Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 149

Damian had recently made a significant purchase: a car.

Lilliana’s kidnapping incident had taught him a painful lesson about the importance of mobility in dealing with future incidents.

So, after just three days of contemplation, he signed a contract with a car dealer without hesitation. Thinking that it was cheap compared to Asher’s prosthetic arm, he didn’t feel bad about the large sum of money leaving his bank account.

And today, he was driving Lilliana to the atelier in the car that had arrived yesterday.

Lilliana, sitting in the passenger seat, kept glancing at Damian the whole way. Damian couldn’t miss it. Finally, he sighed and asked, “Do you have something to say?”

As Damian turned his head towards her, Lilliana flinched, looking caught. She scratched her head sheepishly and carefully spoke, “Damian, I… I think I’ll stop looking for who I liked.”

At her somewhat abrupt words, Damian turned his gaze forward. After a moment of silence, he asked, “Why do you suddenly want to stop?”

“Well… just because.”

“Just because?”

Damian raised an eyebrow, and Lilliana laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of her head.

“Well, how should I explain this? Like you said, what’s the point of finding someone who’s not even by my side now…? I have Damian and brother right next to me, right? So I thought it would be better to focus on the two who are actually here instead of someone who’s not… And I thought that if it’s meant to be, I’ll meet him again someday~ or something like that.”

Damian tilted his head, then a smile spread across his lips. He leaned slightly towards Lilliana and asked, “So you’re finally going to take my advice?”

“Well, yeah. It’s not that I’m taking your advice, but I’ve just lost interest…” Lilliana replied, crossing her arms with a prim expression.

Damian didn’t react much and parked the car in front of the atelier.

“Do as you like, Lilliana. How can I tell you what to do?”

Lilliana got out of the passenger seat and said playfully, “You’re quite the busybody when it comes to my affairs, aren’t you, Lieutenant?”

Damian chuckled and got out of the car as well, when suddenly, they heard a loud voice.

“Lily? Lilliana Carnell?!”

Someone was calling Lilliana’s name and approaching them quickly.

Damian tensed up and instinctively tried to shield Lilliana, but she was faster and ran towards the person calling her name.

“Eugene?! Oh my gosh! Is it really Eugene?!”

Lilliana embraced someone with a brighter smile than ever before. The other person was a handsome man with somewhat flashy red hair.

The two hugged each other and jumped up and down, making a fuss. Damian just stared blankly at the scene.

“I was so worried because I couldn’t reach you!” the man named Eugene said with concern, his green eyes carefully examining Lilliana’s face.

“Well, I had some circumstances that made it difficult to contact anyone for about two years. But I couldn’t reach you either. I tried to contact you recently, but all I heard was that you went abroad to study!”

“So neither of us could contact each other.”

“But we met again. I’m so glad!”

“You haven’t changed a bit.”

Lilliana giggled and playfully punched Eugene’s arm. Eugene pretended to be hurt, playing along.

Lilliana belatedly noticed Damian standing awkwardly and quickly pulled him in front of Eugene.

“Ah, this is Eugene Loud, a classmate from my middle school academy. Eugene, this is Damian Stern, he’s my friend.”

“Ah, you had company. Hello, I’m Eugene Loud.”

Eugene cheerfully extended his hand to Damian. Damian hesitated for a moment, then shook his hand with a brief nod.

“Damian Stern. Nice to meet you, Mr. Loud.”

Eugene gave an awkward smile at Damian’s stiff greeting.

“I’m not interrupting, am I?”

“No, it’s fine. Perfectly fine,” Lilliana waved her hand dismissively, without considering Damian’s opinion.

Hearing that it was okay, Eugene smiled at Lilliana.

“What brings you to Nichio?”

Lilliana scratched her head, wondering how to explain.

“Well, it’s a long story… To put it simply, I came to Nichio for treatment because I haven’t been feeling well.”

“What? You’re sick? Lily, why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I told you, I wasn’t in a position to contact anyone.”

“Then is it okay for you to be walking around like this?”

“Yes, I’ve already recovered that much. You know I’m usually healthy. I recover quickly. What about you? What brings you to Nichio?”

“I have a family gathering. So I came back to the country for a while. I’m only in Nichio for a short time and have to go abroad again soon.”

“When?”

“In about a week?”

“That soon?”

Lilliana immediately grabbed Eugene with a disappointed look.

“Let’s have tea or something before you go. Let me know if you have a way to contact you.”

“Okay, that sounds good.”

Eugene wrote down his contact information, saying it was the residence of a relative he was staying with. He made a phone gesture with his hand and mouthed to Lilliana, “Call me.”

Lilliana held the contact information Eugene gave her close to her heart and waved goodbye with all her might. As Eugene’s red hair disappeared from sight, she turned to Damian with a dejected look.

“Is he trustworthy?” Damian asked out of the blue.

Lilliana blinked and then burst into laughter.

“Eugene isn’t a bad person. He’s one of the most trustworthy people around me.”

Damian frowned at her confident assertion and said disapprovingly, “What’s your relationship with him?”

“Ex-boyfriend.”

Damian’s head instinctively snapped towards Lilliana. Unfazed, she continued in a cheerful voice, “But it’s a bit of a stretch to call him an ex-boyfriend. We dated for only one semester during middle school academy… It was more like childish playing around than actual dating.”

“But you’re still close?”

“Yes. We didn’t break up because we disliked each other. We broke up because the relationship we imagined was different from the actual relationship.”

Damian opened and closed his mouth, then rubbed his face. He was mentally shaken by the appearance of Lilliana’s ex-boyfriend and couldn’t think straight.

Lilliana, lost in her own excitement, didn’t notice Damian’s state and continued reminiscing.

“We kept in touch regularly until I lost my memories, and it’s so nice to see him again like this!”

“…Could that person be the one Lilliana liked while she lost her memories?”

Lilliana burst into laughter.

“No, no. Eugene and I won’t have that kind of relationship anymore.”

“Why not?”

“I told you, we realized we weren’t compatible as lovers while we were dating. So Eugene doesn’t see me that way anymore, and I don’t have romantic feelings for him either.”

Damian was skeptical that such a relationship was possible between a man and a woman.

From an objective third-person perspective, both Eugene and Lilliana seemed to have purely platonic feelings for each other.

But unfortunately, Damian wasn’t in a state to make an objective judgment, and he was very displeased that Lilliana was close to her ex-boyfriend.

“Did you do that thing you do for the person you like to him too?”

“Yes.”

Lilliana readily answered, and Damian regretted asking. A childish jealousy surged within him.

“But I haven’t done that for anyone else since then. Except for what I did while I lost my memories, that is. Back then, since he was my boyfriend, I tried doing it like other people… but I didn’t like him enough to do that for him. After that, I decided not to do it unless I really, really liked the person. That’s why I’m curious who the second person I did that for is. By the way, why the long face?”

Damian cleared his throat and forced a nonchalant expression.

“It’s nothing. Please continue.”

“There’s nothing much after that. If you want to hear it, I can tell you about my boring love life.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Damian replied, his voice unconsciously stiff.

—————

Please rate and review this novel on Novelupdates!

If you enjoy the translation, please consider buying me a coffee on Ko-fi. It helps keep me motivated!