The figure emerging from the darkness was all too familiar.

Duke Torpeo. Unlike his usual self, his eyes were coldly frozen.

He swiftly approached and pushed away Hailo’s hand that was holding her. Too fast to block.

Adeline blinked, not understanding the current situation.

‘Wasn’t he asleep?’

She had surely confirmed he was asleep before leaving.

“Me, Mel… Why are you here?”

Adeline’s trembling voice was filled with bewilderment.

The duke ignored her question and confronted Hailo. With eyes full of wariness.

“What are you doing?”

The duke’s icy voice scattered eerily in the air.

Hailo’s eyes, which had been wavering in confusion, darkened deeply. As if understanding the situation.

“Del.”

Hailo asked in a gentle voice towards Adeline. To her, hidden behind the duke’s back.

“The person you mentioned as your traveling companion is the du…”

“Stop! That’s…”

Adeline instantly passed by the duke and hastily covered Hailo’s mouth with both hands to stop the words escaping from it.

It would be troublesome if Hailo revealed the duke’s identity.

Adeline glanced at the duke’s profile, trying to gauge the situation.

Why did they have to meet like this, of all things? Adeline felt utterly at a loss in this situation.

If Hailo found out that her housemate was a man, and moreover, a duke, he wouldn’t stay quiet.

But she couldn’t lie in front of the duke either.

Hailo and Cassis turned to Adeline simultaneously.

Under the intense gaze of the two men waiting for her answer, Adeline lowered her head.

‘It’s ruined. It’s all ruined.’

“Well… That’s right.”

In the end, Adeline had no choice but to confess honestly.

Hailo wore a desolate expression at Adeline’s answer, as if he had lost his country.

After a few seconds of silence, Hailo’s complexion changed as if he had finished thinking.

With a face flushed red, he shouted.

“What? No, Adel! How could… I need to move your belongings right away!”

Though she had known Hailo for several years, this was the first time she saw him so fiercely angry.

Adeline blocked Hailo’s path with a shocked face.

“No, Hail. Listen to me. It’s not like that.”

“What’s not like that? What if your family finds out about this? Even now, I should…”

Adeline hurriedly covered Hailo’s mouth again before he could say ‘viscount’.

“There are circumstances!”

She whispered quietly to Hailo.

It would be even more troublesome to reveal everything about her family history here.

If the duke’s memory were to return, it would be the worst possible situation.

However, the duke, unaware of the full story, stood frozen in place.

The duke’s face, watching the two, had turned not just pale, but blue.

He had known since first discovering the letter that the relationship between these two was not ordinary.

But seeing such an intimate scene in person, the duke was beyond anger, not knowing how to react.

‘Del really had another lover…’

Del’s past that he didn’t know. Family stories. The two talking about things only they knew looked incredibly close.

Enough to make the duke feel there was no room for him between them anymore.

‘What am I to Del?’

As doubt crept in, Mel was overwhelmed by emptiness.

It was a loneliness even greater than when he realized he had lost all his lifelong memories.

‘She has such an intimate lover, and I…’

As bitter defeat enveloped his entire body, the duke turned away.

“Mel? Where are you going?”

“Where are you going? Don’t go, Adel!”

Adeline, trying to run after the duke, was soon caught by Hailo.

And despite Adeline’s cries calling him from behind, the duke did not stop walking.

On the way back to the mansion.

The duke had not yet recovered from the shock.

He had never doubted Adeline, who called herself his lover.

But from the affection written in the letter to the intimacy he witnessed between them. The duke was at a loss with the appearance of a hidden lover.

‘She’s not even chasing after me.’

He had witnessed them trying to enter an inn together in the middle of the night.

She had apparently fled despite her family’s opposition, yet Adeline didn’t even try to stop him as he left in shock.

‘Is he more important to her than I am?’

Lost in thought, Cassis didn’t even realize where his feet were taking him until he reached the front of the house.

Entering the second-floor corridor, Cassis naturally moved towards where light was seeping out.

‘Ah. I must have left the light on.’

The study where Adeline had found the letter.

Approaching the desk, Cassis once again reached for the drawer where he had stuffed the letter.

‘You don’t know my heart that can’t sleep every night worrying about you.’

‘A night that can’t sleep…’

What was he to Del?

Tonight, he felt he wouldn’t be able to sleep due to worry, just like the writer of that letter.

Cassis crumpled up the letter paper with its elegant handwriting.

The man with Adeline was undoubtedly a nobleman.

He seemed surprised to see him, so he must have known him too.

‘Did she have another noble lover besides me?’

The duke recalled that man who had been so affectionate with Adeline. He was as handsome as his handwriting.

With bright blonde hair and clear blue eyes shining brilliantly, he was a contrast to himself.

‘Perhaps her heart is turning to a more reliable man than me, who has lost his memories and become weak.’

‘Is she preparing to go to that man because my memories haven’t returned?’

Cassis’s thoughts began to snowball.

He resented himself more than ever today for not remembering a single memory with Adeline.

‘Who should I blame?’

Though it was he who had lost his memories, Cassis endlessly blamed himself.

As Adeline’s return time grew later, Cassis’s self-loathing increased even more.

After a considerable amount of time had passed, as the dawn wind was blowing, Adeline was seen entering the yard.

Watching outside through the study window, Cassis’s heart grew complicated.

−Click.

After some time had passed, the study door opened.

“Why are you here?”

The duke, who had been leaning against the wall of the study with his arms crossed, straightened up.

“You’re late.”

Instead of answering Adeline’s question, the duke spoke different words.

“I had a long talk with a friend I haven’t seen in a while.”

She couldn’t even imagine the duke’s misunderstanding.

She was just tired from putting all her effort into sending Hailo back.

“…”

“Mel, why did you leave alone? You didn’t even answer when I called.”

Adeline, who had spent quite some time with that man before returning, answered nonchalantly.

Cassis’s brow furrowed at her behavior, acting as if nothing was wrong.

“Who is he?”

“I told you I was going to meet a friend.”

Cassis’s mood began to twist more and more at Adeline’s indifferent words.

“Does a friend come looking for you here in the middle of the night?”

Hailo coming all the way here was something Adeline hadn’t expected either.

She had been just as surprised by Hailo’s sudden appearance, but Adeline didn’t know what to say and hesitated for a moment.

That brief silence was enough to further fuel the duke’s misunderstanding.

“Was he your fiancé before you fled?”

Cassis spat out the words irritably.

“What are you…”

Before Adeline could finish her answer, Cassis unfolded the crumpled letter from the open drawer and began to read.

“You told me to wait, but seeing no word from you, I find it hard to endure… You don’t know my heart that can’t sleep every night worrying about you.”

Adeline quickly approached Cassis and tried to snatch the letter he was reciting.

“Why are you reading someone else’s letter!”

There was no way Adeline could reach the height of Cassis’s raised hand.

At Adeline’s panicked gaze, Cassis’s red eyes flashed as if he had lost his reason.

“Do you want to go back to this affectionate fiancé?”

Momentarily startled that Cassis had seen the letter’s contents, Adeline began to get angry at his seemingly mocking attitude.

“I told you he’s a friend.”

“I didn’t know friends could be this passionate.”

Adeline felt suffocated with frustration.

The viscount who came looking for her after she ran away, and then Hailo barging in unexpectedly before the tension could ease. Having been on edge all day, she had no energy left to deal with Cassis.

“I think there’s a misunderstanding, but I’m tired, so let’s talk tomorrow.”

As Adeline, who didn’t want to waste energy on meaningless arguments anymore, was about to leave the study.

“Are you going to that man?”

Cassis mocked again at the sight of Adeline trying to escape from him.

“What did you say?”

“Isn’t he your fiancé?”

Adeline’s patience finally ran out at Cassis’s continued provocation.

“So what if he’s my fiancé?”

No longer able to deflect Cassis’s words, Adeline began to spit out irritable words as well.

“If you like him so much, why don’t you go to your fiancé?”

“If I want to go, I’ll go on my own, so mind your own business.”

Both highly strung, they were only eager to hurt each other with words.

The fiancé Cassis was referring to meant Hailo, but Adeline was increasingly irritated by the word ‘fiancé’ that kept reminding her of the crown prince.

Her annoyance rose.

Unable to contain her anger at the meaningless argument, Adeline slammed the door shut and left the study.

After Adeline left, Cassis threw down the letter he had been holding irritably.

‘I’m really pathetic.’

Perhaps it was because Cassis had no justification to hold Adeline back even if she were to leave him.

He was like a frightened cat with its hair and claws raised, terrified of being abandoned.

‘I shouldn’t have looked at that letter.’

It was Cassis who had read the letter without permission in the first place. Cassis quickly regretted it, as if he had never been angry.

Cassis thought he should apologize to Adeline once he calmed down and began to pick up the letter again.

He had read it without permission, snatched it away, and even thrown it, so he felt he should at least put it back in its place.

Cassis reached for the letter that had gone under the furniture from being thrown.

As Cassis bent down to pick up the letter, something caught his eye.

“Why is there a hinge in a place like this.”