Chapter 16
“Renee, what?”
Raynan’s icy gaze pierced Roman’s. Roman flinched involuntarily.
Asking the same question twice was a big mistake. But even for Roman, there was nothing he could do.
I heard Renee likes Raynan. What a ridiculous thing to say, and why would he say it in such a lighthearted way?
“Why are you asking again after listening to it clearly?”
“I’m sorry. That was very unexpected.”
With that weak apology, Raynan backed off.
At that moment, Roman was certain. He was in a pretty good mood right now.
‘You seemed quite upset a moment ago, but why did he suddenly look so excited?’
Roman’s mind became even more confused.
Basically, Raynan was not the type of person to be very moody, and above all, he rarely had emotional ups and downs.
Roman had never seen him like this before, and he couldn’t hide his surprise. But Raynan doesn’t mind at all.
However, Roman felt like he was waiting for an answer, so he cautiously asked a question.
“More than that, why do you think like that…?”
“She had trouble making eye contact with me.”
I almost asked, ‘What?’ Fortunately, it only echoed loudly in his mind.
Roman desperately bit his lip to stop his mouth from moving as he wanted. Then, worried that he might make a mistake, he slowly asked the question again.
“Is there any person who can make eye contact with the Duke?”
“It’s right in front of me. You.”
Roman, who received Raynan’s finger, calmly lowered his eyes. What he said wasn’t wrong.
It was true that Roman made good eye contact with Raynan and could talk to him quite well. The problem was that Roman was almost the only person who could do that.
“And you have other evidence, right?”
There must be something else. Roman asked, trying to suppress his anxiety.
“Sometimes, when I make eye contact with her, she looks away and doesn’t know where to look. And she blushes.”
It was a completely normal reaction. Raynan’s expression, voice, and tone were all cold.
Even if that wasn’t the case, there was a natural sense of intimidation that flowed from him. Even Roman felt crushed by his aura at times.
Even if Raynan had a kind personality, I usually couldn’t help but feel nervous around him. Because his position was to make his opponents do that.
But I couldn’t figure out why Raynan decided that Renee liked him based on such a normal reaction.
Roman couldn’t even bring himself to say the words, ‘I guess it’s because she’s scared.’
“Doesn’t anyone else do that all the time, besides Renee?”
“No, but no one shows up in front of me as consistently as Renee.”
I tried to say it differently, but Raynan was adamant.
Roman recalled Renee’s face turning pale at his warning.
‘No matter how I look at it, I don’t think she likes him.’
But once again, Roman swallowed his thoughts down.
This was not a good time. Raynan spoke with such confidence that if he said such a thing, it was clear that he would be tormented for a long time.
I thought that if I made a mistake, I might die from overwork. In that case, there was only one thing Roman could say. As always.
“Shall I clean it up?”
“Leave it alone.”
At that moment, Roman felt a chill. It was because he had a feeling that something was going wrong.
“Why?”
“It’s cute, what she’s doing.”
It was like that. In Raynan’s eyes, Renee was quite cute. Renee was moving around needlessly with her small body, and the results were pretty crappy for what she was doing.
Nevertheless, it was hard to look away from her when she moved around like that.
And then there was the lack of eye contact. When she spoke, she always gave a straight stare.
Then once in a while, she would look at him wistfully…
“As expected, it’s cute.”
Roman was surprised to hear the word ‘cute’ come out of Raynan’s mouth twice. Raynan smiled happily even after seeing Roman’s face like that.
“No.. I mean, why do you think Rene had feelings for Duke…?”
Roman, who had been fidgeting for a while, ended up asking the same question one more time.
Realizing that Raynan was looking at him with suspicion, Roman quickly threw up his hand.
“No, absolutely not.“Renee is not my type at all.”
Raynan’s eyes looked sharp for a moment at those words, but he soon looked away. Only then did Roman breathe a sigh of relief.
“We can’t even make eye contact, but when we do, it’s hard not to notice how passionately she looks at me.”
Roman couldn’t believe what Raynan said.
Roman recalled the look in Renee’s eyes that he had seen by Raynan’s side.
Why did the frightened and anxious eyes change into passionate eyes?
Recently, when Renee was reporting about Edwin, he also asked him to leave, so they were left alone…
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t even imagine Renee looking at Raynan passionately.
Above all, when I talked to Renee today, I felt more fear than love.
“Seeing how she looks at me so intently but does nothing, I guess Renee is not greedy. She’s fearless.”
“… Renee is fearless?”
“Have you ever seen someone appear in front of me so persistently, say what they have to say, and then disappear. Not you.”
“No, but…”
But Renee was not confident, and she didn’t say everything she needed to say.
Wasn’t Roman always there when Renee persistently appeared in front of him?
Renee had a pale face, as if she was about to collapse at any moment, and trembled as she struggled to continue speaking.
Roman wasn’t the only one who worried that if he ever made eye contact with her, she might just faint.
From some point on, whenever Renee appeared, at least one nearby attendant would always stand behind her.
I couldn’t figure out why the memory of the same person was so different.
“So I guess you could say she’s not a normal person.”
I couldn’t figure out where it went wrong, but I was certain that something was very wrong. Especially to Roman himself.
“Why are you doing that?”
Raynan asked, looking at Roman’s face whose color suddenly disappeared. Roman shook his head with a smile, but his face was still blue.
“No.”
“Why did you tell me today?”
Renee’s weak voice lingered in Roman’s head. Roman deeply sympathized with Renee’s words.
What did I say to Rene today? Even so, it was clear that Renee, who was shaking while listening to Roman’s story, would try to avoid Raynan even more than before.
If you find out that you are the cause…
Just imagining it was terrifying.
“You said she was annoying.”
“It’s cute when she’s annoying.”
“Oh, come to think of it, the Duke has always had a soft spot for small animals.”
“Does it feel similar?”
“Yes.”
Despite Roman’s confident answer, Raynan couldn’t easily accept it.
But Roman was different. A long time ago, when they were both still children, something similar had happened to them.
Raynan, who sensitively hated being annoying, was the only one who was lenient.
Sometimes, when we spent time in the grass, small animals would naturally start chirping, but strangely, Raynan didn’t chase them away.
In fact, he would play with them and pick rocks for them.
“I remember those small animals such as squirrels and rabbits hanging around the Duke.”
“Yeah.”
A small smile appeared on Raynan’s face as if he was remembering that time. It was already a long time ago, but just thinking about it gave him a happy feeling.
“Do you think Renee looks anything like them?”
“Hm.”
It felt similar to that situation, but I had an uneasy feeling that something was different.
But when Raynan answered so vaguely, Roman’s insides began to burn little by little.
Renee’s face flashed before his eyes as she asked Roman if what he thought was appropriate was much different from her standards.
I knew she’d be frustrated, but I didn’t expect my smile to come back to her in this way.
“Now that I think about it, something like that happened.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Was it a squirrel? It suddenly started avoiding me.”
Raynan spoke as if he was reliving a vague yet pleasant memory, but Roman felt a chill down his spine.
How angry Raynan got when he felt betrayed.
Even though time has passed and the memory has faded quite a bit, it gave me goosebumps all over again.
“That’s because… it’s pregnant, their instinct is…”
“Yes. I can’t believe she’ll come back later with a much smaller cub than her. It’s cute too.”
It seemed as if the memory of being angry had been completely erased. However, Roman, who had to take all of Raynan’s anger like a storm that hit him at that time, was different.
Roman, who was suffering from memories of the harsh past, stopped breathing for a moment.
What if Renee suddenly starts avoiding Raynan?
Roman’s body trembled slightly as he thought of that assumption. At the same time, one thought filled his head.
I must never be caught talking nonsense to Renee.
“You do realize that it’s better for your reputation to say something up front if you’ve done something wrong, right?”
As much as Roman knew about Raynan, so did he. That was the role of the long time that existed between them.
“It’s because the Duke has been overworking me lately.”
Raynan laughed at Roman’s shameless words.
“I don’t think I put you to work particularly hard.”
“Because you always ask me to do a lot of work.”
This time, Raynan also nodded without disagreement.
“So you’re saying you intentionally made your face look like that to protest?”
“No way. But if my salary goes up, my face will look a little brighter, right?”
“5%.”
“You’re joking.”
“Think about your paycheck, and if you don’t like it, I’m fine with subtracting 5%.”
“No, thank you, I’ll work hard with all my heart and soul.”
Even as he talked, Roman’s mind was racing.
First of all, I had to take back the advice I gave Renee.
Roman’s complexion looked better than before as he hurriedly concluded the conversation and left the office. But the situation did not improve.
I got a raise with a shameless face, but if Renee’s job went wrong, all the money I had earned so far would have been in vain.
But it was advice given only a few hours ago, and it wasn’t that difficult to convince her.
Fortunately, I quickly realized that it was wrong advice, so it wouldn’t be that difficult to correct it.
*****
It definitely had to be that way, but contrary to Roman’s expectations, things turned out to be quite difficult. First of all, it was because meeting Renee became very difficult.
For some reason, I often missed her.
I saw her in front of Raynan’s office, but she would visit while he was away for a while.
It was clear that someone was cooperating. Of course, there was only one person who could be that effective.
“Young master Edwin.”
“Yes?”
I had just caught a glimpse of Renee, but while I was talking to Edwin, who suddenly appeared, she disappeared.
Edwin smiled brightly and tilted his head at Roman’s call.
“Why are you stealing Renee away?”
