He had the illusion that Rosetta’s blue eyes, which he had met, seemed to deepen. Rosetta stared intently at Seoho, then drew a little closer to him.
The awkwardness from the suddenly changed atmosphere lasted only for a moment—Seoho felt like he was being sucked into Rosetta’s eyes.
As he blankly stared at Rosetta’s eyes, he drew closer and closer to Seoho. It seemed like he heard a sound of someone being startled, but perhaps because he was too focused on Rosetta, that sound felt only faint.
As he watched those beautiful blue eyes getting closer and closer, a loud sound came along with an unfamiliar voice.
“Your Majesty, the Saintess has given her answer!”
Startled by that sound, Seoho turned to look at the door. Puti seemed equally surprised, jumping up from his spot before starting to read Rosetta’s mood.
At Puti’s gaze, Seoho turned his head from looking at the door to look at Rosetta. His face was cold.
‘Did he have this expression earlier too?’
Because he had been focusing only on his eyes, he couldn’t tell when he had started making this face.
As he blankly looked at him, Rosetta, noticing that Seoho was looking at him, patted his hand as if it was okay.
“It’s fine, I was just a little surprised.”
“Ah, yes.”
As Seoho nodded, Puti asked.
“What shall we do?”
“Escort her to the drawing room.”
At Rosetta’s words, Puti hurriedly left the room. Left alone together, Rosetta looked at Seoho again and smiled gently.
“And Seoho.”
Rosetta was smiling, but he still somehow gave off a distinctly stiff feeling.
‘Is it really because he was surprised?’
It seemed like there was some other reason rather than that. As Seoho pondered, Rosetta continued.
“Don’t tell Angel about the divine power.”
At Rosetta’s words, Seoho quickly nodded.
“Ah, yes.”
Angel already disliked Rosetta, so if she found out that Seoho had received Rosetta’s power, it would become troublesome in various ways.
She might dislike Seoho more, or conversely, she might harbor ill feelings toward Rosetta.
Rosetta gently grabbed Seoho’s hand.
“Just tell her you had a dream where someone was pulling your foot.”
“Yes.”
“And I should also ask Angel if the red thread is intact.”
Seoho looked worriedly at Rosetta, whose expression still wasn’t good. But before Seoho could say anything, Rosetta moved his feet. Being led by Rosetta toward the drawing room, Seoho glanced at his face once more.
***
Rosetta knew that Seoho didn’t have the same feelings as him.
‘Yes, I knew.’
Even while dealing with Angel, Rosetta smiled slightly at Seoho, who was glancing at him as if sensing something. Seoho smiled faintly following Rosetta.
A gentle smile. It was a lovely smile that naturally made the corners of one’s mouth rise just by looking at it. Rosetta, who had been smiling following Seoho, lowered the corners of his mouth when he turned back to look at Angel.
Seoho was a kind and affectionate person, but at the same time, he was someone who drew lines.
To be precise, Seoho knew that Rosetta liked him, but it seemed he had set limits on that feeling of liking.
‘What’s the reason?’
Because they’re both men?
Even in the Empire, there were occasionally people who couldn’t understand liking the same sex, so it was a possibility.
But Rosetta instinctively felt that it wasn’t that. It seemed like he wasn’t drawing lines because Rosetta was a man, but there was some other fundamental reason.
‘What on earth is it?’
Kind, friendly, and considerate Seoho, late at night, after falling asleep, would often look terribly lonely. There were days when he shed tears, just like what he’d seen through the mirror.
But even while being so lonely, Seoho didn’t want the touch of others.
While accepting Rosetta’s touch itself as if it were nothing, on the other hand, when that touch became prolonged, he would remove that hand without even realizing it himself.
When Rosetta touched him, he didn’t show signs of disliking it, and in fact, his smile would often deepen, so it didn’t seem like he disliked skinship.
There was another strange point.
‘Seoho doesn’t try to get close to others.’
To be precise, he should say that he made no attempt whatsoever to go outside his room and meet others.
He didn’t find it strange that he usually couldn’t meet anyone other than Puti. He didn’t resist Rosetta’s request to stay away from Angel, didn’t try to meet Imperial Mage Aris separately outside of lessons, and wasn’t curious about outside the room.
‘It’s really strange.’
Of course, it might be because it hadn’t been long since he came here, because this place was still unfamiliar. But Rosetta felt something else in Seoho’s behavior.
‘Distance.’
It seemed like Seoho was trying not to form deep relationships. But then again, to conclude it like that, Seoho had opened his heart to Rosetta too easily.
No matter how many strange phenomena he had experienced, no matter that he had seen Rosetta’s eyes, that was strange.
‘To say it’s because we’re destined…’
It could be that because they were each other’s destiny, he opened his heart to Rosetta the moment he saw him. But still, that didn’t seem to be it either.
When he asked Seoho this time whether he liked him, Seoho answered with a peculiar face.
Comfort and warmth, and between them, a bone-chillingly cold loneliness.
‘Loneliness, huh.’
The moment Rosetta saw that loneliness, he felt a great impulse. A strange desire to fill that loneliness while simultaneously wanting to stimulate that loneliness more to make Seoho look only at him.
‘If I don’t let anyone stay by his side and make him stay only in my arms…’
A person who doesn’t try to get close to people, yet can’t avoid the affection someone conveys.
If he confessed his love to him, who looked so terribly lonely, and said he wanted to be with him for life, it seemed like Seoho would accept him.
‘Even if I kissed him, he’d be surprised but would accept it.’
Around the time he was thinking such thoughts, a servant appeared.
‘It turned out well, actually.’
Rosetta tended to trust his own intuition well. He felt fortunate that he hadn’t approached Seoho sexually this time. He mustn’t move hastily.
‘I need to get closer.’
Rosetta was aware of his greed that grew larger and larger as time passed. Just as he had been satisfied merely watching him, then as time passed wanted to be with him, he who had been intoxicated with his feelings alone had changed.
Because he came to know how good it was that Seoho worried about him and showed goodwill by responding, even faintly, to this feeling. So to get what he wanted, he had to wait until Seoho opened his heart more, until Seoho reached out first and chose him.
‘It’s a time for patience.’
Rosetta reached out and grabbed Seoho’s hand. Seoho, who had been looking at Angel, turned to Rosetta as if surprised, then smiled along when he saw the corners of Rosetta’s curled-up lips.
Rosetta stroked the tender flesh inside Seoho’s wrist with his finger. If he waited just a little longer, if he endured this time of patience, a sweet reward would be waiting.
For now, he had to be content with touching him little by little like this and feeling affection by his side.
Rosetta pressed down the beast licking its lips in the pitch-black darkness deep inside his body. So that even if Seoho noticed that something was strange about Rosetta, he could feel at ease. Brightly.
***
Seoho couldn’t focus on the conversation with Angel and glanced once more at Rosetta, who was fiddling with his wrist. Rosetta, whose eyes met Seoho’s, smiled brightly.
The smile was beautiful as always, but even so, Rosetta was still a bit strange.
‘Why on earth is he acting like that?’
That’s when Angel asked Seoho.
“So you had a strange dream?”
Seoho looked at Angel.
In fact, Seoho had planned not to meet Angel after their last meeting.
Because Rosetta didn’t like Angel, he hadn’t planned to get close to Angel originally, but also because Seoho himself received another negative feeling through that day’s conversation.
That day, Angel persistently observed Seoho and Rosetta’s reactions. She watched Seoho’s reactions throughout the conversation and added strange stories at the end of her words.
‘The story itself wasn’t strange.’
A story about a man who, like himself, was suddenly dragged to this world and made various efforts to adapt here, but it wasn’t easy and he struggled because of it.
She said that although he occasionally had conflicts with the person who was his destiny, fundamentally the closest relationship was with his destined partner.
‘The problem is that most of the stories were too abstract.’
It didn’t seem like she was lying, but it also didn’t seem like she was telling the whole truth either, and she always spoke ambiguously. And after talking that way, she would look at Seoho with searching eyes, and at the end, she would always look at Rosetta.
‘Unpleasant.’
Unpleasant. Had he ever felt such emotion from someone’s gaze?
‘But really, that gaze…’
Seoho was more uncomfortable with Angel’s gaze looking at Rosetta than the gaze directed at himself.
‘She must have always looked at Rosetta with those eyes.’
And at the end of the meeting, Angel said she would stay longer at the imperial castle. That she still had many stories to tell and wanted to help Seoho settle in this place.
Rosetta looked displeased, but still didn’t refuse Angel’s proposal.
‘Because she’s a Saintess, even Rosetta can’t easily refuse?’
