Chapter Text
When Phil and the other younger children of Grace Field played snowballs outside, Emma didn’t waste her time to join the party. Being a ball of energy she has always been, the girl came out to play without a thicker outer to protect her small frame from the cold.
She continued to play around for two hours until she remembered her promise to play rematch chess with Ray.
Not long after that, Norman discovered her trembling figure on the hallway, yet eyes still lighten up, eager when she saw him. The boy immediately noticed what went wrong.
“Emma where have you been? Your face is red” he said, getting closer to the ginger head.
“Well, it’s snowing outside so I played snowball fights with Phil and the other kids. Don’t mind me! I’m about to have a rematch on chess with Ray after this though.”
At the mention of what she’s about to do with Ray made Norman’s brow frown altogether with the concern he already had for the girl, “It doesn’t look like you’re fine to me.”
“Psh, it’s fine, really! Ray said that I won’t get sick.”
Norman cringed “Actually it wasn’t supposed to mean like that- Emma!”
He didn’t expect that Emma’s body would collapse. Thankfully, Norman’s reflexes quickly did its work to catch Emma before her body completely hit the ground.
Norman adjusted his position as he carried Emma. Once entering the infirmary the boy gently put her down on the bed before tucking the blanket for her. He was about to inform Isabella about Emma until he felt a tug on his wrist.
“Norman…”
Blood crept up to his cheeks once his name came out of her lips. Norman felt… fuzzy. It’s like he’s in the cloud nine and didn’t want to go back to the ground. The feelings were weirdly pleasant and he couldn’t remember the exact time he began to feel this way towards Emma.
It is impressive how much power Emma could have just by calling his name in her sleep thanks to this feeling.
Norman was not clueless. Although he didn’t have an ambitious goal to read the whole books in Grace Field House like Ray, Norman did stumble upon some romance novels a couple of times. I was not his favorite genre to read but the experience was worth to help him on behaving.
He knew what was the name of this feeling; which is the same as what like the novels have described.
Therefore when Ray’s name escaped Emma’s lips in her sleep, the pleasant warmth inside his stomach turned into a twisted feeling that was suffocating.
It was stupid, really. Emma was mentioning Ray in her sleep because she wanted to beat him so bad in their chess rematch. Yet, he scrutinized, eyes clouded with jealousy while staring at Emma somberly.
Norman's palm reached for the ginger’s cheek, caressing it gently before he leaned slowly to Emma, almost closing the distance between them. He whispered to her ear, with a determination, “Someday, I’ll make you look on me alone, and no one else.” and he left Emma with a long kiss on her forehead.