Roses are more expensive than other flowers

Theron cursed inwardly.
‘Damn it, I admitted my past experiences with women.’
It wasn’t an unexpected question, and he had already prepared a plausible lie for it.
So why on earth did he confess the truth as if possessed?
Was it because Selene’s maid, whom he had met while loitering around the ducal estate like a stalker, had told him it was important to show his sincere feelings? Or was it because Selene’s eyes, when she asked if he had lied to her, looked particularly sharp?
For some reason, he had been at a loss for words at that moment. As if someone would cut off his tongue if he tried to deceive her with fluent lies again.
Perhaps it was a sense of crisis. Not because he was afraid someone would actually cut off his tongue, but because he felt that if he deceived her one more time, he would be crossing a river of no return.
What a ridiculous conscience.
After all, the truth he had revealed that day was just a part of a huge lake.
Because he was still after her fortune.
As his thoughts reached that point, Theron, who had only slept for two hours after staying up all night at the company, felt no desire to wash or eat anything.
He lay on the sofa without even tidying his messy hair and just stared at the ceiling.
Thump, thump!
“Theron! You’re in there, right?”
Theron looked at the clock.
Come to think of it, he had promised to go with Lysander to look around the construction site of the new building.
Normally, his appearance would have been very annoying, but when his mind was completely filled with that woman, Selene, it might be better to have the noisy Lysander by his side so that he wouldn’t have time to think about anything.
Theron got up from the sofa and opened the door.
He saw Lysander with wide eyes.
“Oh, so you were in here. But what’s with your appearance?”
“Because you barged in before I could even wash up.”
Theron roughly ran his hand through his hair and grabbed the jacket that was casually draped over the arm of the sofa.
“Where on earth did the popular Theron Cox go? The guy who used to dress impeccably even for a short outing.”
Theron somewhat agreed with Lysander’s words.
Had he been doing that to hide his long-standing poverty, or was it a desperate attempt to blend in with the upper class without prejudice?
Anyway, Theron had always taken care of his appearance, and it was like a habit.
But since meeting Selene Ashcombe, this habit had become more and more troublesome.
Perhaps because he felt that the only person he had to look good for was her, he didn’t want to put in any effort for anything else.
Click.
As Theron got into the passenger seat of the car driven by Lysander, smoke spewed from the exhaust pipe and the wheels started to roll.
“I met the architect today. He said the building under construction can be completed by next summer.”
Lysander announced the new information and gently pressed the accelerator to increase the speed.
“I see…”
“Aren’t you excited? Once the second building is completed, the company’s value will soar!”
“I’m excited…”
Theron, like someone on a boring ride, just rested his arm on the window and looked at the scenery outside.
“This guy, he’s doing it again, spoiling the mood.”
Lysander glanced at the listless Theron as if he were strange.
“What, is it because of that woman, Selene, again?”
“Call her Lady Ashcombe. It sounds like you’re close.”
“Bullshit.”
“Even if it’s bullshit, you can’t. I’m the only one who can call her by her first name.”
‘Even though Rupert Shearsmith and Logan whatever-his-name-is also call her by her first name, anyway.’
As Theron spoke listlessly with his chin propped on his arm resting on the window, Lysander let out a breath as if looking at a crazy person.
“So the reason you’re acting like a crazy person is because of Selene… no, Lady Ashcombe. Because you’re not doing well with seducing her.”
Theron did not answer.
Lysander’s reasoning was quite rational, but there was no way to explain his complicated feelings even though he was going to have the long-awaited night with Selene Ashcombe.
“If it’s not working out, just give up. Why are you so anxious and fidgety?”
“Talk sense.”
Theron came to his senses at Lysander’s words to give up.
“No, isn’t that right? I know you’re a miser, but you’re not so hard up for money that you have to seduce a woman for it. It will just take time, but you’ll be able to live like the nobles of the upper class later, so why are you trying so hard?”
Lysander’s words were not entirely wrong.
If the company grew with time, money would pile up later even without staying up all night like now.
But the problem was that by then, the Rigus Coast property he had been eyeing would be owned by the imperial family.
“Get out first. Don’t be so listless in front of the building, it’s bad luck.”
But before he could retort, Lysander stopped the car near the building under construction and nagged at Theron.
As he got out of the car following Lysander, he saw the shape of the building being built safely on the prime land he had hesitated to buy several times because it was expensive.
Even though the shape was not yet perfect, there was an overwhelming feeling from the wide site and the towering steel frames and concrete.
“Isn’t it cool?”
Lysander asked with a grin.
Theron nodded.
“It’s cool.”
“Wouldn’t you say this is the fruit of your hard work, living like a dog all this time, Theron?”
‘Yes, come to think of it, I really did live like a dog. Without sleeping or eating.’
It was no exaggeration to say that when he had just quit the pub and started his own business, it was like experiencing a new hell.
Running on an unclear path without looking back, he was engulfed in the anxiety of whether he was going in the right direction and the fear of what the reward for this would be.
He couldn’t sleep even when he closed his eyes, and whatever he put in his mouth felt like chewing on dry sand.
“Honestly, when I first saw you, I thought you were a completely crazy guy. You stayed up for days with bloodshot eyes and followed the representative of a client until they said they would sign the contract. It was so… I would have signed just out of fear.”
“Is there anything that can be achieved without effort?”
Theron replied bluntly.
“There’s a limit to that effort. Your level of effort looked like you were being threatened by debt collectors with your life on the line.”
Lysander smiled and handed Theron a cigarette.
Theron didn’t particularly feel like it, but he didn’t refuse and put it in his mouth.
Even if it didn’t taste good, he felt a sense of emptiness as soon as he saw this construction site, and he wanted to fill his insides even with smoke.
“I’m asking you now, but why are you so crazy about money?”
Lysander, with one hand in his pants pocket, suddenly asked a hackneyed question.
“To escape from a poor past?”
It was a simple yet direct approach.
‘Poverty. Yes, there’s nothing as miserable as that.’
The poverty Theron had experienced as a child was truly terrible.
It made people violent, miserable, and darkened their future.
On the other hand, money never betrays people.
In that sense, what was just a piece of green paper to the rich was a god, a religion, and a salvation to the poor.
Although Theron knew the connection between poverty and money better than anyone, the reason he couldn’t just say yes was because of the woman who was still lying in the hospital, waiting for him.
If the past of running away from a crappy house was all there was, he would have answered yes to Lysander’s question, but what he wanted to escape from was too complex to be just the poverty of the past.
Hooo.
Hazy smoke billowed from Theron’s mouth.
“There’s something more terrible than poverty.”
“What?”
“Memories.”
‘The dirty memories that are engraved so that they can never be erased for a lifetime.’
Just thinking about it for a moment, the loud sound of a horn and the flashing headlights flashed before his eyes.
The woman’s frail scream and her dried-up body rolling helplessly on the road.
Theron, as if to turn his gaze away from that memory, irritably threw his cigarette on the floor and stubbed it out with the heel of his shoe.
“You nagged me about bad luck, and now you’re bringing bad luck on me.”
It was then that he was frowning deeply.
Amidst the stuffy cigarette smoke, a fresh scent blew in with the wind from somewhere.
Theron lifted his head.
Lysander, who had turned his head following Theron’s strange reaction, noticed something and muttered, “There’s still a place that sells roses?”
As Lysander had said, in a street stall selling various flowers, red roses were placed in the center, catching the eye.
Theron suddenly thought of Selene.
‘When I first saw her, I thought she resembled that red rose. What a ridiculous impression.’
‘Like some old-fashioned person, thinking of a flower from a woman.’
As Theron continued to stare without being able to tear his eyes away, even while cursing inwardly, Lysander spoke lightly.
“Ah, but Theron, do you know?”
“What.”
“The reason why roses are so much more expensive than ordinary flowers.”