I’m Done With Unrequited Love - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 1
“I’m going to stop now.”
At those words, the man—beautiful as a painting—turned to face me. One eyebrow arched in question.
He was breathtaking even in a moment like this. Beautiful enough that falling in love with him on the spot would have seemed perfectly natural.
Hair like golden thread spun from moonlight, clear emerald eyes holding the depths of the sea. His nose was sharp as a blade, and beneath it, his lips were as red as ripe pomegranate.
By contrast, the disheveled honey-colored hair reflected in those clear eyes looked pathetically dull. And my hazy brown gaze—how ordinary it was.
Yes, I loved him.
Though it was nothing but an unrequited infatuation.
Three years of love—long if you counted it one way, brief if you counted it another. But now all of it had become useless.
“I’m asking you to stop. To leave me alone.”
The man’s untroubled eyes blinked once.
I’d witnessed that blank response for so long that I’d grown sick of it.
I didn’t feel particularly pitiful anymore. What came first was more of a ‘Well, what did I expect?’ feeling.
After all, if he showed any different attitude now, that would be strange.
The man seated before me finally offered something resembling a reaction. He tilted his head.
“This isn’t some new scheme to capture my attention, is it?”
Ha.
A breathless laugh escaped my lips. I was so utterly exasperated that words didn’t come immediately.
Typical of a man who’d spent over a year refusing to believe I could ever love him.
Words he’d spoken to me long ago came flooding back.
“Someone like you yearning for me?”
I answer him.
“No way.”
Right. There’s no way.
No way I could still love you.
I’d decided as much.
“I’m going back to my family’s territory. I won’t return to the Capital for the rest of my life.”
The man studied me intently at the word ‘rest’—as if testing me.
“Until you die?”
“Yes. Until I die. I won’t come back to the Capital to see you again.”
Nor will I set foot anywhere you might go.
There was nothing particularly grand about my reason for ending this unrequited love. I was simply tired of it now, and I felt a little sorry toward someone who’d endured watching me make a fool of myself.
And in the next moment, his reaction left me stunned once again.
He smiled faintly and raised his teacup to his lips.
“That’s a good idea.”
……
Ugh, how infuriating.
* * *
I was reincarnated.
There was no particular moment that made me realize it. As I was born and grew up, I came to understand naturally that I had been reincarnated.
Earth, Korean, fresh graduate, biology….
My past life seems to have been rather grim, but the emotions from then had been erased, so I felt little sentiment about it. What remained was only memory.
The person I was reincarnated as was the adoptive mother of the villainess in a web novel.
Fidellia Jonarus.
An eccentric scholar of the Jonarus Marquessate.
And a character from the protagonist’s previous generation.
In the original story, Fidellia and her husband had no biological children, so they adopted Kiara, the villainess.
‘And because they neglected her so much, the girl grew up twisted.’
Like every villainess in the story, Kiara’s fate was not a happy one.
However, her adoptive parents, who had not directly committed any misdeeds, were an exception.
In short, my current future held no route to ruin.
I was still young—not even truly an adult yet. The original story’s starting point was still far away.
Weighing all of this, I reached one conclusion.
The original story wasn’t my concern.
Whether I got tangled up in it or not didn’t matter.
And so.
‘I’m just going to live my own life.’
Past twenty-one, I’d forgotten all about the original story and lived however I pleased.
According to the original, I should have married Kiara’s adoptive father as soon as I came of age, but I flatly refused that too. With the full support of my parents, the Marquess and Marquessa Jonarus, I devoted myself entirely to my studies.
I didn’t even bother with the basic skincare regimen expected of a noblewoman.
Since beginning my master’s degree at Romen University, my hair had always been disheveled.
The turning point in that haphazard scholar’s life came at a hotel banquet my parents dragged me to.
“Miss, who is that gentleman? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before.”
In the grand Hotel Hall, which resembled Rococo design, a man several inches taller than anyone else stood out unmistakably.
At first, I thought he was simply rather handsome.
‘Rather’ handsome hardly captured it — he possessed features that conformed perfectly to every standard of beauty.
“Goodness, Lady Fidellia! You truly don’t know him? How removed from the world are you?”
“I’ve been busy lately. I haven’t even had time to read the weekly gazette.”
A certain noblewoman, regarding me with pitying eyes, made it perfectly clear.
“Duke Ernan Cleor, Your Grace.”
Ernan Cleor.
The moment I learned his name, any aesthetic appreciation I’d felt evaporated entirely.
He was mentioned in the original story as the heroine’s benefactor.
Mentioned only — he never actually appeared, because in the timeline of the source material, he was already dead.
The cause of death was a rare disease.
A character who died young in the novel was standing before me, alive and breathing.
Once I knew, I couldn’t stop looking at him.
And it was no surprise that repeated glances transformed into affection, nor that affection bloomed into love.
After that, Ernan and I encountered each other frequently. Not by luck — I followed him about, though I wasn’t conscious of it at the time. When I came to my senses, there I was doing it.
Because these encounters were so frequent, it became common knowledge in society that I harbored feelings for him.
Ernan called me aside and issued a warning.
“You’ve been following me around lately. If you have some scheme in mind, I suggest you reveal it promptly.”
“Ah… if I’ve made you uncomfortable, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Then what?”
“I simply like you.”
Of course, the suspicious Ernan did not believe me.
Ernan could pierce through others with those transparent, luminous eyes. His lips, faintly flushed, drew blood from the heart.
“Someone like you loves me? Do you really think I’d believe that?”
Recalling that moment, I frowned and slammed a coin down on the desk.
‘Someone like me? What does that even mean?’
The ticket clerk flinched and stared at me. Coming to my senses, I apologized to the worker and purchased a Train Ticket.
[Departing now]
Just before heading to the platform, I didn’t forget to send word ahead to my aide, who’d already left.
I fully intended to return to my family’s territory, just as I’d promised Ernan.
After that “someone like you” remark, my efforts only intensified. Despite his consistent cold responses, my heart didn’t easily surrender.
I wrote letters, sent gifts, poured effort into countless gestures. If he knew my feelings, what more was there to hesitate about?
And I took such pains not to burden him with it all.
“I’ll believe you.”
“…Well, I appreciate that.”
It took a full year before Ernan finally accepted that I loved him.
After a year and a half, he’d given up entirely on formality.
“But Your Grace, when did you start using casual speech with me?”
“It’s been about a year and a half now. Why, is there a problem?”
“Yes, there is.”
“How cheeky.”
“The Class System should be abolished.”
Eventually we’d reached the point of exchanging banter like that, yet I harbored no real hope.
Three years passed like that.
Ernan simply had no interest in me.
Or if he did, it wasn’t romantic love.
Perhaps he would never know: that his efforts had been instrumental in transforming the unkempt Fidellia Jonarus into someone presentable.
‘Well, it worked out. At least I won’t bother writing him letters anymore. No need to cut back on research funds to buy him gifts.’
Over those three years, I completed both my master’s and doctoral degrees at Romen University, the empire’s sole institution of higher learning. With early admission and early graduation, I managed to reach that milestone at a young age.
The Jonarus Territory, where my parents lived, was situated in the southern reaches known as the empire’s breadbasket. The gentle weather year-round and quiet atmosphere made it perfect for focused research.
‘It was pleasant being together… no, that’s not right.’
We’d never truly been together, and nothing about it was pleasant — but regardless, I wouldn’t see him again.
My exhaled breath froze white in the cold air.
The weather was bitter. The vagrants on the streets couldn’t endure it and were searching for shelter.
I found myself thinking of the orphan characters from the original story.
‘That’s right — there was that child.’
The villainess of the original story, Kiara.
By now, she must be past ten years old.
Is she wandering the cold slums somewhere even now?
‘If I had gotten married and become her adoptive mother…’
Kiara had lost a guaranteed place to call home. What would become of her now?
Even in the throes of love, I had continued searching for Kiara—still innocent, not yet the villainess.
Guilt, I suppose, drove me on.
No law bound me to her fate, and yet I could not shake the thought that I had stolen a warm home from a child.
But I had not found her. Whether it was the original story’s rigid chain of events preventing our meeting, I could not say.
I sighed once more and turned my gaze toward the station interior.
And I saw her.
A girl.
Huddled beneath a bench,
her hair the color of fresh blood,
appearing not quite ten years old,
with golden eyes.
‘Kiara?’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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