About Your Pride and My Prejudice
Chapter 81:

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“Me in your dreams, to you?”

“…….”

Alan’s ticklish whisper made Melissa feel as hot as her face could explode.

“That’s what happened.”

Is there anything more shameful than this? She was only trying to figure out what Alan and Monica Elwood were like but she couldn’t even believe herself that she ended up saying embarrassing words. 

‘I must be crazy…….’

The moment Alan’s breathy laugh touched her ears, which must have been red, she wanted to bang her head on the table and wanted to pass out.

“But unfortunately,”

Then Alan said,

“It’s not enough for me to tell the story you want to hear.”

“T-that’s sc..…!”

When Melissa, who lowered her hand that had been covering her face involuntarily, turned to Alan, he leaned his cheek on his arm that was touching her back and smiled languidly.

“am…….”

Melissa murmured in a daze. But while being resentful that she seemed to be deceived by Alan, his beautiful eyes that looked at her constantly made her lose her strength. At this moment, Alan Leopold’s smile, gaze, and breath were all hers.

Thinking about it made her heart ache.

“Thank you for making me happy. Thank you for making me feel a little better.” (Alan)

At that low voice, Melissa asked, with her brown eyes still wet.

“…so will you tell me?”

Now she had to hear what he was hiding. It didn’t matter if she got involved. He must pay for the shameful secrets that she would never have said if not for his deal.

But there were two things Melissa overlooked. Before she realized it, she was more focused on wanting to hear Alan’s story than on her anger towards Monica. And it was Alan again who stopped her sad tears.

After a moment of silence he spoke.

“No. Instead, I will tell you one thought that comes to mind.”

“Ha…!”

Melissa opened her mouth with a bewildered look, forgetting that she was ashamed of her face being close with his. Her flushed cheeks were as red as a peach.

“What is that! I told you the shameful secrets……!”

“But this is something I wouldn’t have heard if it wasn’t for today.”

Alan, who tilted his face to the side, said in a voice as calm as a lake. Melissa couldn’t stand it because she hated it, but unlike him who was calm all the time, she cried like a child and yelled at herself.

“What’s that?”

Then Alan sat up straight and looked straight down at Melissa. Like a winter morning, the cold, transparent blue-gray eyes looked deeper than ever.

“The real Alan Leopold also thought he wanted to kiss Melissa Collins.”

“That….”

Melissa felt dizzy as if the surroundings were spinning around. Her heart fluttered like a fish just caught. She didn’t know if he could hear her heart at this distance.

“Uh, when?”

“Now.”

Then Alan’s face narrowed the distance in an instant.

“……!”

Melissa, dizzy at the thought that his lips would touch hers like this, hurriedly covered her mouth. The other hand was on the table, but unlike a while ago, when it was held by Alan, it was shaking now.

Whether she covered her lips or not, Alan slowly wrapped his hand around Melissa’s cheeks and his face touched her face. Melissa’s eyes were so wide that she could no longer open them any more.

It wasn’t until he kissed her on the back of her hand that was covering her lips.

“Uh….”

Had she not covered her lips, she would have given him her first kiss. Melissa felt hopelessly distant at the thought.

The place where his lips touched was clearly the back of her hand and the place where her lips touched was the palm of her hand. However, the pale eyelids that closed beautifully in front of her and the neat eyelashes that hung under them created the illusion that she was kissing him now.

“…….”

The cheeks wrapped in Alan’s cold hands, the back of her hand where his lips touched, and even the lungs filled with his body scent were melting. Finally, when she closed her eyes too, Alan’s soft lips fell with a small nibbling sound.

He whispered in the magical silence, where there was no sound but the breath of the two.

“I told you that I thought your hands would smell like ink.”

“…….”

Alan seemed very happy to recall the past, and laughed as if he would go back to that moment any time. His soft breath tickled the back of her hand like a feather.

“Actually, at that time… I thought your skin didn’t smell bad.”

“…….”

The whispering voice was so sensual that she got ripple-like goosebumps on the back of her neck. Melissa, still unable to take her hand off from her lips, closed her trembling eyelids tightly.

She had no answer to give to Alan. He must be laughing at her for shaking like a mouse in front of a lion. She couldn’t even open her eyes at the thought.

“No, actually, it was good.”

“…….”

However, Alan’s relaxed manner irritated her.

Melissa’s heart was being overworked just by the mere caress of his straight, beautiful fingers on her cheeks and her hair, and her body was drooping like wet cotton. How much longer is he going to torment this poor heart?

Melissa took a slow deep breath with the intention of warning him to really stop teasing her then if one more sweet word came out.

Whether or not he knew how she felt, Alan’s calm low voice flowed into Melissa’s ear like a wind.

“It would be nice if I could fall asleep smelling this every day.”

“Wait……hmph.”

When Melissa finally lowered her hand that covered her lips, Alan swallowed her lips. It was an ecstatic kiss, as if embraced by clouds, desperate and thirsty as if it would take all the breath in the lungs.

The brown eyes, which were trembling finely, slowly hid inside the fine eyelids.

* * *

(T/N: pov shifted back to Mel)

‘It would be nice if I could fall asleep smelling this every day.’

What the hell was that?

“……Is it a confession?”

No, Melissa. Why would Alan Leopold confess to me? Wake up. It’s natural for him to tease.

He did the same with her. Alan’s stress got worse after he came to the Duchy, and I…… It’s just a side effect.

Yes, it is an undeniable fact that Alan sometimes comes back to the mansion, and that the face I see each time looks exhausted.

But those eyes and those low-pitched whispers are too much….. to be a joke.… It was too dense.

No matter how much a businessman has his own mask, I’m not his business partner, so why bother coming home? Just because of me?

He bought flowers, of course. Only because of me.

The bouquet Alan gave me was placed on the reading table in a vase. Watching a bunch of fresh freesias scattering the beautiful chroma on the dark brown table made my stomach tickle as if I had swallowed a butterfly.

I never imagined he’d really buy flowers. But more than that…….

“Lady, why are you rubbing your lips?”

“Ah! You surprised me, Sandra……!”

Sandra murmured with a sullen face as I suddenly screamed at the maid who suddenly popped up.

“No, I thought you had a scar on your lips…….”

Ha… I don’t want to do this either. When a belated embarrassment flooded in with the feeling of being a thief, Sandra spoke up,

“By the way, lady, it looks like your lips are swollen, isn’t it?”

“Uh, huh?”

“You can’t sleep these days. I’m sure it’s because your immune system went down.”

“…….”

I just can’t sleep.

Last night, as soon as I came back to my room as if I were running away, I almost saw the morning sun because I was continuing to write

. I can’t say I wrote a scene where the heroine and Troy kissed.

It’s not like I’m going to feel like a marshmallow on top of a hot chocolate when I think about what Alan’s lips felt like.….

“Should I bring some ointment?”

“…… Sandra, please.”

Sandra is probably wondering about me. that I’m acting like a fool because last night, when I left the dining hall with a bouquet of flowers in my arms, my red face and my limp walking must have been strange, but acted like a fool when I went to breakfast and on my way back.

I even had a piece of romaine lettuce that was served as salad stuck on my hair , and Sandra asked a sympathetic question, ‘Why did you put it here, miss?’

Of course I don’t know how it got stuck on my hair…….

My state of creaking like a broken doll was still there even when the sun rose in the middle of the sky.  I was walking along the hallway of the annex with Sandra for lunch, and I bumped into a man on the shoulder as he was approaching us.

But why is there a man in the annex? I think I’m the only one here except for the maids. Is he a servant who forgot his uniform? With that in mind I was going to give him a stiff apology.

“I-I’m sorry…….”

The other person apologized first. His expression and tone were somehow urgent.

“Do you happen to know where Sir Alan’s office is? I’m not a suspicious person, I’m a scholarship student who came on an errand.”

“If it’s the office it’s in the main building! You have to go out that way.”

Sandra pointed across the hall and answered cheerfully, and the man bowed his head.

“Oh! I was in trouble, but thank you very much.”

Looking down silently at his bowed head, I thought it would be useless to ask this person to save me, and suddenly i raised my head as if I had been struck by lightning.

“….scholarship student?”

How can I forget it so completely? No matter how much we didn’t love each other sincerely, the feelings we shared were definitely special.

My lips moved automatically when I thought that far.

“Hey, do you know Tobias Miller?”

“……How does Miss know him?”

The man looked surprised to hear Toby’s name. Sandra stood beside me, with her eyes blinking as if she knew nothing.

“Oh… he was a friend.”

“…….”

“Well, about his accident…… Excuse me, can I hear what happened?”

“It’s….”

When the man hesitated, I added hastily.

“He must have been considerate of me, so he didn’t tell me the details. I can’t get in touch with him right now…….”

“Miss.”

The man replied in a somber tone as if he were afraid of something.

“I think it’s better if you don’t know.”