Chapter 86: Exposed (1)
“......What?”
Frozen in place by his chilling response, Asena’s mind went blank, her words of defense evaporating.
In her life, she had never felt this level of fear before.
The disappointment on his face, or perhaps the confusion, or even anger, seemed to signify the end of their relationship.
Given that he was already planning on leaving, she was no fool; she knew this incident would only push him further in that direction.
“...I’m so confused right now.”
Seeing that Asena couldn’t respond, he spoke up.
“...Am I dreaming right now? Keirsey...tell me.”
“...Oppa...”
Cayden wiped his lips several times, still feeling the wetness of their saliva on his arm.
Each time he noticed it, his face hardened even more.
Finally, he posed the question.
“...Did you two kiss me?”
“...Ah... Um...that...”
“While I was asleep?”
Their feeble voices didn’t reach him. Still lost in his thoughts, he wiped his lips again and shifted his gaze to Keirsey sitting right in front of him.
Keirsey felt as if her heart had stopped under his gaze. An unknown fear gripped her, dreading his next move.
What would happen to her now? How would he react?
Frozen in fear and avoiding eye contact, Keirsey felt Cayden’s warm hand approach her cheek.
....Could it be?
....Could he be forgiving her?
Just as a wave of deep relief and astonishment was about to wash over her, Cayden swiftly wiped his thumb across Keirsey’s lips.
“...Ah!”
If under normal circumstances he had caressed her lips so gently, there would have been nothing more heart-fluttering.
Of course, her heart was still pounding now, but for all the wrong reasons.
Cayden inspected the moisture on Keirsey’s lips one more time.
That was it. No more proof was needed to confirm whether they had kissed him or not.
Asena walked briskly toward them and sat down on the bed.
“...Oppa...you see...”
Even Keirsey had never seen Asena at such a loss for words.
If even Asena couldn’t find a way to explain, Keirsey’s fear could not help but deepen.
“....Heh.”
Cayden let out a bitter laugh.
At the sound of his laugh, a chill solidified in the hearts of Asena and Keirsey.
Cayden pushed Keirsey off his lap, and powerless against his force, she was shoved away.
He swung his legs off the bed, turned his back to them, and covered his face with his hands.
In that position, he spoke slowly.
“....Just because I’m a fool...I have one question to ask.”
“......”
“......”
“....Was this just out of curiosity?”
“.....Ah...!”
Keirsey wanted to immediately seize the lifeline he’d thrown and say that it was, but her lips wouldn’t part.
She had planned to confess her feelings in just three days. If she denied it now, she couldn’t possibly tell him then. And if she didn’t, Cayden would go away with Daisy.
“....It’s...”
“.....Just out of curiosity...to see what a kiss feels like...is that it?”
The moment his icy voice echoed again, Asena felt as if she had been shot out of a cannon. She threw her arms around his back.
“.......Asena.”
Holding onto Cayden’s back, Asena whispered into it.
“.......Oppa.”
“......”
“....The words I was going to say in three days...I’ll say them now.”
“...Answer my question first.”
“....Please, just listen.”
Hearing Asena’s earnest plea, Cayden clenched his eyes shut once more. Asena opened her mouth to speak before he could say anything else.
“.....Ever since I can remember...I hated that you were my brother.”
“......”
Cayden felt a shiver course through his body, as he grasped the direction in which she was headed. Hating that he’s her brother after stealing a kiss. There was only one thing that could mean.
“.....I despised that you’re a Pryster so much.”
“......Asena, stop.”
Cayden tried to stop her. He could already hear what she was going to say, but there’s a big difference between actually voicing it and keeping it to oneself.
“The love you gave me was too sweet...I couldn’t live without you...and the idea that someday you’d be with another woman...I couldn’t bear it.”
Cayden placed his hand on Asena’s arms that were wrapped around his waist. But the more he did, the tighter she held onto him.
“....Daisy...Judy...I feel like I’m going insane even now. The thought of Judy stealing a kiss from you...it makes me furious. The idea of you leaving me for those women...it feels like I’ll die. But nothing seems to shake your resolve.”
“Asena..! I said stop-”
“-I love you, Oppa.”
Cayden’s body visibly tensed, and even Keirsey could see it clearly.
Asena didn’t stop. She began to spill years’ worth of emotions all at once.
“....Please, stay by my side forever, just like you promised when we were young.”
****
I couldn’t believe the words my sister was whispering into my ear.
She said she loved me. And not as a family.
It was hard to believe those words had come from Asena’s mouth.
My mind was a jumble; I couldn’t think straight.
Could this really not be a dream?
“.......No...you’re mistaken...Asena...you love me as...”
“....Then why did I try to get you expelled?”
Her words stopped me dead in my tracks.
“.....Because if you’re a Pryster, you can’t marry me.”
I couldn’t even muster the strength for a simple ‘What?’ to escape my lips.
“...The times I talked badly about you behind your back... it was because other women were showing interest in you. I was scared...scared that someone else would catch your eye...”
The Asena I knew was afraid?
“Even at social gatherings...I couldn’t stand seeing you dance with other women...and the times I was cruel to your friends...it was all out of jealousy...”
Asena’s grip around my waist tightened even more. It felt like her arms, wrapped around me, would never let go.
Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind, and I turned my head.
....What about Keirsey?
It wasn’t just Asena who’d spoken ill of me. She wasn’t the only one who’d been jealous all this time. And the person who had just slipped their tongue into my mouth was undoubtedly...
When my gaze met Keirsey’s, she lowered her head deeply.
“.......It’s not true, right...?”
Even though it seemed almost certain given the circumstances, I asked, clinging to the hope that it wasn’t true.
Keirsey, who’d always been quick to tears, answered me, her eyes shimmering in the moonlight as she let them fall.
“.......I’m sorry.”
“.......Keirsey...”
“I’m sorry, Oppa... I love you too...”
My vision spun in shock.
“.........”
“....I’m sorry...I’m sorry...”
When I weakly turned my head back to face forward, Keirsey quickly got off the bed and knelt before me.
As I was sitting on the edge of the bed, she knelt on the ground, between my knees, and looked up at me.
“Op...Oppa... I’ll really do my best... You know I can’t live without you... right? I know this... this isn’t normal... but can’t you love me too?”
“........”
“......I’m sorry I had to suddenly confess like this... I was going to prepare for it but... sob...”
She started to tear up again.
Strangely, I felt nothing. Before, just seeing her tears would have torn at my heart, making me want to do anything to comfort her.
But now... I felt absolutely nothing. Was it because the shock was too great? Or was there no room for any other emotion to come through?
Keirsey stretched one hand toward my thigh and the other toward my face, while Asena still held me tightly around my waist.
“...Let go.”
I warned both of them. I hadn’t even thought before speaking; my mouth was moving before I realized it.
“...Oppa... don’t... don’t be like this...”
“Asena Pryster, Keirsey Pryster. Take your hands off me.”
Upon hearing their names called out, including their last names, they hesitated but eventually obeyed.
Keirsey’s face, right in front of me, contorted in pain.
Still, I felt neither compassion nor pity for her. Rather, a suffocating rage started to rise within me.
I don’t know why. Perhaps it wasn’t even anger. I just felt overwhelmingly trapped and frustrated.
“...Are you two in your right minds?”
I squeezed the words out. It was the first time I had spoken so bluntly to my sisters, but I couldn’t think of any other way to better encapsulate the absurdity of the situation.
“If I had known my sincere feelings would be repaid like this... I would never have cared about you both in the first place.”
Startled by my words, Keirsey broke into a stream of tears.
“Op-Oppa... why would you say it like that... sob... sniff...”
“Enough...! You’ll only hear kind words when you make sense...! How can you see me as a man, how!”
I spoke as if scolding Keirsey, but she simply continued to cry like a child.
Feeling that further conversation with her would be fruitless, I turned away.
I saw Asena, who wanted to hug me but couldn’t defy my words, feebly waving her hand in the air.
All the vitality had drained from her face. The only evidence of her emotion was her tears, streaming uncontrollably just like Keirsey’s.
The reality that they weren’t joking continued to close in on me.
“...Asena...if anyone...!”
I wanted to say she should think more sensibly. To stop this madness— but upon seeing her expression, I gave up on speaking. It was clear that my words would not reach her.
Instead, I raised my voice, as if doing so would somehow snap them back to their senses.
“Damn it...! What would Grandma think!”
I grabbed Asena by her shoulders and shook her.
“Get a hold of yourself...! Snap out of it!!”
Asena, who had been shedding tears, coldly spat out,
“...Grandma already knows.”
And with that, the fiery anger within me froze instantly.
“...What?”
I could do nothing but blink in disbelief.
“I told her.”
Only then did I begin to understand why Grandma and the twins had fought so fiercely, why Grandma had hurriedly arranged my marriage. It all… began to make sense.
As I froze, drained of all energy, Asena spoke.
“...I already told Grandma this, but... Oppa, what choice did I have?”
“...What?”
“Why were you so good to me...? Why were you so kind...? Why were you so reliable...? Why were you so cool...?”
“......”
“...I had no choice but to love you. Without you... there’s no light. You’re the only one who saved me...”
My teeth clenched as I spat out my words, my whole body stiffening with tension.
“...Stop feeding me those excuses. Who falls in love with their brother just because he’s kind, cool, and reliable? The world is full of kind, cool people...! But no one ends up falling in love with their brother!”
“...Well, maybe we wouldn’t have if you were our biological brother. But you’re not our biological brother.”
It felt like someone had struck me hard on the head. Even when I had been injured during training, hit by a wooden sword, I hadn’t felt such shock.
“...You...” Ignoring the surge of emotion welling in my chest, I asked,
“...How could you say something like that? Do you have any idea how much I’ve cared for you—”
“—I know. That’s exactly why I had no choice but to love you.”
“......”
It felt like I was sinking into a bottomless swamp. Whatever I said now, it wouldn’t matter; they already loved me.
No matter how many times I told them to snap out of it, my words wouldn’t get through.
I didn’t want to waste my efforts either.
To begin with, there were other things I wanted to say as well.
My fists clenched tightly as I closed my eyes.
“.......Alright, let’s say you’ve fallen in love with me.”
Struggling with the words, I dared to consider the possibility.
“It’s not a matter of saying ‘let’s say,’ I am in love...”
I opened my eyes and glared at Asena, who had once again contradicted me.
“Let’s say that’s the case.”
This was where I drew the line. Anything beyond this, and I didn’t think I could continue the conversation in my right mind.
“......”
Perhaps Asena sensed that too, for she didn’t pick apart my words any further.
With a weak gesture, I pointed around us, displaying our current situation to them.
“...So if you’re in love, what is this?”
This time, I looked even at Keirsey, who was sitting on the ground.
“...Sneaking into my room at night, kissing me without my consent...Is this what you call love?”
This approach, just like their declarations of love, was also a tremendous shock to me.
“If it’s a way to express love, then…”
I swallowed the rest of my sentence... Isn’t this precisely the way a villainess would behave?
Even if I force myself to believe that Asena has hit puberty and made a mistake due to all the pressure she has been under, but even Keirsey kneeling in front of me...
My perception of them shifted entirely.
I had believed in their innocence based on their longing for my affection and their fondness for little pecks, but… Was I naive to think so? Had I been blinded by my own biases?
In truth, the reason they enjoyed my expressions of affection was that they saw me as a man, and their actions were far from innocent.
“...Why did I have to learn about your feelings in such a manner?”
Keirsey’s rigid head began to tremble.
As I looked at her, my words tangled up.
“Ah... no... that’s not it... Why do you even like me in the first place...”
I couldn’t connect my words properly, confused as I was. Finally, I sighed and returned to the original subject.
“...To forcibly take someone’s lips like this...”
If they can’t even respect my feelings when they claim to love me, how could they respect others?
Were they, my own sisters, inherently villainous women from birth?
My efforts over the years began to feel in vain.
What snapped me out of my thoughts was Keirsey’s voice.
“...Judy did the same thing.”
“...What?”
“Judy also stole a kiss from you!”
She looked up at me, her emotions spilling over. The strange thing was, ever since they confessed their feelings to me, I came to realize that I was the center of their every action.
Why they had been so jealous all along. Why they had been so cautious about Judy and Daisy. Why they were so angry when Judy stole a kiss from me.
Everything made sense now.
With a hollow laugh, I responded.
“...Yes, Judy did do that.”
“But why...why is it okay when Judy does it...and not me, who’s been with you for so long?”
“...You were angry too when Judy stole my lips. You knew it was wrong.”
“......”
“I thought you were angry about the immorality of it...but it seems you were angry simply because she took my lips away from you.”
“.......”
“...But... but at least Judy made it known to me.”
“......Huh...”
“What she did wasn’t right. But at least I knew about it. You all did this while I was asleep, without my knowledge...”
A thought flickered through my mind, and I felt a haze overtake me.
Without my knowledge.
They did it without my knowledge.
It might not have been the first time...
Ah.
My hand brushed against my neck, where there had been bug bites just a few days ago.
Marks that had appeared after I woke up.
As my hand touched my own neck, Keirsey once again averted her eyes.
“...So this wasn’t the first time.”
I let out a feeble statement, unable to probe further.
What should I do now?
I’ve become the calamity of my own family.
I couldn’t correct their villainous tendencies. At the same time, the twins’ love for me had brought harm to the Pryster family.
The engagement with Judy fell apart, distancing us from the Ice family. By punishing the daughter of the subordinate Payne family, I’ve further strained relations with them.
What on earth had I been doing here? I’d foolishly thought, in jest, that people at the academy should be grateful to me for reforming the twins…
-Tap.
I snapped back to reality to find a single tear had fallen.
Startled by the tear I had unconsciously shed, I quickly covered my face.
Keirsey, with a tearful expression, reached out with her sleeve toward my face, but I pushed her away.
There was only one thing left for me to say.
“...Leave.”
“...Huh?”
“Oppa...No...I’m sorry.”
They must have felt it too. That they won’t be able to casually enter my room anymore. That from this moment on, we would rapidly drift apart.
Asena once again tightly gripped the hem of my clothes from behind.
I had rarely ever pushed her away when she clung to me.
Even when I was incredibly angry, I never did so with Asena.
I knew the many burdens she carried, both as the head of the family and as the older of the twins.
She was the one with a lot of stress, and considering she had only ever shown her true self to me, I had been her pillar of support.
But that ends today.
-Slap.
I coldly knocked Asena’s hand away, the hand that had been gripping my clothes.
Asena looked incredulously back and forth between my hand and her own.
“...Leave.”
“Bu...but, Oppa, I really can’t go on without you—”
“Exactly. I gave you two too much affection. That’s why you ended up loving me.”
I got up from the bed and pulled on the door handle.
-Tak.
“...”
“...”
The door remained locked. Once again, the twins’ cunning disappointed me.
Silently, I unlocked the door and opened it for them.
“...This is all my fault. There won’t be such mistakes in the future.”
Keirsey, who had been kneeling, tried to rush towards me but stumbled and fell to the floor.
“...Ah!”
I clenched my teeth at the sight of her moaning in pain.
Instinctively, I almost sprang forward to catch her.
But all of this is due to my foolishness, my guilt.
It’s because I’ve been like this...that we’re experiencing such a reality.
Just moments ago, I would have been unaffected by Keirsey’s tears, but now, as the shock seemed to subside a little, I found myself faltering again.
I don’t have much time left to endure.
I diverted my gaze from her for a moment, steadying my emotions before looking back at my siblings.
Despair was etched deeply onto their faces.
“‘There won’t be such mistakes in the future?’ What does that mean? What are you saying?”
Keirsey, unable to rise from her spot, asked with a choked voice.
“...N-no, that’s not true, right, Oppa?”
Asena also approached and questioned me.
She seemed to have reverted to who she was a decade ago. The mask she’d been meticulously maintaining all these years was gone.
The young, vulnerable Asena I first met was standing before me again.
Her eyes fluttered nervously before she quickly reached out her hand towards me.
-Slap.
I swiftly swatted it away.
Until now, whenever Asena had grabbed my hand, I hadn’t been able to react.
But is it because I’ve resolved to minimize my expressions?
Now, all her movements seem slow to me.
Finally, she lowered her head and let the tears fall as she spoke.
“...It was a lie... Oppa... I don’t love you... So, please don’t talk like it’s over.”
Just minutes ago, I had doubted her claims of love for me; now, I was more certain than anyone that her admission wasn’t a lie.
“...Oppa... Give me a kiss... No, just hug me... That’ll be enough for me.”
I issued a final warning to the twins.
“...Leave. This is your last warning.”
I offered them nothing.
“Ugh...Sniff...”
“...Sob... Oppa...”
Trying to hold back their tears, they managed to stand up. Their pleading eyes continuously sought solace from me, compelling me to close my own.
The sound of their weeping was all that enveloped my ears.
I didn’t say anything more.
The twins, crying in front of me, hesitated for a moment before shuffling towards the door and exiting the room.
“...I... I won’t give up.”
I heard Asena’s voice but chose to ignore it.
I didn’t even see them out.
Although every fiber of my being wanted to comfort them, I refrained.
As soon as they stepped out of my room, I closed the door.
-Thud.
‘Sob... Oppa...’
‘Ah...!.. Ahh!’
The intensity of their crying escalated the moment the door shut. It was reminiscent of the cries from when they were hurt playing outside.
Their sobs were instinctively piercing, beckoning my innate protective instincts, but I resisted, physically blocking out the sound.
I slid down with my back against the door, covering my ears. If I didn’t, I feared my weakened resolve would have me running back to them.
Keirsey showed her vulnerable side to me, Grandma, and Asena.
Asena revealed her frailty only to me.
...but what about me?
I was left alone, bearing the brunt of this tragedy.
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