For Your Failed Unrequited Love

“I should turn on the light first. I can’t see anything…”

Lucy walked somewhere, fumbling over the wall. Soon she found a candlestick hanging on an old nail and lit it up. Bright orange light soon filled the dark library.

“I’m glad there are still candles left,” said Lucy, relieved.

Then she approached the table and began to sort the books she had brought. Whenever Lucy’s hands moved, books piled up neatly, making a faint sound as they went on top of the other —sincerely working as a member of the book club.

“I’ll help too.” Embarrassed for reasons unknown, Felix approached.

“Then can you check between the book pages?” Lucy picked up a book and turned the page. “Sometimes some students use a student ID card as a bookmark and forget to take them out and just return them to the library.”

“Really?” Felix picked up a book that was nearby. When he flipped over the book, a piece of paper fell, but it wasn’t a student ID.

[Archel, be bald. Archel, be bald. Archel, be bald…]

The same sentence filled one side of the paper. Archel was a history teacher famous for being strict and stingy.

“What is that?” Lucy asked. She laughed as soon as she saw what was written. “I think Mr. Archel should be really careful. There’s always a curse note like this.”

“Every time?”

“Yes.”

Lucy began to list the things she saw one after another.

“He was cursed to have diarrhea all year round, and someone also cursed him to be constipated all year round and that a beetle would come out of his ears…” 

Isn’t it a miracle that Archel is still alive? Felix thought as Lucy listed the various curses she had come across.

Various things appeared between the other books’ pages as well. Most of them were trash —receipts, scribbles, and candy wrappers— but there was a love letter, inserted between the pages and was left forgotten.

A love letter…

Felix stared at the letter with the strange confession written on it. The names of the sender and recipient were not written.

“That’s too much.”

Felix turned back; Lucy’s focus was on the letter he held, sadness in her eyes.

“How dare they treat someone else’s confession letter like this.”

“I know.” Felix folded the letter in half and put it on the pile of paper. 

The letter, which someone must have courageously written down, was intentionally used as a bookmark and was now on the verge of being thrown away.

“It would be very sad if the other person treated my heart like this…” Lucy muttered, returning to her task. She looked melancholic.

“Are you planning on confessing to anyone?”

At Felix’s sudden question, Lucy raised her head. “Hmm?”

“… Why are you so surprised?”

“… I’m not surprised.” But her voice trembled faintly.

Were you really going to confess to someone?

One person’s face came to Felix’s head.

Is it Adrian?

He quickly became serious.

No. There’s no way Lucy suddenly has such courage. She couldn’t even ask Adrian to go together to the “Literature Night.”

Felix reassured himself. However, his anxious hands were unknowingly flapping roughly through the books. A note flew out from the book by the wind he created, soaring far from the table.

Felix picked it up. “Ha, popularity vote?” He let out an exasperated laugh.

The note had a popularity ranking among female students of the Xenomium Academy.

“Who did such a childish thing?” Felix snorted, but his eyes were checking the rankings.

The first place was Claire Hamilton, the daughter of the Marquis and a student council member. Rosé Millard was in second place by a narrow margin. From 3rd place onwards, the names of unfamiliar female students and no Lucy.

“What? What’s the standard of this ranking?” Felix spat out, dissatisfied. 

That’s absurd. How could they not include Lucy?

“Was there something wrong with their eyes?” He crumpled the paper and threw it onto the table.

In an instant, Lucy quickly picked up the paper and unfolded it.

“As expected, do you think Rosé should be number one?”

Felix looked at her in surprise as she checked her paper.

“What? Rosé Millard?” Felix asked, extremely puzzled. “How did you come to that conclusion? Didn’t you see me fighting with Rosé when we went to town?”

“Were you fighting? …You seem to be on good terms to me.”

“What are you talking about?”

Does Lucy Keenan’s definition of a ‘good relationship’ refer to a relationship where they can’t stand each other? How can you say that we are good friends even after seeing that?

“You seem to be joking around with each other….” Lucy blurted out after a moment of hesitation.

Joke? Joking?

Felix was momentarily confused.

I swear I never uttered a single joke to Rosé Millard.

“Give me that.”

He took the note from Lucy and crumpled it relentlessly. Then, he opened the lid of the nearby box marked “Discarded Books” and shoved the note into it.

A strange silence loomed in the library. 

Ever since they found the note with the popularity ranking, Lucy was preoccupied with organizing books, not uttering a single word. She looked gloomy, as if she was in a bad mood. Felix also kept flipping through books after books as the atmosphere in the library became more stifling. 

Not long after that, an unexpected object appeared, dispelling the uncomfortable atmosphere at once.

“Huh?” Lucy, who was flipping through the books, noticed something. Her lips parted in shock. “Felix-sunbae….” She called him carefully. 

Felix raised his head; his eyes rested on her. 

Lucy was still, looking at the item she had found. “Here is the sunbae’s report card….”

“Oh.” Felix snatched the report card as fast as lightning. “Why is this stuck in there?”

After checking his name and grade on the report card, Felix closed his eyes tightly. Of all things, it was the report card from back then.

“Sunbae…” Lucy muttered, her hand hanging in the air from which the report card had been taken. “How can all of them be F except for one subject?”

As Lucy said, all subjects excluding “Swordsmanship” were recorded as F on the report card. He had blanked out all the test answers in the midterm exam last semester.

Felix quickly folded the report card in half and shoved it into his pocket. “There was a reason for that.”

“What is it?” Lucy asked. She had not recovered from the shock.

Felix had one strange obsession — not being in a competitive structure with his twin brothers. He would be nervous if his grades were a little similar to Adrian’s.

Instead of praising him for outperforming his twin, their mother was busy comforting the disappointed Adrian.

His habit of yielding most to Adrian was born after witnessing such a thing. If he didn’t outdo Adrian, the duchess wouldn’t be hurt.

Therefore, he intentionally made more mistakes on the test questions after entering the academy. Thanks to him, Adrian always took the top spot. It didn’t matter to Felix. Even though he didn’t get good grades, he was comfortable in his spot.

The problem was the reaction of the duke when he found out about it.

“I can’t believe the next Duke of Berg can’t even secure the top spot at the academy! If you can’t beat even your younger brother, what are you going to do to control people from now on?!”

The Duke wanted Felix to regard Adrian as a competitor he had to overcome and win rather than just congratulating him on his success.

Felix was always torn between his mother, who wanted him to be less than Adrian, and his father, who wanted him to be better.

Out of sheer anger, he left all the answer sheets blank.

Since then, he left his report card randomly on the desk. He didn’t know it would lead to this moment, where the report was stuck in a book and Lucy finding it.

Lucy, a sophomore who never had a failing grade, seemed quite astonished.

“Except for one subject, everything is F…” she mumbled as she sat on the chair blankly. “How can you get such a grade? Did you use your foot to answer the exams?” 

Lucy was surprised by the words leaving her mouth and immediately covered her mouth. “Sorry,” she apologized to Felix, her face flaming red. “You must have felt bad! I was just surprised!”

“It’s fine. Not even shocking.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Lucy shook her hand quickly in embarrassment. “I think that’s–”

“It’s okay. Don’t comfort me.” Felix cut her mid-sentence and sat down on the chair with a dead expression on his face. 

It made Lucy was even more embarrassed and restless. Her eyes became round like a surprised rabbit, and her face as red as a tomato.

For a while, Felix was ashamed that his report card was revealed, but seeing her reaction made him feel weird.