Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health - Chapter 34

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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 34

My voice trembled.
“I don’t understand.”
I tried to think it through.
Still, nothing made sense.
“Why are you going this far for me? Am I worth this much attention? Does any of this mean anything? If it were you, couldn’t you have any friend you wanted? Why specifically me……?”
“Because it has to be you.”
His voice was steady, without inflection.
“Why am I doing this? Because I can’t leave you alone. Worth my attention? I don’t know. Does it mean something? Yes. Could I have any friend I wanted? What good would that do? You’re not here.”
After that rush of words, one phrase came again, dampened with raw feeling.
“You’re not here.”
Confronted by a heart colliding so directly with mine, I felt myself weaken. For a moment, I wanted to run.
Afraid I’d surrender to this.
If this room hadn’t been sealed on all sides, I would have fled.
Facing a truth I refused to acknowledge, one I wanted to deny, I kept my mouth firmly shut and said nothing. Then the silence deepened around us.
Even my trembling began to fade.
That’s when the doubt crept in.
‘Did he leave?’
Did he give up when I ignored him, when I pushed him away?
Relief and bitterness twisted together in that moment.
“I know you don’t like me very much.”
The voice I thought had stopped came again.
“I know.”
Why.
“But I like you.”
Why, for god’s sake.
“I want to see you.”
As if it were a lifeline, I gripped the doorknob and stood there, unable to run anywhere, frozen in place.
“I’m curious what you’re doing, curious if you want to see me too.”
His low voice echoed through the closed door.
“The whole world is filled with you.”
That relentless, earnest feeling—
“It all comes down to you.”
That rough, unvarnished heart—
“You don’t have to believe me. You don’t have to like me back.”
It became its own powerful appeal, burrowing deep into my chest.
“But.”
His breath wavered.
“……Don’t avoid me.”
I clenched my teeth. Bit down again and again.
In that voice soaked with anguish, I could feel how much Feshion had wrestled with himself, how much he’d agonized, in just those few moments.
What was I even supposed to say.
“Arelin, can you hear me?”
Suddenly I felt my cheeks wet. I wiped them with the hand gripping the doorknob, now bleached white from the force of my grip.
Why was I crying?
Even as I was this frightened, still wanting nothing but to hide, why was I holding onto this doorknob?
What was this feeling creeping through the fear?
Why did I want to open this door?
Why did I want to see you?
Click.
Creak.
The door opened for reasons even I didn’t understand.
I stood there, soaked by your heart pouring out like a sudden summer storm.
And you, looking at me so pitifully, like a dog who’d lost its master.
‘Why am I……?’
Even knowing what ending awaited us, why did I want to reach out and take your hand?
-You believe what a child says?
That should be stupid enough.
The inner voice mocking me keeps asking why I let myself hope at all.
-You’ll regret this, I’m sure. You’ll be disappointed, resentful, hurt again.
-In a few years, he’ll change his mind.
-He’ll forget today like it never happened, act as though nothing was there.
-And then you’ll be alone again.
I know. I know. I know, and yet…….
I still want to believe.
Just once.
If only once.
With this invincible Crown Prince, could everything not work out somehow? Could any misfortune be avoided?
Is it so strange that I’m having such naive thoughts?
“If you’re close to me, you’ll be unhappy too.”
“As long as you’re here, there’s nothing that could make me unhappy.”
“People will say things to you for being with me.”
“Who would say such things? I won’t let anyone say that.”
His unwavering gaze was almost unbearable. I still didn’t understand.
“Why would you go this far?”
You’ll be hated for it.
“Why……?”
You’ll end up alone too.
“Why, exactly?”
To the words I threw at him, telling him to give up—
“Because I like you.”
He answered as if it were nothing at all.
“I…….”
Faced with his relentless, truthful flood of feeling, my words caught. I closed my mouth, then forced my eyes open again.
“I don’t like you.”
Even to the words meant to wound him—
“It’s fine.”
He said it firmly, his expression anything but fine.
“Because I like you.”
As though it were absolute truth, showing no sign of regret or retreat, Feshion broke into a bright smile.
Faced with that grin, like the sun of a summer midday, I stood there dazed, like a vengeful spirit burning itself to ashes.
In that moment, watching that smile reflected in me, I thought:
Perhaps.
I’d been running from this moment all along.

* * *

……
……
The awkwardness that followed our dramatic exchange didn’t last long.
“Hehe.”
The moment Feshion laughed, all the tension drained from me. Only I was still uncomfortable.
“Be honest. How did you get here today? You ditched class, didn’t you?”
“How did you know? But I promise I’ll try harder tomorrow!”
“How did you even know I was here?”
“Someone told me.”
Who on earth had told him?
‘There’s a traitor in the Mansion.’
How dare they leak information to the Crown Prince’s side! I’d make sure to tell Mehen later and have them pay the price.
“I’ve been looking all day. I knew you’d come here, but the place is so huge it took me forever to find you.”
“How did you know I was participating in this game?”
“Um. By chance?”
Well, isn’t that something.
I sighed as I watched Feshion grinning, absolutely refusing to give up his secrets.
“Let’s just solve the Puzzle.”
“Okay!”
At least the Puzzle mechanisms were simple enough that a six-year-old could solve them without much trouble.
Crack!
……Though the problem was that Feshion kept breaking things.
“That’s weird. Why did it break? I didn’t even use much force.”
“……Put that down and come here.”
“Okay!”
At least he listened to me extremely well, which was something to be grateful for.
Sigh.
“Arelin, you usually hate moving around, but you’re walking a lot here.”
……
I had nothing to say to that—it was true—so I stood there quietly. Apparently it wasn’t meant as a criticism, because Feshion’s eyes suddenly sparkled.
“So you’ll move if something’s fun?!”
Why did I have a bad feeling about this?
His eyes were twice as sharp as usual, which felt intimidating, so I hastily changed the subject.
“Who did you come here with?”
“Griham.”
I should have known.
Poor Griham was doomed to suffer eternally as the Crown Prince’s attendant. I offered silent condolences in my heart.
“And you came with Mehen, right?”
“Yes.”
She’s my mother, after all.
“We have to go rescue Mehen.”
“Haha! I have to go rescue Griham too!”
I was in the middle of bustling around trying to solve the Mansion’s secrets and find its mechanisms, thinking about two perfectly capable adult men who’d somehow become “princesses”—
“Something’s off.”
When Feshion suddenly tilted his head.
“What is?”
“Hmm. Something feels like it changed.”
“What changed?”
Even after all that chaos with Feshion, we’d solved the Puzzle at a pretty rapid pace, and we were almost at the finish.
All we had to do was find the hidden room where the “princess” (adult man) was locked up and open it……
“Wait a moment.”
“……?”
Feshion grabbed my arm as I tried to move forward, his gaze suddenly wary.
“Arelin, I just realized something.”
“?”
“Why can’t we see any of the other children?”
“Good question.”
Now that he mentioned it, it was strange.
Before Feshion and I started our chase, I’d occasionally run into other children solving different Puzzles.
……
I tried to push away the negative direction my thoughts were taking, but I could feel it—something was definitely wrong.
It was as if the Mansion’s atmosphere itself had changed.
“Huh?”
That’s when Feshion tilted his head again.
“What’s wrong?”
“That statue—didn’t it just move?”
“……Don’t joke like that.”
“It’s weird. I could’ve sworn it moved.”
I wasn’t scared of ghosts, but mysteries like this I hated. It was probably just a hidden camera stunt. Actual danger? Absolutely not.
“Let’s hurry up and solve the Puzzle so we can get out.”
“Huh? But—”
I was pulling Feshion’s arm and urrying him forward when—
Fizz—
I froze.
That strange, ominous sound made me stop dead in my tracks.
“Arelin? Are you okay?”
What was that unsettling feeling?
“Come here. Stay close. Arelin. I’ll protect you.”
“Don’t be stupid. You could be in danger too.”
“Then it’s okay if we’re together.”
“But that’s…….”
Why did the thought that Feshion could be in danger fill me with such dread?
My nape kept tingling. As though something had triggered an alarm.
Thump.
Thump.
The survival instinct of something at the very bottom of the food chain kept warning me. I found myself frowning, seized by the urge to run—
Whirrr—
The space twisted in an instant.
“Arel?!”
Almost by pure instinct, I shoved Feshion away. That’s when a tremendous force engulfed me.
At the same time, my consciousness began to fade.
“Arelin—!”

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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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