it was done mostly as a formality.

However, this was different around the café. There the garden was crafted more delicately and maintained with care. There were beautiful trees and flower pots surrounding the building, and the grass was leveled and clean enough that you could lie there face down without getting dirty.

As the wind passed by, rustling the golden leaves of the trees colored by autumn and sending them flying in the air in spirals, it gave the café an air of comfort you will want after cramping your heads through hour-long lessons.

Her reasons were a little different, but Ellyn was different. She entered the café building, knowing that she might get ambushed by the girls again. But for the peace of mind, she got at this place. It was a small price to pay.

She ordered a cup of green tea and made her way toward the sitting area, looking for a place to help herself. But to her misfortune, the café was quite full today.

Her eyes wandered through for a while before they came to a halt after spotting the faces of two familiar figures. They were sitting next to each other, and this made her second-guess her decision of approaching them. But then she remembered the public image they had and the rumored relationships.

She didn\'t want the rumors to turn against her, so made her way to their table, dragging a chair with her in the way.