KMKS 61

chapter 61

After sending Jace off first, Aiden remained alone in the cafeteria, lost in thought.

He drank the now-cold tea several times, but his startled heart wouldn’t calm down.

It still felt as if the back of his head had been struck with a hammer.

Finding the woman he had been searching for for so long felt like a dream.

Only now did he truly understand the meaning behind Mrs. Melton’s words to him:

“Your desires were swapped.”
“You desperately wanted what ‘Viscount Aiden Spencer’ had.”

Impossible, he thought. That could never be true. He had denied it over and over, believing it was just a trick to confuse him.

He thought there was nothing that could connect him and Viscount Spencer through desire.

Yet, every time he recalled Mrs. Melton’s words when he was with Sarah, he felt troubled—but at the time, he hadn’t fully understood what she meant.

Now, tapping the table with his fingers, Aiden found himself clenching his teeth.

If what he had desperately wanted among all that Viscount Aiden Spencer possessed was Sarah, then Mrs. Melton’s words made sense.

“I wanted her desperately, of course.”

Now, everything fell into place like pieces of a puzzle.

He gripped the document containing Sarah’s personal information tightly in his other hand.

Of all things, this body-switch incident between Leo and Aiden had occurred before Jace could find this document. What a cruel twist of fate. It had taken him even longer to recognize Sarah because of it.

Though the circumstances were unavoidable, he was angrier at himself than anyone.

Even though he had become Aiden’s body, he had failed to recognize the woman he had sought for so long, despite having her so close.

While he had been wandering, Sarah must have suffered.

Or perhaps it was fortunate that he had finally realized—after all, she was alive. That alone was a relief.

Though he hadn’t expected her to be living as someone’s wife.

And that her husband was the infamous, dishonorable Aiden Spencer, who had spent a fortune to claim Sarah.

That Sarah had withered under his shadow, unable to assert her own will.

“……”

When memory-lost Aiden had helped Sarah, who was being scorned by the servants, to her room, he remembered her flinching at his touch.

Not long after, she had burst into tears.

Aiden’s Adam’s apple moved sharply.

Had he realized sooner, he could have saved Sarah from that ridiculous viscount’s house.

Finally reaching the side of the unreachable Sarah, he forced himself to dry his face.

Relief that she was alive mixed with guilt for not protecting her.

“……Thank you.”

When she had been bullied by other children, Sarah had said to young Leo in a trembling voice:

“I’m Ron.”
“Ron… what a pretty name. Thanks to you, Ron.”

A cool breeze blew from somewhere, making Sarah’s dark brown hair flutter.

Seeing her faint smile, Leo felt his heart skip a beat for the first time.

What was this fluttering sensation?

So strange and unfamiliar, Leo couldn’t bring himself to tell her his real name.

Blushing, young Leo cleared his throat awkwardly and plopped down next to Sarah.

From the look in her eyes, he caught a glimpse of an unbreakable strength—something he, raised like a fragile greenhouse flower, lacked.

To be honest, it wasn’t a coincidence that he had saved Sarah.

From the moment he first saw her standing alone in the orphanage yard, his gaze had naturally been drawn to her, as if spellbound.

Perhaps he had recognized her uniqueness at first sight.

“Master, are you leaving today as well?”

From then on, young Leo visited the orphanage daily to see Sarah, unaware of any hardship.

Even the solitary Sarah gradually began to open her heart to him, and they spent longer and longer hours sharing small stories together.

Though the orphanage director’s stern gaze fell upon them each time, Leo didn’t care.

When they had fully shared their daily lives and hearts, Uncle Colin held young Leo and reminded him:

“Ron, no… Leo. Now you must raise the family name.”

Leo could no longer go to the orphanage to see Sarah.

After the sudden deaths of his parents, relatives pressured him to carry on the family legacy.

“But……”

His parents’ deaths had shocked young Leo, and he wanted to share these feelings with Sarah.

“Enough being a child. Your parents are dead. You need to pull yourself together.”

Even playful Uncle Colin had wiped the smile from his face as he confronted Leo.

The weight of the Winston family was enormous for the young boy to bear.

Thus, he couldn’t properly say goodbye, and his time with Sarah became the last.

Though he tried to regard it as a passing memory, Leo’s longing grew day by day.

Whenever the weight of his family pressed down, he recalled Sarah’s words:

“I have no strength. I can’t even protect myself… people like us, without backing, can’t protect anyone.”

Leo had never forgotten her words about needing strength to protect someone.

Those words had been his anchor. Paradoxically, the very thing that allowed him to endure until now was Sarah’s voice.

It was Sarah, powerless and without backing, who had truly protected him.

He wanted to show that he had survived the hardships, raised like a fragile flower in a greenhouse, and endured even the loss of his parents.

He wanted to tell her it was thanks to her.

Thinking of the past, Aiden desperately wanted to see Sarah.

Though he had seen her daily at the viscount’s house recently, he wanted to see the girl he had truly missed.

Even her faint smile aimed at him.

And he wanted to embrace her, telling her she had endured well and apologizing for coming too late.

Whether she remembered him or not…

Aiden’s cheeks flushed like a teenage boy’s as he left the cafeteria.

Finally, he was about to meet the first love he had longed for.

Upon entering the viscount’s house, Aiden had no time to collect himself before running into Sarah at the entrance.

She seemed about to water the flower bed, holding a watering can in her hand.

The previously lethargic Sarah was now moving on her own.

Aiden smiled at the change.

“You’re early today?”

Sarah greeted him, unaware of anything.

Seeing his reflection in her eyes, he realized it was undeniably him—Aiden. He set his jaw.

Even if she sensed the “Leo” inside, could she recognize that he was the “Ron” she had shared her childhood with?

She had only ever called him by his nickname, so there was no way she could know his real name.

Leo had never heard Sarah’s name either; for some reason, she hesitated to tell him.

“This is your wife.”

Even when Aiden first met Sarah in his memory-lost body, she hadn’t seemed strange.

It felt natural for Sarah to be by his side.

Not just because she was his wife.

Even his mother, Olga, felt unfamiliar.

Now he knew the reason she didn’t feel strange—her comforting familiarity came from the memories of the past.

Recalling the days when they had comforted each other, Aiden couldn’t help but embrace her.

It was a different kind of warmth than the previous human embrace.

His longing-filled hug enveloped Sarah, who, unaware of the reason, rested in his arms with a confused expression.

Since the hug was sudden, she might have thought something had happened to him, as before when he buried his face in her shoulder.

He shouldn’t make her worry. Softly, Aiden’s voice reached her ears:

“Sarah.”

“……Yes?”

Sarah blinked, and the bright green of her eyes sparkled in the light.

Aiden’s mouth went dry at her beautiful eyes.

He had never called her name, yet today it lingered on his lips repeatedly.

Having finally learned the name of the one he had so desperately sought, he wanted to say it over and over.

But there was something he needed to say first.

Aiden, who had kept his lips tightly sealed, finally spoke:

“Sarah. There’s something I want to tell you.”

His voice trembled slightly, likely from nervousness.

Sarah, held in his arms, could feel his heart entirely, and her eyelids fluttered.

She could not have anticipated what he was about to say. Aiden recalled a question he had once asked her:

“Have we met before?”

She had clearly shaken her head.

A faint smile appeared on Aiden’s lips.

“I’m sorry I found you so late.”

“What do you mean……?”

Before he knew it, Sarah was looking up at him.

He needed to speak, though he didn’t know how his cherished first love’s memories of him might remain.

After a moment of hesitation, Aiden confessed:

“You said we had never met before. But I remember everything.”

As he spoke, Aiden gently brushed Sarah’s hair back.

“You may not remember……”

Sarah’s soft brown hair flowed gently through his fingers.

His touch carried a tenderness that even Sarah couldn’t resist.