For Sale: Male Lead, Obsession Included - Chapter 19
Scritch, scratch. Flutter, flutter.
Someone was watching me as I busily worked overtime without a break until dawn.
Oh, perhaps watching isn’t the right word—more like observing.
The gaze from behind distracted me multiple times.
‘Ugh.’
Maybe it was because I had been avoiding Declan all day and hadn’t had a proper conversation with him. Declan was behaving differently than usual.
When I told him to go away because I was busy, he would usually read a picture book or nod off, but today, he sat close by and didn’t take his eyes off me, as if he was displeased about something.
Every time I looked up from the documents, it seemed like Declan’s position was getting closer to me. Was it just my imagination?
“Don’t come any closer. You’re distracting me.”
If I chased him away a bit irritably, he would pretend to go look at a picture book, but a few minutes later, it was back to square one. Declan just sat there, staring at me with his lips pursed.
“Ah, what!”
Now, sitting quietly next to my desk, Declan alternated his gaze between the documents and my face, thwarting my plan to avoid talking to him.
As if Pacion having figured out my plan wasn’t a headache enough, really!
“Do you have something to say? Why do you keep hovering around me?”
Despite my annoyed tone, Declan calmly pushed the picture book he had on his lap towards me.
It was a scene of a dog and its owner walking.
“What’s this?”
“Please tell me how to read this word, Master.”
He wanted me to teach him a word?
He had never asked for such a thing before, so why now?
With a sigh, I read the word under the picture clearly.
“Leash. It’s read as ‘leash’.”
“Leash… Thank you.”
Was the word ‘leash’ difficult?
Thanks to Declan finally quieting down, I continued reading through the remaining documents…
Declan brought the picture book under his chin and opened it wide, his eyes sparkling.
“What now?”
“Please tell me this one too…”
I was about to yell at him to play by himself because I was busy, but his pure and innocent face made me swallow my frustration.
Indeed, they say looking at a handsome face can calm your anger. I ended up reading the other word he pointed to.
“Haah… Master. It’s read as ‘master’.”
“This is master…”
He smiled brightly as if he had gained a great understanding and returned to the bed. I massaged my stiff neck and sighed.
‘Why is he acting like this today, seriously!’
But when Declan approached me again, I couldn’t hold back and shouted.
“Don’t you know how to read? Just look at the book by yourself!”
“…No. I don’t know how to read. I’m sorry.”
“…What?”
I froze as if I had been hit on the head.
Thinking about it for a moment, it was obvious. Having grown up as a slave from a very young age, of course he wouldn’t know how to read.
I looked at the picture book in his hands and slumped my shoulders.
‘So that’s why he’s been looking at that one picture book all the time… because he couldn’t read it.’
Feeling guilty for snapping at him, my expression crumpled as I rubbed my forehead.
Once he returned to the Duke’s residence, the best professors or teachers would teach him how to read, so there was no need for me to step in.
But if he kept asking me to read to him with those sparkling eyes, it was obvious I wouldn’t finish my work by dawn.
I pressed my tired eyes and gestured for Declan to come over.
“Haah. Come here.”
In the end, I taught him his name and a few simple words, then assigned him the task of copying them. After giving him some paper and charcoal, I was finally able to get away from Declan’s interruptions. Smiling brightly like a child, he lay on the floor next to my desk and started to clumsily copy the letters.
Seeing his feet swinging happily, it seemed he was in a good mood.
“Call me when you’ve written it a hundred times. Ah, ten sets of ten make a hundred.”
“Yes.”
For a long while, I read through the documents in the quiet room, occasionally glancing out the window. The moon that had been high in the sky had tilted considerably.
‘Time’s already…’
Just as I was about to tell Declan it was time to sleep, I glanced down at him and a faint smile appeared on my face.
He had fallen asleep on the floor, his face smudged with charcoal, looking like a child.
‘An angel, an angel.’
