My Unrequited Love Is an Absolute Secret - Chapter 31

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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 31

Jessie’s offer to put Robin to bed had its reasons.
He wanted to make amends, however he could, for disappointing me by neglecting Robin lately.
But he never expected to return and find me and Aemerus fooling around together.
“Oh, you’re back?”
Usually it took longer to get Robin to sleep.
But tonight Robin was already half-asleep, so Jessie seemed to have returned quickly.
I answered the question Jessie had asked earlier about what I was doing.
“Aemerus offered to make me hot chocolate, so I’m just hovering around supervising.”
Jessie then asked, standing with his arms crossed and tilted to one side.
“A guest serving food to the house owner? Something’s changed, hasn’t it?”
Beneath Jessie’s characteristic gentle tone lay something quite aggressive if you looked closely.
I felt it too, but I assumed he was just tired from playing with Robin for the first time in a while, so I didn’t think much of it.
“Well, the house owner’s hands froze solid on the way home from work.”
It was a lie.
Aemerus saw through my lie at a glance and understood why I was telling it.
To explain why he was making hot chocolate, I’d have to bring up what happened to me at the Ice Cream Shop tonight.
And I didn’t want that.
I didn’t want to bring up anything negative to Jessie, and I didn’t want to worry him.
Because I cared about him.
Tension suddenly ran through Aemerus’s hand.
“How many marshmallows should I add?”
Aemerus interjected into our conversation.
My attention shifted back to him.
“A lot.”
“This much?”
Aemerus scooped a spoonful of mini marshmallows and asked.
“Are you joking? Give me more.”
“Then it’s not hot chocolate anymore. It’s marshmallow soup.”
“You’re not even drinking it.”
The banter between us looked quite intimate.
Jessie suppressed the urge to forcibly separate us and called out to me.
“Lili.”
“Hm?”
“How long are you planning to keep holding onto Aemerus’s shoulder?”
“Oh…!”
Only after Jessie pointed it out did I realize I was still gripping Aemerus’s shoulder.
I had forgotten how good the grip felt.
She withdrew her hand with an embarrassed expression.
“I need to be careful—my body has a match coming up.”
“Sorry.”
Harry’s shoulders didn’t look like they would crumble under her weight, but one could never be too cautious.
With a competition looming, even the smallest injury warranted extreme vigilance.
Only after she stepped back from Aemerus did Jessie seem satisfied.
“Anyway, Aemerus came for his jacket, but Jessie—did you come to see Robin?”
As if he would have come all this way to see Robin instead of Harry.
Jessie chuckled softly to himself before answering.
“Actually, I was just about to bring this up. Lili, come sit for a moment.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
For him to visit her home when he was already so busy—it had to be serious.
Harry’s expression grew grave as she sat down at the Island Table.
“Here, cocoa.”
“Oh! Thank you. I’ll enjoy it, Aemerus.”
Aemerus, who had followed her in, set down the cocoa and took a seat beside her.
Jessie pulled out his phone and held it toward the two of them.
“It’s a photo Tyler sent me today.”
“Huh?”
Shock flooded Harry’s face as she saw the image on the screen.
And for good reason—it was a photo of her and Aemerus taken just this afternoon at lunch.
“Tyler took this photo?”
“It came out well.”
Harry shot Aemerus a sharp glare for his thoughtless remark.
“That’s not the point right now.”
The moment she saw the photo, Harry’s mind immediately jumped to Aemerus’s malicious stalker.
“Tyler—isn’t he a Hockey Team player like you, Aemerus?”
“That’s right.”
Aemerus had assumed the stalker was female.
But contrary to his conviction, Tyler could very well be his stalker.
The fact that he had secretly photographed them and sent it to Jessie made it entirely plausible.
“I had no idea Tyler was this interested in me.”
Aemerus seemed to understand what Harry was getting at.
After exchanging a meaningful look with him, Harry turned to Jessie with a question.
“What did Tyler say when he sent you this photo? He wouldn’t have just sent it without a message.”
“He asked if you two were in a relationship like this.”
“A relationship like this?”
Harry, who had been fixated on Aemerus’s stalker, examined the photo again.
In the image, she and Aemerus appeared to be lovers, tenderly embracing each other.
“Oh, that’s just a misunderstanding on Tyler’s part. We were just….”
“Just what?”
Harry’s lips, which had been trembling as if she were about to spill the truth, promptly sealed shut.
How could I possibly explain that I was comforting Aemerus, who’s been tormented by a deranged stalker?
No matter who I was talking to—even if it were Jessie—I couldn’t carelessly bring up Aemerus’s situation.
Harry hastily fabricated a plausible excuse.
“Aemerus said he’s been struggling with his studies lately. That’s what we were discussing.”
Aemerus was stressed about his studies?
If his fellow Hockey Team players heard that, they wouldn’t even bother scoffing.
“Really? Which subject was giving him trouble?”
“Calculus.”
“History.”
As expected, Harry and Aemerus gave completely different answers.
“….”
Suspicion deepened in Jessie’s eyes as he regarded them both.
“Both. Both subjects were problematic.”
Harry broke into a cold sweat and quickly changed the subject.
“By the way, have you received messages like this from Tyler before?”
Jessie, who couldn’t possibly miss her intent, let out a shallow sigh.
“No. This is the first contact I’ve received from Tyler since I graduated.”
“Seems like training has gotten pretty relaxed.”
Harry reproached Aemerus, who was standing beside her.
“Doing this right before a match? Shouldn’t you be increasing training intensity?”
“I’ll suggest it to the coach.”
When Aemerus took her half-joking remark seriously, Harry found herself at a loss for words.
Jessie asked her as she quietly sipped her cocoa.
“So to sum it up, Tyler just misunderstood the situation between you two, right?”
“Yes.”
It didn’t matter what misunderstanding Tyler had on his own, but I hated the thought of Jessie misunderstanding.
At her firm response, Jessie also took a step back.
“…Alright. I understand.”
Harry in the photo embracing Aemerus.
Hanging onto Aemerus’s shoulder just moments ago.
He could willingly pretend not to have seen any of it.
If she truly harbored no ulterior motives toward Aemerus.
‘She doesn’t think of Aemerus as a man, so she touches him without hesitation.’
If that were the case, he could truly understand it all.
Jessie smiled gently at Harry.
“If there’s any good news between you two, tell me first.”
“What…?”
“Since I introduced you two to each other, I think I’ve earned at least that much.”
“….”
“You understand, right?”
Jessie spoke those hollow words for one reason alone.
To witness the hurt in Harry’s eyes as I drew a line as a friend, as if it didn’t matter who she dated.
“That won’t happen, but I understand.”
Despite her composed voice, Harry couldn’t meet my gaze.
She was deliberately avoiding it, afraid her turmoil would be exposed.
I had to settle for merely watching her lips tremble slightly.
“This is ridiculous.”
If not for Aemerus’s sudden remark, I would have left satisfied.
“Huh? Are you talking to me?”
Harry’s eyes widened as she turned to look at Aemerus.
Since she was the last one to speak, it was natural to think so.
But Aemerus simply stared at me without offering any explanation.
“If you’re done talking, leave. Harry and I need to finish our calculus discussion from lunch.”
“And history too.”
Harry, who had been looking at Aemerus with a confused expression, quickly added on.
They absolutely had to discuss the possibility of Tyler being a malicious stalker.
“I feel like I’ve become the intruder here.”
Jessie smiled bitterly and straightened up from where he’d been leaning against the Island Table.
“I’d like to say I could help too, but my mind went blank the moment I graduated.”
“We’ll probably be the same way when we graduate.”
Harry countered Jessie’s self-deprecating joke and stood up from her seat.
“You don’t need to see me out. I’ll find my own way.”
“I’ll at least walk you to the Entrance.”
Harry insisted on seeing Jessie out despite his protests.
“Tell your father I hope his back heals soon.”
“Thanks for coming today.”
“Thanks? I’m the one who got to rest here.”
The way the two of them parted was not just familiar—it was tender.
From behind them, Aemerus muttered softly to himself.
“How is that supposed to be a good man?”
Jessie clearly knew Harry liked him, yet he deliberately stirred her feelings.
Deliberately, for Aemerus to see.

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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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