Chapter 143
Chapter 143
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: Unwavering Honesty
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***
The air was heavy.
Facing the returned Anastasia, I couldn't easily bring myself to say anything.
In the deeply somber atmosphere, I could only fidget with the glass holding my innocent drink.
‘How do I get through this absurd situation?’
Unlike before, I couldn't just brush this off as a misunderstanding. Anastasia's gaze, fixed on me now, was so cold I could hardly meet her eyes.
I could even feel a certain formidable spirit from her.
She wasn't emitting any particular aura or making a threat, yet there was something about her that was unapproachable.
An atmosphere that seemed to say it wouldn't tolerate even a hint of nonsense.
So, worried I might misspeak... I first found myself cautiously assessing the mood.
“Sister. Why are you looking at Han Cheon-seong so coldly?”
When Glacia nonchalantly spoke up, I was inadvertently surprised.
Although Anastasia's cold gaze was directed solely at me, to think she could speak to her so casually right now.
“...It's nothing, really. So, what were you two talking about while I was gone?”
Anastasia finally tore her gaze away from me.
And she asked in a calm voice, but her demeanor remained frighteningly subdued.
“It wasn't anything special. We were just acting like we usually do.”
“Like you usually do... Well, since we're on the topic, Glacia. How do you normally spend your time with Han Cheon-seong?”
“How do we spend it... not really... Han Cheon-seong. Is there anything we do?”
A glance.
Facing Glacia as she threw a look my way, I just smiled awkwardly.
“Nothing particularly meaningful. We certainly met often at the academy, but all we really did was talk. And we discussed our traits with each other.”
“Yeah. It's just like Han Cheon-seong said. We'd meet at a cafe like this, or see each other at the training grounds.”
Thankfully, Glacia agreed with me, and Anastasia looked at me with a very peculiar expression.
“Is that so? First, let me say that I wasn't trying to eavesdrop on your conversation. But I definitely heard you just now. I understand that my Glacia and Cadet Han Cheon-seong are close friends. But to go beyond holding hands and even... hugging. How should I interpret that? Cadet Han Cheon-seong, will you answer me?”
My fleeting hope that this might just blow over was shattered as Anastasia confronted me head-on.
As if asking what I was doing to her younger sister.
Faced with her firm gaze as an older sister, I hesitated for a moment before answering right away.
“Lady Anastasia. I will not make any excuses or tell any lies. I imagine you were very surprised, and what Glacia said is, in fact, the truth.”
I couldn't try to weasel my way out of this now.
Given Glacia's attitude just now and Anastasia's firm stance, I had to face this head-on.
“If it's not a lie. You're friends with Glacia, but you just hug her and all that?”
Anastasia, asking blankly at my words, seemed to find them hard to believe.
I could clearly see she was not only wary of her younger sister's first friend being... a male friend, but now completely shocked. I awkwardly changed my words.
“Um... Lady Anastasia. It's not like I hugged Glacia for no reason.”
“So you did hug her.”
“That... is correct. Yes.”
As this conversation, which was neither an explanation nor anything else, continued, I wanted to convey that the meaning was different, but I just couldn't easily continue speaking.
Anastasia, who replied instantly to every word, was looking at me as if she would kill me with her eyes alone if she could.
Her gaze made it hard to even breathe, and I couldn't even speak my mind.
“Sister. Wait. Why are you pushing Han Cheon-seong so hard? He's clearly very uncomfortable.”
As Glacia spoke up, sounding suddenly surprised, Anastasia let out a sigh... a heavy sigh that anyone could see.
And only then did she withdraw her murderous glare from me.
I was grateful to Glacia for speaking up as if to help me, but I couldn't do anything.
"..."
As if my whole body had frozen, I could only cautiously observe Anastasia's expression.
...Although I hadn't intended it, I was now in the position of a guilty man.
It was a misunderstanding, but in my case with Glacia, it wasn't an entirely baseless one...
From Anastasia's perspective, it was completely understandable.
*Huu.* Sighing again, Anastasia turned her head away from me completely.
“Glacia. Are you... perhaps mistaken about the concept of a friend?”
“Huh? Sister, what do you mean all of a sudden?”
“When you said you were going to introduce me to a friend, I was truly happy at first. But I had no idea it was a male friend... let alone one you casually hold hands with and hug. It doesn't seem like a simple friendship.”
“Is that so strange? Friends can hold hands or hug.”
Anastasia asking, as if worried.
Glacia replying, as if Anastasia were the strange one.
The back-and-forth conversation felt suffocating to me.
‘If this goes wrong...’
I might become the world's biggest scumbag. I was genuinely concerned.
Then. Anastasia turned her whole body to face Glacia.
And with a very serious expression, she began to speak.
“Glacia. Friends can... do that. But that's usually only in special situations. When you're really happy or sad, you might do something like that impulsively. You don't just casually hold hands and hug all the time like this. Even same-sex friends wouldn't hug each other for no reason.”
Anastasia, explaining calmly, was laying out a sound argument. It was a completely different argument from the concept of a friend I had explained to Glacia, but. It was certainly a convincing point.
“No. Sister, people do act like that without a reason. I've seen lots of kids who hug every day.”
...And Glacia's reaction to that was surprisingly calm.
Far from accepting Anastasia's words, she was asserting her own justification, as if asking what was so strange.
Saying that friends can hug, and that she's actually seen people who do it every day.
"..."
And at those words, I felt a momentary sense of absurdity.
“That's...”
When even Anastasia hesitated for a moment, I strangely understood how she felt.
...Because I was feeling almost the same way as Anastasia right now.
The concept of a friend was a relationship that could be simple if you looked at it simply, but could become endlessly complex if you looked at it complexly.
The saying that a slight difference in wording can change the whole meaning was true; depending on your perspective, a friendship could be seen in any number of ways.
The way male friends act is different from how female friends act. It wasn't the first time I'd been caught up in Glacia's words.
'And Glacia probably...'
...was expressing affection, holding my hand, and hugging me as if I were a same-sex friend.
I'd really had that thought before.
And in my view, that was our biggest error.
Because she didn't see me as a man, treating me with the same lack of distance as a same-sex friend, these difficult situations kept arising.
And looking at it that way, Glacia's actions could be understood even beyond her innocence.
If so, then her actions all this time were not strange at all.
“Glacia. I think you're mistaken. Even if you're friends, a friendship between a man and a woman is very different. You shouldn't make physical contact so easily.”
...And surprisingly, Anastasia said something that could correct our error in one fell swoop.
“Why? Han Cheon-seong and I are friends. I think of him as a friend, and since he's my first friend, I cherish him even more. That's why I did it, thinking it was something friends could do. Aren't you the one overthinking it, sister?”
Glacia, answering again, showed absolutely no hesitation.
Saying that because I was her first friend, she cherished me and so her actions were natural...
...And at those words, I realized.
I felt like I now clearly understood why, despite the numerous misunderstandings and difficult situations, I had never been able to correct my relationship with Glacia.
‘Because innocence can be a weapon.’
Glacia expresses her feelings with true purity.
There's not a hint of reluctance or hesitation in her actions.
As if completely unaware of the consequences her words and actions might bring, she expressed her feelings without holding anything back.
That's why I had never been able to fully persuade Glacia.
I had tried to change her behavior in the nurse's office before, but even then, I ultimately failed to change her.
Instead, I got swept up by her and ended up acting the same way.
While I had said some things myself, I had actually been influenced by Glacia's way of being.
...Glacia's innocence was like a magic that no one could understand unless they had experienced it firsthand.
You know you have to correct it, but she makes it impossible.
“...Haa.”
With a deep sigh, a speechless Anastasia whipped her head around to look at me.
Her gaze was enough to make me flinch.
Her eyes seemed to be asking me for an answer.
It was a look that seemed to resent me slightly, asking if I had just accepted Glacia's behavior at face value.
But that, too, lasted only a moment.
“...Huu. I'm sorry. It's rather ridiculous that I looked at you that way, Cadet Han Cheon-seong.”
As if she had changed her mind in an instant, Anastasia erased her coldness.
And she looked at me with a smile that seemed to say it was all for nothing.
I was flustered by her sudden change, but I responded anyway.
“Not at all.”
“You must have been in a much more difficult... position all this time, Cadet Han Cheon-seong. I'm sorry.”
“No. I'm really fine.”
While replying calmly, I glanced over at Glacia.
She was still looking at us with a nonchalant expression. Seeing her like that was, once again, just amazing.
‘Should I call her consistent?’
Or should I say she's just oblivious? Her consistently unwavering attitude gave her a charm that made it impossible to resent or dislike her.
It's clear she's clumsy at dealing with people, but she doesn't even try to hide her feelings.
Even today, when she tried to hide her feelings from me, the moment I asked her to tell me, she immediately did. That's who she is.
“Lady Anastasia. I think Glacia's honesty gives her a unique charm.”
So I thought it might be right for me to just play along with Glacia.
That it was the best way to break through this situation.
“Her innocence is certainly one of her charms. But Cadet Han Cheon-seong, may I ask you something?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“...Never mind. Let's talk properly later, when it's just the two of us."
I blinked at Anastasia, who had suddenly changed the subject.
'When it's just the two of us?'
That didn't sound like me making time with Anastasia...
It sounded like she was going to arrange a meeting with me separately.