Aleena had been staring at her crush but was awakened from her dreamy daze when she felt a tap on her arm.

Looking down, she found that it was her little sister Rika who had disturbed her from observing her Topher Sama.

She could not get mad at her little sister with whom she had become closer during the period of Lockdown and could only push down her irritation for being distracted.

"What is it?" She whispered when she saw the secretive look in Rika's eyes.

Her younger sister smiled before gesturing for her to lean closer so that she might whisper something into her ear.

Obliging, Aleena bent sideways, allowing Rika to reach her ear, and waited for her to speak.

As Rika spoke a few words into her ear, Aleena first raised her brow before nodding in agreement to whatever it was that her younger sister had said.

Thus, while everyone was busy, she watched with a keen gaze as Rika sneaked away from their location and headed in a certain direction away from their tea party.

Once her little sister was out of sight, Aleena turned her eyes towards Topher but was dejected to find that he had moved on to another position which made it difficult for her to continue viewing him.

Gloomy at this setback, she sighed then decided to pay attention to her elder brother's conversation.

Around this time, her nemesis, Elna had been glancing at her neighbor Cecily and thus had missed the brief interaction between the Kiron sisters.

With Aleena's undivided attention now on the conversation between the boys, she wished to join the discussions but was nervous as she had never done so before.

Her brother Jacob had done an excellent job at teaching the sisters during the Lockdown and she was now capable of keeping pace with the discussion at hand.

During this discussion, she had also seen how Yvonne St. Claire had tried to join them but on numerous occasions was interrupted by the heir of the St. Claire family.

This only deterred Aleena from even trying to add her opinion to the conversation as she too might be interrupted and she did not wish to experience rejection on her very first attempt.

Thus, around the same time, when Yvonne had also given up trying to join them, she turned towards the girls and after finding only Aleena there, an unpleasant expression formed on her face.

After all, this young girl was also a tsundere just like her elder brother, Howard.

'She acts one way and means the other.' Yvonne shook her head at this conflicting attitude that she held.

Aleena's eyes widened when she saw this little girl shaking her head in dismay at her.

"What?" She scoffed while interrogating exactly what she might have done to warrant this behavior from the daughter of the St. Claire's family.

Yvonne did not answer her question but moved to the one that she needed an answer to.

"Where is Miss Rika?" She investigated the whereabouts of the girl she would prefer to converse with.

Since Aleena could not reveal this information to her, she shrugged in answer.

"No clue." She denied possessing any idea about where her sister might be.

Yvonne pursed her lips and chose not to pester her to spill the truth instead decided to utilize the person who was in front of her.

"Miss Aleena, can I ask you a question?" She whispered while stepping closer to the older girl.

Aleena was expecting to be left alone so she was taken aback by Yvonne's actions.

With widened eyes, she froze in place and by the time she could react, the only daughter of the St. Claire family had come to a halt right next to her.

Missing the chance to avoid this girl, Aleena stood still and observed her in silence.

As Rika had stood in the same spot just earlier, it was easy for her to compare their heights.

Rika was a year older than Yvonne but they seemed to be of an equal height which was astonishing to her.

After all, girls grew slower in comparison to boys but this child seemed to be having growth spurts ahead of her age.

The credit for Yvonne's rapid growth in height when compared to other girls her age needed to be given to her daily exercise routine which increased her appetite as well.

Therefore, while other girls were watching their figure from a young age by cutting down on the number of desserts they ate, Yvonne was eating everything she craved but made sure to work out to burn those calories well.

However, her daily habits were still a secret being kept from everyone else and thus, Aleena was surprised to notice this oddity about Yvonne's body.

Yvonne had no clue that her growth was being measured as she was more curious to know about something else.

"Is your mother alright?" She inquired while leaning closer to Aleena's ear.

Aleena's nose was assaulted with a sweet aroma that she could best describe by using the words, 'vanilla' and 'sugar'.

Just as any girl would, she too was drawn to this saccharine fragrance and a subconscious smile formed on her lips.

However, the words that she heard made that smile turn upside down to form a frown almost immediately.

"Why? What's wrong with my mother?" Aleena's voice raised by a small percentage which made Yvonne widen her eyes.

'Can you not yell!?' The little girl glanced around and sighed in relief when she found that no one had witnessed Aleena's sudden lack of propriety.

Turning back to the older girl, Yvonne leered at the one who could have attracted a lot of attention due to her loud voice.

The ladies were chatting merrily while the three boys were also engaged in some heated debate which caused them to pay no heed to what the girls were up to.

This, due to their lack of attention, no one had observed that one girl was missing among them while the other had yelled and acted impolitely.

Yvonne's stern glare prompted Aleena to realize that she had just made a blunder on account of her flaring emotions.

The thought of something happening to her mother had clouded her judgment for a moment.

However, Yvonne's leer had managed to shut her up in time before others could point their fingers at her crude behavior.

Not everyone was a friend and behind smiling faces would be sneering hearts that laugh and mock the flaws in others.

Aleena had seen many such people throughout her life and thus was glad that this other girl had succeeded in stopping her in her tracks.

'I will forgive her this once for her rude behavior.' She still huffed at Yvonne who had glared at her.

Yet her blushing cheeks and bright red ears had given her away just like in the past.

Yvonne chuckled at this shy appearance of Aleena's, not minding that she had just scoffed at her.

Instead, she was curious to know about the current condition of Aleena's mother, Marchioness Patrina Kiron.

'She looked ill…' Yvonne shot a glance at the frail-looking lady whose cheeks were sunken in and her countenance was also pale.

Following her gaze, Aleena's eyes landed on her mother and grasped the reason for Yvonne's inquiry.

As this wasn't anything that needed to be concealed, she chose to let her in on this matter as well.

"As you know, my father could not accompany us to our fief and had to stay back at the Capital because of the Lockdown." She began, attracting Yvonne's attention back to her.

The little girl had no clue about this matter but nodded for her to continue.

At the mention of Aleena's father, she recalled who he was.

Soon realizing that she had met the Marquess during their meeting with the King as he was one of the three ministers who were present at that time.

Coming back to Aleena's narration, Yvonne listened to her family's situation.

When the plague began, Marquess Jace Kiron and his two elder sons were still in the Capital while the rest of their family had already reached their native fief.

He had the responsibility of being a member of the King's Council of ministers to fulfill, his eldest son was looking after their estate in the Capital while the second son was stuck in the Royal Academy where he worked.

Thus, none of them were able to reunite with their family who was in the Kiron fief.

They were busy with their tasks but Marchioness Kiron spent every day fretting for the life of her husband and two sons who weren't with her.

The fear of losing them had kept her up every night which had led to her falling ill soon after.

She was growing older and the fatigue from not resting properly had caught up to her.

It took her a while to recover but even after she was out of her sickness, she was like a still doll, staring outside the window in the direction of the Capital.

It was Jacob who was looking after both his sisters and their fief while his mother was unable to function.

When the first letter asking for relief had come to their fief, Jacob had inquired about their father and brothers' well-being from the messenger who revealed that they were safe wherever they were.

"Brother Jacob promised her on that day that she would meet father and elder brothers once again." Aleena muttered during her recollection of what had taken place.

Jacob had asked the messenger who was returning to the Palace to deliver a letter to their father.

The messenger agreed and when the people assigned by the Palace began to come by every month to pick up the food grains, they brought back letters from their father.

Regaining contact with the Marquess had improved Lady Kiron's condition and she began functioning like earlier once again.

"She cried for hours after meeting father in the Capital." She stopped when she felt a lump in her throat.

If her brother had not thought of a way to establish communication between themselves and their father in the Capital then Aleena feared for her mother's deteriorating condition.

Thankfully, Brother Jacob had been a strong pillar for them to lean on when their mother had been unable to do so.

"Ohh…" Yvonne nodded, understanding why Marchioness Kiron had become dull to such an extent.

She had been worried that the Marchioness, one of the ladies in society that she liked, was suffering from some grave illness that had made her this way in just a year.

However, now she learned that it was heartache caused by being separated from the rest of her family that had driven her to her current condition.

But paying attention to Aleena's words and seeing the smiling face of the lady right now, she could tell that Lady Kiron had improved a lot and was improving now as well.

This thought made the child smile but what Yvonne did not know was that her smile would be wiped out very soon.