CH 25.2

25. Jealousy and Doubt (2)

So-hee knew her drinking habit well.

She wasn’t unaware of her savage snout, which kept repeating such useless words.

She must have slept during the ‘cut’ scene in this film.

“In the end, I achieved nothing at the party.”

She even saw her face at the end.

As she buried her face under the blankets, she felt an endless sense of guilt for what she had done for the sake for her novel.

After a series of self-criticisms, Joshua opened the door and entered the room in the dim light.

“You’re awake.” He said in a low voice.

So-hee eventually asked what she was curious about.

“Did I make any mistakes?”

“Mistakes?”

“Did I act like a drunkard?”

“Ah.”

His eyes seemed to smile.

“You didn’t make any mistakes.”

“Really? I’m glad.”

Joshua hugged her as he always did, wrapped his jacket around Sohee’s shoulders and helped her out of the room.

“Where are we going, Joshua?”

“I told you I’d play with you tonight.”

What was he planning to do?

She tilted her head to watch the scenery as the time slowly passed them by.

They took their leisure walks for a long time outside the palace.

Almost all of the trees’ branches had run out of leaves as if to mark the beginning of winter.

She observed the dry branches swaying in the breeze before she laid her head on Joshua’s shoulder.

The scent of mint blending well with the night air made her feel calm.

She also smelled water drifting in the wind the more they walked.

Soon, a lake came in front of their eyes and Joshua lead her to enter a house nearby.

So-hee perused its large and neatly organized interior.

“What are we doing here?”

“Well——”

He climbed the stairs in the dark without explaining further and grabbed the door’s handle towards the terrace.

As both of them escaped the phytoncide subtly nesting in the annex, the scent of the lake and the autumn breeze seemed to permeate at the tip of her nose.

“Wow.”

She could only admire the view as she stared at the vast landscape with her mouth open like an idiot.

The water’s surface reflected the full moon surrounded by a group of stars spread out in the cloudless night sky.

When she suddenly felt a piercing gaze, Sohee turned her head to the side.

Joshua’s blood-red eyes were as pretty as the moon’s reflection on the lake.

“Why do you look at me like that?”

“You’re so beautiful, Ariad.” He replied in a deep baritone.

Sohee’s eyes widened in surprise.

Why did her heart flutter when he said she was pretty?

She wasn’t even Ariad in the first place.

“What? Why do you say that?”

“Then what should I do? Should I make a fuss?”

“That’s not what I’m saying.”

She heard a quiet laugh beside her when she avoided his gaze shamefully.

As she stared at the lake again, So-hee suddenly remembered this scene she had written in her novel before.

Joshua and Kelly had kissed for the first time in this location.

It was a scene marking the beginning of their relationship.

She felt brand new as she thought about becoming the true heroine.

The blast of firecrackers broke Sohee out of her reverie while immersed in her useless sentiment.

A variety of colors began to unfold on the black heavens.

To Joshua, the fireworks embroidering the night sky during the yearly festival seemed so familiar that he found them boring.

However, it was strange for So-hee since it was her first time living in this world.

As the fireworks display made Ariad’s eyes sparkle, he suddenly asked her a random question. “When is your birthday, Ariad?”

“Birthday? March— No. That’s not it. You don’t even know my birthday?”

So-hee caught herself before she could reveal her true birthday in the real world without thinking it through.

As this web novel’s author, she was a bit nervous about not remembering a supporting female character’s birthday.

Fortunately, Joshua changed the subject without obsessing over the specific birth date.

“What did you do on your birthday?”

“You held a party in my honor, didn’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

No.

Why was he so persistent in talking about her birthday?

Sohee was embarrassed that she hadn’t chosen a birth date for Ariad since she thought she was going to die, anyway.

However, she had to take control of the conversation now.

“You came to my birthday, didn’t you? You came to congratulate me so why are you asking——”

“Did I really go there? I don’t remember.”

“Of course you did!” She tried to convince him. “You even gave me a present—-”

“What did I give you?”

“Well, I got so many presents back then, I don’t remember anymore. Oh, the weather is nice!”

Why was she so confident that the crown prince had attended his wife’s birthdays?

So-hee lifted her head to stare at the colorful flames in the dark atmosphere.

Joshua smiled a mysterious smile.

The man didn’t dare point out anything strange in their conversation and gently cupped So-hee’s cheek with his big hand.

The loud bursts and whistles of firecrackers rang in her ears when their eyes met.

So-hee felt something strange in the long silence.

Unspeakable tension and indescribable emotions seemed to swirl from the tip of her toes to the top of her head.

Her webnovel was written as this special moment continued.

As Joshua’s face got closer, So-hee shallow breaths moved through the narrow gap.

Their lips touched as the firecrackers rang in Sohee’s head.

Joshua and Ariad were kissing in front of the lake.

This scene marked the beginning of their relationship.