Chapter 133
After finishing dinner, Theodore and Selina stepped outside the restaurant for their first official date, just as they had promised.
Autumn was already nearing its midpoint, and the sky outside had grown dark. Beneath a sky tinged with purple as the sunset faded, the two walked side by side, holding hands.
They didn’t talk about anything in particular, quietly moving forward while listening to the sound of each other’s heartbeats and the chirping of insects in the grass.
Once she became aware that this was their first proper date—just the two of them—Selina had no idea what she was supposed to say.
“Selina, aren’t you cold?”
“Huh?”
While she was worrying about how to start a conversation, Theodore spoke first.
“Why are you so tense? Anyone would think I’m about to eat you.”
“E-eat me?”
“It’s just an expression.”
Unlike the nervous Selina, Theodore looked relaxed. He noticed that her cheeks and nose were flushed red.
Although the weather had grown chilly for some time now, she was wearing only her school jacket. Theodore took off his robe and draped it over her shoulders.
“It’s getting pretty cold these days. You should bring a robe with you from now on.”
“I’m fine. If anything, you—”
“I’m giving it to you because I want to. You don’t have to worry about me. I don’t catch colds that easily.”
Selina stopped moving as she was about to return the robe. Only then did Theodore carefully check that the collar was fastened properly so no cold air could seep in.
“How is it? Warm?”
“…Yeah.”
Selina fiddled with the sleeves covering her hands. Despite being much taller than the average woman, Theodore’s clothes felt roomy on her—like a child wearing her father’s clothes.
When the tightly fastened collar brushed against her chin, Selina lowered her head and covered her mouth. For some reason, the familiar warm scent that always belonged to him lingered at the tip of her nose.
“Have you been having a hard time lately?”
“With what?”
“You collapsed from overwork last time. You rested for a bit, but you started working again, and customers keep flooding in. And today, it looked like you were doing something with Mie again.”
“Ah, of course I’m fine—”
Just as she was about to answer as she always did, Selina suddenly recalled her conversation with Mie—how Mie had asked if she wasn’t treating Theodore too much like just a friend.
After a brief pause, Selina corrected herself.
“…Honestly, I am tired.”
Surprised by her unexpected answer, Theodore stopped walking. Selina stopped as well and met his gaze.
“It’s great that the club is doing well because more customers are coming, but that also means more work for me, so the fatigue just keeps piling up. And you know how I kept leaving in the middle of things, saying I had plans with Mie? I’m actually posing as a model right now.”
“A model?”
“Yeah. She said she suddenly got inspired when she saw me. She’s drawing something to submit to the academic festival and asked me to model for her for a bit. That’s why I’ve been going to her studio whenever I can.”
“Oh, so that’s why you kept disappearing with Mie. If you’re the model… I should buy that painting later.”
“Why would you buy it?”
“What do you mean, why? You’re in it, of course I should buy it.”
Selina, who had been dumbfounded, became flustered when she saw how completely serious Theodore looked. He genuinely seemed like he would buy Mie’s painting.
“B-but my face won’t be in it. She said she’d draw it without showing my face.”
“That’s fine. Either way, it’s still you.”
“…Why do you want to buy it that badly? Even without it, I’ll still stay by your side.”
She had asked out of pure curiosity, but to Theodore, her words sounded like a promise to stay with him forever, and a smile escaped him.
Did this lovely woman even realize what she was saying?
“Even if you stay by my side, the ‘you’ of this moment will disappear with time. I want to preserve the you who’s with me right now as a painting.”
During the five years he had been apart from Selina, he’d had only a single painting of her, and that had always left him with a sense of regret.
Because the only way he could recall her was through that painting, it had been worn thin from being held and touched for five years. Afraid it might tear if he handled it any more, he had eventually placed it carefully in a frame.
Looking at Selina now, the image of her younger self in that painting overlapped with her present 모습.
“No matter when it is, you’ll always be beautiful. When you’re smiling, when you’re angry, when you’re sad—and when you’re this adorable. I don’t want to forget a single one of these moments.”
Theodore cupped Selina’s cheek and rested his forehead against hers.
She had been frozen in place, but the warmth transmitted through their foreheads snapped her back to her senses.
Right in front of her, Theodore was smiling at her with crinkled eyes, grinning like the happiest person in the world.
The sight felt strangely different from usual, and her heart began pounding wildly. Afraid he might hear it, Selina hurriedly stepped back.
“D-don’t say such embarrassing things!”
“Sorry. Was that too cheesy?”
Selina strode ahead, deliberately putting distance between them. From behind, Theodore playfully followed, telling her to wait up.
When they ended up holding hands again, the atmosphere between them felt far more comfortable than before. Theodore chatted about various things as they walked, but none of it reached Selina’s ears.
‘Ah, this is bad.’
Even with the person himself right beside her, the image of Theodore smiling so lovingly kept flashing through her mind.
* * *
The next day, after their pleasant date, Theodore knocked on the door of the dormitory where Selina was staying, just like always.
When the door opened, Theodore greeted her with a gentle smile.
“Good morning, Selina. We’re going to breakfast now—are you ready?”
“Ah—s-sorry! I’m not really hungry today!”
Selina blurted out in a panic after staring blankly at him.
Since she had never skipped breakfast before, Theodore looked puzzled.
“Really? But you’ll get hungry during class. I could at least grab you a sandwich—”
“No! No! I’m really fine! Hurry and eat with the others. I’ll get ready for school in the meantime.”
“…Uh, okay. Got it.”
At her firm refusal, Theodore left for breakfast with the others, still bewildered.
Selina finally let out a sigh of relief as she watched him and his friends walk away.
“You need to eat breakfast to have energy, meow. You must be hungry—why aren’t you going?” Luna asked, meowing at her feet.
Selina closed the door and slowly slid down onto the floor.
“What’s wrong with you, meow?”
“Luna… I think I’ve gone crazy.”
“What are you talking about, meow?”
“…Theodore looks way too handsome.”
Luna grimaced as if she had tasted something bitter. Thinking Selina might still be half-asleep, she examined her carefully, but her violet eyes were clear.
“You seem fully awake, but you’re acting strange today, meow. You’re dating Theodore—of course he can look handsome.”
“That’s true, but… whenever I think about him, my heart starts racing and it feels weird. And I can’t even look him in the face properly.”
It wasn’t as if she was seeing his face for the first time, yet today he looked especially handsome, enough to make her lose herself without realizing it.
Her heart had been pounding hard last night too, but after returning to her room, it had calmed down—so she’d thought she was fine. But as soon as morning came, it started all over again.
“What do I do? I can’t face Theodore properly.”
Just thinking about him made her heart race unbearably.
Selina’s face flushed shyly, like a girl deeply in love.
After a brief silence, Luna checked the time and pushed Selina’s back.
“Don’t just sit there—get moving, meow. At least change into your uniform.”
“Oh, right… you’re right.”
Even as Selina changed her clothes, her mind was clearly elsewhere.
Following Luna’s instructions, she finally finished getting ready and stepped outside the dormitory.
With her head full of stray thoughts, Selina was acting stranger than ever.
Luna watched her with a mix of unease and concern.
[At this rate, she might really crash into something.]
In her current scatterbrained state, it felt like she could cause a serious accident at any moment.
* * *
“S-sorry, let’s do it another time.”
“I still need to study for exams today, so I don’t think I can. Sorry…”
“Oh! I forgot I have an errand for the professor! Sorry, I’ll go first!”
Theodore watched helplessly as Selina’s red head disappeared once again, fleeing at full speed.
It had already been a week since Selina started rejecting him with all sorts of excuses.
Just a week ago, when they had gone on a nighttime walk together, everything had felt fine—so how had things ended up like this?
At first, he thought she might just be tired because of exams, but now he could vaguely guess the reason.
She was avoiding him.
“Theodore, did you do something wrong to Selina?”
“…Lately, it seems the witch has been avoiding you, Sir Theodore.”
Silvia and Chris, who happened to be there, cautiously asked.
Selina was avoiding Theodore so openly that even their friends had noticed.
Seeing his expression stiffen, the two quickly fell silent.
‘Could it be that she doesn’t feel anything for me anymore?’
He wanted to grab her, ask her a hundred, a thousand times whether she really liked him.
But he was afraid she might say, “Yes. You’re too different from what I expected. Let’s break up.”
Unlike before, when he forced himself to overcome negativity by clinging to optimism, he was now completely swallowed by dark thoughts, unable to escape the deep, gloomy swamp.
Just as the light faded from his golden eyes under the weight of endless negativity, a voice beside him snapped him back to reality.
“What are you thinking about right now?”
The voice belonged to none other than Sylvester.
Clicking his tongue in disbelief, Sylvester glared at Theodore, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him away.
“O-oppa!”
“What are you doing?! Let go of him right now!”
Startled, Silvia and Chris rushed to stop him, but Sylvester brushed them off firmly.
“I’m just going to have a word with this idiot. Stay here.”
“Even so—”
“If you’re going to talk, let go of him first!”
Sensing that Sylvester was genuinely angry, Silvia stepped back, but Chris struggled even harder to stop him.
At that moment, Theodore—who had been standing there blankly—clenched his lips and shouted.
“Chris, stay out of it.”
“But Sir Theodore—!”
“I’ll talk with him for a moment.”
Theodore and Sylvester stared each other down without looking away.
The atmosphere was so tense it felt like a fight would break out if either of them moved.
Sylvester roughly released Theodore’s collar, and the two headed elsewhere. Left behind, Silvia and Chris looked at each other.
“They’re not going to fight, right?”
“If they do, I won’t let it slide!”
Even as Chris shouted, his face was full of anxiety.
Silvia hurriedly tried to follow them with her eyes, but by then, the two had already disappeared from the classroom.
* * *
The two stopped at a quiet corner of a deserted building, still glaring at each other.
After confirming no one was around, Theodore roughly ran a hand through his hair.
“What exactly do you want to say?”
“You already know, don’t you?”
Theodore’s golden eyes trembled.
“You… you were doubting Selina, weren’t you?”
Unable to deny it, Theodore avoided Sylvester’s gaze. The corner of Sylvester’s mouth twisted upward.
“Ha. I knew it. You have everything, yet you’re doubting her? Who do you think you are to suspect her?”
“If you don’t know anything, keep your mouth shut.”
“Don’t know? I know at least this much—you’re clearly doubting Selina’s feelings right now.”
Theodore felt a surge of emotion rise in his chest, then forced himself to calm down and let out a deep sigh.
“I don’t even know why I have to do this with you. No matter how much I explain, you wouldn’t understand.”
“Is that how you always are?”
“What?”
“Acting like you know everything, like you’re enduring it all alone. You put on a confident front, but in reality you lack any real confidence, so you dig yourself deeper and deeper for no reason.”
With cold, sunken eyes, Sylvester looked down at Theodore and hurled harsh words at him.
