My Unrequited Love Is an Absolute Secret - Chapter 52

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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 52

“You were hired as my nanny. Didn’t you know?”
At Aemerus’s joke, I managed to recover my smile.
“A nanny, really.”
If anything, it should be Aemerus who was hired as Robin’s nanny.
I let out a small scoff before falling into thought.
Aemerus had mentioned it before.
His parents were so busy that he would have to spend Thanksgiving alone.
Wasn’t that why he invited Robin and me?
‘I never expected it would be like this.’
I had anticipated sharing at least one meal with Aemerus’s parents, but….
Perhaps I would only see their faces on the last day of the trip, when we returned to the United States.
But why did my chest feel so uncomfortably heavy?
The Huntington Couple weren’t even my parents.
“Where should we order room service from? If you don’t want the smell lingering, we can have it sent to my room, and if you don’t feel like going back and forth, we can have it sent to yours.”
Whether Aemerus noticed my troubled state or not, he posed such a question.
“…Let’s have it sent to my room.”
Once I settled into the sofa, I had no desire to get up again.
“Alright. Have you decided on a menu?”
“No. Did you know there are no prices written on the menu here?”
Watching me tremble as though facing the greatest horror imaginable, Aemerus brushed his hand across his lips.
He was suppressing laughter.
“It’s not expensive, so choose freely.”
“Really? Then can I order the lobster bisque?”
“Go ahead.”
I didn’t entirely trust Aemerus’s claim that it wasn’t expensive.
But it seemed the price wouldn’t burden him, so I felt reassured.
At least he appeared to know the approximate cost.
After deciding on the menu with Aemerus, I called to place the room service order.
“Harry, didn’t you say you were going to take a bath?”
“I’ll do it later. Aemerus, why aren’t you going to your room?”
“I’ll head over in a bit.”
With Robin and me, and even Aemerus sprawled across the sofa lounging about, the food arrived in no time.
As I ate the warm food with steam rising from it, the fatigue of the day seemed to melt away entirely.
“The food here is really delicious.”
“We have plans tomorrow, so eat well.”
“What are we doing tomorrow?”
“We’ll head downtown to look around. Then we’re going to the Ice Skating Rink.”
Robin’s eyes widened as he lifted a piece of steak that Aemerus had cut into manageable bites, spearing it with his fork.
“Ice skating?”
“Yeah. I’ll teach you how tomorrow.”
“Great!”
Watching my delighted younger brother, a mischievous impulse suddenly seized me.
I affected a deeply concerned tone.
“But Robin, you’ve been sniffling constantly since earlier. You’re not coming down with a cold, are you?”
“You can’t ice skate if you have a cold.”
Even Aemerus joined in on my teasing.
“No, I’m not sick at all.”
Unaware that both of us were playing with him, Robin shrank into himself completely.
His dejected face was both endearing and pitiful, so I quickly ended the joke.
“Alright, you’re not sick at all. Don’t worry—just finish your dinner.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
After we finished dinner with full bellies, we tidied up briefly.
While the Hotel Staff Member retrieved the empty plates, Robin fell fast asleep.
He’d managed to stay awake all day without a single nap, and apparently that effort had finally caught up with him.
“You’re not heading straight to your room, are you? Let me go put Robin to bed first.”
I couldn’t possibly leave this task to him.
I stopped Aemerus as he rose to follow me, pressing him back onto the sofa before heading into the bedroom.
“I hope he doesn’t wake up startled.”
This was the first time I’d put Robin to sleep in an unfamiliar place without our parents present.
Still, with me here, it should be fine.
I tucked the blanket around Robin and stepped back out.
Returning to the lounge, I found Aemerus sitting quietly on the sofa, waiting.
“Would you like some tea?”
“I’ll make it.”
“Just sit. It’s nothing—just boiling water and dropping in a tea bag.”
Here I was, unable to sit still for a moment, yet I’d made that joke about being hired as a nanny. What was I thinking?
I chuckled to myself as I filled the electric kettle with water.
“Aemerus, what kind of tea would you like? We have chamomile and mint.”
“What are you having?”
“Me? Mint tea.”
After such a hearty dinner, I wanted something refreshing like mint to cleanse my palate.
“I’ll have the same.”
Aemerus and I even had similar tastes in tea.
By now, that hardly surprised me anymore.
I returned with two cups of mint tea in hand.
“Here, take this. Be careful—it’s hot.”
“Thanks.”
As I handed the cup to Aemerus, I frowned slightly.
I’d just realized he was sitting at the very end of the sofa.
‘Is he afraid I’ll bite him or something?’
It wasn’t as though we were suddenly becoming formal with each other now.
We’d already embraced—this distance was almost amusing.
‘Oh, well. I suppose I should give him what he’s expecting.’
I set my cup down on the coffee table and flopped onto the sofa.
Using Aemerus’s thigh as a pillow.
“What are you doing?”
Aemerus’s voice came out startled.
He was frozen like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, too afraid I might get hurt to move an inch.
“Lying down. What does it look like?”
“Get up. This isn’t a bed.”
“Wait—I thought since you were sitting at the far end of the sofa, you were telling me to make myself comfortable and lie down.”
I giggled watching Aemerus turn crimson all the way up to his neck.
But when he buried his face in his palm and didn’t budge, I suddenly wondered if my teasing had gone too far.
“Aemerus?”
“…I don’t mind you lying down. But if you’re going to, use my left leg as a pillow, not my right one.”
My right leg?
What was on his right leg that I shouldn’t use it as a pillow?
As I sat there puzzling over it, realization suddenly struck me, and I bolted upright.
Now it was my turn for my face to burn.
“I’ll shift my position so you can use my left leg instead.”
I grabbed Aemerus urgently as he started to rise from the sofa.
“No, forget it! I’m just going to sit here anyway, so stay put.”
One little joke and it had turned into all this.
Realizing once again that Aemerus was a powerfully built man, I fanned myself frantically in front of my flushed face.
“Why is this room so hot?”
And why is this tea so scalding?
Watching me grumble to myself in embarrassment, Aemerus bit his lip.
‘If I laugh now, she’ll get angry.’
I had no intention of being thrown out just yet.
I wanted to stay with her a little longer, so I swallowed my laughter silently.
Thanks to his restraint, I soon regained my composure.
“I thought it would be pitch black at night and I wouldn’t be able to see anything, but that’s not the case.”
I gazed out the window, sipping my now-cooled tea, and marveled at the view.
With thick white snow blanketing everything and a massive full moon hanging in the sky, there was no difficulty admiring the landscape even in the depths of night.
Sitting quietly with my tea, eyes fixed on the lake that never seemed to lose its charm no matter how long I gazed at it, the moment felt extraordinarily precious.
“I’m glad we came on this trip.”
Aemerus smiled faintly at Harry’s words.
“I’m relieved too.”
She seemed to have completely forgotten the unpleasant incident she’d experienced in the Lounge.
That was truly a relief.
“Does your family come here often?”
She asked carefully while sipping her tea, which had cooled to a comfortable temperature.
‘Why is she doing that?’
Though puzzled by why she was suddenly reading his expression, Aemerus answered faithfully.
“Yes. This place is special to our family.”
“Really?”
“It’s where my grandfather and grandmother first met.”
“Oh….”
“The moment my grandfather saw my grandmother ice skating on the lake, he knew. He knew she was the woman he would spend his entire life with.”
My goodness! At a first meeting that seemed straight out of a novel, Harry covered her mouth with her hand.
“Their honeymoon was here too, and I heard they kept visiting regularly until they passed away. Now my father continues the tradition in their place.”
She had thought it was simply a location chosen for its proximity to New York, but it turned out to be a place steeped in family history.
“So you’ve come here every year?”
“Yes.”
“And every time… you were alone?”
Ah, so that’s why she was reading his expression. Now he understood.
Having reached this realization, Aemerus nearly burst out laughing.
“Of course not. My nanny and older brother came with me.”
“….”
Harry’s expression went blank.
If this place was special to the family, it would be difficult for her to understand parents who entrusted their child to a nanny and went out on their own.
“You don’t need to make that face. It was so natural to me that I didn’t even realize it might seem strange.”
That was truly the case.
The Huntington Couple had simply approached marriage and child-rearing in the typical manner of the upper class.
But from Harry’s perspective, it seemed to feel somewhat different.
One could tell just by looking at her face, which seemed ready to cry at any moment.
“I’m sorry, I’ve made the atmosphere awkward. I wasn’t trying to seem pitiful.”
“No.”
Seeing Harry shake her head with such desperate earnestness, Aemerus let out a soft laugh.
“Let’s talk about something else.”
“Okay.”
What should we talk about?
Harry, who had been frowning in thought, quickly found a new topic.
“Now that I think about it, isn’t it strange? To feel at first glance that this person will spend their entire life with you?”
Harry had felt a similar emotion when she first saw Jessie at the Baseball Stadium.
Unlike Aemerus’s Grandfather, her one-sided feelings had simply run their course.
She laughed bitterly and asked.
“Aemerus, what about you? Have you ever felt that way before?”
“I have.”
At his unexpected answer, Harry’s eyes widened in surprise.

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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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