Liar and Liar - Chapter 55

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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 55

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The summer of 8th grade.

It had been three weeks since Frederick Bastia began refusing meals.

No one—from his parents to doctors, teachers, and friends—could break Frederick’s stubbornness. He acted as if he didn’t care if he starved to death, only accepting IV drips thanks to his mother’s pleas and entreaties.

And Danielle was annoyed by his bizarre behavior.

‘I wish he’d just disappear from my sight…’

When she entered 7th grade, her best friend Ana moved away, and after her younger brother was diagnosed and she became a scholarship student, Danielle’s life completely changed. The premise that ‘life is suffering’ felt like a more absolute truth than Newton’s first law.

Even while hiding all emotions behind an expressionless mask, pretending nothing was wrong, each day was literally hell. She desperately wanted to quit everything and run away.

It was a kind of survival instinct that all living beings possess. Because she felt like she might really die at this rate.

That’s why Danielle couldn’t help but despise Frederick, who had decided he was dying of boredom.

What exactly is wrong with that spoiled-whining-super annoying trust fund baby?

Are you poor? Do you have sick family? Do you have no friends to rely on?

Will you get kicked out of school if you don’t get a scholarship? Can’t see your future? Are people bullying you because they think you’re easy prey?

Stella, sitting across from Frederick in the library, expressed the same thoughts as Danielle in a completely different way.

“Rick… If you keep this up, you’ll really collapse. Can’t you tell me what the problem is?”

Anyone could see he was acting like a whining child, yet she spoke with such concern. Danielle swept her hair back with one hand and glanced at Frederick dismissively.

Like a boxer who had lost extreme amounts of weight, his gaunt figure sat with an expressionless face, something in his mouth. A white stick protruded from between his lips.

Frederick rested his elbow on the desk, holding the stick with one hand. As his mouth opened, the identity of the stick was revealed. It was a lollipop.

‘You say you hate living but you crave candy? How ridiculous.’

How childish. He had succeeded in making everyone worry about him through his unusual behavior, but Danielle was not among them. Quite the opposite, in fact.

No appetite? Then go do some heavy duty work. You’d be licking your plate clean that very evening.

‘I really wish he’d just disappear from my sight and hearing…’

She wanted to ignore him, didn’t even want to think about him. Since giving him that check last year, Frederick had eventually backed away when Danielle thoroughly ignored him, but he still managed to invade her thoughts this way.

“Stella. Mr. Paul wants to see you for a moment.”

At another student’s words, Stella finally sighed and got up from her seat. It was almost lunchtime, and other students who had been organizing their projects were gradually getting up as well.

However, only Frederick didn’t move.

Danielle tried to tune him out. Though it was usually her habit not to wear earphones while studying, she forced herself to put them in and fixed her gaze only on her book. She planned to endure until she could concentrate enough that she wouldn’t hear the surrounding sounds.

How much time had passed like that? Danielle, who had lost even the sense of time passing, finally looked up after a while and was startled the moment she looked straight ahead.

When had he come over? Frederick was sitting right across from her.

Like a rebel, he tilted his head at an angle, still with the candy in his mouth. His gray eyes were half-dazed. As if he’d lost his mind.

“…”

“…”

Without anything placed on the desk, Frederick was looking directly at Danielle. Her heart dropped with a thud.

‘Why…’

Aren’t there other people? Danielle hurriedly checked her surroundings. When had everyone left? Only he and she remained in the reading room.

Even after assessing the situation, Danielle didn’t open her mouth. Not saying a single word to Frederick Bastia until graduation. That was Danielle’s goal.

Currently, Frederick Bastia was, in a word, a ‘disease’ to Danielle.

Just seeing his shoulder line or the tips of his blond hair among people made her breath catch short. Even when he said nothing, Frederick’s old voice would automatically echo like hallucinations.

Do you hate me?

Do you even hate answering?

Danielle.

Even without the slightest contact, when he came within a certain distance, the surrounding temperature felt different. Danielle barely suppressed the urge to unbutton her collar.

She wanted to get up from her seat. But in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to bolt up and leave.

It had been nearly half a year since her last conversation with Frederick Bastia, and it seemed all immunity had disappeared. Danielle, caught in his field of vision, couldn’t resist as if she’d been captured.

“…”

“…”

Frederick said nothing. That was even more torturous. The sound of him licking the candy reached Danielle’s ears more clearly, more wetly. Just a small sucking sound.

“Try it.”

“It’ll be fun.”

Candy. It reminded her of their first meeting. One would think such an incident would make her hate candy itself, but when Frederick began his hunger strike, he inexplicably started eating candy of the brand Danielle had given him instead of food. It was another incomprehensible behavior from him.

Danielle, who had been trying hard to force herself to look down at her book, raised her gaze just slightly. His lower jaw caught in the upper part of her vision.

His pink tongue was being stained red along with the bright red candy. What flavor could that be?

Her fingertips grew cold. Her breath sizzled and boiled. In that gap, blood spun round and round through Danielle’s veins. Yet her throat felt terribly parched, as if the blood was avoiding it entirely.

Frederick’s reddened tongue looked exactly like a vampire’s. Pomegranate…

Pomegranate flavor…

Startled by her own thoughts, Danielle pressed down hard on her legal pad with her fingertips. Middle School was a completely different world from Lower School, and some students didn’t hesitate to kiss and make out in the hallways lined with lockers. It was shocking for Danielle to witness, but she couldn’t ultimately cut those scenes from her mind.

“I had a dream.”

Danielle’s entire body went pale. The lingering echo of his voice climbed up from her fingertips and flowed over her arms. Of course, it was all hallucination.

Danielle silently stared at Frederick’s mouth. She didn’t have the courage to meet his eyes.

“I want to recall that dream properly again, but I can’t remember. But since then, I’ve been craving candy so much…”

He licked the candy long and chuckled softly. Danielle’s face flushed red.

“Have I gone crazy somewhere?”

Danielle tried to label all the sensations boiling through her body as ‘anger.’

What meaning is there in your self-harm? Do you even know what desperate feelings are in the first place?

Living is just a game to you.

She hated Frederick Bastia. That’s why she felt so sickeningly disgusted. That’s why she wanted to run away, why she wanted to snatch the candy and throw it away.

But it was hard to move even a single finger properly. All she could do was bite the inside of her mouth as if chewing it, to avoid answering in anger.

However, Frederick was the first to cross the line Danielle had set.

“Danielle, actually.”

“…”

“Sometimes I thought it would be nice if you were this candy.”

At the same time, the candy cracked and broke in his mouth with a crisp sound.

Danielle bolted up from her seat. As soon as she gathered the things on her desk into her arms, Frederick spoke in a low voice.

“Sorry. Did I go too far?”

Danielle walked toward the door as if fleeing. She squeezed her eyes shut and did everything she could to keep her feet from getting tangled.

Danielle, who had walked to the door pretending nothing was wrong, was genuinely panicked when the door wouldn’t budge despite her pushing. When she finally checked the lock, it was locked. Why was this…

The door opened when she turned the lock, but with her composure already completely shattered, Danielle ran as soon as she stepped out.

“Haa, haa.”

How far had she run? Her heart felt like it would burst out of her mouth. Her legs were shaking.

I wish you were this candy.

Frederick didn’t follow. But Danielle didn’t feel like she had completely escaped.

She pressed one hand against the wall and wrapped the other around her neck. Her upper body collapsed.

Someone would kiss Frederick someday. Held in those arms, under that gaze. Fingers wound in that blond hair, breathing in that woody scent until sick of it.

Danielle, with her eyes closed, bit down hard inside her mouth.

She tasted blood. Though what she had imagined was pomegranate.

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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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