A Secret Kiss Under the Moonlight
I gently sent away the owner of the atelier, who was still brimming with emotion.
“I’ll change on my own.”
Taking off a dress was far easier than putting one on.
Since I had already done it once earlier, I figured I could manage alone.
The junior maid, who knew I felt a bit uncomfortable being attended to, obediently stepped back after saying she would return later to collect the dress.
After seeing off the two nighttime visitors, I headed to the drawing room to greet the other visitor who had been waiting.
When I opened the door to the connected terrace, Everett’s gaze immediately turned toward me, as if he had been waiting for exactly that moment.
Everett’s eyes widened into perfect circles.
For several seconds, his face froze as though he had witnessed something utterly astonishing, then it flushed bright red.
Noticing the heat rising in his face, Everett awkwardly pretended to look toward the garden, but it only lasted a fleeting moment.
Soon, his gaze returned to me, as if drawn by some invisible force.
Although the sun had already set, the magical stone lanterns in the garden and the light spilling from the drawing room made every shift in his expression vividly clear.
“What do you think?”
I asked, feeling a little shy.
I could already guess the answer from Everett’s expression alone, but I wanted to hear it from his own lips.
The reason I had deliberately dismissed the maid and changed by myself was precisely so I could show him too.
‘Everyone said it looked like the dress was made with me in mind from the very beginning, and that it was beautiful.’
The young noble ladies, Ivetta, Beth, and even the atelier owner had all said the same thing.
They had all been generous with their praise, and since the atelier owner was a merchant, I couldn’t take her words at face value.
Still, I had hoped there was at least some truth to it, which was why I had intentionally shown him how I looked in it.
“Beautiful.”
Everett’s single word moved me far more than the six elegant compliments I had received earlier.
“But are you going to keep staring like that? I feel like I’m going to melt right through.”
I grumbled a little out of embarrassment.
“May I come in?”
Everett, who had finally managed to tear his eyes away, asked in a tone that sounded almost like pleading.
“Come in.”
I stepped aside slightly and gave him permission.
Once again, Everett leaped over the terrace railing in one smooth motion. The moment he landed, he pulled me into his arms.
Like a man who couldn’t find any other way to release the heat burning inside him, Everett kept pressing his lips against me over and over.
His kisses rained down feverishly on my arms, forehead, cheeks, and lips—wherever they touched.
After kissing me for a long while, Everett finally asked, a beat too late.
“Is it all right if I hold you?”
“You’re already holding me… aren’t you?”
I answered playfully at first, since he was already embracing me, but then I flinched, wondering if he had meant something else.
“No! That’s not what I meant!”
Everett jumped back in alarm and denied it, as if he knew exactly what I had been thinking.
‘I was kind of hoping he did, though.’
I felt a small pang of disappointment.
But Everett had already retreated far away.
Even in the faint light flowing out from the drawing room, I could see that his face had turned a blazing red, as if it might catch fire.
If I teased him any more here, he might actually explode.
“I’ll come again tomorrow.”
Everett mumbled the words and then leaped down, vanishing into the night.
It was as if he had some deeply personal reason that made it impossible for him to stay with me any longer.
I watched his rapidly retreating figure for a moment before my eyes met two pairs of eyes that had been secretly watching from the shadows, holding their breath.
* * *
Ivetta and Beth happened to witness the atelier owner leaving after delivering the completed dress to Lina.
They called over the junior maid who had followed shortly after and learned that Lina’s dress had been finished.
“The dress that was already beautiful has become so stunning it’s impossible to look away.”
The dress originally made with the Saintess Ivetta in mind had emphasized sacredness and restrained elegance.
Because Ivetta had bright pink hair and blue eyes along with a youthful face, the designer had minimized decorations to give it a sense of weight and dignity.
However, the owner added that once the intended wearer changed to Lina, the decorations had become slightly more ornate.
After hearing the junior maid’s vivid description, Ivetta and Beth, filled with anticipation, decided to head straight to Lina’s room to see it for themselves.
But what they witnessed was Lina kissing a man with pitch-black hair.
Ivetta, who had spotted the lovers’ intimate moment a step ahead of Beth, quickly covered her younger sister’s eyes in shock.
‘Minors shouldn’t see things like this.’
Although there were only a few months between them, Ivetta was an adult while her sister Beth was not.
Thanks to Ivetta playing the role of big sister, Beth only caught a fleeting glimpse of the man kissing Lina having black hair.
Only after covering Beth’s eyes did Ivetta use her other hand to cover her own mouth.
A brief moment passed like that, and then the man jumped down from the terrace.
He moved away at an astonishingly fast speed.
For a split second, the face illuminated by the magical lantern light was someone Ivetta recognized.
‘Isn’t that Sir Everett Rohas?’
But before Ivetta could observe the man she suspected to be Everett Rohas more closely, Lina noticed the two of them first.
“Ivetta? Beth?”
Lina called their names one after the other, as if doubting her own eyes.
Beth swatted away Ivetta’s hand that was still covering her eyes, met Lina’s gaze, and then quickly put the hand back over her eyes again.
An awkward silence filled the summer garden.
Excluding Beth, whose eyes were still covered by Ivetta’s hand, the gazes of the other two crossed in midair.
All three were flustered, but Lina, the eldest, recovered her composure the fastest.
“For now, why don’t you two come inside?”
Lina invited them into her room.
Unlike the man, Ivetta and Beth didn’t have the athletic ability to casually leap across the terrace.
It took them a little longer to reach Lina’s room.
Knock, knock.
Ivetta knocked cautiously.
The door opened immediately, as if they had been expected.
Lina peeked her head out, a faint blush still lingering on her face.
* * *
‘Wow, this is so embarrassing.’
The moment my eyes met Ivetta’s as she looked up at me from the garden, goosebumps erupted all over my body.
It had been a very long time since I felt this mortified.
I thought of Ivetta and Beth like my own younger sisters.
That was probably why it felt just as awkward as when Anika had caught me kissing someone.
‘If we only consider age, the twins are basically the same.’
Their mental ages seemed similar to that of the old-souled youngest child in my family.
For reference, Anika’s mental age was slightly higher than the twins’.
No matter how much I tried to dodge the situation with other thoughts, what had already happened couldn’t be undone.
I was the adult here. I needed to take care of this.
“For now, why don’t you two come inside?”
I carefully invited them into the room.
Since I was secretly dating a man, I planned to ask them to keep quiet about it and pretend they hadn’t seen anything.
While Ivetta and Beth walked around the small garden to reach my room, I endlessly pondered how to bring it up as naturally as possible.
Knock, knock.
A small knocking sound reached my ears.
I had been pacing in front of the door, so I opened it right away.
Ivetta and Beth entered hesitantly.
“Um… we didn’t come here to spy or anything.”
It seemed they had also been struggling with what to say, because the moment they stepped inside, Ivetta began making excuses.
“We heard that your dress had been altered and came to ask if we could see it.”
I was still wearing the dress.
So their original goal had technically been accomplished.
Though the atmosphere was hardly right for innocent admiration.
‘Kissing on the terrace was careless of us.’
Even if Ivetta and Beth hadn’t been there, the detached palace had strict security and many servants.
I had known that passersby might see us, so I should have been more cautious.
Fortunately, Ivetta and Beth weren’t the type to spread rumors.
“Just keep it a secret, okay? Since we’re secretly dating and all.”
When I smiled and held out my pinky finger, Ivetta and Beth hooked their fingers with mine in turn.
“We’ll definitely keep it a secret!”
“You can trust us.”
“Thank you.”
Once the mood had lightened a bit, Ivetta asked carefully.
“That person just now… it was Sir Everett Rohas, the one who came to the temple with you before, right?”
Come to think of it, Ivetta had seen me with Everett several times already.
“Yes, that’s right.”
I answered honestly.
“Huh? Sir Rohas?”
Beth looked genuinely shocked, as if she had only just learned the identity of my lover.
“Yes. So you know Sir Rohas too, Beth.”
“I… do.”
Her answer somehow sounded a little reluctant.