Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 24

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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 24
Once the students finished eating, they headed off to study, and Anika went out to play with friends since it was vacation.
I spent my time at leisure in my own room.
Apart from bumping into my parents for exactly ten minutes—they’d been invited to stay at a nearby acquaintance’s house—it was a rather pleasant break.
‘Actually, most days are fine as long as I don’t have to go to work.’
The rest did me good, and time flew by until another holiday arrived before I knew it.
It was the day I’d promised to return Everett’s handkerchief.
Wearing my second-best going-out dress, I headed to the fountain plaza where we’d arranged to meet.
“You arrived early?”
I’d come out rather quickly, thinking I might have kept Everett waiting last time, but once again he was already there when I arrived.
“A gentleman cannot keep a lady waiting.”
Everett extended his hand.
As I placed my hand in his, he lightly wrapped his arm around my waist and started walking somewhere, but caught sight of the clock tower and paused.
“There’s still time.”
He’d apparently made a reservation at a different restaurant than last time, and it seemed the reservation time hadn’t quite arrived yet.
I made a suggestion to Everett, who seemed uncertain about how to spend the remaining minutes.
“Would you like to go to the tea room? It’s right nearby.”
“That sounds good.”
I thought it was a decent option, but the tea room I had in mind turned out to be far too crowded.
“I’m afraid we’re full at the moment—you’d have to wait.”
The attendant asked apologetically whether we’d like to be added to the waiting list.
Since the place was popular among young ladies, there was already quite a line formed.
Waiting for a table to open would take too long before our restaurant reservation.
“We’ll come back another time.”
When we stepped back out of the tea room, our schedule became even more awkward.
Thinking we might as well pop into any shop to kill some time, I looked at the stores visible along the street, but they were all packed with customers.
“Since it’s the middle of the day on a holiday, I imagine other places are in much the same situation.”
Ever since the war ended and energy returned to the city, the commercial district seemed to be enjoying more foot traffic than before.
“Shall we head to the Guild?”
Everett had thought of the one shop in the commercial district that wasn’t benefiting from this boom.
‘If we go there, at least we won’t have to leave because there’s no table available.’
“That might work.”
When we arrived at Kyle’s café and opened the door, a bell chimed.
Kyle appeared from behind the coffee bar and greeted us.
“Welcome.”
His voice and expression were the very model of service-industry courtesy.
But the moment Kyle confirmed that the customers were Diaz and Everett, his expression quickly soured.
“I got my hopes up thinking we had real customers.”
Kyle complained audibly, as if wanting us to hear.
“Wouldn’t you consider using the back door?”
Everett let Kyle’s grumbling pass without batting an eye.
Kyle, apparently used to this, sighed quietly and led us to a table.
Then, before Everett could speak, he thrust a menu at him.
It was a menu with “Whiskey and water are not sold here” written in bold letters—apparently Everett’s personal menu.
‘He must have asked for water at some point too.’
The orders showed Kyle’s determination never to drink the coffee he prepared.
Everett let out a dry laugh upon seeing the menu Kyle had subtly pushed in front of him.
“Water.”
His voice was so steely that even a needle couldn’t penetrate it, and Kyle’s lips twisted.
“Yes, sir. One water for this gentleman.”
Then, remembering that I was still there, he turned the menu toward me instead.
“And what will Miss Diaz have?”
His eyes sparkled with anticipation as he waited for my order.
I wanted to follow Everett’s lead and order water too.
‘I thought this place’s coffee was poison.’
But unfortunately, I had a weakness for Kyle’s appearance.
‘He resembles my father.’
The resemblance wasn’t overwhelming in terms of looks, but the impression was quite similar.
‘Father.’
I shut my eyes tight and ordered coffee as a form of filial piety toward him.
His eyes, which had been drooping lower and lower, snapped back to normal in an instant.
Kyle headed to the kitchen with a smile, eyes crinkling with delight at my order.
“Diaz.”
Everett called my name with what looked like a sulky expression.
“Yes?”
My gaze, which had been following Kyle’s movements, shifted to Everett.
His expression softened slightly.
“That Kyle is an incorrigible womanizer.”
And then, quite unexpectedly, he started finding fault with Kyle.
“I know of at least ten women in his life.”
‘I don’t quite follow the context, but…’
It was quite surprising to hear that someone who looked like a devoted supporting male lead was a womanizer.
‘Father, I’m sorry.’
I apologized to my father—who had married his first love and was living happily—for overlapping him with Kyle in my mind.
I made an effort to manage my expression out of courtesy, but it apparently wasn’t very effective.
Everett, noting my subtly contorted expression, smiled with raised lips.
“Those ten women you know of are all of them.”
Kyle, who had overheard Everett’s words as he came out with the coffee and water, protested in aggrieved tones.
Kyle set the water and coffee down before Everett and me respectively, then added,
“In all honesty, each of those relationships simply didn’t last very long—there was no overlap.”
‘Well, I suppose that’s something.’
Kyle being a womanizer wasn’t really something I was in a position to criticize.
Still, as a reader, it was better that Kyle wasn’t actually a womanizer than if the charming supporting character from the original work turned out to be one.
As I nodded in acknowledgment, Kyle’s gaze shifted to Everett.
“And all ten of them were older than me. The eleventh probably will be too.”
Once he finished speaking, Kyle shook his head at Everett in exaggerated fashion before disappearing quickly.
‘Did Everett promise to set up a blind date for Kyle?’
I couldn’t understand why the conversation had suddenly veered toward Kyle’s love life.
Yet Everett, who had brought it up, seemed satisfied and wore a comfortable expression.
“By the way, Diaz, are you sure you’re okay?”
Everett, having taken a sip of the water Kyle had brought, alternated his gaze between me and my coffee cup as he asked.
I answered somewhat fearfully.
“Is this coffee likely to taste similar to what I had before?”
“Probably. He’s a consistent fellow.”
Everett tried to dissuade me from drinking it.
“Just throw it away.”
But I felt a gaze distinctly belonging to Kyle pressing against the back of my head.
And it was brimming with anticipation.
I ultimately couldn’t ignore Kyle’s fervent hopes directed at the back of my neck, so I picked up the coffee cup and took a sip.
Once Kyle confirmed that I’d drunk the coffee, he disappeared toward somewhere connected to the Guild, elated.
But I immediately became miserable.
‘Ugh.’
My memory must have beautified the coffee’s taste.
‘Or maybe the shock was so severe that I distorted the memory.’
A sour-gritty taste combined with burnt flavor came at me in rapid succession, with no aromatic coffee notes at all and a smell that was positively off.
‘If I drink more, I think I’ll get sick.’
I eventually set the cup down.
Then I glanced toward the back and asked Everett in a very low voice,
“Is it possible I’ve done something wrong?”
Or perhaps Kyle derived happiness from watching others suffer.
The taste was so awful that tears welled up in my eyes.
After staring blankly at my eyes for a moment, Everett pushed his water toward me.
“That’s why I said not to drink it.”
His tone was concerned.
Since I had ordered it myself and Everett had warned me against it, only I had myself to blame—which somehow made it worse.
I gulped down the water Everett had given me.
But the shocking taste of the coffee still lingered in my mouth.
‘This seems to be spoiled, actually.’
I didn’t know much about coffee.
‘When I was preparing for the civil service exam, I drank so much cheap americano and instant coffee just to stay awake that I got sick of it and stopped drinking it altogether.’
Between instant coffee and the mass-produced, cheap café coffee focused only on quantity and low price, and the coffee from some famous café whose barista had apparently placed in a competition somewhere, I was unsophisticated enough not to distinguish between them.
‘But I can tell this isn’t normal.’
As my expression grew gloomy from eating something that tasted so bad, Everett made excuses on Kyle’s behalf.
“He bears you no ill will. It’s simply that his skills aren’t improving.”
I felt a surge of emotion at Everett’s substitute apology.
“Even if the god of baristas were using spoiled coffee beans, their skills wouldn’t improve.”
Despite rinsing with water, my voice rose as the spectacular parade of shocking tastes continued echoing through my mouth.
Loud enough to ring through the empty café and reach where Kyle was.
“Spoiled?”
“The beans?”
Everett and Kyle, who had appeared by then, both spoke almost simultaneously.
Across my past life and present one, I had never tasted spoiled coffee, but I spoke with conviction.
“Yes, it’s spoiled. 100%.”
It was a flavor that could never emerge if the ingredients were fine.

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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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