Hiya– It’s Me, The Runaway Female Lead - Chapter 15

“Ayla, you’re… really strange.”

He said it with that neat, strikingly handsome face I admired so much, never taking his eyes off me. At times like this, his gaze felt as though it could see straight through me.

“That’s a compliment, right?”

“Yes, it is a compliment.”

Trying to lighten the mood, I deliberately replied in a casual tone, but Claude responded in a voice stripped of any trace of laughter.

For some reason, the air in the room suddenly felt stiflingly hot. I found myself wanting to escape, with no real reason.

“But even someone as brave and strange as you…”

The expression on the young master’s face as he said that was one I had never seen before.

“…Wouldn’t you find a man unsettling, who brings back a broken neck instead of a bouquet on a night like this?”

To see a man who was always as sharp as a honed blade now looking so self-mocking. I was completely caught off guard.

“So, Ayla. What do you think?”

After that embarrassment came a sense of urgency. I immediately forgot my earlier frustration, seized by the desire to somehow keep this young man—so close to collapsing—propped up.

Just as he said, I truly was in a strange state. He’d tormented me so much, was such an aggravating brat every time he opened his mouth.

If it had been anyone else, my selfish and hard-hearted nature would never have cared about a bit of self-loathing like that.

But for some reason, I just couldn’t leave this young master in front of me alone. Not for a very long time. Maybe, ever since the first time I met him.

Maybe Claude’s claim that I had ‘volunteered’ to be his playmate was a truth I myself hadn’t even realized.

The moment I became aware of that, an impulse rising from deep inside took control of my words.

“As you know, Young Master, I’m just a foolish, lowly maid, so I don’t really know what’s unsettling, or what’s right or wrong… Complicated things like that are beyond me.”

Even before I started speaking, Claude’s gaze was fixed on me. So intently it wouldn’t be strange if he bored a hole in my face. I licked my dry lips and forced myself to go on.

“I can’t possibly understand the complicated affairs of highborn people. But… If there’s one thing I do know, it’s that there are things in this world that just can’t be helped.”

He looked at me without blinking, as if he’d see right through me. But his expression had shifted from before. Just slightly.

Yes, it was that expression. That was what had changed me that night.

Like a wounded beast, wary of others, but also so desperate for help that it made you forget the sharp fangs hidden beneath and want to recklessly embrace that dangerous creature.

“What I mean is… If there’s someone who finds the moonlight beautiful, if there’s someone who can leisurely pick flowers under it… it’s only because people like you exist, Young Master.”

I’d never even been close to a book, so I couldn’t say anything as elegant as a line of poetry. Still, clumsily, I wanted to get my feelings across.

At the very least, I wanted to say that I didn’t see him as some monstrous beast, that I knew who he truly was after watching him for so long. That he shouldn’t torment himself with that kind of guilt.

“So please don’t think that way. I don’t find you unsettling at all.”

Thinking back, what I said was almost a confession, and Claude’s mouth fell slightly open.

Even after my long speech ended, the young master said nothing for quite a while.

“Ayla, you…”

After a long enough silence for the mood to become uncomfortable, he finally replied, sounding almost dumbfounded.

“You really should be more careful with what you say.”

Worried that the mood might turn even heavier, or that I might be scolded for overstepping, I could only give a small, wry laugh at his answer.

“If it was out of line, I’m sorry. But I meant every word I just said.”

“I didn’t mean it was out of line. Just…”

Because of the moonlight shadowing his face, I couldn’t tell what expression he was making.

“If you keep being that admirable, I think I’ll be the one in trouble.”

All I knew for sure was that, for once, the young master, whose tongue was usually sharper than a blade, didn’t say another harsh word.

The memory of that night, with my heart pounding in my ears at a speed that seemed to match the man in front of me, lingered inside me for a long, long time after.