Reniel accepted Felix’s behavior.
She thought he was acting this way because he was simply a body feeling lust for a man.
Since her relationship with Thanasis and her own situation had changed a lot from the original, she thought she had just become his plaything.
When she had shared a brief kiss with him before, she had actually thought it was somewhat unfair. But now she decided not to think that way.
Everything tended to be beautiful in the face of parting.
She was now expecting that she would soon be able to part with Felix and truly live life as a woman.
Anyway, once he finds out that she is a woman, Felix will not behave like this towards her anymore. Perhaps because of this, she did not feel much guilt.
She was just happy to be escaping a frightening situation where she didn’t know when she might die.
“I’m a little embarrassed.”
Even in this situation, it was a great comfort that Felix’s appearance was quite excellent.
Although her first kiss was almost like being ravished, she wasn’t angry.
That was probably because Felix was the most handsome person she had ever seen.
When it was time to leave, Felix came into proper view.
It was a seemingly insignificant action of lips touching and parting, but they were close enough for their lips to brush when speaking.
She gently opened her eyes, and he simultaneously opened his eyes intently.
Thanks to that, as her vision returned, what she saw were affectionate red eyes.
She found the warmth she felt every time she saw his eyes unfamiliar.
But because of that warmth, the kisses she shared with him felt more like comfort than acts of pleasure.
He didn’t do anything more.
All he did was press close enough that their noses touched, making it feel as if their breaths were one.
“That woman from before.”
“Huh? Suddenly?”
“The woman who supposedly stole something from my bedroom.”
“…Yes.”
“That was a lie. I didn’t see anything that day. Nothing was stolen either.”
“Master…?”
“It was all a dream. So don’t worry about it.”
Felix smiled as he saw Reniel’s expression noticeably brighten.
“Really?”
“It seems I had too vivid a dream.”
“I see. So that’s what it was.”
Reniel was very relieved.
Even if she were to run away and happen to cross paths with him someday, he would just think of her as someone he saw in a dream.
“And I wished you were a woman, not that I needed a woman who resembled you.”
“…Master?”
“Did you understand what I said?”
“Of course.”
Reniel answered like that even though she didn’t really understand.
When she looked at him with her eyes shining like a rabbit’s, he couldn’t help but laugh. Her expression was like a hamster’s, but her eyes were like a rabbit’s.
Even her terrified expression when afraid was similar.
However, he felt uneasy because Reniel seemed similar to the small animals he had tamed and had to take the lives of with his own hands when he was young.
But he quickly came to his senses.
His father, who used to order him to do such things, no longer existed in this world.
‘You’ll regret killing me. You fool.’
Felix frowned as he recalled his father, who smiled even as he died by Felix’s hand.
He took her hand and led her to the bed.
As she sat on the bed, Felix had already laid out tools for piercing ears on the bed.
“Ah….”
Reniel became very nervous when she actually saw the long needle.
“What? Are you scared?”
“…Yes.”
Reniel became even more nervous as she watched Felix casually take out a lighter.
“Can’t we do it later…?”
She looked at Felix pleadingly out of fear. However, perhaps because he couldn’t empathize with her fear,
“No.”
He was very firm.
“Oh my.”
At his words, she held back tears and faced reality, seeing that the earrings she had gifted were also placed nearby.
“Do you know what kind of earrings these are?”
“I do.”
“How do you know?”
Felix was about to tell the truth, but then thought she might be more afraid of him holding just a needle, so he couldn’t say it easily.
But soon he smoothed his expression and said,
“I received them as a gift from someone else first, before you.”
‘Please! Return our family heirloom!’
‘It’s truly precious!’
‘You didn’t even take it because you needed it!’
Felix thought he heard the voice of Marquis Charlonte from somewhere, but he ignored it.
It was less bothersome than the ghostly voice that chattered beside him like his father whenever he had nightmares.
“Did you sell the gift you received? If I gave you back something you sold, it seems like a mistake….”
“I was entrusted to sell it.”
“You just said you received it as a gift….”
“I misspoke.”
Felix brazenly lied while watching Reniel’s expression.
“The earrings, if you behave well, I could pierce your ears painlessly.”
“If I don’t behave, will you pierce them painfully?”
“That’s right.”
At that, she looked at him as if to say she would behave well.
He found her eyes so cute that he wanted to kiss her again.
“I’m scared.”
He silently looked at her ear. Reniel was now leaning her weight towards his body.
He carelessly stabbed the needle into her earlobe.
Thud!
“Ugh….”
The sound of flesh being pierced was very clear. The pain came belatedly, but it was somewhat different from the intense pain she had expected.
It was stinging and her ear felt hot.
A moment later, she felt the amethyst earring he had placed beside her being inserted where the needle had been removed.
Reniel briefly saw the cotton in his large hand stealing her blood.
By the time his hand pulled away, her ear was very hot and throbbing.
“Why are you crying?”
She hadn’t meant to cry. It was just that tears flowed down reflexively as a physiological response when her ear was pierced.
Unfortunately, only from her left eye.
“It hurts….”
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“I want to do just this one.”
She said she would only do one because she didn’t want both sides to hurt, but in fact it hurt less than she expected.
The tears were just a physiological phenomenon.
“You can do three for yourself, Master.”
“I will.”
He answered easily because she smiled as she said that.
“I’ll pierce yours painfully. You too….”
As Reniel looked at Felix’s bright red eyes as if entranced, his long eyes without double eyelids curved like half-moons.
It seemed she had been seeing Felix’s smiling face often lately.
Before, when she only saw him from afar, he always seemed to be frowning or scowling.
Perhaps bewitched by his expression, words she hadn’t intended came out.
“You seem to be looking forward to it.”
Felix didn’t deny her words. He really was looking forward to it.
She still received the cotton he handed her as if entranced. Then she sprayed disinfectant on the cotton just as he had done.
When the cotton became damp, she reached for his ear.
“How many piercings, should I do? Really three?”
As she asked nervously, he touched her cheek and then pulled away.
He smiled as he looked at her startled expression.
The earring in her ear would soon be monitored by the earring Felix would wear.
Perhaps because of that, a strange expectation and sense of security came over her.
Reniel reached out again at his words. Then she wiped his earlobe just as he had done.
Meanwhile, he kissed her cheek again. Then he gradually moved down to her lips.
“Ma-, mmph….”
Felix immediately pulled away when she trembled as if terrified by the action.
As if he had no intention of going further if she didn’t want it. He stroked her lips with his thumb and smiled.
“Keep going.”
“…Yes.”
She barely regained her senses and looked for the needle. He handed her a new long needle and also gave her the lighter.
Then she opened the cap and turned the wheel to light the lighter.
Click, click.
“You have to turn the wheel sideways. Hold your hand like this.”
Reniel was unfamiliar with such a high-quality lighter, as she had never seen one before.
The fires she had always lit before were with matches.
Soon, when she turned the wheel with the side of her finger as he said, not the front, a fire lit with a ‘hiss’ sound.
She heated the needle just like that. As the needle turned bright red, smoke rose in a long trail.
Holding the needle, she looked at Felix while ignoring the stinging sensation she felt near her ear.
“Master, I’m so excited.”
It was a chance to repay the fear she had felt towards him all this time. It felt like getting revenge on a boss right before retirement.
Her life had not been easy since childhood.
This world she had possessed into was so cruel to children that even 10-year-olds had to make their own living.
She had been lucky enough to grow up as a boy thanks to the ring, and she knew well how bad the fate of pretty girls could be.
For a girl from the poorhouse, beauty was not a blessing. It was another kind of curse.
She recalled the times she had gone hungry. And then after entering the Le Pelique ducal family, she had to live while being mindful of many people’s gazes.
And recently, after being promoted to deputy butler, she had to live with her heart in her mouth, not knowing when she might die.
“You look too happy?”
Perhaps that’s why this method of getting some revenge on Felix, the source of her fear, was something she couldn’t help but find thrilling and heart-pounding.
She was holding the needle with her eyes wide open like someone unable to contain their excitement.
Her left eye looked very moist, perhaps because of the reflexive tears she had just shed.
Seeing her expression like that, Felix kissed her near the eye again.
Reniel thought there was no way he could really be looking forward to this. Because she had been so afraid until just now!
Moreover, the size of the needle was alarmingly large. It was as big as the span of her palm and much thicker compared to an embroidery needle.
“I want to pierce your right ear, Master.”
“Aren’t you going to do three anyway?”
“Can I do all three on the right side?”
She said that because she thought it would hurt much more. Yet she was smiling as if very excited.
To Felix, her behavior seemed similar to a fox that had taken food and looked back several times before running away.
That worthless pretense of being happy while pretending not to be was like that.
__________
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.