Liar and Liar - Chapter 54

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 54

Even when she tried to lift her head, her gaze sank back down to Frederick’s solar plexus.

She struggled to open her mouth to answer, but it closed again in the end. Her trembling fingertips weakly scratched at Frederick’s t-shirt.

No matter how hard she tried to hide it, it wouldn’t be concealed. Danielle barely managed to answer while suppressing her trembling.

“Why…?”

Even when she tried to keep her tone calm and low, her voice cracked like a poorly tuned instrument.

“Why are you being so serious—”

The more she continued speaking, the more her voice trembled helplessly. Frederick said nothing.

Her shoulders shook, and her breathing came in intermittent gasps. Even Danielle’s hand touching his chest was surprisingly cold to Frederick.

“…”

Danielle tried her best to lower her head to hide her expression, but Frederick’s gaze persistently stared at her face.

Had she always held back tears like this? In such a ridiculously pitiful and sorrowful way?

“…Don’t you want to tell me?”

Danielle was clearly completely dependent on Frederick’s hands and upper body. Since both his hands and body were endlessly warm, it was such desperately needed warmth for Danielle. She wanted to stay like this. Just like this.

With that single sense of purpose, Danielle struggled to speak. She tried to recall a normal voice and tone, even attempting to force a smile on her lips. It’s nothing serious. Just—

“I just… never thought… a day like this would come for me…”

So…

Against her will, Danielle couldn’t speak properly at all. Knowing this herself, she hurriedly tried to add more words.

“I’m just a little surprised… a little happy…”

Danielle pressed down with all her might against the surge of tears welling up.

Had the past five years been that difficult? Enough to collapse so easily like this?

‘Even so, collapsing like this… isn’t right.’

Danielle buried her head in Frederick’s chest. The more she tried to hold back tears, the more fiercely the waves crashed over her.

“I’m fine. Really…”

She bit her lower lip hard. But when a hand gently cupped the back of her head, all of Danielle’s masks shattered completely.

“You’ve had a hard time enduring alone until now. Today… you don’t have to force yourself to endure.”

“…”

Danielle could no longer hold back the surging tears.

“Sob, sob.”

Why was she crying like this? She couldn’t understand. Actually, holding back this much had been a miracle. She’d almost cried since the meeting room.

“Sob, hic— Why am I crying? Sob—”

Was I really not okay? Was I actually too exhausted and hurt, but I ignored myself too? Just believing I was fine, day by day like that…

The moment her true feelings from the bottom of her heart jumped to the surface on their own, Danielle began crying even harder. It was as if she had become a baby.

She absolutely couldn’t control the sorrowful tears overflowing. Large, thick hands gently patted below her shoulders, and Danielle gripped Frederick’s t-shirt tightly.

On the day of 8th grade final exams, even with a fever of 40 degrees, Danielle went to take the test while supporting herself against walls. She barely managed to take the exam, but afterward had to lie sick alone in the dormitory for three days.

She never even thought of calling family. For Danielle at that time, family was no longer a fence to protect her, but beings she had to protect herself.

One day in 9th grade, she accompanied her younger brother to the hospital for treatment instead of their mother. Eunho cried and screamed, and Danielle clenched her fists so hard her palms were pierced by her nails. She couldn’t close her eyes or open them.

In 10th grade, she was caught by other students watching news about Harvard providing full free tuition support for new students and was mocked.

On that same day, the sole of the sneakers she’d been wearing while postponing buying new ones, thinking she could wear them a bit longer, finally tore off. It was a terrible day that couldn’t have been any worse.

She thought if she just brushed it off casually, if she kept telling herself it was nothing, she could really get through it as if it were nothing. That was Danielle’s method of enduring pain.

But as she reflected on the past five years, Danielle literally collapsed. Frederick’s t-shirt became damp with moisture.

When it hadn’t been long since Eunho received his diagnosis, there had been hope. That if she endured like this, everything would get better someday. So it was just a matter of enduring a little. Believing that, she stubbornly persevered, somehow taking one step forward each day.

But when had the spark of hope been extinguished? She had even lived without knowing it had disappeared.

After enduring five years, all that remained at the bottom of Danielle’s heart was pitch-black despair that no matter how much she endured, reality didn’t seem like it would ever change, and fear that if she collapsed, her entire family would collapse.

“Sob, hic. Sob, sniff—”

Even when she tried to breathe in, her chest was so blocked that air wouldn’t come in properly.

The inside of her throat burned painfully, and tears blurred her vision.

Danielle covered her mouth with both hands, but the crying surged too strongly and leaked through her fingers.

No matter how much she tried to say “I’m fine,” those words wouldn’t come out of her mouth anymore. Like someone who was really hurt. Like someone who had completely collapsed long ago.

Frederick’s arms embraced Danielle as if crushing her. As her body was pulled, everything from Danielle’s cheek to her chin and upper body pressed tightly against Frederick.

“What you endured is a miracle. No one can speak of it lightly.”

When she closed her eyes, the tears pooled in her eyes streamed down. Danielle raised both arms and likewise embraced Frederick.

You’re bad for saying such things, for being so kind.

It’s all your fault. I’ll always resent you.

But different sounds from her heart flowed from her mouth.

“Kiss… me.”

Frederick’s hand supporting the back of her head moved, and Danielle naturally lifted her head. In an instant, lips approached and enveloped her lips completely.

“Haah, ah. Mmh.”

Frederick seemed to be trying to keep the words he’d spoken earlier. She could feel him doing his best to make every movement slow.

But he couldn’t perfectly hide his thirst. Friction heat continuously rose from their tongues.

Danielle reached her hand toward Frederick’s hair. Hair softly brushed between her fingers. Whether that became stimulation, Frederick’s hand that had been supporting her lower back slowly traced up Danielle’s spine.

“Mmh.”

“Darling, I absolutely can’t go slowly… It’s impossible…”

Their lips separated, and Danielle tried to lift her eyelids with her confused mind. But before she could, Frederick instantly switched positions with Danielle, pushing her against the wall he had been leaning against.

He couldn’t catch his breath, his shoulders and entire upper body heaving greatly. He was like a beast that had plunged into a hunt.

“I think I’m really going crazy…”

It was a biting, devouring kiss. Frederick’s teeth pressed down on Danielle’s lower lip at length. Blocked by the wall, Danielle had no choice but to receive Frederick’s one-sided kiss.

Like his metaphor of a “miracle,” Danielle came to acknowledge that enduring five years at Elmir Westlake had been an eccentric feat only possible for someone thoroughly insane. Then there was one remaining question.

What exactly had I been crazy about?

Danielle sighed and gently bit Frederick’s lower lip.

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