It wasn’t until a fairly long moment of silence…

“…Ah.”

That Teresa finally reacted.

“Ah, ah…”

Her fair lips eked out meaningless sounds at a loss for words.

Teresa smoothed her face down in a daze. She was belatedly doing her best to act fine, but a look of confusion spread across her face like a plague.

“E-Excuse me?”

In the end, she asked back pointlessly.

There was no way she wouldn’t have understood the first time, yet she acted like she didn’t hear anything, just like Seol Jihu often did.

Seol Jihu shoved his hands into his pockets. He had mixed feelings about this as well.

After the air between them cooled down a bit, an indescribable emotion flowed into him. He didn’t know what to say as Teresa’s reaction had surpassed his expectations.

It wasn’t a long period of silence that Teresa finally rekindled the conversation.

“You’re lying… right?”

“No.”

Seol Jihu instinctively shut his mouth the moment he gave his answer. Teresa’s burning gaze had forced him to go silent.

Her gaze wasn’t blaming or condemning him. It wasn’t a glaring look of betrayal either.

Even so, Seol Jihu couldn’t open his mouth easily. In fact, he didn’t want to face Teresa, who had unknowingly straightened herself up and was staring at him fixedly.

Eventually, Teresa’s tightly shut mouth slowly opened.

“Why?”

And the words she had been suppressing burst out.

“Why? Why are you leaving all of a sudden? There has to be a reason, right?”

Seol Jihu still didn’t answer. His desire to speak had vanished completely at the same time that his body seemed to sink down.

With Seol Jihu maintaining his silence, Teresa looked like she was about to die of frustration; however, she soon feigned a smile and spoke gently.

“I get it. You’re disappointed with the Haramark Royal Family. Right, I get it.”

“No—”

“Ei, it’s fine. I understand. I would be disappointed too. We haven’t treated Haramark’s War Hero properly—”

“Princess.”

Seol Jihu couldn’t bear to hear her anymore and stared at her straight on.

“That’s not it at all.”

He spoke...