I’m a Villainess but So Popular

Editor : Aru

Side Story 2. Winter (2)

When the heart that could not be suppressed leaked out of his mouth, Eugene hurriedly closed his mouth.

‘What am I saying now…….’

As the hand holding the teacup gained strength, the surface of the black tea fluctuated slightly.

He could never reveal this mind.

It shouldn’t have been.

“Huh? You wanted to look good to me?”

In Eugene’s ear, Yerine’s peaceful voice was heard.

He hoped it wouldn’t be heard because he spoke in a small voice, but she seemed to have heard Eugene clearly.

Eugene’s heart began to beat faster and faster.

He was afraid that Yerine might have noticed that his heart that had been pressed for years had burst.

However, Eugene’s ears were filled with clear laughter.

“Compared to our old days, we have become really close. I hear you say that too.”

In front of Eugene with her head up, Yerine held a teacup in her hand and smiled happily.

“I couldn’t imagine when we were just entering the Academy and we were fighting all the time.”

“Huh? Uh…….”

Eugene nodded with relief inside.

Fortunately, Yerine did not seem to have judged Eugene’s words to be a sign of rational favour.

“Well, it’s different from then.”

It was fortunate that Yerine hadn’t noticed that he loved her, and that made him still hadn’t completely closed his mind.

Nevertheless, Eugene seemed to have a cold heart for some reason.

“A great Trump has visited your castle in person, and of course you sure want to look good.”

The more so, they continued the conversation calmly, pretending to be okay.

“It’s a different level from the successor, the chick at the Academy.”

“Oh, what, was it like that? Isn’t the reason too snobbish?”

“This is how politics works.”

“Wow, I didn’t see you that way.”

Yerine shook her head with her arms folded.

“Eugene in my memory was a bit dirty and always lost his temper, but he wasn’t so dirty that he gave in to money and status.”

“No, why are you swearing at me being dirty?”

With an exaggerated expression on his face, Yerine matching rhythm to her own words, suddenly saw laughter leaking through Eugene’s lips.

“Are you taking it seriously? Of course, it’s a joke.”

Eugene said, putting down the teacup he had in his hand.

“Do you really think I said that for that reason?”

After Eugene uttered the words out of his mouth, Yerine glanced at him for a while.

Eugene faced her like that.

He thought her eyes were still pretty, shining like a wet star.

At that moment, it’s more intense than anything else.

Above all, the red eyes containing warm colours bent finely like the moon.

“No, I don’t think so.”

Then Yerine slowly lifted the teacup and put it on her lips.

As soon as her lips fell from the teacup, a gentle voice came out.

“Anyway, I’m glad.”

Yerine, who brings up such a remark, was not smiling broadly.

She was just hanging a calm smile on her lips.

“You see me as a good person so much that you want to look good in front of me.”

Her purple and red eyes headed for Eugene.

“And the two of us are closer than before.”

Bright.

Sparkles.

And warm.

Looking at Yerine’s smile, Eugene’s heart ached.

He held one hand still on his left chest.

‘I can’t be shaken by words like this.’

Like grabbing his heart, his hands were filled with strength.

In front of his eyes, he pictured Yerine smiling under the mistletoe a few years ago.

Only then could he calm down a little.

‘Yeah, never reveal it.’

Yerine was a good person, enough to pay attention to Eugene, who had a tough personality and couldn’t make a friend.

So Eugene wanted her to be happy.

Yerine was the one who should be.

When he saw her under the mistletoe at the Academy, Eugene knew that she would be the happiest by Cassius.

So, that seat was not his but by Cassius’s.

And years after the coup, Yerine was in stable condition and living a happy life with her lover.

‘It would be selfish of me to say that I like her now.’

He knew.

Yerine won’t take his confession lightly, and she will be sorry that she has no choice but to refuse it.

And then she’ll always feel guilty for refusing his confession, and she’ll always pay attention to that feeling.

Knowing that she was not strong enough to refuse to confess and forget all about it, Eugene had no intention of letting Yerine know how he felt.

‘Because I don’t want to see you feeling sorry for me.’

I shouldn’t do that.

“Eugene? Are you listening?”

Eugene looked up at the soft voice calling him.

And he smiled softly.

“Yes, I’m listening, Spade.”

***

The blue flame, which fluttered gently like the dragon’s tail, stretched out from the tip of Yerine’s hand.

‘Just like before.’

Eugene, who was still watching her magic, thought to himself.

Yerine’s magic has become so powerful that it is not comparable to that of the Academy years.

Her magic, which used to boast overwhelming fire magic at the Academy days, is now more refined and detailed.

Yerine’s eyes, using her magic, sparkled as purely as her Academia days.

Until now, she was truly fond of magic.

“Oh, Eugene, I think it’s done. Just in case, could you send me a flash?”

“Yes.”

The flames, which were dancing as if they were left to the wind, stopped moving at some point and disappeared.

Then, Eugene’s purple flash flashed with a thunderous sound.

When the flash disappeared, the body of the charred monster fell on the snow.

Eugene turned his head toward Yerine, who was descending from the air.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I caught it easily.”

“No.”

Yerine peeked at the monster’s body and said.

“I just wanted to check.”

The remaining monsters that could not be merged into the monster Yerine defeated in the final battle of the coup were sometimes found all over the empire.

It was not a big headache as the power was weaker than before and the number of wizards who had fought monsters since the coup increased considerably.

However, there was a possibility that someone could abuse these monsters and create a powerful strain, so the 7Imperial Families always watched the monster problem closely.

That’s why Yerine said he would come himself when he reported that there were five monsters in the Duke of Ace.

“It’s not hard to come.”

“But it’s true that you made me catch it easily.”

Eugene magically gathered the dead bodies of the monster in one place and said.

“I was supposed to hold each one of them, but if it’s your eyes, those monsters will come by themselves in a flock. So I can take care of it all at once.”

Eugene, who finished the body treatment, shook his hand and sighed.

“If I’m being grateful, then I should be thankful. You don’t have to refuse and say no all the time.”

“Oh, no, it’s not like that. Just as a matter of courtesy, l don’t think saying thanks once or twice is not necessary.”

“It’s okay to be a little brazen. Where did your self-recommended ambition in the executive elections when you were in freshman?”

“Crazy, do you remember that?”

Yerine was startled and jumped and screamed.

“Why do you remember that?”

“Why would I remember that? It’s intense, so I remember.”

“Please erase it from your memory. Now that I think about it, I’m so embarrassed, it’s a completely dark past.”

“I’m sorry, but the more you say that, the harder it becomes to forget.”

“Ah, really…….”

Yerine made a desperate face, tearing her purple hair with both hands.

“That’s the most regrettable thing I’ve ever done as an Academy.”

“Really? You were too confident at the time for that.”

Eugene cleared his voice and said.

“Oh, I recommend myself, is the thing you said without a second’s hesitation….”

“Please stop….”

Yerine, who seemed to have lost her soul, whether she thought she couldn’t be beaten alone, grinds her teeth and shouts to Eugene.

“You’ve never done anything to regret, have you? You’re so proud of yourself?

“Well, at least it’s less than you are.”

“Is that so?”

Yerine raised his lips.

“Spade, there’s a limit to watching you run wild without knowing your place, I wonder who the one has said it.”

“Ah.”

At Yerine’s words, Eugene immediately lost his fighting spirit.

That was simply undefendable.

“That’s cheating……”

Eugene murmured, wrapping his burning forehead with his gloved hands.

Yerine smiled cheerfully at Eugene.

“Now do you have any regrets?”

“You really, oh, no. I’m sorry, Spade.”

“No, I feel really sorry if you come out so sincerely. Don’t do that.”

“Why are you sorry? I did something wrong back then.”

Later, when he had a conversation with Yerine.

And furthermore, when he became fond of her, Eugene wanted to punch himself countless times in the past, which had undermined her.

“That’s enough. It was a long time ago.”

“Still……”

The idea that he could say this crossed Eugene’s mind.

“I still regret it.”

The sincerity in the low voice resonated.

“I was so mean to you back then.”

He didn’t regret it. After all, he didn’t want to make a bad impression on her because he likes Yerine.

It was because he was sorry that he hurt a good person.

The purple eyes glanced at Eugene’s eyes.

“It’s okay. Everyone can make mistakes.”

She didn’t mean it as a joke or pretence. Her transparently shining eyes proved the fact.

“And I’m not so small as to be offended by what happened a few years ago. So don’t be sorry. Really.”

Eugene expected Yerine to react like that.

‘Why are people so nice.’

“Eugene, don’t show that face. It’s really okay.”

“…..okay.”

Eugene felt that Yerine would be more sorry if he continued to look gloomy.

So he listened to Yerine and changed his expression.

“By the way, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Do you regret any of the actions you did during your Academy years? Not this.”

“Do you have one?”

“Well, I don’t think there’s anything other than recommended myself to become the class president.”

Yerine smiled back.

“Do you have one?”

With a clear smile without a speck of darkness, Eugene’s head came up with a view of the mistletoe passage in the dark.

“I….”

Eugene decided not to let her know for the rest of his life, but he actually regretted it over and over again.

The thing that happened that day

Again and again.

His lips quenched nervously.

Then he said in a deeply subdued voice.

“Not believing in superstitions.”

He did not believe the rumour that if some kissed his crush’s hand under the mistletoe, they could be together forever.

That’s why he didn’t catch Yerine before Cassius.

He lost someone he might love all his life.

Yerine will never know that Eugene regrets all this.

Unless he speaks in person.

‘It’s snowing.’

It snowed a lot yesterday, but it was snowing again.

It’s as if trying to calm his boiling heart down. As if asking to bury his heart in that white snowfield.

That’s how the winter has deepened in the north.

—————