My Unrequited Love Is an Absolute Secret - Chapter 83

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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 83

Jessie said he would wait.
Until the day my heart changed again.
It was a vague waiting with no end in sight.
I tried to stop Jessie from doing this, but it was futile.

‘If you hate waiting for me, then just accept me.’

That was a request I couldn’t grant—not for Aemerus’s sake, and certainly not for Jessie himself.
In the end, I returned home without being able to stop him.
[I’m home…]
[Oh. Lili, you’re back?]
My mind in tatters, I flinched at my mother’s voice.
There was a playful lilt to her greeting.
‘What’s going on?’
She’d been busy with the Restaurant lately, but my mother had always enjoyed teasing.
As I tilted my head in confusion, I spotted a pair of shoes in the shoe rack that stood out distinctly from the rest, and my eyes widened.
“Huh?”
“Lili.”
“Huh?”
It was Aemerus. The real Aemerus.
The moment I saw him standing in the Foyer, my mind—and even my tongue—went numb.
Frozen like stone, I barely managed to open my mouth.
“Why are you in our house?”
“I heard you were going to Korea.”
“What? Who told you?”
“Robin told me.”
I pressed my forehead with my hand.
Of course it had to be Robin—no one else but him.
“Come here for a moment.”
I grabbed Aemerus’s sleeve and led him to the Living Room.
Normally I would have simply held his hand comfortably, but since we’d confessed our feelings to each other, I’d become more cautious instead.
In the Living Room were my parents, clearly struggling to suppress their laughter, and Robin with his arms crossed and a sullen expression.
“Robin. Did you tell Aemerus that we’re going to Korea?”
“Yeah.”
Robin had just recently started the beginner’s Hockey Team class.
He was furious about having to miss a week of classes because of this sudden Korea trip.
I understand my brother’s grievance well enough.
What puzzles me is Harry’s reaction.
“Don’t scold Robin too much. But you were planning to leave without telling me?”
Aemerus’s expression had grown grave, as though Harry were departing for Korea permanently.
When I placed both hands on my hips and looked at my parents, they both covered their mouths with their hands and turned away.
But I’d already heard the sound of them stifling their laughter with soft huffs.
‘Aemerus has gotten the wrong idea entirely.’
Whatever Robin had explained, Aemerus seemed to believe that Harry was leaving for Korea with the entire family permanently.
And my parents hadn’t bothered to correct his misunderstanding.
“You’re all impossible.”
Once Harry grasped the situation, she voiced her exasperation, and Father glanced nervously before deflecting.
“Well, we didn’t actually lie, did we?”
Only then did Aemerus seem to sense something amiss, his eyebrows rising slightly.
Simultaneously, a glimmer of hope broke through the despair that had flooded his face.
“Did I misunderstand something?”
“…Let’s go to my room and talk about it.”
Harry grabbed Aemerus’s sleeve again.
As they headed toward the room on the Second Floor, our parents called after them.
“Leave the door open—don’t lock it!”
“We’re just going to talk!”
As if closing the door meant they’d start kissing or something?
Harry’s face flushed crimson as she thundered up the stairs at a rapid pace.
“Harry, you’re going too fast. Slow down.”
Aemerus, holding onto her sleeve as he followed, spoke those words.
It was clear he wasn’t saying it because he genuinely struggled to keep up with her speed.
I could feel that he was smiling without even turning around to look.
‘Why is all the embarrassment falling on me?’
Robin created the misunderstanding, and Aemerus was the one who misunderstood, so why was I the one blushing?
Harry suppressed the urge to tear at her own hair and stepped into the room.
“Make yourself comfortable. Do you want to take off your coat?”
She asked while removing her gray duffle coat, and Aemerus shook his head.
He was wearing a black bomber jacket.
It seemed he’d rushed over in the middle of Hockey Team practice.
As Harry hung her coat on the rack and closed the Wardrobe door, she sensed movement outside.
When she opened the door wide, she caught sight of Robin’s retreating figure as he scrambled away after eavesdropping.
[You’re really going to embarrass your sister like this?]
Despite her deliberate use of Korean, she heard Aemerus let out a soft laugh.
‘Right, Aemerus speaks Korean.’
I’d momentarily forgotten.
Harry pressed her forehead and closed the door.
My face burned with embarrassment, constantly showing myself in such an awkward state in front of Aemerus.
“I don’t understand why everyone’s acting like this….”
It took considerable resolve to finally meet Aemerus’s gaze.
Taking a deep breath, I finally turned my body around.
Aemerus sat in the chair before the desk, just as he had when he’d visited this room before.
“By now you’ve probably figured it out, but I’m not going to Korea permanently. I’ll just be there for a week and then come back.”
Sitting on the bed, I tried desperately to sort out this tangled mess of a situation.
“A week?”
“Yeah. It’s been a long time since I last went to Korea….”
I hesitated over whether to tell him, stealing a glance at his expression.
“My lyrics got selected. The Music Company wants to sign a formal contract with me.”
Surprise bloomed across Aemerus’s face, which had seemed somewhat anxious.
Soon after, he broke into a wide smile.
“Congratulations. I knew you could do it.”
Looking at his handsome smile, my chest tightened.
It was news I hadn’t dared share with Jessie because it felt like bragging.
But seeing Aemerus congratulate me with such genuine joy, as if it were his own achievement, made it finally feel real.
“So that’s why you’re going to Korea.”
“Yeah. Apparently I’m still not an adult in Korea.”
“Even after your birthday?”
“I need to wait another year even after my birthday. It’s my fault for not checking beforehand, I guess.”
I let out a soft sigh and pouted.
“Fortunately, the Music Company said it’s fine even if I’m a minor. The problem was convincing my parents.”
“Are they still opposed?”
“No. They said it’s fine as long as I don’t give up on university. Only Robin got dragged along and is furious about it.”
“Don’t blame Robin too much. Thanks to him, I found out you’re going to Korea too.”
“Are you defending Robin right now in front of me?”
He smiled faintly as he watched me playfully narrow my eyes.
“When do you leave?”
“Friday before Christmas. The exact date is….”
As I checked the date on my phone and answered, Aemerus’s expression hardened.
“Then I’ll miss my championship game.”
“Oh…!”
Most of the flight seats were sold out because it happened to coincide with the Christmas break.
I’d barely managed to get this ticket.
No matter what, I’d completely forgotten the promise I’d made to him to come cheer at his championship game.
“I’m sorry. This really has no excuse.”
Aemerus shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s fine. It can’t be helped. You seemed to have a lot going on.”
He stared intently at my face and asked.
“Actually, I’ve been wanting to ask you this whole time—have you been crying?”
“Oh, that’s…”
Was it that obvious?
I should have checked a mirror before getting out of the car.
Who could have predicted that Aemerus would be at the house?
I could have made up some excuse, but lying to him felt wrong.
I let out a shallow sigh as I wrestled with what to say.
“The truth is, I just came back from meeting Jessie.”
Aemerus fell silent, his expression unreadable.
Was he angry?
Or disappointed?
Either way terrified me.
I hurried to explain myself.
“I went to convince him to stop. I couldn’t just let him keep doing those kinds of things.”
“Did the conversation go well?”
“Yeah. He said he was going to quit anyway. Thank goodness.”
“That is fortunate.”
But his expression remained dark.
He reached out carefully and brushed away the tears from the corners of my eyes.
“Then why were you crying?”
If things had gone well with Jessie, there was no reason for me to cry at all.
My heart stopped as the distance between us closed in the blink of an eye.
Caught in the gaze of those luminous emerald eyes so close to my face, I found myself confessing like someone under a spell.
“Jessie and I almost kissed. But I couldn’t go through with it.”
“…”
“Because the person I love is you, Aemerus.”
Aemerus’s slowly blinking lashes came to a halt.
He stared at me as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
‘Why is he acting like he’s hearing this for the first time?’
I found it strange, but the immediate embarrassment of having spoken such vulnerable words aloud overwhelmed any confusion.
‘I won’t mention that Jessie said he’d wait for me.’
I gathered my courage and took his hand.
If Aemerus looked even cuter with his eyes widened like that, then I was truly, undeniably, hopelessly in love with him.
“I love you, Aemerus.”
I decided to stop denying my feelings for him.
“Is what you said about loving me still true?”
Like a single drop of color bleeding into water, a blush slowly spread across Aemerus’s face, down his neck, and even to his hands.

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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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