Damia saw this and naturally became curious.

‘What the hell are you looking at?’

She turned her head, following Akkard’s gaze, and found it. She saw a woman with red hair and a white dress walking from the other side of the square.

‘She looks like me.’

The moment she realized that Akkard shook and lowered his head, shoulders drooped helplessly.

His gesture, slowly wiping his face away with one hand, seemed terribly discouraged. When Damia saw this, it suddenly occurred to her:

‘He thought she… … You must have thought it was me.’

The moment she thought of that, her heart pounded strangely. It seemed that the tip of her nose was tingling and feeling stuffy for some reason.

Damia couldn’t take her eyes off his bowed face. She was so focused so she could not miss a fleeting moment.

It was in the blink of an eye, but his eyebrows furrowed, and he bit his lip, looking like he was about to cry.

An anxiety and fear that she would not come, but an aching hope he can’t turn back and leave—just in case. That sorrow.

It wasn’t the kind of expression someone could ever make up. The moment she saw him with a fragile face, as if he was about to break, Damia jumped up from her seat.

‘Nonsense.’

She thought as she quickly descended the stairs of the tea house. Her mind was all confused, and she couldn’t think properly.

‘I must be wrong.’

Exactly. Ridiculous. Akkard Valerian, the infamous bad boy that could never love. Although Damia thought that, she had already left the tea house.

As she hurried around the corner of the road, she saw Akkard standing in the distance. He was still waiting for her, exactly the same as three hours before.

Damia quelled her steps a little further away and caught her breath for a moment. Then, and after preparing her heart, she timidly called out to him.

“… … Sir Akkard.”

He glanced around slowly.

He must have been angry because he had waited three hours, but instead, Akkard didn’t show any signs of bitterness. Instead, a blinding light of joy filled his handsome face.

“Damia.”

Like an irresistible sneeze that popped out of his mouth, as if he couldn’t hold it in, he spoke her name. And he smiled brightly like an evening primrose in full bloom under the moonlight.

He was so jubilant she didn’t know what to do.

“You came.”

As she looked up at the brightly shining face, her eyes widened. Damia, who looked up at him without even breathing, muttered in a tight voice,

“I’m sorry, I’m very late.”

“No.”

Akkard silently shook his head. And he answered casually with a smile, revealing his even teeth.

“I just got here, too.”

It was an absurd lie. Knowing very well that he had been waiting for her all three hours, Damia lowered her gaze and searched the floor, speechless.

Then a bouquet in his strong hand caught the corner of her eye. The petals, wilting from the intense afternoon sun, were a shabby brown gold.

Like hidden true feelings.

“So, there was no inconvenience.”

Damia bit her lip at the sound of his calm voice.

Now she couldn’t deny it either. The fact that Akkard loves her.

Sienna was right. Looking at Akkard, who had waited three hours just to see her face, Damia felt very complicated.

“… … First of all, let’s talk while eating something.”

After noticing the sweat on his temple, Damia suggested. Then Akkard, who blinked his light thick eyelashes, smiled and held out the flowers.

“Let’s. And take this.”

He paused as he belatedly took notice of the bouquet he held out. While waiting for Damia, he had been immersed in his thoughts and anxieties; he hadn’t even registered that the flowers had withered.

Even the hydrangeas he picked with so much care were thrown away without mercy. Then, unable to hand it over to Damia, he tried to lower his hand.

But before that, Damia slightly held out her hand.

“… … didn’t you bring it for me?”

At the sound of her calmly inquiring tone, Akkard looked at her blankly. Then Damia added with a piercing look,

“Or not.”

“No-no! No way.”

Startled as if burned, he handed over the bouquet. Damia glanced at the flowers in her arms and didn’t say thank you.

Instead, she pointed to Akkard with her chin.

“Now let’s go.”

Akkard, feeling somewhat overwhelmed, followed her slowly. And he escorted Damia with unprecedented courtesy.