Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 297
Why now, at this moment…?
“You…”
Her lips moved on their own, but she forced herself to regain composure.
“Did you come to see my father, not me? If that’s the case, shall we go inside for now?”
He shook his head.
“I came to see you.”
Looking closely, a line of sweat was trickling down his cheek. He looked like someone being chased, someone who had come on an urgent errand. On closer inspection, he also looked a bit thinner, more gaunt than before.
Why? Was there any reason to be so desperate when coming to see a woman who is always trapped in this place? If he was in such a hurry, he could have come a bit earlier.
‘…You’re crazy.’
While Ceclila was caught off guard and startled by the thoughts slipping out, he stepped into the umbrella’s cover with her.
The umbrella, which had seemed so large, suddenly felt cramped as soon as it held the both of them, close enough that their bodies nearly touched. Cecilia pressed her pounding chest with both fists.
“I appreciate the gesture, but I’m fine. I’ve gotten wet enough already, and my maid went to get an umbrella for me. She’ll be back soon.”
It was an unspoken warning not to cross the line.
Even without her saying it, Logan didn’t approach any closer. It was a bit embarrassing to feel like someone who’d made a fool of themselves for nothing.
Luckily, he didn’t seem to mind. He didn’t move the umbrella away, but as he stood beside her, he widened the gap a little. Now, at least, she felt she could breathe.
From the side, he looked better than before. Maybe he’d managed his expression in the meantime, as he asked in a calm tone,
“Have you been well?”
“I have.”
“I figured. You never even contacted me.”
The half-polite, half-languid tone was just as before.
This man. He holds grudges longer than she’d thought. She didn’t realize it in her previous life…
“You must have been busy.”
“I was. Very…”
“So busy you couldn’t write even a single reply.”
“Yes, so busy I didn’t even have time to open your letters, let alone reply.”
“You didn’t read them?”
“……”
“You read them all then.”
She had thought things would be unbearably awkward after the broken engagement, but surprisingly, in this regard, nothing had changed.
A little of the tension eased. Her eyes wandered, and if she saw Mary, she felt she’d run straight over to her.
But Logan wasn’t such a simple man as to let her get comfortable.
“I’ve always wondered why you’re plotting such schemes.”
“…Did you investigate me?”
“I can’t say I didn’t.”
He smiled. It was the first smile she’d seen since their reunion. The brief smile disappeared just as quickly.
“Even after looking into it, I still couldn’t understand.”
“I’m sure.”
If you only look at this life, there’s no reason for Christian Pierce and herself to be connected.
“Well, at least it’s fortunate you didn’t suffer anything too bad at the hands of my half-brother.”
“Do you dislike damaged goods?”
Her sarcastic jab drew an immediate response.
“If I killed the Young Duke before getting any proof, I’d be executed.”
“……?”
“And if I died, you’d probably end up entangled with that damned man.”
“As if I’d ever with someone like Nigel—!”
“Do you usually call him by name? Does he call you by yours, too?”
“…That was a slip of the tongue.”
“How unfair. Some people get to call you by your name so familiarly even after treating you that way, while others, who haven’t done anything, get nothing but your hatred.”
“I said it was a slip of the tongue…”
“Cecilia.”
“……”
“Ceci.”
“……”
“Would you call me Logan?”
“That would be inappropriate.”
“Even if the person in question wants you to?”
“Yes. Because I don’t want to.”
“I see.”
He let out a small laugh and slightly turned his body toward Cecilia.
“Anyway, once I figured out the situation, I was even more confused. Why do you hate the Pierce Duchy so much?”
“……”
Of course, the current him wouldn’t know.
“I thought maybe you were just being self-absorbed, and wanted to look the other way, but aside from me, there’s no real reason for you to be connected to the Duchy.”
They probably wouldn’t understand the reason for her actions, either.
“So I thought about it a little more. Why you keep your distance from me, and yet still hate the Duchy so much. Maybe I pondered too long, because lately I’ve even been having strange dreams…”
Logan suddenly covered his face. She could see his brow swell and sink as he massaged it.
After rubbing his face, he straightened his expression as he changed the subject.
“…I didn’t know this, but Cecilia, you sent me a love letter, didn’t you?”
“When did I ever…!”
She had. She definitely had.
Before she regressed to this life, sometime in the distant past by her reckoning, she remembered writing such a letter. In real time, it probably hadn’t even been two years.
“Now you’re pretending not to remember.”
