"Excuse me, have you seen a handkerchief around here?" I asked for the hundredth time. "Sunflower silk, about this big."

The hundredth person in a row shook their head and walked off.

I exhaled slowly. How much more was I supposed to do this? I'd been here all day!

...okay, maybe I only asked around twelve people and only, like, twenty minutes had passed since I started. Still, talking to random strangers? That was hard.

Someone tapped me on my shoulder, and I raised my head.

"Hahaha! Good job, Filly!"

My jaw dropped. "Rosa?"

Rosa flashed me a grin with her hands on her hips. "You're right on, aren't you! As expected of you!!"

"What the--"

She threw her head back and laughed some more. "Ahaha, surprised to see me?"

I sputtered. "Will you stop speaking like some kind of boss and tell me what in the world is happening?"

"I am proud of you! Filly! You've done extremely well!!" Rosa cackled, and people gave us weird looks.

I rolled my eyes and pulled her aside to a more shadowed place by the city hall wall. "Why are you here?" I hissed, looking around. "Didn't you say you were avoiding this place for the sake of death?"

"Yes, but then I couldn't decide if I really trusted you to do well on this mission, Agent Fi."

"Then you should've done it yourself!"

She frowned. "No can do, Filian. Doesn't work that way, I'm afraid."

I resisted the urge to kick her shin. "I said stop speaking like-- I don't even know what! But it sounds fake! So stop it!"

"Never!" Rosa replied, defiantly narrowing her eyes. She squared her shoulders. "Mission control must stay in control. Hehehe. Get it?"

"No, I don't even know what mission control is," I replied immediately. I huffed, shifting my weight to one leg and crossing my arms. I cocked my head to one side and glared at her. "So? I did as you asked. Are we getting Mother Lily's handkerchief back?"

She checked the clock in the tower at our right. "In about five minutes, you'll see a brown-haired guy with green eyes. Ask him; he'll have it."

"Did you see him take it?"

"Yes, I made sure of that," she bragged, though what she was so proud of when she literally just let a stranger take her mother's most favorite handkerchief, I really didn't want to know.

I threw up my hands. "Fine, he better be around here."

"Great! Nice to see you're on board." Rosa clapped her hand on my shoulder and gave me this serious, confident nod, as if she was some kind of martial arts master who'd just successfully given the dojo to her disciple. "I'm proud of you, grasshopper," she added, and I almost punched her right there. Friend or not, annoying Rosa was annoying.

I pushed her away and walked out as she called "I'll be hiding up a tree or something!" from behind me. I rolled my eyes and stepped out into the sun, wincing from the sudden sunlight.

I had barely gone ten steps when someone else tapped me on my shoulder. I inwardly groaned, but looked up anyway, saying, "Yes?"

"Young lady!" cried the Professor from the last chapter. "I've been looking for you everywhere!"

"Oh, Professor!" I greeted, automatically reverting to Customer Service mode. Out of habit, I was this close to asking, "How have you been?" but managed to stop myself in time.

Thankfully, before I could come up with some other polite thing to say, the professor spoke up again. "Have you found your mother's handkerchief yet?"

I gave him a sad smile, trying to ignore the prick of guilt that came with his words. "No, not yet."

He laid a sympathetic hand on my forearm. "Then please, I can employ some of my men to help you. Pray do not refuse."

"Oh, thank you, Professor, but it's alright. Really," I said as gently as I could, pulling my arm free. Inside, I thought, go die, Rosa, making me lie to an innocent old man like this, followed quickly by whatever, I'mma be honest!!! In a light, nonchalant voice, I said, "I'll just go home and get a scolding from my mother, I suppose." There, now he would know my mother had most certainly not passed away.

His eyebrows rose in surprise, and he paused for a bit to process this new information. "Oh," he said, and I felt even worse.

I ducked my head into a bow (since I sucked at curtsies, it would probably be more insulting if I attempted one now) and faced away, ready to walk off and look for a brown-haired, green-eyed fellow. I held back a sigh. Now how would I do that, in this giant mix of human beings left and right? How was I supposed to find one brown-haired, green-eyed man in this crowded square¹SOCIAL DISTANCE Y'ALL??

"Wait," cried the Professor once more, lunging forward.

I turned back and waited, my head tilted to the side in a silent question.

"You see, one of my men has found a handkerchief today. You could perhaps check if it is yours?"

I blinked. "Oh, that would be helpful, yes," I said.

The Professor turned around and called for someone. "C'mere, boy, show her what you have."

Out emerged a brown-haired, green-eyed guy in entirely black attire from behind a crew of men in black attires. I blinked at him now, though my body was still turned away from when I'd been planning to leave. Well, then. Brown hair, check, green eyes, check.

This just might be easier than I'd thought. "Hello there," I said, with a small, questioning nod and a smile.

He instantly recoiled.

Now, with my many years in customer service, I knew how to read actions a bit. And I swore I read some sort of hesitation and... was that guilt? in his step backwards, like he'd done something wrong. Maybe he felt bad for picking up a high quality handkerchief. Maybe he'd meant to keep it at first. That made sense.

At the same time, something seemed... familiar? about him. As if I could expect how he would move just the second before he would move. Like his shoulders, for example. Or the movement of his arms?

I pursed my lips. Man, I was really bad at remembering people. I turned my body to face him completely now. "Have we, have we met before?"

The Professor chuckled. "Youngsters these days. Ladies making the first move. What a refreshing sight."

My head snapped to face him and my eyes widened. My hands flew up in a flurry. "Professor! No, I'm not--" I could feel my face begin to burn. "I'm not making moves on him," I finished, my voice quietening into a mumble by the end.

Professor nodded, still smiling. "Yes, I'm sure. Go on," he said, waving at us with his hands. 

I made a face at him and turned back to the guy. "Sorry," I said, beet red. "It wasn't anything weird like that, it's just, it felt like I kind of knew you-- or more like, you seemed familiar? Ugh!" Just place my foot in my mouth, won't you, Filian! Now every single thing I said sounded like those cheesy lines from Mother Lily's cheap romance novels. I shook my head. "Never mind, ignore me."

The man (thank goodness) didn't say a thing, only nodded once, still eyeing me warily.

I cleared my throat as I flapped my hands at my reddening face. "Anyway, may I see the handkerchief?"

The man hesitated, then dug into his pocket (ooh, was that like a secret pocket in his vest? That was pretty cool) and brought out the sunflower-studded silk I knew too well.

I brightened up instantly. "That's exactly it!"

"Wait," said another man from behind the green-eyed guy. We all turned to him. His deep voice rumbled. "How can we be sure it's yours?"

Professor inhaled sharply, then spun around surprisingly quickly than I expected a stooped, white-haired elderly man to move. "Hans! How rude, to this respectable young lady!" he scolded.

"Oh, no, Professor," I piped up. "It's a completely valid question. What if I was trying to claim something better than my actual handkerchief, is what you're thinking, right?"

Hans, this short, stocky dude, nodded.

"No worries, I can prove it. In the back of the handkerchief, it should have the word 'Lily' written into it." Not that I could read it, of course, but that was what Rosa (through the footman) had told me to say if I was asked to verify ownership of the cloth.

Professor stopped glaring at Hans and now turned to the first man. "Check the handkerchief, Leo," he ordered.

The man called Leo shook out the handkerchief and inspected it for a few seconds. We all held our breaths in anticipation. Then he looked up with his green eyes and nodded.

The kind old man lit up again, and he took the handkerchief and handed it to me. "Here you are, then, young lady," he said, his eyes sparkling.

"Oh, thank you so, so much," I gushed. Tears welled up in my eyes at the kindness of this near-stranger. "It seems the world is still beautiful²soredemo sekai wa utsukushii?, Professor. I will not forget your kindness."

"I'm just glad we were able to help," he said.

I wiped a tear away. So modest! And I still didn't know his name. I privately decided to ask Rosa later, the next time I saw her. "Thank you," I said again, then turned to Hans and Leo. "Sir Hans, Sir Leo--" Sir Leo jerked, which I artfully ignored-- "thank you so much as well."

"We haven't done anything," Sir Hans said in his gruff voice.

I shook my head. "You've done more than enough."

Sir Leo only nodded. Again.

I bowed a few times more, grasped the Professor's warm hand in mine for a few seconds, then gratefully went away.

Unknowing, as always, of a set of eyes that followed me all the way up to Rosa's carriage waiting for me at the road.

---

A/N: I never really said, but did y'all know that this story was originally made to be part of the ScribbleHub anniversary competition? It placed fifth :) which is honestly higher than I expected it to go ahaha anyhow yay and thanks for reading so far! ...though we still have a loong way to go before this story ends haha