For Your Failed Unrequited Love

“I’m fine, Felix. Let’s just put this behind us. It’s nothing.”

“Nothing?” Felix was surprised by his younger brother’s unexpected answer. “What about today? Changing the name on the test paper? It’s like I’m stealing your achievements. Is that nothing?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing.” Adrian looked at Felix, serious. “The student council, the book club… I worked hard not to miss out on this and that, but actually, those things don’t matter to me at all. What’s important to me is you and our mother.”

Adrian slowly approached Felix. He gently patted Felix on the shoulder and said, “I really don’t mind. After all, this will no longer happen after you inherit the title.” He added with a faint smile, “You just have to endure it until then. Let’s not make anything that will upset father.”

* * *

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That morning, Felix had barely fallen asleep after tossing and turning. He had a dream. 

He was in his room in the duchy, unable to get out of the tightly locked door. He pulled the handle, but it didn’t budge. He quickly gave up and looked around the room, and then he went straight to the window.

He saw another him outside. He was elegantly dressed, and he was using perfect etiquette and a gentle attitude. Possessed by the graceful gestures and elegant voice, the nobles had ecstatic expressions on their faces. He was truly an impeccable nobleman.

With a graceful smile, he turned his head to look at Felix. Felix in the room and Felix outside the window met each other’s gaze. Felix outside the window, who had been looking at him for a while, smiled helplessly.

“Ah!” Only then did Felix realize. “That’s not me.”

Skillfully hiding his helpless smile, Adrian turned toward the people again. And he devoted himself to a conversation with them.

Felix knocked hard on the window. But Adrian didn’t look back at him.

“Adrian! Why are you there?” he shouted, but the answer never came.

Outside the window, Adrian continued to fulfill his schedule as Prince of Berg in place of Felix. Felix was locked in the room, blankly observing the whole scene.

All of a sudden, all the people outside the window disappeared, and a large carriage came running. Adrian slowly approached the carriage and stopped.

“Adrian!” Felix shouted, knocking on the window. “Where are you going?”

Adrian looked back slowly at his cry, staring at Felix. For a moment, his face was gloomy, and then he moved his lips.

“Libourg Port.”

“Don’t go! Adrian!” Felix yelled desperately. He banged on the window with both his fists but was ignored.

Adrian got into the carriage. The carriage carrying him began to move away from the window slowly. The horses gradually accelerated.

“Watch out for the cliff!” Felix screamed. Suddenly, a cliff appeared in front of the carriage. He was devastated as he watched the carriage disappear over the cliff.

Felix stared at the point where the carriage disappeared, keeping his eyes close to the window in vain.

“He’s dead.” He muttered, eyes red. “Adrian is dead.”

Click!

The tightly locked door opened. His father appeared after opening the door. The Duke of Berg looked at his mourning son, expressionless.

“Adrian is dead,” Felix said, anger filling his voice.

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“That’s what they said,” the duke replied indifferently. He leaned slowly against the door and looked at his son. “Now, the future of our family is in your hands. You, the real Prince of Berg, should lead the family.”

Felix clenched his fists. His white hands were trembling. “Adrian is no longer in this world. The same Adrian who you used, father. Do you think I’ll follow your advice?”

“Of course. It is your duty to follow it.” Despite Felix’s provocation, the duke did not blink. Rather, a strange smile appeared on his lips. “I have one more thing to say.”

The duke stepped aside. Anxious, Felix watched the door, and another person appeared.

“Sunbae…”

Light brown hair, pulled into a single braid and dazed emerald eyes.

Lucy stood stiffly, staring blankly at him.

* * *

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Felix gasped. His eyes wide open.

The ceiling was visible. A long shadow of dawn was cast over the antique ceiling painting. There was no Lucy or Duke. It was just a dream.

He let out a long, deep sigh as he brushed his hair back against his damp forehead. His heart was beating fast. Raising his body in bed, he sat still for a while to calm his heart.

Unlike in the dream, the scenery outside the window was tranquil. There was no Adrian and other nobles gathering outside. The slowly rising sky scattered the soft and blue light over the entire campus.

Adrian, whom Felix called so loudly in his dream, was asleep in the bed next to him, with colorful, quiet breaths. His forehead was slightly wrinkled as if he was also having a terrifying dream.

Last night, the conversation between the brothers that started in a strange atmosphere ended in vain. There were many unanswered questions, but Felix couldn’t afford to ask Adrian any further.

Adrian looked exhausted. Even when he was spending hectic days going back and forth between the student council and the book club, he had never shown such a lifeless look.

Felix couldn’t sleep that night until Adrian washed up and changed into his pajamas. He just lay down with his eyes closed, listening to the little noises his brother made.

Soon after Adrian blew out the remaining candle and lay on his bed, a deep silence came into the room. The autumn wind, which occasionally shook the window, was also quiet as if it had hidden somewhere.

Adrian, like Felix, can’t sleep well and is having a restless night. No matter how much he waited, his sleeping brother’s breathing could not be heard. For a while, such tranquility and silence persisted, and at some point, it seemed that he had fallen asleep.

Felix was still tired; he had woken up from a nightmare, but he didn’t feel like lying down. He was afraid that a nightmare would come again. So he sat on the bed and looked out the window until it was completely bright.

Suddenly, the sun peeked out over the eastern sky and began to brighten up the world in an instant.

Felix’s sleepiness had gone completely. He slowly raised his body, careful not to rouse the sleeping Adrian.

When Felix left the room, the place he headed was neither the bathroom nor the dining room. He immediately took his steps towards the training field.

A thousand things were going through his head. He had to move his body. He wanted to stop thinking and shake off the ominous scenes he saw in his dream.

Felix immediately wrapped a sword around his hand upon arriving at the field. Soon after, the sound of blades cutting through the air rang loudly. He swung the sword nonstop, focusing his mind on the swing of his blade.

His body continued to move like that for a while.

Clang!

Felix tossed his sword and lay flat on the floor.

His breathing was harsh, and his chest went up and down. His heart raced, and he felt a piercing pain in his lungs. He collapsed, blankly staring at the ceiling. As he lay there, the pain gradually diminished.

But that tranquility is only for a moment. After escaping from the harsh training, Felix began to recall the scenes that he tried to shake off at a terrifying speed.

The carriage that disappeared over the cliff… The duke’s cold face…  And Lucy, standing next to the duke, face paled.

“No, it’s just a dream,” Felix exclaimed. Perhaps it was a delusion created by his subconscious mind amid growing worries and anxiety over Adrian and Lucy.

Let’s shake it off. Let’s forget it.

Felix ruffled his hair roughly, then pulled himself up. A lot of time had passed since his frantic sword-wielding. He picked up the sword he had thrown. Leaving the field filled with his harsh breath and heat, he scrambled for the bathroom.

After washing away his sweat in the small bathroom attached to the training field, he went to the changing room to change into a school uniform. But when he opened the locker where he had kept his clothes, there was nothing there.

“What?” he murmured, furrowing his brows.

Soon, he opened the locker next to him, thinking that he had made a mistake. But that locker was also empty. And the locker next to it. And next to it.

His school uniform was nowhere to be found. It disappeared completely.

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“Ha!” he scoffed, brushing his wet hair with his hand. He couldn’t believe how absurd the situation was. 

A feeling of great frustration crept across Felix’s face. “Allergy medicine!”

The medicine Lucy made was in the school uniform pocket. It didn’t matter how he lost his clothes, but the medicine was different.

Felix ran out of the locker room, only clad in a robe without hesitation.

He glanced and looked around. If he saw a suspicious person, he would attack him immediately and start questioning.

A group of first year students on their way to their morning class looked at him in surprise. Felix looked back at them, his eyes fierce. It was to see if they were hiding his school uniform. The first year students were scared by his eyes and ran away quickly.

After they fled, no other people walked around. No trace of the guy who took his school uniform could be found anywhere.