My Unrequited Love Is an Absolute Secret - Chapter 76

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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 76

Seven years ago, summer.
Warren County, New York, at the Summer Camp in the Adirondack Mountains.
A small, scrawny boy wearing glasses was being dragged along like a dog.
“How about here?”
“Perfect place to dump a body.”
“What do you think, Aemerus? You like it here too?”
The boy being dragged like a dog was hurled to the ground.
He was Aemerus Huntington.
“What’ll get you first—hanging yourself or the bears?”
“One thing’s for sure: your mother won’t even show up to your funeral.”
“‘Oh my! My son is dead? How unfortunate. I’ll send flowers in my place.'”
The boys mimicked Aemerus’s mother in shrill voices, cackling with laughter.
Yet Aemerus simply stared at the ground in silence.
When would this torment end?
He hoped it wouldn’t drag on too long.
That was all he could think about.
Years of bullying had taught him that resistance was futile.
“Tie him to the tree.”
The moment the ringleader gave the order, Aemerus found himself bound tightly to a tree trunk.
“But is it really true that people die from hanging even at low heights?”
“Who knows. Let’s smear honey on his head so the bears find him easier.”
They seemed intent on experimenting with half-baked information they’d picked up somewhere.
Idiots. You couldn’t kill someone like that even if you tried.
Aemerus sneered inwardly.
“This bastard won’t even beg for his life.”
“Hey, you think we’re joking around?”
They found it repulsive how Aemerus kept his mouth shut even now, dragged to this remote place and bound to a tree.
Suddenly, a clump of mud flew from behind the boys.
“Ugh, what the—?”
“Hitting his head is worth 10 points.”
“What?”
“Hitting that spot is worth 50 points.”
Under the ringleader’s direction, a new game targeting Aemerus began.
The boys tried eagerly to hit him, but the wet mud scattered in all directions before reaching its target.
“Haha, look at him. Like a pig rolling around in shit.”
“Disgusting.”
“My hands are filthy now.”
The boys who had been gleefully hurling mud at Aemerus just moments before wiped their hands on their clothes in disgust.
“We’ve had enough fun. Let’s go.”
“Wait, what about him?”
“Leave him.”
“What if he actually dies….”
After fully participating in tormenting Aemerus, a few of the boys belatedly got cold feet.
“He’s going to die from Huntington’s disease anyway. We’re just making it easier for him.”
The ringleader boasted as he spoke.
‘Huntington is named after the doctor who discovered the disease, you idiots.’
Aemerus only refuted them in his mind.
The atmosphere suggested they would leave on their own if he stayed quiet.
“It’s your last supper before you die.”
The ringleader snickered and poured honey he’d stolen from the Restaurant over Aemerus’s head.
“Goodbye. Let’s never see each other again.”
He carelessly hurled the empty honey jar to the ground and turned away.
The other boys exchanged glances, shrugged, and followed the ringleader.
“Why does he hate Aemerus so much anyway?”
“His cousin has the same name.”
“That’s all…?”
“Apparently that cousin bullied him terribly. He was shaking about it.”
Remarkably, humans were creatures capable of despising someone for such trivial reasons.
The boys pitied Aemerus in their hearts, but that was all.
If he didn’t exist, they might become the targets of bullying instead.
“Come on!”
After everyone left, Aemerus was alone.
The sticky honey prevented me from opening my eyes properly, and my bound hands couldn’t wipe it away.
‘If I die like this, at least it would be easier.’
At least I wouldn’t be bullied anymore.
Aemerus closed my eyes and let everything go.
Would it hurt a lot if a bear killed me?
If I die, would my busy parents even come to my funeral?
But no matter how long I waited, no bear appeared.
Only the deafening cries of cicadas and the occasional chirping of birds could be heard.
Aemerus, who had been standing composed, began to writhe as time passed.
My body swelled from the rope bindings, and the urge to urinate intensified.
I wanted to avoid wetting myself even if it meant dying.
But young Aemerus had limits to what I could endure.
“….”
Before long, my pants were soaked, and as the liquid trickled down my legs, Aemerus truly yearned for death.
There was nothing more humiliating than being discovered in such a state.
But whether it was God or fate, one thing was certain—neither was on Aemerus’s side.
A girl’s voice singing in the distance grew steadily closer.
“Beautiful mistakes, ones I’ve created.”
Her voice was so clear and bright it made me forget the predicament I was in.
Aemerus barely managed to pry open his heavy eyelids.
“I don’t regret my mistakes. I love the past I lived back then.”
The girl wasn’t alone.
She was holding hands with a boy, humming along to the song, when she stopped and checked her compass.
“Look at this, Jessie. The compass really is broken, isn’t it?”
“You’re right.”
Jessie, who had been alternating his gaze between the compass and the growth rings of the severed tree trunk, readily admitted his mistake.
“I’m sorry. If I’d brought a proper compass, we wouldn’t have gotten lost.”
“It’s fine. It was fun exploring because of it.”
“Are your feet hurting? Should I carry you?”
The girl considered letting him carry her, then glanced around.
She felt a gaze from somewhere.
As she looked around, she soon spotted Aemerus and cried out.
“Jessie, look over there!”
Startled by her shout, Jessie jumped to his feet.
His eyes narrowed in caution, and he gasped in shock.
“…Huntington?”
“Huntington?”
The girl peeked her face out from behind Jessie’s back.
“It really is!”
She recognized Aemerus and tried to approach him, but Jessie stopped her.
“Don’t go.”
“Why?”
“He’s filthy.”
The stench was coming from Aemerus.
Jessie pinched his nose with his sleeve and grimaced.
“Lili!”
While he hesitated, Harry approached Aemerus without reservation.
“Hey?”
She greeted Aemerus casually and examined him carefully.
She even reached out to touch the unidentifiable brown substance caked on his clothes.
“Oh, it’s just mud.”
“Lili! What if you just run off like that!”
Jessie hurried after her, alarmed, and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket.
He then scrubbed her hand as though it were contaminated with a deadly pathogen.
“You idiot, what if you wipe my face clean?”
Harry laughed brightly before snatching the handkerchief from his hand.
The stolen handkerchief was put to good use wiping Aemerus’s face.
“I’ll clean your glasses for you too.”
Jessie sighed as he watched Harry take Aemerus’s glasses and polish them carefully with her own clothes.
“Stop sighing and untie the rope for me.”
Jessie shrugged at Harry’s nagging.
“It’s much faster to cut it than to untie it one knot at a time.”
“Then cut it.”
He shook his head as if to say there was no stopping him, then pulled a multi-tool knife from his pocket.
It was a gift his father had secretly given him before he left for camp.
As the thick rope binding Aemerus’s torso was cut with a soft scraping sound, Harry spoke to him.
“Just wait a moment. I’ll free you soon.”
“….”
“But you’re really amazing. I would have cried my eyes out.”
It was strange.
The sun was clearly in the sky, yet it also existed before Aemerus.
Bright, warm, and dazzlingly beautiful.
In place of the entranced Aemerus, Jessie answered instead.
“Lili’s a crybaby.”
“I am not a crybaby!”
“Yes, you are.”
The bond between the two was so solid that there was no room for Aemerus to interject.
Soon after, Jessie put the knife back in his pocket and asked.
“All done. Can you walk on your own?”
Aemerus tried to walk with composure, but he stumbled before he could even take three steps.
“What do we do? Looks like you can’t walk. Jessie, can’t you carry him on your back?”
“You want me to carry him?”
Jessie made no attempt to hide his displeasure.
He was still just a young boy and not yet skilled at concealing his true feelings.
“You said you’d carry me earlier. Can’t you carry him instead of me?”
“Carrying you is different from carrying him.”
“No complaints. Come here, Huntington. I’ll help support you.”
Harry stuck her tongue out at Jessie before approaching Aemerus and linking her arm through his.
Unable to bear it any longer, Jessie finally hoisted Aemerus onto his back.
“I’ve got your glasses!”
Since the glasses would be uncomfortable bumping against Jessie’s back, Harry decided to hold them.
“It’s nice to meet someone we know. We were actually lost, you see.”
“But you said getting lost was fun earlier.”
Harry laughed at Jessie’s grumbling, then noticed Aemerus’s trembling hands—the aftershock of relief—and grasped them firmly.
As if no foul stench emanated from him whatsoever.
“Would you like me to sing for you?”
Aemerus didn’t answer.
Yet Harry began to sing anyway.
“Beautiful mistakes, ones I’ve created.”
A song Aemerus would never forget for the rest of his life.
“We’re still awake, repeating beautiful mistakes over and over.”
Without his glasses, he followed Harry through his blurred vision.
Like the midsummer sun that had suddenly appeared before him one day.

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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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