Liar and Liar - Chapter 80

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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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Chapter 79
The two of them ended up facing each other from a fair distance. Danielle Ryu scanned the hallway. For now, there was no one around.
“…What is it? Why are you standing here? How long have you been here?”
You have my contact info. If you had something to say, you could have texted or called, so why are you standing outside someone’s room like…
Danielle waited for an answer, but the one Cove threw back after taking her in from head to toe was something entirely different.
“…A date?”
Danielle’s brow creased. It was downright irritating to ask a question and get no proper answer back, and even more so when the other person was someone she couldn’t stand.
“None of your business. Answer my question instead.”
“I came because I have something to say.”
His meaningful tone threw her off. It was the kind of voice that could make someone from another dormitory room freeze halfway through stepping out, then press their ear flat against the door, holding their breath. That is to say…
A confession… or something like it…
“W-what is it you want to say? Couldn’t you have done it over text or a call?”
Lee Su’s heart thudded. Whether to call it tension or foreboding, she couldn’t tell. Either way, it was a heartbeat that pounded in a negative way.
The moment Cove opened his mouth, a beat slower than usual, as if he had made up his mind, Lee Su glanced around sharply once more. There was no one here at the moment, yet she had a feeling someone was surely listening. The sense that Cove Blanton hadn’t been standing here for only a short while also added to it.
“No, wait.”
Out in the open? Like this? How far? Why bother?
The moment her head filled with a flood of such thoughts, Danielle felt twice as exhausted, and in the end she chose to open the door. Just the shoe rack. That was as far as she was willing to go.
“Whatever it is you want to say, let’s talk inside.”
Not “come in,” but “inside.” The two might look similar, but there was a world of difference. Lee Su had succeeded in cutting off Cove’s words and opening the door first. When Lee Su stepped into the room, Cove followed right after.
She didn’t have the energy to undo the straps of her heels, so Danielle ended up stepping into the room with her shoes still on, keeping a reasonable distance as she faced Cove. She set down her shopping bag and raised one hand to hold him off from taking another step.
“Say it from there. Talking out in the open is too conspicuous, so that’s the only reason I told you to come in.”
“….”
He seemed to accept this.
In the silence, Danielle’s gaze unconsciously swept over Cove. Seeing him in full street clothes, rather than his uniform or workout gear, felt unfamiliar.
Cove wore a black turtleneck and dark blue jeans. The silver necklace around his neck glinted under the fluorescent light.
‘Why won’t he say anything.’
The longer the silence stretched, the more uneasy Danielle became.
No way, surely not. That’s ridiculous.
Did I catch some kind of crush-induced delusion just because someone called me pretty?
Yet her instincts were loudly shouting just one thing.
Maybe it’s because I wanted to hear it from Frederick all day and never did.
‘No, Ryu Lee-su. Don’t think such strange, crazy thoughts.’
She tried to hold herself together, but the moment their eyes met, a fastball that would shatter everything came flying straight at her.
“What I have to say is one thing. I like you.”
Lee Su’s mouth fell open in shock.
Did I… actually hear that right?
‘Is he confessing?’
Seriously? To me?
Her heart leapt wildly. Not because she was thrilled or flustered that Cove Blanton liked her, but because of the overwhelming weight of hearing the words “I like you” for the first time in her life.
Whether from confusion or not, she could feel heat rising in her cheeks. There was nothing embarrassing or humiliating about that. The other person’s face was flushing even more.
Cove lowered his gaze and continued, painfully.
“I know. It came out of nowhere. You probably wouldn’t be happy hearing a confession like this. At first, I just thought you were annoying and got on my nerves. But… at some point, I just couldn’t take my eyes off you…”
His face was stained with self-loathing. He looked tormented. In proportion to that, Lee Su’s heart tightened with an ache.
When Cove lifted his gaze again and their eyes met, Lee Su jolted and looked away. She simply couldn’t meet his eyes.
“At first, I deliberately belittled you to get you to accept the deal. I admit it. But please, don’t misunderstand this one thing. Frederick Bastia has no real intention of dating you. Stop this fake relationship.”
In that instant, Lee Su’s whole body stiffened.
Danielle felt the blood drain from her face and her heart sink with revulsion. Even so, she could clearly discern the sincerity and concern in Cove’s voice.
Cove Blanton is worried about me…
For my sake, putting my feelings first…
“I can’t explain in detail, but-”
“I know.”
Lee Su finally met Cove’s eyes.
Somewhere deeper, colder, and darker. Her heart was already there.
“I know what you’re talking about.”
A bet.
That cold word seemed to bring Danielle back to her senses.
She could feel that the confession was sincere. And she understood he was saying it for my sake.
‘So what am I supposed to do with that?’
Does that mean everything you and your lackeys have done to me until now just disappears?
Why should I forgive you?
What makes you any different from Frederick Bastia? In the end, you haven’t lost a thing either.
Even setting the bet aside, the bad blood between Danielle and Cove Blanton couldn’t be settled with a word or two.
“Do you have any idea what I think after hearing your confession? You really think I’m a pushover.”
“….”
Cove’s face, which had been stiff the whole time he waited for her answer, cracked like broken glass.
“You think I’m a pushover, don’t you? That’s why you’re acting like this.”
His emotions flared up easily, and Danielle bit back what she’d almost said: ‘Stop with that goddamn idea that an Asian girl would obviously want a white guy like you for a romance.’
“I never thought of you as a pushover. If you knew how breathlessly I’ve been waiting for your answer….”
“What you owe me isn’t a confession, it’s an apology. Isn’t that the proper order? Am I wrong?”
The first perpetrator Danielle had gotten forcibly transferred through a report was Cove Blanton’s close friend, and the second had been on the Lacrosse Team.
Even though Cove Blanton himself had never directly gotten involved, Danielle still remembered his gaze.
His eyes, narrowed to slits, always landed askew, like he was sneering. He never said a word, yet Danielle couldn’t have missed what that look meant. It wasn’t her imagination.
“…What should I do to apologize?”
Right, it couldn’t have been my imagination. Danielle raised a hand and gripped her own hair.
‘What good is it to spit out a few words right now?’
The bruises you left on me will never fade.
The words you tossed out so carelessly, you insignificant nobody, will keep gnawing at my pride for the rest of my life.
The moment she arrived at that one thought, Danielle grew strangely calm. Everything fell into place.
“Kneel.”
“…What?”
Danielle lowered the hand that had been sweeping back her hair.
“If you don’t like it, then get lost, along with your pathetic confession. I don’t want to hear another word of your selfish, self-serving nonsense.”
There wasn’t a trace of anger in Danielle’s voice. It was low and quiet.
Danielle was determined to mock even Cove Blanton’s hesitation. As expected, he couldn’t move so easily.
Of course he couldn’t. For Cove Blanton, the embodiment of competitive spirit, nothing mattered more than that paltry pride.
She was just about to tell him to get lost already.
The moment Cove slowly bent one knee, everything seemed to unfold in slow motion for Danielle. The sense of reality seemed to slip away.
‘He’s kneeling?’
Cove Blanton, actually kneeling before the Asian girl he had looked down on so openly?
Danielle knew very well how fiercely proud Cove Blanton was. Anything that happened in the Athletic Department always became the first topic of conversation in the Cafeteria the next day, so she couldn’t help but hear about it.
“Did you hear the Lacrosse Locker Room window got smashed?”
“Yeah, they lost so narrowly yesterday. You should’ve heard Cove Blanton yelling.”
“You guys didn’t hear? Then he spent the whole evening alone in the gym doing shuttle runs in full gear, they say. Even the team members couldn’t bring themselves to talk to him.”
Was he really going to throw away that costly pride, the one he’d guarded so painfully by driving himself to his limits?
For the first time, Danielle’s eyes wavered in confusion. But a single noise from outside froze both Cove and Danielle in place.
Knock, knock.
Right after came the next words, like a disaster.
“Babe.”
At the familiar voice, Danielle’s eyes went wide, as if they might pop out.

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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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