My Unrequited Love Is an Absolute Secret - Chapter 47

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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 47

“Jessie!”
Harry, who had been craning her neck to peer at the door every time it opened, sprang from her seat to greet him.
“Sorry I’m late. Have you been waiting long?”
Jessie embraced her with a weary expression, having just finished a photo shoot.
In that moment, the fact that she’d been waiting for over an hour seemed utterly inconsequential.
Harry beamed at him.
“It’s fine. I haven’t been waiting that long.”
A scoff echoed from across the table.
Jessie turned his head at the unmistakably loud sound.
“Aemerus, you’re here too.”
“If you’re going to be late, at least send a text. And ‘not waiting that long’? You were an hour and a half late.”
Aemerus launched into complaints the moment he saw Jessie.
Harry, flustered, hastily wedged herself between them.
“Are you hungry? Come on, sit down. Let’s eat first.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
The ever-gracious Jessie smiled warmly and sat beside Harry.
“You already ordered? Perfect—I’m starving.”
“Yeah. Since you’re done with the shoot, you can eat as much as you want today, right? Have plenty of this too.”
As Harry pulled a dish toward Jessie, Aemerus glared.
“When I suggested ordering food first, you looked at me like you wanted to devour me.”
“When did I ever?”
Harry ignored Aemerus’s grumbling and watched Jessie eat.
“Lili, you eat too.”
“Yeah, I’m eating.”
They were exchanging warm laughter when another scoff sounded from across the table.
Without question, it was Aemerus.
‘What’s his problem all of a sudden?’
It was impossible to tell whether he’d come to celebrate Jessie’s birthday or to pick a fight.
Jessie was subtly kicking under the table to signal him when—
Restaurant staff in uniforms approached, carrying a birthday cake.
“Happy birthday!”
“What? You prepared this too?”
“A birthday cake is essential for a birthday.”
Jessie set down his fork and laughed heartily.
He’d spotted his photograph on top of the cake.
“Happy birthday to our beloved Jessie!”
After the birthday song sung together with the staff came to an end.
Jessie closed his eyes tightly, made a wish, and blew out the candles.
“Thanks for the cake, Lili. And you too, Aemerus.”
Even as he expressed his gratitude, Jessie’s gaze remained fixed on the photographs decorating the cake.
There were recent promotional photos he’d taken, as well as older pictures of just him and Harry together.
Though “older” only meant last year, it felt as distant as if it had happened decades ago.
Was it because the circumstances had changed so drastically between then and now?
Jessie was smiling somewhat bitterly when it happened.
“Actually, I have a real gift prepared separately.”
Harry, whose expression was even more excited than Jessie’s on his own birthday, pulled a box from her bag.
Just from looking at the elegantly wrapped box with its black ribbon, one could estimate its value.
Jessie’s expression darkened.
“Lili, you really didn’t need to go to all this trouble. The cake alone makes me happy enough.”
He’d thought this was simply a casual meal to celebrate his birthday.
Had he known she’d prepared something like this, he wouldn’t have come in the first place.
Noticing the signs that Jessie was about to refuse, Harry hurriedly waved both hands.
“It’s really nothing special! It’s not even that expensive.”
“….”
“Would it be so bad if you just looked at what the gift is?”
Jessie reluctantly accepted the gift.
It might look expensive on the surface, but when he opened it, it could very well be nothing special, just as she said.
While he unwrapped the gift with some tension, Aemerus sat with an utterly carefree expression, eating someone else’s birthday cake as if watching a fire across the river.
Click. The black ribbon came undone and the box lid opened.
Harry swallowed nervously and glanced at Jessie’s profile.
Inside the box was a wristwatch with a blue dial face and an elegant leather strap.
“What do you think?”
“Lili.”
“Don’t you like it? If you don’t, I have the receipt inside too, so you can exchange it for something you prefer….”
He let out a sigh and shut the box with a sharp sound.
The noise was so loud that Harry flinched.
“Don’t tell me you’ve been working part-time since last summer just for this?”
Under Jessie’s interrogation—though not quite an interrogation—Harry felt like she might cry.
“I just thought, since you’re a model and you’ll be meeting a lot of people for work going forward, I wanted you to wear a nice watch.”
“Ha….”
“And it’s not even that expensive. It’s not a burden on my finances.”
Certainly, it wouldn’t be a financial burden for Harry.
But Jessie’s situation was different.
With his parents ill and a mountain of debt still to repay, even this watch felt like a heavy burden to him.
“I can’t accept this.”
“Jessie!”
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t give me gifts like this in the future.”
Harry stared at Jessie with an expression that had so much more to say.
It was just a watch.
It wasn’t as though I was giving it without reason—wasn’t it a gift given only once a year, on a birthday?
I wanted to plead with him: did he really need to be so particular about a gift coming from me, of all people?
If only his phone hadn’t rung.
Jessie’s expression hardened as he pulled out his vibrating phone to check it.
Startled by him rising from his seat entirely, Harry grabbed at his sleeve.
“Where are you going? We haven’t even finished eating yet.”
“My manager’s calling.”
“Didn’t you finish filming?”
“Apparently there’s a party being thrown by some famous editor. They want me to stop by and make an appearance.”
With business like that, I couldn’t hold him back.
The strength drained from Harry’s hand as she released him.
“I understand. Go ahead.”
Just as Jessie seemed about to leave, he turned back as if something weighed on his mind, and grabbed a photograph from the table.
From among the photos decorating the birthday cake, the one of just Harry and him together.
“Don’t forget to return the watch.”
With those words, Jessie left the Restaurant.
Left alone again with Aemerus, Harry collapsed helplessly onto the table.
If Aemerus hadn’t been there, she would have wept openly.
“This is a disaster….”
Was Jessie angry because of the watch?
Would he have stayed if not for this?
The watch sitting there alone looked unbearable to look at.
It seemed no different from being rejected by Jessie herself.
Above her dejected head, Aemerus’s voice rang out with what sounded like mockery.
“There’s someone else who ruined the birthday party, so why are you the one being gloomy?”
“Be quiet.”
“Let me see what kind of grand birthday gift this is.”
He snatched the gift box away.
His movements were so quick there was no chance to stop him.
Opening the box on his own, he let out a whistle.
“That’s a fine watch.”
“Give it back!”
Ignoring Harry’s protests, he brazenly fastened it around his own wrist.
“I think it suits me better than JJ.”
“That’s not true.”
Harry’s expression crumpled in frustration.
And for good reason—I had chosen that brilliant blue watch face specifically to match Jessie’s eye color.
There was no way it would suit Aemerus.
Yet he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the watch.
“Give this to me.”
“Don’t joke around. Take it off right now. I need to return it.”
“Why?”
Aemerus finally looked away from the watch and met her eyes directly as he asked.
“Because it’s the watch you were planning to give to Jessie, the one you have a crush on? I can’t give it to you.”
“How did you… how did you know that?”
“Only an idiot wouldn’t notice.”
Whether he wore the watch on his wrist no longer mattered to me.
Harry grabbed him as he casually resumed eating and asked urgently.
“What about Jessie? Does he know too?”
“Unfortunately, he’s one of those idiots who has no clue.”
Jessie didn’t know that I had a crush on him.
At least that was a small mercy in this misfortune.
She bit her lip anxiously and pleaded.
“Please keep it a secret from Jessie. I’m begging you.”
“A secret, huh…”
Aemerus, toying with the watch on his wrist, smiled at her.
“That depends entirely on what you do from now on.”
Harry’s vision darkened.
“What… what am I supposed to do?”
He looked down at her, stammering in confusion, and suddenly burst out laughing.
‘What? Why is he laughing?’
I couldn’t tell if his laughter was a positive or negative sign.
I was anxiously waiting for him to deliver his verdict.
“Don’t be scared. I was joking.”
Joking? Really?
Harry laughed awkwardly along with him.
“So you’ll keep the secret…?”
“If you do me one favor.”
“What? You just said you were joking!”
“I changed my mind.”
How could a man’s heart change as easily as flipping a palm?
Harry clenched her fists beneath the table and trembled.
But she had no other choice.
She sighed, unclenched her fists, and asked.
“What’s the favor?”
What could Aemerus possibly ask of me?
Money? He’d have far more than that anyway.
Is there a girl you’re interested in?
Maybe he’s asking me to help him get together with her.
I racked my brain intensely, but the request that actually came from his lips was entirely unexpected.
“I’m going to Banff, Canada with my parents this Thanksgiving.”
“Oh, that sounds nice.”
“Come with me. Spend Thanksgiving with me. That’s my request.”

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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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