Chapter 26.1

Hair the color of a baby chick fluttered in the breeze behind a petite figure as it ran in haste.

You simply could not take your eyes off those staggering movements.

And even if it wasn’t for that, too, it was a pity that she left without looking back even once.

Until she completely disappeared from sight, Noah Yurielle held her in his eyes for a very long time.

“Hey, look who I found.”

At the familiar yet unpleasant voice, Noah Yurielle sighed and looked behind him.

“What are you standing around here for, hm, Noah Yurielle?”

Gloria was still in comfortable clothes, perhaps because she’d just finished her swordsmanship class, drying off her sweat-soaked hair.

Her pretense of friendliness as she approached made Noah Yurielle frown ever so slightly. That always-smiling expression of hers gave him goosebumps, like always.

“Hmm.”

Her pleasantly smiling blue eyes lifted toward the end of the hallway.

Cackling, Gloria tilted her head in surprise. “So you were acting all pitiful looking at that kid?”

Noah Yurielle frowned and tensed his shoulders away from Gloria before they touched. “You stink of sweat, move.”

She didn’t even pretend to have heard him, chuckling as she nodded. “Let’s see. One look and I can tell what’s going on.”

“…”

“Here, let me give you a piece of advice.”

Noah Yurielle tried not to listen to Gloria. Most of what she spit out of her mouth was bound to be nonsense, so it wasn’t like that was hard to do.

“If you have anything in your heart, then don’t hesitate, you moron.”

Slinging her arm around Noah Yurielle’s shoulders, Gloria tilted up the corners of her mouth, grinning.

Her blue eyes flashed. “Or else, who knows if someone might steal your chance?”

***

I decided to think of Noah’s unfathomable flirting the same as having read a romance novel.

Okay, but if I really thought about it, I couldn’t help but be a bit outraged and angry.

Though it was a bit of a fudged-up confession, he had already rejected me anyhow—and then now here he was suddenly messing with me and my feelings…? And he even had a woman he’d end up with, though that hadn’t happened yet.

No, seriously, wasn’t he horrible?

But at the same time, it wasn’t like I could grab him by the collar and yell at him for being too kind to me.

Fuming on the inside, I walked down the hallway. I was just about to head to the store to buy something sweet to eat for the sake of my now somewhat disgruntled state of emotions.

That was when I met Arkhan as I was heading down the stairs.

“Kate.”

“Oh hey, haven’t seen you around in a long time.”

Sliding my eyes off him, I gave him a greeting, but Arkhan spoke first. “Why didn’t you come to see me? I’m hurt, really.”

Huh, if I thought about it, this was the first time I’d seen him since we returned to school.

Thinking oops to myself, I scratched the back of my head as I made excuses. “I’ve been a little busy.”

“You forgot me because you were busy?” Arkhan furrowed his eyebrows, silently telling me that that was a little too much.

Normally, I would have frowned in disgust and asked what was up with him, but this time I felt apologetic because it was really something someone could get hurt about.

“Oh, I know, I was just about to go to the store. Let’s go together.”

I’ll buy you a snack.

Pulling Arkhan by the arm, we headed to the store.

I told him to choose anything he wanted and Arkhan swept snacks into the basket with a practiced hand.

Thanks to the fast-approaching exams and the stress from Noah, I also chose several snacks to eat and then paid for them.

“Hah.”

With a sigh, I vehemently ripped open the packaged chocolate.

“Is something up?”

Sitting on the bench and happily chewing on snacks, Arkhan blinked his red eyes.

Come to think of it, this guy was also male—wouldn’t he know their psychology better than I do?

Scrunching my eyebrows for a moment, I finally opened my mouth.

“So this is about someone I know.”

“Hm?”

“This person I know had a crush, so she confessed to him. And then she was rejected, okay? But apparently, that person who rejected her just keeps… coming up to her, a little too much,” chewing and swallowing the chocolate wildly, I continued to say. The bittersweet flavor moved down my throat.

“What does that mean, you think…?”

Wait, why was there no response?

I’d been talking for a while, but he was being strangely quiet, so I looked to my side, only to find that Arkhan was holding his laughter back while chewing a chip in his mouth.

“Kate, you were rejected, huh?”

“….”

“By that person, the Marquis Yurielle?”

I glared at Arkhan with all my strength.

“Keke… pfft.”

“You happy?”

It appears someone likes this a whole lot.

When I asked him coldly, Arkhan cleared his throat and began to flatter me instead. “That person must not have eyes, rejecting you like that.”

“… That’s not true. Do you know how pretty his eyes are?” I grumbled, recalling those honey-colored eyes of Noah.

I was well-aware of how beautiful those colors became behind his glasses and how dazzling they shone when they received light.

“Sorry, I’m bothering you, aren’t I?”

After thinking for a while with a dazed expression, I licked my lips and muttered to myself, What did he do to deserve being caught in broad daylight and made to be a dating counselor in return for some snacks?

“Nope.” Arkhan smiled kindly at me. “First, let me tell you what I think.”

Biting off a piece of the chocolate I’d been eating, he licked his lips with his tongue.

“I think he’s a bad guy.”

Only then did I realize that Arkhan didn’t even like Noah and therefore whatever he said would lack objectivity.