A Practical Guide to Ending a One-Sided Love - Chapter 40 - ᴠ.

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Bjorn returned to the temple with dragging, lifeless steps. Today again, he was a defeated soldier.

In the fading sunset, his fellow defeated soldiers greeted him. For some reason, their hopeful and kind faces felt especially pitiful today.

Seeing him shake his head sorrowfully, Allen and Todd wore expressions mixed with shock and disappointment. Standing before them, Bjorn felt guilt more keenly than ever before.

They had gone so far as to stage such ridiculous schemes just to separate Leila from him. Yet instead of doing his best, he felt as though he had only gone and played along to the fullest.

Even so, the only scene that lingered in his mind the entire walk back to the temple was the kiss he shared with Leila.

As the atmosphere suddenly turned awkward, in the final moments Bjorn and Leila flustered without knowing what to do and ended up parting in great disorder.

After setting the fallen table upright and tidying it, even in his daze he left words promising next time.

Leila, far calmer than right after the kiss, found her glasses and put them on, then received his farewell with perfectly composed manners.

Had he not heard the clatter of items collapsing behind him as he hurriedly left the small shop, he might have been fooled into thinking she had fully regained her composure.

“Did you really say exactly what I told you? That you’re buried in debt and even impotent, did you properly tell her?”

Allen’s voice, asking again as if he couldn’t believe it, was not enough to restore Bjorn’s scattered mind.

“Wow, she’s worse than expected, a real stubborn one, huh?”

But the disparaging remark about Leila barely pulled his reason back to reality.

“Watch your words, Sir Allen.”

Bjorn briefly startled at the aggressive remark that slipped out unconsciously. Allen also looked equally surprised, staring at him in disbelief.

“I’m just… sensitive right now. I didn’t expect today to fail as well…”

The excuse he barely managed was utterly pathetic, but Allen soon nodded as if understanding.

“Well, I suppose it would be disappointing if even today’s plan didn’t work. Wait, she really said she was fine even after hearing that?”

“She said she would arrange the loan restructuring herself and that I could repay it slowly. And that she didn’t mind the physical defect either…”

Though he himself didn’t realize it, Bjorn’s expression softened more than ever as he spoke. Like someone proudly showing off sweet affection received from a lover, his voice recounting Leila’s outrageous behavior sounded oddly satisfied.

Before Allen could point out the strangeness, Todd, who had been listening, muttered blankly.

“If it’s to that extent, Vice Commander. That’s… real love, isn’t it? No matter what flaw you have, she’s saying she’ll carry even that with you—”

“No.”

But just like last time, the moment he heard Todd moved by Leila’s sincerity, Bjorn instantly returned to a cold expression as if nothing had happened.

At this point it was obvious the suggestion would come to just meet her properly. And Bjorn had even reached the point of wanting to reluctantly give in and say ‘Guess I’ll just go for it?’ Before that happened, it was better not to hear it at all.

“My plan hasn’t changed. At the next meeting I will settle this somehow.”

Confused by Bjorn’s unwavering resolve, Allen reluctantly nodded.

“Well, if that’s what you think, Vice Commander… I’ll prepare another plan. You must be tired, so go in and rest first.”

Not refusing Allen’s well-meaning words, Bjorn returned to his quarters.

His claim that the plan had not changed was not a lie.

However, unlike his firm resolve, his mind kept replaying scenes opposite to his will over and over again.

Leila recklessly kissing his cheek first, the hearth-thumping sensation of the kiss that followed, the slender body trembling finely within his grasp, hot breaths, the sound of fabric wrinkling, even the taste of saliva felt at the tip of his tongue.

Could he touch those lips once more?

Bjorn felt guilty as if he had committed a grave sin at the thought that rose unconsciously.

It was something that must never happen again. It always had been, but now that he had decided to become a monk, such impure thoughts had to be cast even farther away.