Chapter 2

 Are… you running away now?

He seemed surprised at the fact that I recognised him.

“Do you know me?”

He smiled and quickly recomposed himself.

“Yes, that’s right. I’m Zionne.”

He was Zionne. In the 5 years since I had become ‘Erika’, this was my first time meeting another lead role, excluding Leo.

Zionne smiled more intensely at me, who recognized him.

His smile was nothing extraordinary. Just the corners of his mouth curling up like a crescent moon.

Even so, it was incredibly enchanting.

My heart pounded for a moment.

If I didn’t know that Zionne would fall for the heroine, I would’ve already begged him for his affection.

“….Zionne? You came to the city?”

Michael, whose arm was still caught, confirmed Zionne’s identity with a twisted face.

Zionne nodded calmly.

Michael, who had been floundering, roughly shook off the arm held by Zionne and turned away gently.

The hot-tempered man had decided to exit quietly.

Michael seemed to have recognised Zionne, who appeared like a knight in shining armour. If even he retreated from Zionne, then I was no match for him.

And Michael wasn’t the kind of person who would admit defeat easily.

Zionne did not leave my side until Michael had completely disappeared.

It seemed like Michael was prepared to come back once he left. As expected of Mr Playboy Matapju, he knew how to treat a woman. His manners truly deserved some applause.

I glanced at Zionne. His appearance exactly matched what the novel described.

Zionne, who became a womanizer at an early age, was often described as a ‘fairy-like flirt’.

He was like a mysterious woodland fairy whose name no one knew.

Perhaps that’s why I thought, “If I touch his fair cheek, he will turn to smoke and vanish.”

Zionne used to be described as a wizard of extraordinary ability. Such power, that even Michael ran at the sound of his name.

Of course, the rumours that circulated about him helped.

Although I stared at him, Zionne didn’t seem perturbed by it. The smile he wore didn’t falter in the least.

I expressed my gratitude belatedly.

“Thanks for your help.”

Nodding lightly, he asked me.

“Were you breaking up with him?”

I answered without reserve.

“Yes. We were.”

“Why do you speak so informally to me? Isn’t this our first meeting?”

“That is so, but you were informal towards me first. If you hadn’t spoken in such a manner, I wouldn’t have followed suit.”

Zionne was a playboy, but there was no reason to honour him.

I wasn’t a member of the Matap, and I didn’t have any deep relationship with him.

There was little contact between Erica and Zionne in the original story.

I believed that it would be the same even though I had replaced Erica.

In response, Zionne chuckled pleasantly, as if I had amused him, and pointed his finger elsewhere.

“Would you like to go inside and get a drink? I’m quite parched from walking all the way here.”

The place Zionne pointed to was the banquet hall where I was with Michael a little while ago. I nodded.

“Okay.”

I accepted impulsively.

As we entered the hall, silence spread amongst the terrified guests.

Of course, the reason for this was none other than the man who stood beside me.

He wore a comfortable shirt, a jacket over his shoulders, and black pattern-less pants, but he stood out more than any of the people dressed in their finest clothes in the banquet hall.

It was most likely thanks to his fine silver hair and beautiful golden eyes. As expected, a handsome face was the most important.

Everyone glanced at Zionne and started to murmur, but he paid no mind to the attention he was receiving.

He just picked up two glasses of wine on the table.

“Let’s go to the balcony.”

He led me to a corner balcony. I followed him silently.

Zionne went in first and left the balcony door open, waiting for me outside.

Closing the door of the balcony he left open, I looked at Zionne leaning against the railing.

He stood precariously as if he was about to fall over the railing.

The hot summer breeze gently scattered Zion’s silver hair.

Eyelids slightly closed, eyelashes catching the light ever so often.

The gentle smile playing on his lips was also eye-catching. Handsome faces were the best.

I almost jumped, startled as I walked closer to him.

The sound of something breaking was small, but there.

I looked down, and under my feet were fragments of broken glass bottles.

Between the pieces of broken glass, a mysterious blue-coloured liquid resembling the sea leaked out and spread across the floor.

What’s this?

Who dropped it?

Zionne questioned why I stopped walking.

“What’s the matter, beautiful?”

He called out to me again.

I replied thoughtlessly. I didn’t need his help.

“It’s nothing.”

It’s not a big deal to break a small glass.

Breaking a bit of glass wasn’t that big of a deal. Moving past it quickly, I walked over to the railing and accepted the glass of wine he offered.

“Zionne, why were you near the banquet hall? Shouldn’t you be in the tower?”

Zionne uttered a sigh of ‘Ah!’ to my question. He seemed to recall his original purpose belatedly.

Happily, he answered, “When I heard that the woman who dumped my friend was coming to this banquet, I thought I should find her. Then I found you in trouble.”

“The woman who dumped your friend?”

“Yes. Do you want to hear the story?”

I nodded enthusiastically.

Then I recalled who was Zionne’s best friend in the novel.

Don’t tell me it was him. It couldn’t be… right?

“It was three years ago. My friend, who had never drank a sip of wine, had come to me after drinking God knows how much Ap Saint. You know Ap Saint right? A very strong liquor.”

“Yes.”

“That drunkard shouted “Zionne! Zionne!” in front of the tower. He lost a lot of weight. Why? Because he was excited? No, because he was scared. A few days ago, I cut off a piece of pottery from their house. I was so scared to come back and get punished for it.

“Scared?”

Zionne poured all the wine into his mouth and said,

“When I came out, my friend was crying. I couldn’t believe it. Even when he pricked himself with a needle and started bleeding, he didn’t make a sound. That’s when I realised. It must be a girl problem.”

I laughed breathlessly at his words.

That’s right. Zionne in the novel was like this.

If he didn’t open his mouth, he looked like a noble master who had never dirtied his hands. But when he opened his mouth, that image would come crashing down. His speech ensured that.

Such a gap between expectation and reality was also part of his charm.

When ‘Yuliana’ had been serialized, everyone loved him so much that the readers would go wild whenever he appeared.

Some so many readers cried watching Zionne chase the heroine to no avail. I was one of them.

While I was thinking that, Zion’s words continued.

“So I grabbed my friend by his shoulders and asked, ‘Hey, what’s the problem? I’ll listen to everything you have to say and we’ll solve it together. If it’s a girl problem, well you came to the right place.’ So guess what he said while I wiped his tears?”

“What?”

“‘Zione, I got dumped.’ So I answered back, ‘Wait. You had a girlfriend?’ He almost hit me when I said that.”

“Puhaha.”

I couldn’t help laughing out loud, while Zionne just smiled at me.

Even then, I couldn’t help thinking his smile was very beautiful.

“But seriously. He doesn’t have any facial expressions. At first, I thought he had no emotions. But, now he’s saying he met a girl and even got dumped. Even if he doesn’t move a muscle, I know women would still like him because he’s big. Like big, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I almost got hit again!”

I giggled constantly.

My grin, which seemed like it wouldn’t leave my face, started to slip at his next words.

“I heard about his girlfriend and she’s quite good. She suddenly said one day that she wanted to break up with him. I heard she wanted to end it before he fell even harder, but what does that even mean? She’s just plain to mean.”

“……”

“So I said, “Hey, forget about that pretty girl. She’s not the only girl in this world. There are tons of women prettier than her. If you want, I’ll even introduce you to someone.’ I kept comforting him like this, but he still cried for a long time.”

Ah…..

This sounded familiar.

Soon my laughter was completely gone, replaced by gnawing my lips

“He cried so hard, and he didn’t even get her. What the hell was he thinking?”

Tsk. Zionne clicked his tongue.

“Hey beautiful, you know my friend’s name?”

Zionne’s golden eyes continued to stare at me.

I laughed awkwardly, instinctively taking a step backwards.

Then I recalled the fact that I had no idea.

Zionne’s best friend in ‘Yuliana’ was Leo. And three years ago, the one who asked Leo to break up was me.

Back then, I broke up with him so that my feelings didn’t have the chance to develop into something more.

Because the one Leo will truly love was Yuliana, the female lead.

Of course, there had still been some time before Leo would have met Yuliana.

But I had thought that by the time he did, I would be too fond of him. So I cut him off.

I was afraid that I would cling to him like Erica, the villainess of the novel.

Leo’s ultimate choice would always be Yuliana.

I started Leo’s name, in the hope that I was wrong.

“ Your friend…he’s most likely Grand Duke Leonardo, is it not?”

Zionne’s pretty lips formed the shape of an ‘o’, showing his surprise.

“Oh! How did you know?”

Damn it.

It was really about Leo and me.

I answered awkwardly.

“I had a feeling. Haha.”

“Then can you guess that evil woman’s name?”

“By any chance…. Erica Kernels?”

“Wow! Your instincts are something!”

“……”

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat, but my mouth had become dry.

I don’t know why he came looking for me three years after our breakup.

But, somehow I had a bad feeling about it.

At this point, there weren’t many options. I could either

1. Runaway.

or

2. Admit that I’m an awful person.

I smiled as kindly as I could and waved at Zionne. “Well Zionne, I’m leaving first. I just remembered there was something I have to do. Thanks for your help. If we meet again, I’ll treat you to something.”

My choice was number one. For now, we’ll run.

“But I wasn’t finished with my story.”

Zionne tilted his head slightly.

“Do you have more to say?”

“What? Run? Why would I?”

I pretended to be unbothered while inching further away from him.

Then, Zionne’s pretty lips moved, allowing the following dreaded words to be uttered.

“Because you’re Erica Kernels.”

“….!”

He smiled, utterly convinced of my identity.

As I kept looking at his smile, a chill started creeping up my spine. Although it was beautiful, it seemed threatening.

I stood there stiffly, mouth half-open.

I must have looked stupid, but that was the least of my concerns.

Zionne gently grabbed my wrists, keeping me in place and said,

“Don’t even think about running away. I knew you were Erica from the start.”

….Zionne, you little bastard.

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