My Secret Flower - Episode 28

For a moment, my vision blurred. Their relationship is so bad that it makes me even more suspicious of Pavilion.

But there’s no justification, is there? If he had intended to kill him, Ash wouldn’t have come to Pavilion, who had given him the title, saying he couldn’t do it. Was it a title he wanted, but felt overwhelmed when he actually received it?

“Ash must be frustrated. He doesn’t even know who the culprit trying to harm him is, so it must feel like having an enemy behind his back.”

I’m already this frustrated, so I can only imagine how he must feel, and I can’t help but sigh.

Tap. Tap.

Then, a strange sound echoed in the quiet bedroom. It was the sound of something hard hitting the windowpane.

I wondered if the wind was blowing hard, but the constant sound made me get up. I realized that someone was deliberately hitting the window with small stones.

‘Ash should be held captive by Rainyd.’

I clutched the dagger hidden in my pillow and slipped out of bed, cautiously approaching the window. I pressed myself against the wall next to the window and scanned outside, and I could vaguely see gray hair below the balcony.

“Ash?”

I opened the window with a sense of relief and hesitated as I looked down at the balcony. Pavilion’s hair, longer than Ash’s, was fluttering in the wind. The person looking up at me was Pavilion.

“…Pavilion? Why aren’t you sleeping at this hour? What are you doing there?”

“I thought this was the only time I could talk to you. Won’t you come down for a moment? Don’t you have something to talk about with me?”

I had been planning to have a serious conversation with Pavilion sometime. But not this late at night. Besides, throwing stones at a noblewoman’s bedroom window to call her out is an old trick, isn’t it? I guess I should be grateful he didn’t sing a serenade.

“Isn’t waking someone up like this very rude? Let’s talk during the day if you have something to say.”

“My brother won’t allow you to meet me separately during the day. You must know that. Or is my story not worth listening to?”

His sulking voice is quite prickly. Honestly, I was a little scared because I had just been thinking that he might be the attempted murderer. I was worried that he might harm me.

But Ash didn’t tell me not to meet Pavilion separately, so it should be okay, right?

“Wait for me. I’ll come down.”

I put on a thin shawl over my pajamas and quietly left the room, clutching the dagger tightly in both hands. A knight on patrol yawned, startled to see me, and his eyes widened. I raised my index finger to my lips and approached him, commanding in a small voice.

“I’m going to the garden for a while, and if I’m too late, call Ash.”

“How long will you be gone?”

“Um. About half an hour?”

“Understood.”

Just in case something happens to me. Thinking of it as having a reliable charm, I headed to the garden without making a sound.

Pavilion, standing right below my balcony, came into view. My heart clenched and pounded, but I tried to maintain my composure.

He glanced at me approaching and twitched his eyebrows at the dagger clutched in my hands.

“You’re not going to kill me with that knife, are you?”

“It’s not for attack, it’s for defense. You’re not going to easily offer your neck if I swing it, are you?”

“I don’t know. I might seriously consider it if you told me to die.”

The way he said it with a smirk didn’t sound like a joke. I realized once again that this man is as headstrong as Ash.

I stood facing him, maintaining a reasonable distance. He stared at me intently and suddenly chuckled.

“Why are you laughing?”

“I was just thinking about when I first met you in the royal capital, you looked at me with the same eyes. Like, why is this guy hitting on me? That’s the feeling.”

“…You know me well. Say what you want to say quickly. Ash might come in half an hour.”

“My brother?”

“I told him to let Ash know if I don’t return to my room by then.”

His face, which had been relaxed and smiling just a moment ago, instantly hardened. The fierce expression was so similar to Ash’s that it was clear they were brothers.

But that doesn’t mean I’ll be intimidated.

“What do you want to say to me?”

“Rainyd came to see you, I heard. I’m curious about what you talked about.”

“Why is that?”

“I’m curious about what that guy is up to.”

I don’t think Rainyd and Pavilion are close enough to plot against each other. Unless his acting is top-notch.

There was a hint of anxiety in his expression, which seemed incomprehensible. It was as if he was worried that he might have harmed me.

“We didn’t talk about much. He said that Ash was the one who took away his voice, and Ash honestly explained it.”

“The wine with poison, you mean?”

“That’s right. And Rainyd told me to be careful of Ash, saying he’s a beast. Meaning he might bite me to death someday.”

At those words, Pavilion let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.

“A beast… Still afraid of my brother, yet acting so spoiled, I wonder what he’s got up his sleeve.”

“While we’re on the subject, I have something I want to ask. Why did you come to see Ash, who is giving up his position as head of the family and starting a new life?”

“I think I said it before. Didn’t I say I came to reclaim the woman who was taken from me?”

Is he still not over it? I feel the urgent need to make things clear this time.

“The expression ‘taken’ is wrong. I never gave you any feelings.”

“…I thought you were a cold woman. You’re incredibly cruel. You’re not going to give me even a little bit of hope?”

“I only have one heart. It’s not enough to give to one person. I’m sorry, but I hope you don’t hurt yourself with unnecessary emotional labor and move on.”

I shouldn’t give him any hope that would leave him with lingering feelings. I want to end things as well as possible, but judging from this man’s personality, he won’t let go easily unless I cut him off coldly.

And I’m also worried that Evelyn still can’t let go of Pavilion.

“I’m engaged to Ash. I’ve received permission from my father, and he gladly accepted him as a member of the family. I have no intention of reversing that decision.”

“Why can’t it be me? I want to know why my brother is okay and I’m not.”

I took a breath and paused for a moment to think. I feel sorry to just say I don’t like him because he’s Ash’s blood relative. But if I explain in detail, I don’t even know where to start. Rejection is this difficult.

While I was choosing my words, he just stared at me. His expression didn’t change much, but the blue veins and tendons on the back of his hand, which he was clenching tightly, were clearly protruding.

As soon as I saw that scene, my heart sank coldly and my mind cleared.

“Everyone says that there is a destined partner that the heavens have matched. I’m sure that partner is Ash. And I think that meeting Ash was the last gift my deceased mother gave me.”

“A destined partner…”

“Yes. A destined partner. I felt it. From the first time I met Ash.”

The strength in his clenched fist loosened. He closed his eyes tightly, pressed his forehead with his palm, and let out a deep sigh full of fatigue.

I guess my words worked well. There’s nothing more to say. How can I list in words what I did because my heart led me to it?

“That’s all I have to say. I sincerely hope you meet a good person too…”

“If you think you met my brother by fate, well. I wonder if that was really fate?”

For a moment, goosebumps rose on my arm for some reason. It was definitely a bit warm with the humid air because of the rain that poured down in the late afternoon, but suddenly a cool air enveloped me and made my shoulders shiver.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Ask my brother directly. Whether it was a coincidence that he boarded your carriage half-dead that day.”

Pavilion, who only said what he wanted to say, turned around and quickly disappeared from sight. I just stared blankly in the direction he disappeared and laughed heartily.

“It’s the first time being loved is this hard. Now I’m hearing all sorts of stories.”

It’s just ridiculous. So, he wants to say that Ash targeted our family’s carriage and injured himself to get on it? How did he know who was in that carriage?

The traces of self-harm still on his body were by no means light scratches. Everyone who saw the wounds said the same thing. That they were traces of a life-or-death struggle with quite a few people.

The doctor who treated him said that he would have died from excessive bleeding if he had been even a little late. If I hadn’t taken him into the carriage, he would have died.

My mind, which had been firm in the face of my mother’s death, was greatly shaken, and that’s why I accepted him. If it had been me normally, I would have left him to be treated in that village and returned to the main house alone. It was not his will, but my will. It was an act of kindness because my heart moved, because I just wanted to do it.

‘I understand why Ash abandoned his family and left everything behind to come to me. I would do the same.’

I hated Pavilion so much for throwing out such absurd words and trying to slander him, even though I didn’t accept his feelings.

Even if Ash had really made up his mind to do that, I’m not someone who would fall for such a trick. It was my will to fall for him, and it was solely my choice to decide to make him my spouse.

“Lishua?”

Just as my displeasure was rising because it felt like he was mocking my sincerity. I heard Ash’s voice calling me from behind, and at the same time, the strength in my tightly clenched shoulders melted away. My heart, which had been coldly sinking, started to heat up again and beat wildly.

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