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Chapter 36
Blaire, without realizing it, bit his lips nervously as he waited for Ian’s answer.
In that short moment, Blaire traveled countless times between heaven and hell.
“Ugh, no way would Sian actually ask Ian to be her partner, right?”
“Maybe she did. No matter how long she waited, I didn’t ask her to be my partner, so maybe she did it on purpose to make me jealous…”
His mouth felt like it was burning from the inside.
He wanted, above all, to avoid a situation where he had to take a friend’s partner.
“No, right? Sian likes me anyway. She’s just reclaiming what was originally mine.”
Just as Blaire’s hostility was about to flare in the wrong direction, Ian answered.
“There is one.”
At that moment, sparks practically flew from Blaire’s pale green eyes.
It was so different from Ian’s usual calm, smiling demeanor.
Blaire, seeing his longtime friend looking like a completely different person, flinched in surprise.
“Who?”
“Charlotte Taylor.”
He narrowly avoided a fistfight with his best friend. Blaire let out a sigh of relief.
“Charlotte Taylor… the one who went to the debate competition with you last time?”
“Yeah.”
There were definitely girls who liked guys like Ian Morgan.
But that wasn’t Sian. It couldn’t be.
Blaire’s heart suddenly felt feather-light, as if he had never even touched hell with his toes.
“She’s the only one, right?”
Ian frowned, as if he didn’t understand why he had to be interrogated like this, but answered straightforwardly.
“There’s no one else.”
“That’s good.”
Just moments ago, he looked like he was about to die.
Now, Blaire rubbed his hands together, grinning brightly.
“I’m going to take a shower now.”
“Already?”
Ian reflexively checked his wristwatch.
They hadn’t even been working out for thirty minutes yet.
Rain or snow, Blaire always stuck to his exercise routine. And yet he had suddenly left midway?
Something unusual had definitely happened.
Worried, Ian quickly followed him toward the shower room.
“Finish what you were saying first. So what does the girl you went on a date with have to do with the girl who asked me to be her partner?”
“Nothing at all.”
Blaire emphasized the word “nothing” and then suddenly turned to Ian.
“You accepted, didn’t you?”
“Accepted what?”
“The fact that Charlotte Taylor asked you to be her partner. You accepted, right?”
Ian nodded.
America was a country obsessed with normalcy more than any other.
Not socializing with others or not dating the opposite sex would make someone an outcast.
So Ian, constantly pressured by the Morgans to be perfect, had no choice.
He had to force himself into social activities and continue dating girls he didn’t even like.
Aaron Simmons, who let his son do whatever he wanted at school, and Blaire Williams’ parents were truly exceptional cases.
“Good. Very good.”
“So… explain what’s good about it?”
“I’m going first.”
Blaire rambled in a way that made Ian’s head spin, then disappeared into the shower room.
“What is that crazy guy planning now…”
Blaire keeping secrets from him felt strange.
Ian ran a hand through his hair roughly.
In fact, Blaire wasn’t the only one who made him uneasy.
‘Siana.’
The girl claiming to be his deceased sister.
She had appeared suddenly, scratching at his nerves wherever she went, and now had disappeared without a trace.
‘What is she?’
It seemed too trivial to have been a trap set by his adoptive parents to test his loyalty.
‘I should have looked at that photo she showed me.’
He regretted not examining the photo Siana had handed him on the first day of school.
Looking back, there was no reason to avoid her so much.
After all, he would become independent from the Morgans as soon as he became an adult, and there wasn’t much time left before then.
He felt disgusted at himself for the instinctive obedience he still felt toward the Morgans.
“It’s fine. It’s all in the past.”
Ian decided to focus on the present.
Looking back would only bring pain.
After his shower, Blaire applied perfume liberally and finished getting ready.
‘Yeah. I can’t just passively wait until Sian confesses first.’
Although he had momentarily forgotten because girls usually asked him first, it was normally the man who invited the woman to a party.
‘Sian must have been so frustrated.’
She liked Blaire but was too shy to show it, waiting anxiously for him to confess first.
Still, she hadn’t asked Ian to be her partner just to make Blaire jealous, and that was admirable.
“She’s been patient, so she deserves a reward.”
And that reward was, of course, Blaire—himself.
A reward worth the anxiety, he thought.
Blaire carefully examined his reflection in the mirror.
Perfect as always.
Satisfied, he stepped outside.
The afternoon was lazy after classes.
Today, there was no cheerleading practice either.
Conflicts within the cheerleading club had worsened day by day, so the coach had called Victoria and Lucy separately to mediate.
‘It probably won’t help anyway.’
Neither Victoria nor Lucy would back down easily.
Victoria, having no room to retreat, would do whatever it took to hold on to the captain position.
And Lucy wasn’t the type to lose her prey at the last moment.
Moreover, she couldn’t betray the friends who had trusted and followed her.
‘Well, they’ll handle it themselves.’
Blaire shrugged.
His role ended at setting the stage and giving them support.
He couldn’t fight their battles for them.
‘I wonder if Sian is with her friends.’
Since there was no cheerleading practice, Sian would probably be with her closest friends: Aaron and Hazel.
Blaire furrowed his brows slightly as he recalled Sian’s friends one by one.
‘Wait… wasn’t it Aaron Simmons who contacted Sian just before the kiss?’
During their last date, the two had been extremely close in the car, just before their kiss.
The name of the person who contacted Sian was clear enough for him to see.
And Sian had chosen:
Blaire or checking Aaron’s message.
Without hesitation, she chose the latter.
‘How could she?’
His instincts as a man warned him.
Aaron’s presence was annoying.
“Still, Sian likes me.”
He scoffed nonchalantly, but his pace quickened.
He worried that Sian, tired of waiting for Blaire to ask her as a partner, might give in to Aaron.
He headed to the library, scanning every corner.
She wasn’t in the reference room.
Finally, he found Sian huddled with her friends in the lounge.
They didn’t even notice Blaire and were deep in conversation among themselves.
“I’m a Michelin tire. From the start, when I’m held, I’d feel soft and cozy, right?”
“Yeah, that seems possible.”
What kind of conversation was that?
Blaire tilted his head, puzzled, and quickly realized.
He remembered a game where people listed characters from movies or animations that matched their sexual preferences.
He thought it was out of fashion, but apparently not.
Blaire secretly listened, partly amused, partly curious.
He was curious about Sian’s hidden preferences.
Maybe his name would even come up.
“It’s your turn, Siana.”
“Hmm…”
Hazel, who had said Michelin tire, gestured, and Sian pondered.
‘Is this something that needs so much thought?’
Just saying “Blaire Williams” would have solved it easily.
Blaire, frowning at her hesitation, tried to rationalize it.
‘Sian denies liking me in front of me, so she definitely wouldn’t be honest in front of friends.’
Expecting a long wait, he leaned comfortably against the wall, arms crossed.
“I’m Captain Hook.”
“What? Captain Hook from Peter Pan?”
Hazel giggled, but Sian didn’t retract her statement.
“Captain Hook is so sexy.”
“Are there more Hook captains I don’t know about?”
Then Aaron, who had been quietly reading, intervened casually.
“Contrary to popular image, Captain Hook is quite aristocratic. Excellent looks, and manners too.”
“See?”
Encouraged by Aaron, Sian puffed up proudly.
‘Of course, it’s me.’
Watching her, Blaire quietly nodded.
Aristocratic, excellent manners, and great looks.
Clearly, Blaire Williams.
“Liar.”
“Not a lie. You’d know if you read the book. You should start reading now.”
“Criticizing me for not reading.”
Hazel clenched her fists in frustration at Aaron’s remark.
“Sir Aaron Simmons, then tell us about your refined taste.”
Aaron, unfazed by Hazel’s sarcasm, merely shrugged.
“I like Virginia Woolf.”
At that moment, Sian, sipping her drink, almost spat it out onto Aaron’s face.
Hazel was also shocked.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. She’s the only author I want to meet and talk to in person.”
A brief silence followed.
Hazel, now understanding the situation, openly laughed at him.
“You don’t get the rules. It’s not about someone you want to talk to—it’s about someone you could kiss.”
Before she could finish, Aaron frowned.
“You… have been discussing such low-level stuff all this time?”
The more he groaned, the louder Sian and Hazel laughed.
“You ignoring our tastes?”
“Yes! Captain Hook is an elegant aristocrat.”
Hazel scoffed.
And Sian, laughing with them, looked… more relaxed and happy than ever.
Perhaps even more than when she was alone with Blaire.
“They all look like they’re having fun.”
Realizing that, Blaire moved instinctively.
