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Chapter 36
“Ah, Senior Liam.”
Lucas greeted the sudden intruder politely.
He spoke casually to Noa and Aiden, but he didn’t dare use casual speech with Crown Prince Liam.
Although Liam wanted to be treated like any other senior, Lucas couldn’t completely ignore his royal status.
Liam had entered the clubroom before Lucas and opened the door.
Inside, Emma was there, tidying the clubroom by herself.
“Hello, Lucas. Liam.”
“Why are you here first?”
“Lucas said he wanted to meet early to talk.”
At Emma’s words, Lucas reflexively hid the bouquet behind his back.
“Lucas?”
Sensing something unusual, Liam looked Lucas over again.
“You look different than usual.”
“D-different? No, I’m not.”
“You’ve combed your bangs neatly and your uniform looks freshly pressed.”
Liam’s perceptiveness was uncanny.
Lucas, embarrassed, didn’t know where to put his face.
Not even seeing it, he knew his face must be red.
After studying Lucas and the hidden bouquet for a moment, Liam seemed to realize something and began to move.
“Oh, now that I think about it, I have something to take care of. I’ll leave for now.”
“Huh? Didn’t you just come in?”
Emma asked innocently.
“It’s a sudden errand. I’ll go now.”
“Don’t go!”
Seeing Liam hurriedly trying to leave, Lucas grabbed him.
“I know you have things to do, but it’s okay. Just don’t leave. I’ll go out instead.”
“No, I really have something to take care of.”
Ignoring Liam, Lucas swung open the clubroom door and left.
“What’s going on?”
Emma blinked in confusion, and Liam sighed deeply, regretting his foolish mistake.
From the clubroom window, Aiden and I watched everything, exchanging hopeless glances.
We were doomed.
We had overlooked the fact that Liam often ignored the end-of-day schedule and entered the clubroom early.
We had barely encouraged Lucas to summon the courage to have time alone with Emma, only for Liam to destroy it in an instant.
No wonder Lucas had panicked and bolted from the clubroom.
“I’ll go to Lucas first.”
“Take care of him, Senior.”
Aiden immediately ran toward Lucas, who must have been deeply shaken.
I glared at Liam through the window, preparing to confront him.
I opened the clubroom door to vent my frustration.
For some reason, Liam looked completely flustered.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Kongkong. But why are you glaring at me?”
Taken aback by my bluntly cold tone, Liam looked puzzled.
“I’m just sensitive. Some pesky fly just ruined my happy time.”
“Don’t sleep in class, I told you.”
“Sleeping in class isn’t the only thing that makes me happy.”
Emma paused her tidying and turned to look at me.
“You still sleep in class, Olivia?”
“No, Senior.”
I hurriedly denied it. If she found me slacking off in class, she’d launch into a long lecture.
I didn’t want to say anything unnecessary.
Liam seemed particularly irritating today.
“Seems like Kongkong’s mood is unusually strong today.”
“Lucas seemed strange too. Did something happen with the first-years?”
“Ah, that’s…”
Liam couldn’t finish answering my sister’s innocent question, clearly embarrassed.
Judging by his expression, he must have realized what Lucas was trying to do.
He understood that he had inadvertently become the intruder.
Even my normally oblivious sister seemed slightly resentful.
She hadn’t noticed that Lucas had called him aside for a private conversation.
And yet Liam had noticed immediately.
“Both of you lose points today.”
“For what?”
“For what I just said.”
They both asked at the same time, but I just turned away and sank deep into the clubroom sofa.
A single miscalculation had caused a painful result.
I could only hope that Lucas wouldn’t get too hurt.
Thump.
Lucas tossed the bouquet he had been holding straight into the trash.
He ran his hand through his bangs again, messing them up.
Though he looked a mess, his heart felt even worse.
“Lucas, are you okay?”
Aiden appeared from somewhere.
Even though he was a rival, he had wholeheartedly helped Lucas.
Thanks to his advice, Lucas had finally mustered the courage to call Emma out. But just having Liam in the same space made that courage shrink away, and he ran.
It was utterly pathetic.
“Sorry, it didn’t go well like you said.”
“Why are you apologizing to me?”
Aiden sighed, looking at the discarded bouquet.
Lucas also glanced at the thrown-away flowers.
“I don’t think I can confess.”
“Why? Liam just appeared unexpectedly. The situation was bad, but that’s all.”
Aiden unintentionally revealed that he had been secretly watching, but Lucas didn’t have the energy to care.
“Even that alone made me embarrassed about confessing. I don’t think… I’m ready to confess yet.”
“Lucas.”
As Aiden tried to console him, Lucas stretched out a hand to stop him.
“You don’t need comforting words. Just realizing my feelings for Emma is enough. I don’t want our relationship to develop any further.”
“Are you really going to end it like this?”
“Think about it. I’ll have to see Emma in the future. If I confess and get rejected, it’ll be awkward, and I won’t be able to see her comfortably again. Emma would be uncomfortable too. So I prefer it this way.”
In the end, Aiden’s attempts to push Lucas forward failed.
If Olivia heard this, she would be terribly disappointed.
Aiden felt guilty for making Lucas’s situation worse despite his efforts.
“I’ll help you.”
“You’ve already helped enough. Focus on your own matters. I haven’t confessed yet, but you already did. If you get rejected, things might get worse with Emma.”
Even amidst everything, Lucas worried about Aiden.
Aiden couldn’t bring himself to tell Lucas that his advice was actually a ruse to force a confession.
He even felt a twinge of guilt for teasing Lucas for fun.
Of course, once Aiden understood Lucas’s true feelings, he genuinely supported him.
But if he had considered Lucas’s feelings more carefully—his timing and method—things might have turned out differently.
“Sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing? Just worry about yourself.”
Lucas smiled faintly as if it was nothing.
Aiden ruffled the head of the surprisingly mature junior and laughed.
“If I get rejected, comfort me too.”
“We’ll see.”
“This…”
Even in Aiden’s teasing, Lucas couldn’t help but smile faintly.
It seemed clear that this plan had failed, and Olivia would need to be informed.
“So, that’s how it ended.”
“Sorry I couldn’t help.”
For the first time, usually confident Aiden looked genuinely troubled.
“You don’t need to apologize. It’s just that my sister misunderstood you.”
“Hm, I resolved it as if it never happened.”
“How?”
“Because she cares for you, she said it’s fine to remain just senior-junior.”
“And my sister?”
“She didn’t want it to be awkward, so she agreed immediately.”
“That’s a relief.”
We both exhaled and glanced over the backyard.
We were behind the 3rd-year building, talking.
“Finding a candidate for brother-in-law isn’t easy.”
“Why are you so determined to pair my sister with Lucas?”
“Because I want her to be happy.”
If things went by the rules of a romance manga, she would meet the male lead and have the happiest ending.
If she was too clueless to make it happen, I felt it was my duty to help.
If I couldn’t be the magical helper like in Cinderella, I’d at least become the pumpkin that turns into a carriage.
“Happy? Is that really Emma’s happiness?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Do you think Emma truly wants to find a husband the way you want her to?”
“…But she’s the heroine. Isn’t it natural she ends up with the male lead?”
Until now, I thought that way, but Aiden’s words hit me hard.
Thinking further, the male leads didn’t seem to play a large part in her current life.
So would she even want to be tied to them?
“But my dream is for my sister to meet someone good and be happy, and for me to benefit a little from that…”
“Perhaps you’re imposing your dream on Emma, just like I forced Lucas to confess.”
“On my sister?”
“Yes. After what happened with Lucas, I realized that no one should interfere with someone else’s feelings or matters.”
Aiden seemed to have reflected a lot on this incident.
His words made me reflect on myself too.
I thought it was natural to meddle, thinking about my sister’s future and Lucas’s feelings.
But what if our interference only causes trouble?
What if it was unnecessary meddling?
