A Summer With Bitter Rivals - Chapter 88

Chapter 88: Error

Emeline’s eyes flew wide open. In a moment of complete shock, she instinctively pushed against his shoulders.

He parted their locked lips. For someone who had just kissed her so forcefully, Zenon acted like he held some deep grudge against her.

He didn’t seem to care one bit what happened to the tilted umbrella. He simply slung it over his shoulder and blocked one side of the wall so Emeline couldn’t run away.

Realizing the umbrella was about to fall, Emeline hastily grabbed the handle.

If the black umbrella shielding her head disappeared, and Mathis Renier turned this way, they would be caught in an instant.

“Ugh, haa…”

The relentless friction and the way he sucked on her lips and tongue clouded her mind.

With her other hand, Emeline slapped Zenon’s shoulder repeatedly—but not hard enough to hurt.

Mathis was nearby, and this situation was dangerous. If he noticed something was off and came over, it would be a disaster.

Wasn’t she supposed to be here to have a conversation with Zenon in the first place?

While she was still struggling to push Zenon away, a carriage could be heard departing in the distance.

Even through the sound of pouring rain, Emeline was tense enough to notice it.

‘Did Mathis leave…?’

Most likely. The only carriage nearby had been his.

Relieved, Emeline’s hands lost strength as she stopped pushing Zenon away.

Besides, this headstrong man, who kissed her out of nowhere, wasn’t going to be pushed off so easily.

As she silently laid her hand against his chest, Zenon gradually calmed.

Their tightly pressed bodies let them feel each other’s pounding heartbeats. Louder than the sound of rain on the umbrella.

Now able to focus entirely on him, Emeline gripped the umbrella handle tightly.

Perhaps because she had wanted so desperately to see him again—this situation, which normally would’ve horrified her, didn’t feel all that bad.

Just as their parted lips grew warm and slick, he pulled away. Their breaths came short between them.

From a hand’s breadth away, Zenon looked down at her.

For some reason, his face looked desolate and saddened.

No, ever since they’d reunited after four years, Zenon had always looked at her that way.

Though the surroundings were drowned in gray, it only made the silence between them feel deeper. The chill of rain-soaked ground slowly cleared her mind and heart.

Emeline, meeting his gaze, finally spoke.

“…Zenon Trancium.”

“……”

“That article you published—what was that? The person you mentioned there… was it me?”

Zenon’s eyes deepened as he looked at her. The way they stood facing each other felt like a silent battle to read one another’s hearts.

As she waited for an answer, Emeline gripped the umbrella tighter and tighter. Her hand, drained of color, began to ache.

Then Zenon let out a soft, powerless laugh.

“…Why ask when you already know? Who else could it be but you.”

Emeline’s eyes wavered the moment she heard his answer.

With a short gasp, she realized something unmistakably clear.

That this relationship, which had always felt askew, had been completely misaligned from the start.

Zenon, brows knit in pain, went on. “…I knew it’d be hard for you to come to me right away. But now you’re here—and you’re trying to leave again? Really…? Are you going to walk away from me again?”

Still staring at her, he let his head fall gently onto her shoulder. She felt his forehead press against her soaked clothing.

The hand that had been propped on the wall dropped, and he pulled her tightly into an embrace around the waist.

He leaned into her like a man who had lost everything—his body and spirit crumbling. There was a desperation to his actions that was too deep to measure.

Then came his voice, soft and uncertain, breaking through the sound of rain.

“…I love you.”

Emeline, who had just regained her senses and was about to comfort him, froze.

Maybe it was the wetness clinging to everything from the rain, but for a moment, his voice sounded like he was crying.

“I still love you.”

“…Zenon.”

“Emeline, could you be happy… without me?”

It wasn’t her imagination.

The shoulders that held her were trembling faintly. She could feel Zenon swallowing back tears again and again.

I can’t live without you.

Emeline understood the true meaning behind his words. She also realized that his embrace was begging her not to leave.

His warmth, in stark contrast to the cold wall behind her, felt almost unreal. Every time his breathing hitched, it scorched like fire.

“Emeline Delzeier, when are you ever going to truly look at me? Why do you always let others pull you away from me…?”

Whether from the rain or his tears, her whole body felt drenched.

Even if it all felt surreal, this wasn’t a dream.

Slowly, she raised her hand and gently wrapped it around his head. His soft hair slipped between her fingers.

Why? What went wrong between us for things to end up like this?

As she listened to the beat of his heart racing just like hers, Emeline finally parted her trembling lips.

“Then… why did you send me that kind of letter? You said you loved me, so why did you draw such a line there?”

“What…?”

At that moment, Zenon stopped trembling, and after a pause, he lifted the head he had buried. As the weight lifted from her shoulder, Emeline felt a cold chill.

When their eyes met again, Zenon’s were clouded with moisture.

Tears clung to the ends of his long, thick lashes, which used to be so beautiful, and his bangs had become a messy, disheveled mess.

Perhaps because of the flush brought on by crying, he seemed to radiate a feverish warmth.

Zenon stared at Emeline’s face as if trying to discern the truth, then spoke in a low, hoarse voice, “What are you talking about, Emeline Delzeier?”

By then, his expression had gone stiff.

Sensing something had clearly gone wrong, Emeline began to speak seriously. But just recalling the past made her instinctively frown.

“The letter you sent through our secret passage before you left to study abroad. In it, you said… that our relationship was just a game. That you were sick of me, like that…”

As she spoke, emotion surged, and Emeline furrowed her brows. Her damp blue eyes filled with tears, and Zenon looked flustered.

As if forgetting how downcast he’d been himself, he released her from his embrace and gently wiped her eyes.

Emeline could say no more and bit her lip tightly.

Zenon, lost in thought for quite some time, slowly opened his mouth.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Emeline.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You said being with me had only been a loss to you. So for the last four years… do you know how much I’ve—”

Suddenly, her vision blurred with tears. Just blinking lightly made them pour down.

Though her sight briefly cleared, it was soon clouded again.

She knew something was off about the letter she had received, but speaking of it to the very person who had hurt her only stirred sorrow and fury.

She felt like throwing dignity aside and sobbing like a child.

While she silently wept, trying to steady her shaky breath, Zenon wiped her cheek again.

As he did so, a hint of realization flickered in his narrowed eyes.

“No, Emeline… the one who said such things in a letter was you. How could I say that to you.”

“What? What are you talking about—”

Emeline stopped, startled. As if reading her confusion, Zenon continued.

“I… thought it was a letter you were forced to write because of your father. That’s why I endured, thinking only of you for four years. But when I came back and saw how much you’d changed… I thought you were completely rejecting me and following your father’s will.”

“……”

“While I was away, I thought maybe you had truly come to regret our relationship… and that your heart had changed, just like the letter said… Are you saying that letter wasn’t from you?”

Their eyes, locked on each other, were filled with confusion. Emeline, still frozen, spoke a little more to clear her doubts.

“I kept sending you letters. But you never replied.”

“…Aside from that one, I never got another letter from you.”

“Then you went abroad without a word. And while I waited for you, you even got engaged.”

“The study abroad was forced by my father, who knew about us. He blackmailed me using my mother, so I had no choice. Before I left, I did send you a letter… As for the engagement… I was only informed about it while I was overseas. That’s all, really.”

For a while, Emeline could only move her lips in disbelief.

After a long silence, all that escaped was a hollow sigh.

No way.

Emeline had found the letter written in Zenon’s handwriting at their secret spot.

Fearing that someone else might have discovered it and tampered with it, she had intentionally filled the letter with insults toward Zenon as a way to test its security.

No—she thought it was safe.

It was now clear that, like her, Zenon had received a letter with unfamiliar content written in his own handwriting.

“How…”

Overwhelmed by emotions she couldn’t describe, Emeline couldn’t form any coherent words. Zenon seemed the same.

As she stood there in shock, Zenon wiped the traces of her tears and cupped one side of her cheek.

When she lifted her gaze, he met her eyes with a solemn look and said with conviction, “There was never a moment when you were just a game to me.”

How could I?

The heavy silence that followed his words was drowned out by the pounding rain.

From the glistening world beneath the gray sky came the pungent scent of wet stone.

Gazing into each other’s eyes, they realized, without needing to say it—

Someone had maliciously tampered with the letters.

And that error had kept them apart for four years.