15. That’s, as if…
A few seconds after our eyes had met, Philip’s sharp eyes went wide in astonishment. Precisely at that moment, my legs had already moved.
“Viola, what’s wrong?”
“Cyril, I’m sorry. I have something urgent to do.”
Somehow, I had a very bad feeling.
Let’s just disappear! Pretend that it’s a mistake—or something…
With that in mind, I hurriedly went to the entrance on the opposite side of where Philip was standing.
Cyril went after me. “I’ll escort you home.”
“It’s fine, really.”
“Even if a little, I want to be with you.”
I didn’t understand, but I was sure it’d be useless to say anything to him. I thought so and immediately left the venue. I walked down the corridor in a hurry.
Suddenly, my arm was grabbed from behind.
“Viola.”
The familiar voice stopped me.
“P, Phil…”
Looking back, his beautiful face exuded a sullenness like never before.
“What are you doing?”
“I, it is as you can see, I’m participating in the reunion?”
“You said you wouldn’t go.”
“Afterwards, Jamie invited me. Besides, didn’t Phil say the same thing?”
When I said that, Philip seemed a little confused. For some reason, I felt like he was blaming me—even though we did the same thing.
“…I rushed here.”
“‘Rushed’? But your attendance was announced. You originally intended to to be present.”
Suddenly, Cyril, who appeared out of nowhere, said so with a smile.
…So, Philip had lied about not attending. Even today too, he was a liar.
“This has nothing to do with you.”
“Is that so? I may be like this, but at the very least, I didn’t lie to her.”
There was a disturbing atmosphere perpetuating between them. I could only freeze without being able to say anything.
Eventually, Philip sighed and started walking in the opposite direction of the exit I was heading to earlier. The entire time, my hand was pulled by him.
Turning around wondering what had just happened, I spotted Cyril who was giving a troubled laugh as he waved his hand. Jamie should take care about me. I bowed lightly and kept walking behind Philip.
Eventually, we entered a resting room.
The next second, Philip entrapped me against the wall.
His arms were on both sides of my face. His too breathtaking face was right in front of me. He was too handsome, I couldn’t take my eyes off his golden, beautiful, eyes.
“…Did you have fun?”
He said that.
“Eh?”
“Did you enjoy your time with Cyril? You always seemed to be having a pleasant time when you’re with him.”
What… was that?
I really didn’t understand. I wondered why was I being entrapped against the wall. Why was Philip telling me that?
…Why did he look so sad?
It was as if he was jealous of Cyril.
“Uh, I apologize…”
Not knowing what to do, for the time being, I apologized.
He looked even more hurt.
“…I truly am a fool.”
Appearing as though he were about to cry, Philip turned away from me.
My heart was beating incredibly fast. His expression, which I had just seen, was burned into my head.
“I’ll deliver my greetings. I want you to wait here until my return.”
After saying so, he left the room.
I was left alone. After the tension had eased, I lost balance and fell on to the floor.
◇◇◇
“Viola!”
About 10 minutes later, while I was sitting alone on the sofa as I waited for Philip, a light knocking sound echoed. It was none other than Jamie.
“Why are you here…”
“Lord Philip told me you were here…”
Then, she sat next to me as she took my hand.
“Thank you very much, Viola! Thanks to you, I was able to reconcile with Hugo!”
“Really, that’s good, then. However, I didn’t do a thing…”
“No, you attended this party for my sake.”
Thank you very much—she stared straight into my eyes and smiled gently.
“…If you ever have any problems or are in need of help, please feel free to rely me. I will assist you with anything. I’m always on your side.”
For some reason, she suddenly said such a thing. Jamie’s expression was so serious, I nodded.
“Lord Philip should be returning soon.”
“Is that so…”
Would the atmosphere return to being awkward?
I really didn’t understand Philip. I still didn’t know why he started telling such lies in the first place. But I knew he was truly angry.
“Hey, Viola.”
“Yes?”
“You should give more credit to yourself, you’re much more wonderful than you think.”
Jamie lowered her gaze and smiled.
Suddenly, I was told such a thing. While it made me happy, I was also confused. A knocking sound echoed again.
My heart leaped at hearing Philip’s voice, It was a little lower than usual as he said he was going to enter.
E/N: Before, Philip’s actions were somewhat cute due to his being so awkward. But now he’s being manipulative and controlling.
***T/N: I’m still going to hold my horses about judging Phil, because I caught some bad vibes from Cyril, and Phil might know something about him that we don’t, which caused him to be wary of letting the two meet.
Ugh, the I’m-too-scared/shocked-to-speak-up-for-myself which every meek, pure, dense heroines seem to have cliche is present in this chapter. I wish the heroine would sort out the misunderstanding right then and there for once, rather than letting it brew.
…also, me thanking the lord because Philip didn’t resort to forcefully kissing her, or just plain RAPE her proved how much CN novels had traumatized me…
Ugh I feel you about the CN novel trauma. I was relieved as well that nothing happened. Phil didn’t seem to have that intention at all and Viola didn’t feel threatened either… more like just surprised and slightly dazzled by his looks XD
I dont know. He may be a fool bcs he loves her. And she’s also a fool for doing that. Please just tell him, you dont love him, let’s break up. Done.
As far as I’m concerned, CN novels don’t exist. Their cultural standards are…different. It’k kinda like how all those KR novels have male leads that are: tall, dark, handsome, AND rich with a tendency towards ore-sama…but in CN’s case it’s “born winner toxic masculinity” instead. I hope it’s just that I haven’t read any good ones…
Oh yeah, thanks for the chapter Vanessa.
God so many interesting stories are derailed by that same crap. I can at least make it through the ones with overly possessive male leads, right up until I come across that annoying trope they all seem to have where the relationship is finally going somewhere but a new rival and/or villain turns up who wants to ruin the heroine for any reason possible (at least when reasons are actually given for the abnormal hate they receive), but once things start getting rapey I often drop it, and so many get rapey. And it’s treated as ok that the behaviour is borderline that of a rapist. So much crap, and that’s just the modern ones. Similar tropes appear in the cultivation stories with a female protagonist and the ones with a man as protagonist are mostly just power trip murder-fests. Then there’s the reincarnated/transimgrated in ancient times ones. God there’s so much crap in them. So many stories dropped after a few hundred chapters because they are going nowhere and just want to repeat the exact same scenario. At least the Japanese and Korean stuff tries to shake things up a bit. it’s not always successful and there’s plenty of crap, but nowhere near as uncomfortable.
Sorry about the rant. I’m generally just a lurker but the mention of those terrible CN novels brought it all back. I’ll take fluff over rapist protagonists any day. Fluff is nice.
Agree with having trauma from some novels 🙁 and hopefully Phil will be nice, and they will sort it out,, thank you for the chapter
I’m not sure I could have kept it from my best friend.
Fool my parents, siblings, fiancee? Yes.
Best Friend, no.
Jamie doesn’t seem like the most reliable friend honestly.
Like she doesn’t trust Cyril but it was super easy for him to convince her to leave Viola alone with him.