CH 33

“I don’t give a shit what they think. The most important thing to me right now is what you did.”

“What did I do? You’ve been grabbing people and saying weird things. What the hell did I do?”

“What the hell! You created this situation! I saw you and the organizers hanging out in the garden!”

Bianca’s eyebrows wiggled.

“You think I don’t know that you hid the crystal ball in the bushes instead of setting up the fireworks?”

“That’s all it took to get this division to…….”

“Barely that, then why haven’t the fireworks started yet, you told people they would, in fact, don’t you think the fireworks are a lie and you created this whole mess to embarrass Lucia?”

Arista shouted in exasperation, her words echoing around the room.

“Speaking of which… the sky is quiet.”

“I know. I was sure there was a fireworks display, but Lucia’s voice suddenly came out.”

One by one, the people who had remained silent began to voice their doubts.

Bianca pursed her lips as she saw the tide of public opinion begin to turn.

“Ha, why do you blame me for Lucia’s spontaneous confession to Herwin? When did I tell her to confess in front of everyone? Why are you catching a blind man?”

“Are you trying to tell me that……!”

“Technically, it wasn’t a public confession.”

Arista’s tirade was interrupted by a voice.

Turning her head, she saw that Herwin had entered the room.

As soon as they saw him, they naturally stepped back and made way for him.

Everyone looked at him curiously, but no one approached him.

A faint red aura could be seen rising around Herwin’s arm.

“Herwin, listen! Bianca is trying to get you and Lucia into trouble……!”

“Herwin, you don’t believe her, do you?”

Taking advantage of Arista’s weakened grip, Bianca shook her off. Bianca hurried over to Herwin.

Herwin looked down at her with a cold stare.

Bianca swallowed hard as she felt pressure on her shoulders.

“It doesn’t make sense that I would put you and Lucia in trouble. I’m your friend, right?”

“……….”

“Still, Herwin, it’s a little embarrassing. I can’t believe Lucia had a crush on you, all of a sudden confessing it in public. I was surprised, too. Aren’t you, too? If she’s going to confess, she should do it away from the public…….”

“You talk a lot, Bianca Lawrence.”

“……?”

At the sound of her name coming out of his mouth, Bianca’s mouth dropped open in embarrassment.

“Have you been pranking Lucia with that long tongue all this time?”

“What do you mean, prank…….?”

Bianca shrank back, her eyes trembling.

“Don’t tell me, you didn’t think I didn’t know? You were the one who suggested, out of the blue, that we’ll have my birthday party at the mansion, and you were the one who led me to the garden.”

“Suggestion! I was just passing along the word because the people already had the mansion, and you wanted to go somewhere without people……!”

“But there were plenty of places to go without people, not just that garden, and besides, Lucia was waiting for me in the garden, as if she’d been set up.”

“Lucia must have been avoiding people just like you!”

Bianca’s urgency made Herwin giggle.

“She insists on going to class even though she’s sick, and you think she’s going to go into a place with a sign that says no trespassing?”

As Herwin said, Lucia was not the right person to enter the place where the off-limits sign was written. There was no way the frustratingly disciplined girl would do such a thing.

When Bianca was caught off guard, Herwin held up what he was holding in his left hand.

“And this.”

[And, this.]

“It’s hidden in the gazebo.”

[It’s hidden in the gazebo.]

Herwin’s voice echoed in the hall as it had when Lucia had confessed.

There was a sharp intake of breath as they realized his voice had traveled through that crystal ball.

“If what Arista said is true…then I can only assume that you set this whole thing up.”

Despite his calm voice, Herwin’s left hand trembled, clutching the crystal ball tightly.

Grasp-!

The crystal ball cracked and shattered under the force of Herwin.

The red aura emanating from his left hand and the shards of crystal flying in all directions caused the others to step back.

“If you thought I was going to let this go, you’re wrong.”

Bianca’s face paled as the flesh tightened around her throat.

Herwin shot a murderous look around her.

“And it’s not just you, Bianca, because I remember every single one of you who is smart enough to mock me and Lucia…….”

Immediately after the outburst, the people who had been talking out of turn swallowed hard.

“Brace yourselves.”

A suffocatingly heavy silence enveloped the entire hall. Not a single breath could be heard, even amid so many people.

Herwin glared at his surroundings, then spoke.

“Arista, Christine.”

“Ugh, huh?”

“Go check on Lucia.”

Herwin’s cold voice softened somewhat.

“She’s probably crying by now.”

Arista stared at Herwin for a moment, then noticed a trickle of blood coming from his left hand through the red aura.

She knew she had to heal his left hand, but she couldn’t ignore the look in his eyes that begged her to do it.

“Yeah, leave it to me.”

“Oh, okay!”

Arista exclaimed, glancing over at Herwin. Christine glanced at Bianca, who froze with a confused expression, but eventually followed Arista.

* * *

“Oh, my. Lucia, you idiot……!”

Lucia sobbed under her breath as she fled to a dirty warehouse off the beaten path.

Her carefully applied makeup was a mess of tears.

Lucia couldn’t stop crying.

At first, she panicked at the suddenness of the situation. But before she knew what was going on, she realized that it was all planned by the one person who made eye contact with her.

She was smiling to herself.

As if she had been waiting for this to happen.

She was devastated that her best friend, the one she considered her best friend, had planned all of this.

She hated herself for taking her word for it, for never questioning her support for her.

She could somehow live with the fact that Bianca was not her friend and that she had betrayed her.

But knowing that Herwin was in trouble because of her was almost too much to bear.

She shouldn’t be doing this right now, she should be going back and finishing what she’d done with her own hands, but her body wouldn’t cooperate.

Lucia bit her lower lip and slapped her unmoving leg.

“Move! I’m telling you to move, why won’t you listen to me!”

A muffled scream rang out that no one could hear. Lucia buried her face between her knees as her vision blurred again.

“Lucia!”

Just then, she heard a familiar voice. She looked up and saw two silhouettes through her blurry vision.

“Lucia, are you okay?”

“Why are you here alone?”

“Christine, Arista…….”

They’d never seen Lucia so broken, her smile is always so bright that it made everyone around her feel happy.

They both bit their lower lips hard as they saw the deep despair on her face.

Christine wordlessly wrapped her arms around Lucia’s shoulders, struggling to hold back the emotions that were rising.

Arista knelt on one knee in front of Lucia, brushing her white, tear-stained cheek.

“It’s okay, Lucia, we’re here for you.”

Lucia’s breath caught in her throat. One look at Arista and she suddenly remembered how she’d fallen for Bianca’s tricks and tried to undermine her, to embarrass her.

“I’m sorry…….”

Another tear fell from Lucia’s eye.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…….”

Christine and Arista hugged Lucia tightly.

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about, so don’t apologize.”

“Lucia, don’t cry…….”

“I’m sorry… Hmph…..!”

Repeating her apology, Lucia burst into tears and sobbed, clinging to Arista’s neck.

Before her sobs could echo, a loud firecracker sounded and the sky flashed with beautiful sparks.

What was she crying about?

For having her heart mocked by so many people? For the sense of betrayal, she feels toward Bianca? For the guilt, she feels toward Arista? If not that, for the trouble she’d caused Herwin?

Lucia didn’t know what she was crying about, even to herself.

* * *

Herwin’s birthday party, which everyone had been looking forward to, ended badly.

Herwin’s coldly threatening taunts were well-taken, but there was no stopping the news of what had happened from spreading throughout the school.

Although it turns out that the whole thing was a conspiracy on the part of Bianca and the party organizers, people pay more attention to the fact that Lucia has had a crush on Herwin for a long time.

Whenever they saw Lucia, they murmured amongst themselves, and whenever she was with Herwin, the murmuring became even louder.

But Herwin didn’t seem to mind, and on the Monday after the party, he greeted her as usual and acted no differently than before.

The same was true of their other friends, who, out of respect for Lucia, didn’t mention what had happened.

They just pretended not to know and acted as usual.

While she was grateful for their consideration, Lucia felt uneasy.

She kept wondering if she should continue to pretend that nothing had happened, and she was so anxious that she couldn’t sleep.

One day, Lucia overheard Herwin’s conversation with the other students.

“Is it true that Agnes has been in love with you since she was eight years old?”

“By the sounds of it, she’s confessed to you quite a few times.”

“Honestly, if she’s liked you that long, shouldn’t you have accepted her by now?”

“That’s right, Agnes, she’s fine as a girlfriend. Herwin, you should think about it.”

They talked about what had happened at the birthday party. When the mood shifted to the idea that Lucia should be accepted, Herwin, who was frowning, finally spoke up.

“It’s not your heart, it’s mine.”

“No, the period of unrequited love is long. In addition, I heard she confessed several times.”

“So what you’re saying is that since Lucia has had a crush on me for a long time and has confessed to me several times, I should ‘accept’ it. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“What… why are you so angry?”

The boys shrank back as the situation took a strange turn.

“If I accept Lucia’s confession because I can’t resist you guys, wouldn’t that be cheating, because I’d be going out with her without my heart in it?”

“No, when you put it that way…….”

“Don’t say anything you can’t take responsibility for. She’s not yours to talk about, and if you try to make fun of her in front of me again, I’m not going to let you. I won’t leave you alone.”

Lucia burst into tears when she heard Herwin’s words.

She wasn’t crying because he still hadn’t accepted her.

It was the opposite.

He was seeing her more clearly than anyone else.