About Your Pride and My Prejudice - Chapter 113

Chapter 113: My Name

“I don’t know if it’s Troy.”

At those words, the fluttering eyelashes stopped moving.

“……Phew, Alan.”

“Melissa.”

Melissa smiled dejectedly at the low tone of the nonchalant answer.

“Do you want to bring up the story of the novel you burned down again? You’re so shameless.”

“That’s my name.”

“Your name?”

But Alan brought up an unexpected story.

“I told you I was an adoptee. I wasn’t Alan Leopold from the start.”

“Huh…? Then Troy…….”

“It was my name when I was an abandoned orphan. There was no last name.”

It was a voice that didn’t sound like a lie. Did Alan ever lie to her in the first place?

She barely opened her mouth, who had been licking her lips for a long time trying to find words to answer.

“I-I didn’t know. In the novel {Fugitive}…….”

“…….”

“It’s… a famous novel…”

“…….”

“I-I really didn’t know, I thought it was…….”

Alan couldn’t figure out why Melissa was so flustered. Did she think she touched the wound?

He just thought she was cute, squeezing her in his arms, soaking up all of her body.

“It’s okay.”

But if he says she’s cute here, her face will turn red again and she’ll hit his chest. With a small soft fist like a ball of cotton.

Alan, who tried hard to hold back his laughter, skillfully cleared his mind. A gentle whisper followed.

“The day I rescued you from the cold snow.”

“…….”

“The notebook that you always carry with you…….”

When he read her notebook as she slept softly in his carriage. 

What words can describe that amazing feeling he felt that time?

It wasn’t just the fact that the woman who loved him so much was making her own story out of a person who was obviously Alan Leopold.

‘…Troy?’

Alan Leopold’s disgrace. Deep in his heart, a perfect resemblance of his was throwing up the clumsy feelings and sincerity that he had hidden so much that he could forget. To dismiss it as mere coincidence…….

The inexplicable shock made him feel certain conviction. To Melissa Collins, this reckless, foolish, mysterious woman who ran barefoot in the middle of a deserted snow.

The cursed life, where he didn’t know how to stop as he ran with the pain in his lungs breaking in the darkness without an exit. He suffers from one goal supported by evil as a milestone, but he has only walked the given path.

But Alan realized that he actually needed a place to lean on, the moment he wanted to lean on this little woman.

He thought it was ridiculous, but he felt like she could teach him all the reasons for his life that he didn’t even know. Why does he have to endure this life of deceit and anxiety? He wonders if he will be able to achieve the ideal he has longed for after going through this hardship.

Maybe he just wanted to believe it, but it didn’t matter now. Alan’s soul, which had been trembling all his life in the deep darkness, had no intention of missing a ray of light and warmth that he had first discovered.

After that day, he spent less time sleeping, willingly to overwork in the midst of his overflowing work, and even mobilized those who permeated the streets like moss just to watch Melissa Collins.

As Alan Leopold, there was a reason why he didn’t get close. In order to prevent damage to his reputation for holding the family in the future because that was his only goal.

However, in reality, he did not want to give filthy humans the limelight and decoration to a woman who lives like grass in his own small world.

Therefore, he had no choice but to hover around in an unfamiliar appearance  while hiding his identity.

But she was deeply in love with him, so she would be glad he took the time for her. No matter what he looks like or in what way.

And he too enjoyed every moment of watching Melissa.

It was unintentional that Alan suddenly stepped into her life.

Just as people often visit art galleries and calmly appreciate their favorite paintings, he also intended to quietly look into Melissa’s late face or trivial daily life.

Until a man shows up.

Unlike him, the man seemed to belong in the same world as her and he was so angry that he couldn’t stand it. So, unlike his usual self, he lost his composure and showed himself to Melissa Collins.

He just became an idiot who talks to the artwork. It can’t be love.

* * *

“Melissa.”

Alan, who felt her shoulder flinching on his arm, stopped talking and asked.

“Were you scared because of me?”

“Well….”

While Melissa hesitated to answer, he said in a tone as serene as a winter lake.

“Even then, you would have loved me.”

……What arrogant prejudice have you got?

“Alan, love is not an indulgence.”

“I wanted to know you.”

“But….”

“I wanted to protect you.”

Closed and bizarre thinking that doesn’t understand that goodwill and good intentions can also cause fear. The moment the voice, which was so twisted that it sounded so pure, was about to be appalled.

“If you need an apology, I’ll do as much as you want.”

He whispered in an earnest voice.

“You teach me how, Melissa.”

“…….”

She thought. Alan’s apology may be a loving effort, but not a genuine reflection. His feelings are by no means perfect.

But one thing was clear. That his deficiency is the weight and shade of a brilliant coffin called Leopold. Little Troy couldn’t have hoped for the crown, much less.

Then, how should she face his shadow when she loves Alan Leopold?

“Alan.”

Melissa, who was struggling to the point where her fine forehead was frowned, managed to move her lips.

“It won’t be easy, but I…….”

“…….”

“I want to understand you.”

Alan’s deficiencies, which seemed infinitely perfect from a distance. She loved him for nearly a decade, but she didn’t know any of his wounds and pains. Because she thought there would be no dark side to him who was brilliant.

So he wasn’t the only one who was obsessed with prejudice.

Although the scar will remain, she hoped she could be the one who would apply daily medication and treat it well so that Alan’s wound could heal. Right now, and in the future.

With that in mind, Melissa continued.

“The fact that you knew me for a very long time, that you thought of me special and loved me enough to memorize my poems, that my novel gave you hope, and that I, at the age of twenty-one, finally became your lover……….”

Then Alan grinned and tapped Melissa on the tip of her little nose.

“Breathe, Melissa.”

“Haa… It’s unbelievably overwhelming…….”

“……Oh no, I want to make you gasp again. With your lips.”

In response to that languid answer, Melissa brought her intertwined hand to her lover’s chest and hit it. Of course, there was no power. Alan laughed like a mist because he felt it was like a love confession.

“Does this mean forgiveness?”

This time Melissa burst into a sigh of laughter.

“Huh.”

It’s ridiculous. What should I do with you?

Melissa shook her head quietly, but murmured in a refreshing voice.

“Yes… it’s all a long way off now.”

Then Alan took the clasped hand to his lips and kissed on the back of her hand.

“You’re Alan Leopold, so I understand you didn’t come up to me like this. It wouldn’t have been easy for you and me. And…….”

“If I hadn’t followed you around, I wouldn’t have saved you from the snow.”

“……My goodness.”

It was both embarrassing and annoying. She couldn’t believe he said the words that he has been following her around. Thatgreat Alan Leopold.

“There’s nothing worse than that, Melissa.”

“…….”

Alan solemnly added to Melissa, who was lost in her thoughts, thinking, “I wish it was me who saved you from falling into an ice pond.” stroking his rosy cheeks with a sullen gaze.

“Even an artist is not allowed to go for a walk in such heavy snow. Don’t do that again.”

“Ah.”

As if she had thought of something, Melissa opened her lips.

“In fact, that day… I jumped in the snow thinking I wanted to be hugged by you. As if I was possessed.”

“…….”

“I looked like a foo didn’t I?”

Alan answered that immediately without any hesitation.

“Yes, you could have come up and hugged me like crazy. I would have hugged you.”

“But just thinking about you used to hurt me. You hurt me so much. Even just by imagining it.”

“Well….”

Alan shook his head slowly, turned around and hugged his little lover. Struggling under tight pressure, Melissa became quiet only after sticking her small face out over his broad shoulders.

“Still, wasn’t I kinder when I wasn’t in Alan Leopold’s form? I even brought you a letter and picked up a book before you asked for it.”

“Are you talking about that eerie mask and red hair?”

Melissa gave a shrill voice, disgusted.

“That gave me goosebumps!”

“Gave you goosebumps…….”

Alan whispered softly in a low tone with a smile.

“Isn’t that the same when it’s intolerably good?”

“What? Ah….”

Only then did Melissa notice that he was standing up firmly. But his arms were wrapped around her with ridiculous force for her to pull herself apart.

As she shifted her gaze with a burning face, and his cold lips touched her neck. Next, the hot tongue.

“Ugh….”

Melissa’s shoulders flinched because the touch was so dense and sensual. The moment she recalled how he melted her like butter all night, her stomach was numb.

“……Alan!”

Soon she felt the ripple-like goosebumps spread throughout her body. It was because Alan was breathing in with his head buried in the back of her neck.

“I think you’re getting goosebumps now, too.”

“That…!”

Alan, with a beautiful, insidious smile, shifted his posture. After laying her down on her back, Alan’s lips, starting from her neck, and kissing her shoulders, chest and ribs like a cat drinking water, reached her slim belly button, and even below it.

“Ah….”

“So.”

Before she realised it, Alan was looking down at her like a triumphant predator. Licking his wet lips with his bright red tongue

“How do you feel when the person you loved so much loves you?”

“If you’re trying to tease me, I’ll go back to the room…….”

Alan, who looked down at Melissa who hurriedly dodged his gaze, smiled softly. Then he pointed to his lips and whispered in secret.

“Can’t you see this?”

“…….”

“I told you not to say anything you don’t mean.”

“……But it will be morning soon. If you don’t sleep a little…….”

Alan’s mouth drew a beautiful arc as her light colored eyelashes trembled.

“You wouldn’t be in a position to worry about me.”

“You’re busy with work… Hup.”

Melissa’s fragile excuse was swallowed up without a trace. Again, Alan laughed silently at her small arms as they happily grabbed her neck.

This prevented him from hearing the answer she had evaded, but it didn’t matter.

The person who loved me so much loves me. Because he knows what it feels like.