While I was distracted by the inanity of my situation, it seemed that Gretchen was winding down her lecture. I suppose I should take the opportunity to introduce her as well. As you probably guessed by now, Gretchen was my personal maid. I’ve known her for a few years now, and she’s become one of my closest friends. Er, not that there’s much competition. I didn’t exactly get to meet many people as a noble girl who hadn’t formally debuted in society (although I had attended a couple tea parties). And given that I was 12, that’d be for a couple years yet. But what was I saying…? Ah yes, Gretchen.

Obviously, she wasn’t a character in the manhwa. After all, I myself was a minor character, so someone like her was definitely irrelevant. Nevertheless, that didn’t change the fact that in this world, she was as real and complex as anyone else. She had two younger brothers she loved to death, her father was a subordinate of my father’s, she hated strawberries, and so much else. And for young Dahlia, she was the only confidante she really had. Ah, I’ll get into why that is, in a bit. For now, I should probably reassure her that I’m fine.

“…and so, do you understand what you’ve done?”

She grabbed my head to force me to look her in the eyes, probably having (correctly) predicted that I lost interest in her lecture. Sheesh, didn’t anyone teach her to be gentle with patients?

Trying not to sigh, I made sure to look her right in the eyes and- froze.

I had forgotten, or I guess, remembered, one important thing.

This was the world of a romance manhwa/novel. So pretty much everyone, from the protagonist, to the most unimportant extra, was beautiful. And that was true of Gretchen as well.

She had auburn hair, tied back, and even frowning as she was now, her face was frankly, gorgeous, with sharp brown eyes. And of course, she was wearing her maid outfit, which had no business looking as cute as it did. So you’ll forgive me if I was a little distracted by a cute girl whose attention was entirely focused on me. Yes I know she obviously didn’t have any interest in me that way (because yeesh, do not want), but considering how my last relationship had ended… Ugh. Definitely not gonna think about that right now.

Anyways, I tried to stop being as much of a raging bisexual as I had been as Melissa. When that failed, I settled for at least answering her.

“I’m really, truly, sorry for worrying you, Gretchen. I was being foolish when not listening to your advice that was only looking out for my well being. I don’t expect you to immediately forgive me, but…”

I trailed off, and saw that she was shocked. Ah, yeah. I wasn’t usually this sincere when she admonished me, but this was different. I had never screwed up this badly before. I didn’t even know how long I was out- days, weeks? I easily could’ve died, and having just remembered the last time that happened, I wasn’t eager to repeat it. I knew that I was still a 12-year-old kid, but getting a 22-year-old’s memories is definitely something that changes you, yeah? Thinking of how much she had put up with for my sake, of how much she genuinely cared for me, I couldn’t be as bratty as I had. 

“Milady!”

And suddenly, she hugged me. I patted her on the back, as she sobbed into my arms. She released me after a bit, and looked at me with watery eyes, but with a grin on her face. I smiled back at her.

“You should probably go inform everyone that I’ve woken up. Actually, how long was I out?”

I glanced over at the window. The morning sunlight was shining in, but I had thought I had fallen after lunch.

“Oh yes! The physician should be informed! I’ll go send for him. And er, it’s been about a week, milady.”

Geez. I didn’t know much about medicine, being an engineering student, but even I knew that being in a coma for a week definitely meant I had brushed pretty close to death there. She walked over to the door. I called out to her.

“You said Daisy was worrying about me? And… Mother and Father?”, I added, hesitantly.

“Oh yes, the young miss was inconsolable when she saw what happened to you. She’s come every day, and we have to drag her out of the room each time to let you rest. She’ll be delighted to hear that you’re up.”

I looked over at the table, to see some wilting flowers that had clearly been picked from our garden. Yep, definitely Daisy. I couldn’t help but smile at that. She did adore her older sister so. As Melissa, I had been a younger sister, and kind of a brat at that. Sydney had to put up with a lot of my crap. Ah, Sydney. I really missed her. I wonder how she reacted to how I had stupidly gotten myself killed, after how hard she had worked to get me out of that house. Maybe now she was happier without me being an albatross around her neck. Okay, no, that’s way too depressing of a thought. There’s definitely a lot of shit I’m going to have to sort through, but that can wait. Besides, Gretchen is dodging a question I really want an answer to. 

“And my parents?”

“Ah well…the Baron and his wife did send for the best medical aid after hearing of the accident…”

“But they didn’t come to see me.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Well…yes.”

My feelings must’ve shown on my face more than I had intended since Gretchen very much looked like she wanted to come over and hug me once more. I tried to put on the brightest smile I could. I don’t think I fooled her, but she did go, leaving me alone. And hoo boy, did I have a whole lot to think about.