An Early Engagement - Chapter 3 - Between Us
“Wouldn’t we know if we tried sleeping together once?”
Thud.
At the sudden remark from her best friend, Melissa, Shirley dropped the book she was holding to the floor.
“…..What?”
It was as if Melissa had casually suggested, “How about strawberry for today’s cake?” For a moment, Shirley wondered if she had heard correctly and looked at her friend again.
“We could just try sleeping together. Then we’d know for sure,” came the nonchalant reply, as if discussing the choice of cake.
“W-what?”
Shirley, still frozen in the position of having dropped the book, could only repeat the same dumbfounded words. Seeing this, Melissa chuckled softly and popped a strawberry she had speared with her fork into her mouth.
Her eyes, which had been closed as if savoring the taste, slowly opened, and she drove the point home again.
“What do you mean, ‘what’? It’s what you’ve been worrying about all this time. Why are you pretending not to understand?”
“Melissa, you, you…”
Shirley’s finger, pointing at Melissa, trembled slightly. Melissa’s expression remained calm, as if asking, “What about me?” This only flustered Shirley even more.
Melissa and Shirley had maintained a strong friendship since they first met as children during a tea party playdate.
One was an extremely rational, cool-headed, and even somewhat pessimistic girl, while the other was a girl who loved ribbons, lace, and small animals, and was quick to tear up.
So, initially, there was no common ground between the two girls. Yet, it was a wonder even to themselves how they had become so close that they could share such candid conversations.
Even their mothers would say, “I don’t know how the two of them became so close,” as their personalities were so different.
Regardless, they became friends and eventually shared secrets they couldn’t even tell their parents.
For example, Shirley had been agonizing for months over questions like, “Can I really become Damian’s wife?”
And Melissa’s response to that concern was:
“You keep worrying about whether you can sleep with Damian or not.”
“Sleep with… what…?”
Shirley stared at Melissa in shock, her eyes wide at the vulgar remark her friend had just made.
“This.”
Melissa clapped her hands together, making a suggestive sound as she spoke.
“Eek!”
Shirley recoiled in surprise, and Melissa chuckled as if to say, “Why are you so shocked by something like this?”
“Stop pretending.”
“When did I ever!”
Shirley shouted back, her face turning as red as the half-eaten strawberry in Melissa’s hand, her ears burning crimson.
“You did.”
Melissa replied in her usual indifferent tone.
“I never did!”
Shirley flailed her arms in frustration. She swore she had never said anything like that.
“When! Did I! Ever! Say that!”
Shirley stomped her feet, her voice rising. It was truly an unfair accusation, and she felt utterly wronged.
“It’s all the same thing, really.”
Melissa said nonchalantly, cutting a piece of cake and stuffing it into her mouth.
“It’s not the same thing at all! No, absolutely not!”
“I was just thinking… whether Damian and I can truly become husband and wife. You know how long we’ve been… just friends, right?”
Damian de Elpart.
The young duke of the Elpart dukedom was Shirley’s long-standing fiancé and a friend she had known since they were both in diapers.
Their marriage had been decided even before they were born.
A so-called prenatal engagement.
A tradition where marriage was promised even before the gender of the unborn child was known.
When Shirley and Damian were born, the elders of both families were overjoyed. And by the time they turned seven, an engagement ceremony was held.
They exchanged rings on their tiny fingers, and engagement portraits of them holding hands were hung in each of their family mansions.
Since the engagement took place when they were so young, Shirley didn’t remember much about it. But one thing was certain: she had been engaged to Damian, and there was no escaping the fact that her future spouse had been decided.
However, she didn’t particularly dislike it.
Neither did Shirley, nor Damian.
Their parents were close friends, and both families were among the most prestigious in the empire. They were a perfect match, with nothing lacking on either side.
Moreover, even though it was a union between families, Damian and Shirley were, to anyone who saw them, a perfect couple. They just had to wait for the right age to finally hold their wedding.
“It’s been too long, our relationship. But now that we’re about to get married, I… I have to live as Damian’s wife, and it feels so awkward.”
