Unrequited Love, Lost for the Better - Chapter 6

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※ This work contains depictions of coercive relationships, explicit language, and other graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.

It had already been over a decade since she fell for him. He could not claim ignorance of her heart all this time—she had confessed it to him on numerous occasions. Even if he had only smiled at her each time, with that infuriatingly fond expression.

“Collette.”

Valerian gently clasped the hand of Collette, who was glaring at him.

“I have watched over you since you were six years old.”

“…So?”

“To me, you are a precious child. Is it not only natural that I wish for such a precious one to meet a good person?”

A cautious voice.

“And, above all, I am……”

Trailing off, Valerian looked down at his gloved hand. The slow clenching and unclenching of his fist betrayed a flustered bewilderment.

“……”

Watching Valerian like that, Collette felt something hot surge up from beneath her throat. To whisper so gently that he did not see her as a woman—

Then do not be so kind.

Her vision blurred once more. She struck his hand away sharply. At the violent motion, the tears pooling at her eyes spilled over in a sudden drop.

“Someone I do not like cannot be a good person for me. How can they be good when I do not want them?”

“Collette.”

“Do not call my name!”

Even now, she hated the voice that spoke her name so tenderly. She resented that his crimson eyes—so fierce and sharp to others—held only a warm light for her.

Better to have never been kind from the start. Better to have been cold and distant from the very beginning. He should not have let her grow her heart so steadily, feeding on the delusion that she was different, that their bond was closer than anyone else’s.

Even warmed, a blade was still a blade. Once she had placed the edge of her heart in his hands, she should never have forgotten that it could cut her at any moment.

“I will pretend I never saw this.”

Collette turned her back. Not setting fire to the list of potential matches he had brought—that was the best she could manage.

“Collette…!”

Valerian tried to stop her as she moved to leave the office. Collette struck his arm away once more, sharply.

“If you ever—ever—tell me to meet other men again, or say I’ll find a good person…! If you spout that nonsense one more time, I will never see you again. Never. I truly will not see you again!”

“…Do not say that.”

At her near-scream, Valerian murmured with a wounded expression.

“Do not say that you will never see me again.”

His sharply defined brows drooped in an instant. A man as broad as a doorframe was openly showing his hurt. His pale face was almost pitiful to behold.

“……”

Who is the one hurting here? You gave me a list of potential fiancés, and yet you look more wounded than I do.

Biting her lower lip hard, Collette stormed out of the office.

“…Collette!”

She heard Valerian’s voice calling her name from behind, but she did not stop.

* * *

How long had she run? She had simply sprinted and sprinted, it seemed. Her breath rose to her throat, but Collette could not bring herself to stop. If she hesitated even for a moment, it felt as though Valen would chase after her and seize her at once.

“…Ah!”

Crash!

Tripping over something, Collette felt a sharp sting in her palms and knees. A searing, burning sensation flooded through her. It hurt. Lifting her head, she saw a low stone wall—the rest garden near the plaza.

Everyone must have returned to their posts. The only sound was the fountain trickling at the garden’s center. A relief. No one had seen her clumsy fall.

“Huh……”

A relief that no one had witnessed her weeping.

“Huuuh……”

She hated him. She hated him so much. She had told him time and again that she loved him, and each time he had only smiled and said thank you. She hated him for dismissing all her confessions as the fleeting sentiments of a child.

“Hello. So you are Collette.”