A Flower in Death's Embrace

Chapter 6

The next day, first thing in the morning, Gloxinia found all her missing stuff back on her desk. No message was attached to it, but she guessed the unnamed guy was generous enough to give them back to her even though she scared him yesterday.

The second period of the day was a self-study session, as the teacher couldn't be there for the day. Despite it being called self-study, no one actually studied and everyone just talked to each other like it was a break time.

"Can you stop staring at me?" Vincent said while propping up his head with his arm.

Gloxinia, the one he was talking to, just kept looking at him without heeding his words.

"And why are you turning your chair to face this way? Face forward," Vincent said again.

Gloxinia shifted her chair so she could fully face Vincent's direction. There was no reason, just that everyone else did too and it was much easier to talk to him this way.

"Do you know," Gloxinia finally voiced out. "What a smile is?"

Vincent wondered if she was joking, but judging by her face she was clearly dead serious about her question.

"Are you being sarcastic?" Vincent asked. That was the only reason he could think of as to why she would even ask that question to him. He was aware he never smiled much. Actually, he hadn't been smiling for a few centuries now.

"Did it sound like I was?" Gloxinia blinked in genuine surprise. She shook her head quickly.

"No, but sorry if you got offended."

Vincent squinted his eyes at her to study her expression, but it was no use. He knew she was being honest. Vincent leaned back on his chair and contemplated on how to answer Gloxinia's question.

"It's a...n expression," Vincent began with a careful tone. He felt like he would turn philosophical with this topic, but he would like to keep it logical for Gloxinia so she could understand it first.

He took a glance at her but she didn't give out any particular reaction, like she already knew that before.

Of course she does. Vincent thought.

"It's the expression you make when you're happy," he continued. He glanced at Gloxinia again and this time she looked like she was deep in thought.

"But I once saw Lilly smiling even though she wasn't happy," Gloxinia voiced out the question that had been nagging in her mind. She had always associated smiling with good feelings, but just that once, smiling looked sad to her and she didn't know why.

"Well, yeah," Vincent said and crossed his arms as he tried to think about how to explain it nicely.

"... Sometimes smiling can also be a means to hide one's true feelings," he decided to say.

Gloxinia tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. She got the gist but she wondered why they had to make it so complicated. Humans truly were such complicated creatures. They could do one thing and mean another thing entirely.

Gloxinia studied Vincent's face.

"Can you smile?" Gloxinia asked with a serious expression. She didn't mean much, she just wanted to see how Vincent would look like smiling genuinely.

"I don't have any reason to," Vincent answered, his gaze locked on his desk. Even in front of his superiors and seniors, he never smiled even though it could've gotten him their favors. But it was fine since most of the other angels of death weren't keen on smiling either.