I Hate Girls Like You
What could destroy a once-harmonious family? Money? Clashing values? Personality differences? All of those are correct. Then let me change the question. What kind of event could shatter a family in a single instant? The sort of incident that could suddenly sever the bonds tied together by family and trust.
“I know you hate me…! Can’t you at least listen to what I have to say?”
It’s a cliché, but infidelity, affairs, adultery—those sorts of things. The fleeting pleasures they enjoy swell like an avalanche, scouring the entire landscape clean. That is exactly why I despise NTR. No. I loathe it with every fiber of my being.
“I hate girls like you the most.”
The unfamiliar scent of perfume clinging to your spouse. Business trips that grow more frequent. Calls that keep getting cut short. Ominous signs breed suspicion, and what was once a beautiful relationship hurtles toward ruin.
“People like you don’t just destroy one person.”
Memories stained by ugly deeds lose all value, and the byproducts of those memories are treated as nothing more than troublesome garbage. Having become that very troublesome garbage myself, I understood everything. That hateful bare face. How filthy the thing they romantically call “love” truly is.
“Philip, Knox, Jayden, Ivan.”
Carrying emotions that could no longer be reined in, I took a step toward her.
“Every single one of them approached Heidi with genuine interest, only for you to steal them away.”
At this point I was certain. In the original story, this girl must have confessed to Jack Orlannte as well. Jack was Heidi’s childhood friend, making him the perfect, easy target for a woman whose hobby was stealing the heroine’s men.
“Is there any reason I should play along with such an obvious ploy like an idiot?”
And he had probably rejected her. The fact that she once confessed to Jack seemed to be a story the novel never bothered to include. After all, the real plot only began after everyone entered the academy, so earlier events were likely omitted. Which meant this girl might have stolen even more men than what appeared in the original work.
“Tell me. Did you approach me because you actually like me?”
The thought made anger flare so hot I approached as if I might devour her. Lucia fumbled, unable to string words together. Even if she had done all this because she truly liked me, I had zero intention of accepting her.
Once someone commits something that disgusting, they rarely change.
The pleasure that comes from a sense of relative superiority is more addictive than anything else. If Lucia was the type to savor the thrill of stealing someone else’s lover, any atonement would be short-lived. She was essentially pure evil—living without guilt or self-awareness—and she would never be fixed. Look at her right now, tearing up as if she were the victim.
“Hey. Come here.”
The sight made my freshly cooled head ignite again. I grabbed her wrist, dragged her over, and sat her down on the small chair prepared on the rooftop. Just as I opened my mouth to say something else, her current state finally registered.
“Hic… huuu…”
She was no longer simply holding back tears. They were falling in heavy drops, as if she were genuinely terrified. Lucia trembled like a mouse set before a cat. The sight brought a sliver of reality back to my overheated mind.
…Did I just cause an incident?
No matter how trashy a Golden Sun she was, the other party was still a nobleman’s daughter. Swearing at her outright could easily produce negative consequences.
Was I too emotional?
Come to think of it, if this story reached the ears of the noble house for no reason, the one who would suffer was none other than me. For that very reason, the correct course was to refrain from any further boundary-crossing behavior.
I still want to dump a whole bucket of curses on her, though…
If anyone saw me berating a crying young lady, ugh—just imagining it was horrifying. Better stop the verbal abuse here, just in case.
“Excuse me, Lucia.”
Still, it was better for both sides if I delivered my warning to the end. When my voice softened, Lucia lifted her head, the steady flow of tears slowing. Her sniffling face made me debate giving her a noogie right then and there, but for the sake of a peaceful future I held back and spoke.
“Sigh… Let’s settle this nicely. You didn’t confess because you genuinely like me, correct?”
Lucia pressed her lips tightly together and nodded. How fucking annoying.
-Thump!
“Eek! Why did you hit me…!”
Ah. I couldn’t hold back and ended up rapping her on the head. How could every single one of her actions piss people off so effectively? She was the very incarnation of dislikeability.
“A confession made without any real feelings behind it was obviously done because you hate Heidi. Right?”
Fearing she might say something else, I quickly changed the question to cut off any mention of the noogie and pressed her. Lucia, who looked like she wanted to speak, simply nodded at my words.
“Uh… yeah… that’s right…”
It passed without issue, thankfully. Look at how her pronunciation slurred just from crying a little. I steadied my churning emotions and spoke to her as if she were a child.
“But I rejected that confession. So logically, what should you do next?”
“…Try again?”
“Wow, fuck.”
The ultimate conclusion I had been steering these questions toward was this: to emphasize that a half-hearted confession was unnecessary and to ensure she never created any further points of contact with me.
“You get rejected and you’re just going to do it again?”
But in the middle of guiding her to that conclusion, the sentence that left Lucia’s mouth was something I had not anticipated at all. It was only natural that my reflexive disbelief came out as a curse.
“…Isn’t that how it works?”
The fact that the statement contained zero malice only made it more shocking.
“What kind of thought process leads to an answer like that?”
Lucia tilted her head as if it were obvious and continued.
“I’ve never properly confessed before… There’s a saying about falling down seven times and getting up eight. Never give up—”
“This crazy girl.”
I clutched my head and sank into thought. I couldn’t even tell where it had all gone wrong. How was I supposed to explain this? And since when could you apply “try, try again” to confessions? In modern South Korea that mindset would earn you a pair of handcuffs.
“Lucia, you shouldn’t confess to someone who dislikes you in the first place.”
“…Why?”
How on earth was I supposed to deal with this clear-headed idiot? No wonder the novel only gave her weight when she was stealing the protagonist’s men. Someone this stupid couldn’t possibly come up with schemes.
“If I suddenly confessed to you, Lucia, how would you feel?”
She tilted her head briefly, then slowly averted her eyes.
“It… wouldn’t be bad?”
Ah, right. She had confessed to me first. What kind of bizarre example had I just given?
“I’m really losing my mind…”
After racking my brain for something that might actually get through to this clear-headed person, I eventually reached a simple conclusion: continuing this conversation would only leave me more frustrated.
“Lucia, I don’t like you.”
Therefore, I would speak firmly enough for even this idiot to understand and make her lose all interest in me.
“Uh… sorry…”
She might get hurt, but why should I care if the Golden Sun feels pain?
“So I’d appreciate it if you kept a proper distance from now on. You can understand that much, right?”
Lucia gave a quiet, dejected nod. That was enough. I didn’t want to share the same space as her for even one more second. No matter how socially inept she was, I had been direct enough that she should have gotten the message.
“I’m sorry for speaking so harshly today. Let’s not meet again.”
My encounter with the hedonistic idiot ended here. There was still a chance the Klein Marquis family might say something later, but I would worry about that after seeing how they reacted.
“Uh… yeah… Then I’ll head down first…”
Fortunately, the fact that she offered to leave first meant she had understood this time. Her noticeably shrunken demeanor was also satisfying. At this rate she wouldn’t cling again.
“Ah, wait a moment.”
I caught her wrist as she sniffled and tried to walk past me.
“Hic… Hiiik…! What now…!”
She flinched violently. I hadn’t wanted to call her back either. It was just that—
“Your makeup is completely ruined from crying. People will assume we were talking up here. If you go down looking like that, what will they think?”
There were already people who had overheard me coldly rejecting her confession. If they saw the tear-streaked evidence and started whispering among themselves, that would be troublesome in its own way.
I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket, intending to gently wipe the tear tracks and smudged makeup from around her eyes, but I suddenly froze. She had closed her eyes obediently, like a puppy waiting for its owner.
“Ah, seriously.”
The sight instantly soured my mood. I flung the handkerchief at her face. I resented myself for even momentarily trying to wipe her tears. Why had I done that?
“Wipe it yourself and fix your face before you go down. I’m really leaving now.”
I turned away, thoroughly sickened, when—
“Um…”
Lucia’s cautious voice stopped me. Ah, please just let me leave already!
Annoyed, I turned back and glared. She flinched but stubbornly finished what she wanted to say.
“You… which academy are you entering, by any chance?”
Why was she asking? Planning to stalk me?
Eh, no way.
The marquis family’s daughter wouldn’t have so little to do that she’d stalk someone. Besides, I was attending the same academy as the protagonist anyway, so I would inevitably run into Lucia there. Telling her wouldn’t cause any harm.
“Campbell Academy. Why? Are you planning to follow me?”
She startled and shook her head vigorously. The subtle hint of joy on her face only irritated me more. I was about to step through the door when I remembered one last thing and added it before descending the stairs.
“Ah, you can keep the handkerchief.”
I said it because it would be annoying if she came looking for me just to return it. I had no desire to take back a handkerchief stained with her tears and makeup anyway.
…Or so I had thought.
“I came after hearing news of a suspicious current flowing between the young heirs of the Klein Marquisate and the Orlannte Viscountcy. They say personal gifts were exchanged as well. Is that true?”
Jack Orlannte. Eighth year since possessing into a romance fantasy novel. With only fifteen days remaining until academy enrollment and the start of the main episode, a strange scandal had erupted with the insane Golden Sun bitch.
…Fuck.