A Summer With Bitter Rivals

[From the very beginning, wasn’t our relationship just a game? Ah, but I’ll admit this much—it was fun.]

With nothing but a single cruel letter declaring that everything had been a lie, Emeline’s first love disappeared. Now, he has returned—upon hearing the news of her engagement.

***

It all began with rivalry between families. That man, Zenon Trancium, was a delinquent aristocrat who never failed to scratch at her pride. One summer day, when they were both young and naive…

“Have you ever kissed anyone?” Oh, right, you’re so high and mighty that you would freak out if someone even touched you, wouldn’t you?”

“I’ve done it too. Want me to show you?”

What started as a battle of pride from his taunts quickly turned into first love. But before long, Emeline realized it had all been a game to him, and she erased him from her life—or at least, she tried to.

“It’s been a while, Lady Delzeier.”

Until the moment he appeared again, right after hearing of her engagement.

“Do you hate me so much you’d die? Funny, it doesn’t feel like the truth to me.”

Despite being the one who abandoned her, he now stood before her with the look of someone who had been left behind. Her first love was intruding upon Emeline’s life once more—this time, not to offer love, but to ruin her engagement.

“Lady Delzeier, we may still be rivals tied by our families, but let me make one thing clear.”

We’re no longer the naive children of that summer.