Chapter 46
June was a time when midday temperatures soared, making indoor activities more common than outdoor ones.
Naturally, tea parties filled the days, while dance balls lit up the nights.
The opera house was packed with couples enjoying dates.
Squeezing through the crowd to reach the box seat, I quietly stared at the two men flanking me on either side.
To my right, Adrian; to my left, Alferen.
The way they desperately avoided each other’s eyes, focusing only on me, was incredibly burdensome.
“Delly, here’s a blanket.”
As Adrian draped a blanket over my knees, Alferen beside him brought a lemonade to my lips.
“Thirsty?”
I opened my mouth to sip the lemonade, but Adrian lightly pushed it away and spoke for the first time.
“Hey, you already drank from that.”
“What’s the problem? We’re lovers.”
“Lov—”
Adrian couldn’t quite spit out the word, his lips merely twitching.
After his mouth quivered in spasms for a while, he turned his gaze to me.
“…Delly, drink this instead of that.”
He thrust his own lemonade at me, as if he didn’t even want to engage with the other guy.
Still, being in a public place, there was no raising of voices.
It was just me, sandwiched in the middle, suffering from the pressure.
“That’s dirty.”
Saying that right in front of the person…
If I drank Adrian’s here, Alferen would feel hurt; if I drank Alferen’s, our family’s precious boy would sulk.
‘No choice, then.’
With a deeply resolute expression, I simultaneously took both Adrian’s and Alferen’s straws into my mouth and sucked hard.
“Mmm, delicious!”
“…”
“…”
Caught off guard by the unexpected turn, Adrian and Alferen fell silent, unable to recover.
Today’s gathering was meant to facilitate reconciliation between these best friends on the verge of cutting ties.
I’d thought putting them together would naturally lead to making up.
But somehow, they were avoiding eye contact even more than with strangers.
‘Adrian hasn’t even been going to the Genus Club meetings…’
After my public confession declaration, he’d stopped showing up at Genus altogether.
‘Delly, I won’t interfere with your relationship. But you have to be home by 9 PM. No compromises on that.’
Adrian, who’d declared a curfew stricter than any from childhood, was repeating the routine of leaving work early to wait for me.
Naturally, his social activities had dwindled, sparking rumors that someone in the Peris family must be ill.
With one of the season’s top eligible bachelors holing up at home, interest was inevitable.
Judging that we couldn’t go on like this, I’d bought opera tickets for a playwright both Adrian and Alferen loved.
The two shared tastes like soulmates, after all.
Of course, I’d hidden the fact that Alferen was coming, in case Adrian wouldn’t show.
It was Alferen who’d tipped me off about this performance in the first place.
‘Delly, why the hell is that bastard here?’
Realizing too late that it was a trap, Adrian had smiled brightly and tried to turn right around and leave.
I’d barely managed to stop him and get him seated, but the atmosphere was still sour.
‘These guys are built like mountains, really!’
With that, the opera began, and conversation naturally ceased.
The opera’s synopsis was straightforward.
A heroine with a family-arranged fiancé falls in love with the male lead, sparking a love triangle.
It was the classic trope unavoidable in romance narratives.
I was watching the play with keen interest when suddenly a heavy hand settled over mine.
Glancing sideways, I saw Alferen looking at me as he intertwined our fingers.
But this was fake dating—there was no reason to hold hands where no one could see.
Startled, I looked toward Adrian, but thankfully, he was completely absorbed in the performance, paying us no attention.
Even so, if my brother found out, it might cause a scene mid-opera, so I lightly twisted my hand away.
But he just gripped mine tightly, not budging an inch. Instead, he jerked his chin toward the stage, as if to say focus on the show.
‘Why is this guy being so childish?’
He must have disliked that I’d brought Adrian along on today’s date.
Maybe he thought we’d look more convincingly in love if it were just the two of us?
‘But he’s the one who told me about this performance and suggested bringing Adrian.’
I couldn’t fathom his motives, but if I kept squirming, Adrian might notice, so I meekly let him hold my hand.
The play had reached its climax, with the two men’s duel imminent.
That’s when a breath brushed my ear.
“Enjoying it?”
The low bass tickled my ear. Goosebumps prickled all over my body.
It wasn’t just the breath. The soft touch of his lips brushing with every word felt unfamiliar.
Covering my ear with my hand, I turned my gaze, meeting Alferen’s blue eyes.
If I hadn’t pulled my head back, our lips might have touched.
The distance was incredibly close.
My heart pounded.
His slightly crinkled eyes gleamed seductively.
As if urging me to pay him some attention too.
“…”
It felt like time had stopped, and I couldn’t escape that gaze.
Clang—!
“Juliena!”
With the two male actors’ screams, the heroine was struck by a sword and collapsed.
She’d thrown herself between the two men driven to the brink of death in their duel.
“Don’t fight over me…”
With the heroine’s anguished murmur, the curtain fell.
As Act 1 concluded, the theater lights dimmed all at once before brightening again.
Adrian exclaimed with an excited face.
“Wow, cutting it off here! But she’s the heroine, so she won’t die, right? Or maybe they’ll revive her like in the last one? What do you think, Alferen…”
His voice trailed off as he unwittingly chattered to Alferen.
From the look on his face, it was like, ‘Oh, right. I’m fighting with this guy.’
Meanwhile, dazed in a different sense, I bolted up from my seat.
“I-I need the bathroom…!”
I dashed out without even glancing at Alferen.
Lest my bright red face give me away.
* * *
I’m going crazy.
I fiddled with my still-tingling ear while examining my face in the mirror.
As expected, it was flushed red, and my heart was still racing wildly.
‘The lips…’
That low, whispering baritone voice.
The feel of lips brushing my ear.
And in the moment the theater lights went out all at once, the lips that touched the tip of my nose.
The sensation that might have reached my lips made my heart pound madly.
“What the hell is he doing!”
I needed some drastic measures.
I was already not immune to that face.
At this rate, when the fake relationship ended, I might end up like a woman truly dumped.
‘Right. I’m just paving the way for Summer, who’s coming in a month.’
I needed to set proper boundaries.
At the very least, I should attempt some Summer-lighting to follow the broken engagement lighting.
With that resolve, I was just stepping out of the bathroom.
Someone was standing in the hallway. Recognizing them, my face naturally twisted into a grimace.
‘Ugh. What is with this guy? Don’t tell me he’s stalking me?’
The uninvited guest in the hallway was Cesare Barnard.
After our chance encounter at Winifred’s last time, he’d been showing up everywhere I went.
Especially at the noble charity party a couple days ago, where he’d made a splash by donating a huge sum in honor of his return.
As the one who’d personally presented him with the donation plaque, I couldn’t just ignore him and walk past.
“Hello? Fancy seeing you here again?”
Pretending it was coincidence, Cesare flashed an innocent smile and waved.
His tone was cocky, with no trace of the buttery guy from our first meeting.
“You know who I am by now, so I’ll drop the formalities, okay?”
His attitude, as if my permission didn’t matter, was laced with the typical royal arrogance.
