An Early Engagement - Chapter 21
“So, you got caught kissing another man behind your fiancé’s back?”
No matter how much Shirley insisted it wasn’t her intention, Melissa wouldn’t listen.
It didn’t matter. What was done was done, so the next question was, what now?
Shirley poured out her worries—how she was afraid to see Damian’s face, how she was scared to talk to him, and what she should do. But Melissa just listened with an enigmatic expression.
“Well, what can I say?”
Seeing her closest friend listen so nonchalantly to what she had agonized over for days, Shirley felt a momentary sense of betrayal.
As if she could see through even that feeling, Melissa snorted, gave Shirley a light pat on the back, and said,
“Whatever you do, Damian will probably say it’s fine. So why are you worrying? Do you think Damian’s going to break off the engagement just because you kissed some other guy?”
Shirley couldn’t say anything more to that.
It wasn’t entirely wrong, after all.
Damian was the kind of person who would forgive her no matter what she did. He had been like that since they were kids. Still, kissing another man was… well, it was a bit much.
Shirley raised her hand and gently brushed her lips.
How had it felt when that strange man suddenly kissed her?
No, before that, she had never been alone with a man in such a secluded place. Damian had always been by her side.
Perhaps she had gotten a little carried away. After all, even the foreign language she usually found difficult had sounded sweet to her ears that night.
Swept up in the atmosphere of the evening and the conversation with the unfamiliar man, she had lost herself without realizing it.
So, it was just a mistake. I did nothing wrong.
Therefore, Damian should be the one to come and apologize to me this time too.
That was the conclusion Shirley reached.
But as days passed and the summer vacation approached, Damian still hadn’t come to see her.
That was exactly what made Shirley uneasy.
“Damian is just being cautious around you. Don’t you get it?”
Melissa shook her head as if she were utterly fed up.
Well, was that really it…?
The last image she had of Damian felt so unfamiliar that she couldn’t shake the unease in her heart. Still, she had no intention of going to him first.
Especially not after he had suggested postponing the wedding date.
“I’m starting to feel sorry for Damian. You were the one who messed up first, and big time too. Now he’s tiptoeing around his fiancée who was busy rubbing lips with another man. The future Duke of Elpart, reduced to this.”
Tsk, tsk. Melissa’s clicking tongue and her expression were vivid in Shirley’s mind. She had looked at Shirley as if she were a villainess straight out of a novel.
“So, are you really thinking of breaking off the engagement?”
“……”
At that question, Shirley tightly shut her mouth.
Breaking off the engagement.
She had blurted it out in a fit of anger, but even as she said it, the thought terrified her so much that she ended up running away from Damian.
“Can you really live without Damian?”
At Melissa’s follow-up question, Shirley truly couldn’t say a word.
Living without Damian?
From the moment they first met until now, it was hard to even imagine a time in her life when Damian hadn’t been there.
“At the end of the day, you’re going to marry Damian, so why not just torment him a little more moderately? You’ll get your comeuppance if you keep this up.”
At her friend’s honest advice, Shirley felt a surge of anger—what did I even do wrong?—but upon reflection, she realized she hadn’t done a single thing right, so she had no retort.
Still, she couldn’t muster the courage or the will to apologize to Damian first.
Can’t he just come to me like he always does? Why is this time any different?
Could it be… that he actually took my words about breaking off the engagement seriously?
All these tangled thoughts made her feel like the heat was rising even more on this already sweltering day.
Seeing Shirley fanning herself furiously, Sophie spoke up again.
“How about going to see the rabbits?”
“Ra…bbits?”
No matter what anyone said, the young lady, who had been as prickly as a hedgehog, widened her eyes in interest at the casual suggestion. Seeing this, Sophie smiled faintly.
“Yes, we’re raising rabbits in the backyard. They’re very cute. Why don’t you go and feed them some carrots? It might help you feel better.”
“…What’s so special about rabbits?”
Despite her dismissive words, Shirley slipped on the shoes she had carelessly tossed on the floor and pushed the door open with vigor.
“Wow.”
In a small fenced-off area in the backyard, several rabbits were huddled together. There were white ones, black ones, brown ones, and even spotted ones…
The rabbits quickly gathered around Shirley as she approached the fence. It was because of the carrots in her hand.
While she was distracted feeding the rabbits, a large shadow suddenly fell over her.
“……”
Shirley froze, still holding the carrot. She didn’t need to turn around to know who the owner of the shadow large enough to cover both her and the rabbits was.
“Shirley.”
“…….”
Even though she clearly heard her name being called, Shirley pretended not to notice and sat still. In the meantime, a white rabbit snatched a whole carrot and ran off, but she didn’t even try to stop it.
“You’re not going to look at me?”
“…What are you doing here?”
Shirley finally managed to speak. Damian’s voice, which she hadn’t heard in a while, felt strangely unfamiliar.
She could feel Damian sitting down beside her, staring intently. Shirley pretended not to notice and focused solely on feeding the rabbits.
chocolattes
ngl she pisses me off. how she doesn’t think that she has done something wrong in this situation and still insist that Damian should be the one to apologize to her instead is beyond me.
Lunab
I so heartily appreciate this comment cause bruh she pisses me of like everything and I very genuinely hope that they actually have a break up cause of her own steadfast issue