The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 271

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Chapter 63

Soya had known Irim for a very long time.

She first met him when she was six years old, and had built a private friendship with him until she saved him at the cost of his memories when she was seventeen.

Therefore, when it came to him, she could dare to take pride in knowing him a little better than others.

But the humorless expression on his face that she was witnessing now, and the gaze rippling with deep longing.

His roughly locked voice that somehow seemed to be holding something back.

Even the faint trembling she felt from his hands cupping her face.

All of these were things she was seeing, hearing, and feeling for the first time.

He was certainly the man she knew, but he didn’t seem like the man she knew.

Since Soya was no longer a child, she couldn’t help but understand what his attitude meant.

“This kind of thing… is with someone you like…”

“I like you.”

To her words that she barely managed to squeeze out while holding her breath, he answered without hesitation.

Thump…!

At those words, Soya’s face flushed hot.

Soya stared blankly at Irim’s eyes as he gazed at her.

Thump, thump, thump, thump…

Whether it was because of that deep gaze or this strange atmosphere, her heart kept pounding.

So much so that for just a moment, she almost believed that he really liked her.

“D-don’t joke around, Your Majesty.”

Soya, who came to her senses with a start, quickly pushed him away.

“Y-Your Majesty has Jeong-in, doesn’t he?”

She almost forgot for a moment, nearly falling for that gaze.

That he had Jeong-in in his heart.

“That’s not important anymore.”

“What…?”

For a moment, a faint question along with bewilderment flashed across Soya’s face, and then horror bloomed.

“N-not important?”

“Really. I cannot tell lies.”

He spoke in a serious voice without any playfulness.

“H-how could you…!”

Suddenly, Soya looked at Irim as if he were the world’s greatest playboy and stood up abruptly.

“What’s wrong?”

At Soya’s suddenly angry appearance, Irim looked up at her with a puzzled face.

Then Soya delivered a sharp rebuke at him.

“I never dreamed that Your Majesty was a womanizing playboy who likes multiple women with one heart! I’m truly disappointed!”

“Wait, that’s not…”

“Don’t grab me!”

The flustered Irim tried to grab her, but Soya firmly turned around and left just like that.

“…”

Irim, who had suddenly become a playboy and was left alone, stared at the spot where she had left with a dumbfounded expression.

Unable to immediately understand the situation from moments before, he blinked his eyes slowly, and then…

“Ha, haha…!”

Laughter burst out between his parted lips.

“Hahaha, haha!”

This was the first time he had laughed out loud like this.

Her sharply raised eye corners and pointed gaze, her firm voice.

It seemed she was quite angry indeed.

“Oh my, what should I do about this. I’ve really gotten on her bad side.”

He muttered in a rather troubled voice.

Nevertheless, the reason laughter came out was probably because his mind, which had been confused every time he saw her these past few days, had become clear.

[This kind of thing… is with someone you like…]

[I like you.]

When she asked like that, his heart recognized that fact before his head did.

When she cried, his heart ached.

When she smiled, his chest stirred.

At some point, she had become embedded in him as an even deeper afterimage than the sensations in his vague memories.

He thought only of her all day long.

He followed only her every single day.

Like that, she had completely colored his empty chest with her own hue.

How could this… not be liking someone.

Irim was certain.

It was love.

This was definitely the feeling of romantic love.

“Yes, even her anger looks lovely, so how could this not be love.”

Irim smiled gently while recalling Soya’s face as she got angry at him.

His vague memories still didn’t come back clearly.

He had sometimes suspected whether she might be the same person as the woman in his memories, but in the end, he couldn’t know for sure.

But now that was no longer important.

Because something more important had appeared to him.

The Baek family’s daughter, Soya.

Because he liked her, because he loved her, because he was in love with her.

* * *

‘Someone who has a beloved in his heart, saying he likes me.’

After that day, Soya often became lost in thought with a blank expression.

Thinking of his expression, gaze, and voice that felt so real made her heart keep feeling restless.

‘Was that a lie to kiss me?’

Of course, Soya knew too. That the Imperial Dragon cannot tell lies.

But if that was really the truth…

‘He’s such a playboy!’

She had heard from Mother once before.

That in this world, there are terrible womanizing playboys who like multiple women with one heart.

She said you should never even look at such men because they will surely make women cry.

‘But Your Majesty was exactly that womanizing playboy!’

Soya fumed with anger at that fact.

‘It’s really unbelievable!’

She couldn’t accept that the man she liked was the womanizing playboy that Mother had spoken of.

‘But… nothing is impossible.’

However, Soya soon stopped being angry at the assumption that came flooding in.

What Soya knew of him was only his childhood appearance.

Soya didn’t know much about what he was like as an adult either.

So in fact, he might have originally been a playboy who liked multiple women with one heart, and she just hadn’t known it until now.

But even so…

‘How could he do that.’

Soya’s eyes drooped sadly.

‘What kind of heart did I have when I supported His Majesty’s new love.’

When she learned that he had someone in his heart, Soya’s decision to let go of her own feelings for him was by no means a small resolution.

‘This is really too much.’

Therefore, Soya was firmly angry at Irim.

‘Is it perhaps because he’s the Emperor?’

The Emperor of Taehwa Kingdom could legally have multiple concubines.

Soya also knew this fact, but she had never thought deeply about it.

If that were the case, even if his feelings for her were genuine, Soya felt she wouldn’t be able to accept those feelings.

Apart from her feelings for him, having grown up watching her parents who loved only one partner their entire lives, Soya couldn’t understand the psychology of a playboy like Irim.

“Sigh.”

Soya let out a deep sigh, forgetting that she was in the middle of enjoying refreshments with her Elder Brothers.

At the sound of her sigh, the White Tiger Brothers’ gazes turned toward her.

Soya had been strange these past few days.

Even while sitting in the pavilion enjoying refreshments together, she kept staring blankly at the tree in the front courtyard…

Even while having pleasant conversations, she would fall into her own thoughts and let out deep sighs…

“Cotton Ball, did you hide something in that tree?”

At Gayul’s question, Soya startled and picked up the tea cup placed in front of her.

“Oh, there’s nothing there.”

“Then why do you keep glancing at that tree?”

“When did I do that? It’s just your imagination, Elder Brother.”

Soya deliberately spoke in a prim voice and sipped her tea water, worried that something might have been discovered.

“Fine then.”

Gayul scratched his head.

‘If Cotton Ball says no, then it must be no.’

However, unlike the simple Gayul, his two elder brothers were not so easily convinced.

Most of all, Soya’s cheeks that had turned bright red at Gayul’s question earlier were quite suspicious.

“It seems our Somsomi has some worries.”

“Soya, is there something bothering you?”

Gaya and Ga Hyeon each added a word in passing tones.

“…”

Instead of answering, Soya glanced at her Elder Brothers.

After pondering for a moment, she soon set down her tea cup and casually asked.

“Is it true that among men, there are playboys who can like multiple women with one heart?”

Pause.

The men of the White Tiger Family stopped what they were doing and looked at her in unison.

“Why are you curious about that, our Soya?”

The end of Ga Hyeon’s voice trembled slightly as he asked back in a gentle tone.

“Well… This is absolutely not my story, but my friend’s story.”

Soya chose her words for a moment, then spoke calmly.

“My friend has a man she likes. But that man had a separate lover, yet suddenly tried to kiss my friend.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

In an instant, the eyes of the White Tiger Family men hardened fiercely.

“So when my startled friend asked if this wasn’t something that should be done with someone you like, that man confessed that he liked my friend.”

Unaware of their fierce gazes, Soya spoke in a voice that seemed utterly incomprehensible.

“How can someone like another woman at the same time while having a lover? It really doesn’t make sense!”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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