Chapter Twenty One
Unspoken Efforts
The week moved differently after that Monday.
Clare was the first to notice something important.
"Daniel's birthday is next week," she whispered to Noah one afternoon while arranging cups inside the café.
Noah paused. "Already?"
Clare nodded. "I almost forgot."
"You didn't," Noah replied softly. "You remember everything about him."
Clare smiled faintly but didn't answer that.
After a long discussion, they decided something simple.
"A bouquet," Clare said. "Not expensive. Just meaningful."
"Vanilla flowers?" Noah suggested.
Clare shook her head gently. "They don't bloom easily here."
Noah watched her friend carefully.
"You're working for it, aren't you?"
Clare hesitated.
Then nodded.
To avoid Jack — or maybe avoid her own thoughts — Noah began spending more time inside the café after school.
Instead of sitting with the group, she helped her mother clean tables, manage orders, and arrange shelves.
Clare joined her often.
They worked quietly together.
But Clare noticed the change in Noah.
She was laughing less.
Arguing less.
Even when customers made mistakes, she didn't tease them the way she usually did.
One evening, while wiping a table, Noah spoke softly.
"Do you think people change?"
Clare looked up. "Who?"
"Anyone."
Clare thought for a moment.
"I think feelings change faster than people," she replied carefully.
Noah didn't respond.
Meanwhile, Clare secretly started helping at the church again in the evenings.
Cleaning candles. Organizing hymn books. Assisting the priest.
Not because she had to.
But because the small coins she earned would help her buy something proper.
A bouquet for Daniel.
Not because he was royal.
Not because he expected it.
But because he had been part of her childhood.
And she wanted to honor that.
Noah found out accidentally one evening when she saw Clare counting coins.
"You're serious about this," Noah said softly.
Clare smiled. "I don't want to ask my parents."
Without another word, Noah placed a few coins beside hers.
"For ribbon," she said.
Clare's eyes softened. "You don't have to."
"I know."
But while Noah avoided Jack—
Alice slowly moved closer to him.
Not aggressively.
Not manipulatively.
Just naturally.
She began sitting beside him more often.
Studying with him.
Walking beside him after school.
Her parents noticed.
And they were pleased.
For the first time, they spoke to her gently on letters.
They asked about her friends.
They asked about Jack.
Alice felt warmth in her chest.
She wasn't trying to steal anything.
She simply believed—
Maybe Jack liked her too.
After all, he had held her hand.
Protected her.
Stood close.
Maybe that meant something.
One afternoon, while studying together, Alice asked casually,
"Do you regret that day?"
Jack blinked. "Regret what?"
"At my house."
He laughed lightly. "It was just glass."
She smiled softly. "Still."
Jack leaned back. "I would've done that for anyone."
Alice's smile faded slightly.
But she recovered quickly.
"I know."
She told herself it didn't matter.
Because time changes things.
But fate has a strange habit.
Since childhood—
Jack's attention had always returned to one person.
The one who argued with him.
The one who beat him in studies sometimes.
The one who glared when he was late.
Noah.
Even if he didn't fully understand it yet.
One afternoon, as Jack walked past the café window, he saw Noah laughing with Clare inside.
For a second—
He felt relief.
Then frustration.
Then something heavier.
He didn't like the distance.
And he didn't like not knowing why it existed.
Meanwhile, Clare stood outside a small flower stall, holding carefully saved coins.
"A vanilla bouquet," she told the florist. "But sincere."
The florist then told her , the vanilla bouquet takes weeks to deliver here,can you wait for few days madamoiselle,and began arranging a bouquet of soft white and pale lavender flowers tied with a thin ribbon.
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