Chapter 8: Chapter 5.2

“Why am I your younger brother? I’m not from the Cilliard family. You’re not from Lecardo either. Yet.”

“I only think of you as my brother—a friend. No matter how much I reconsider the idea, I don’t think I can love you—loving you as a family? It’s possible. Loving you as a friend? It’s possible, but….”

“Stop right there.”

“I’m being reasonable—”

Even though she wasn’t done talking to him, Cassian jumped up from his seat and interrupted Yernia.

Her words were cut off on their own.

As Cassian approached, Yernia glanced up.

She was wondering why Cassian got up and came closer to her.

A question mark popped up above Yena’s head.

His arms came down on each side of Yernia’s body.

A large hand touched the bedsheet, and the mattress slightly went down as it carried their weight.

“Your nonsense ends here.”

Locking Yernia between his arms, Cassian bent his upper body and stared down at her.

He looked into her puzzled green eyes for a while before he sighed and dropped his head.

“I don’t want to stop. I can’t seem to help it.”

When he raised her head to return his gaze at her, the corners of his mouth curled up, and he appeared playful.

Yernia felt anxious because she couldn’t predict what would come out of his mouth.

Then came his words, “You have to sacrifice your body to stop me from being crazy. Don’t you think that would make a difference?”

“What?”

“It’s simple.”

That sounded like bullshit to her.

Still trapped between Cassian’s arms, Yena let out a laugh.

Stretching her arms behind her back, she fumbled over the bed and quickly grabbed the ‘soft-as-cotton’ pillow that her fingertips had touched.

She quickly grabbed the pillow and slapped Cassian’s broad shoulders with it.

“You want me to sacrifice myself? Do you think I am crazy enough to do that?”

How can he be so shameless?

It was the second time the story from the original novel was changed.

Cassian was the only one who knew all about Jena’s long-cherished wishes.

He knew everything about it, but he still had the nerve to say that?

He knew how much she wanted to love him.

Sacrifice?

His selfish words caused bile to rise from Yernia’s stomach.

Puck.

Puck.

Puck.

She continued to hit him with the pillow.

As if he realized that he deserved to be beaten from his statements, Cassian submitted to her pillow beatings like an obedient boy.”Then what are you going to do?”

Exhausted, Yernia hugged the pillow and thought about what he meant by the question.

Cassian looked at her without hitting Yernia’s face back out of retaliation.

“I’m not going to marry you.”

“Do you want me to die if I become out of control?”

“Are you crazy? Don’t say that so recklessly.”

Yena did not want Cassian to become a runaway Esper.

Would it happen if she didn’t marry him?

She thought that she might come up with a solution just from talking to Cassian.

However, there seemed to be no other way.

The person in front of her was in the same boat, but he wasn’t capable of sympathizing at all.

Rather than cooperating, the fever in her body rose sharply the moment Cassian asked her to sacrifice herself.

What do you mean she wanted to go wild?

Such terrible words.

“I wondered if there’s a way for you and me to be happy.”

“There is.”

“You know about it?”

Yernia turned her head, and her green eyes shone with interest.

Cassian raised his brows as he stared at Yernia, who sparkled like a  twinkling star.

“As I said, sacrifice your body. You can do that for me like a family, just as you said.”

And here she was, curious about what secret he would reveal only to disappoint her.

“If I sacrifice, I can never be happy.”

Disappointment spread over Yernia’s face, and she lost her will to fight.

Noticing her countenance, Cassian moved away from her.

Cassian decided to leave the room.

Even if he opened his mouth, he would repeat the same.

“No way. I won’t let you do that.”

“…….”

“I’m going to rest now and organize my thoughts.”

After saying that, Yernia threw her pillow at him, but the door was already closed.

Her pillow fell in the middle, and it didn’t even touch him or the door.

Soon, her room was filled with sighs.

What should she do with her life?

Yernia’s 20 years of life.

The crisis of marrying a childhood friend whom she had never even thought of marrying had come to an end.

Suddenly without notice.

“Yernia, why are your eyes so puffy and red?”

Seria shouted in surprise when she saw Yena coming down the stairs with bloodshot eyes.

“Did you cry? Do I have to marry the peacock himself?”

Yernia rubbed her eyes and exhaled a sigh.

“Do you think I am a kid? I will never cry over that.”

As Seria said, Yena wanted to cry so bad.

Marriage was not a trivial matter to be overlooked.

Marrying her beloved Esper was the most important thing in her life.

Yernia did not cry, even though the discussion seemed to be over. Instead of calling in frustration, she tried to find out the cause of the plot twist in the current compared to the original novel.

Still, she couldn’t find it even if she stayed up all night.

“I just stayed up all night. I couldn’t sleep.”

“Are you up all night? Ivan, Jena stayed up all night!”

“Were you shocked?”

Seria and Ivan made such a massive fuss about her staying up all night.

It wasn’t that surprising because she had been sleeping a lot.

“Just what?”

Yena sat at the table and worked on being evasive every time they asked him about it.

Maybe because she overthought yesterday, her head was empty now.

“Look at those eyes. I guess I cried.”

As she pointed at Yernia, Seria told Ivan, “Look at his swollen eyes.”

Yernia decided to ignore her.

Everyone was anxious because they couldn’t make fun of her as they used to when they saw her.

“Yena, do you hate marriage that much?”

She didn’t know if it was just marriage, but she hated that the other person was Cassian.

Yernia sighed and stretched out her hand, but before she could even pick up her bread, Ivan took Yena’s bread first and spread the jam.

It was familiar.

“There’s only one way not to get married…”