It wasn’t easy at all.
“Hmm? Really? Then shall we eat together?”
First of all, Leo’s situation was far from easy.
Before he could make same-sex friends, he had already accumulated a bunch of opposite-sex friends, so there weren’t many people around Leo who would invite him to eat together first.
Normally, I would have had meals with Alice or gathered with our group of friends. Of course, Leo was among them.
So, I should have just sat there quietly.
As soon as I decided to talk to Leo first, he looked at me with a bright smile. For a moment, it felt like light was shining on me, and I couldn’t help but squint my eyes a bit.
Leo considers me a friend. So, it must be a nice surprise for him that ‘his friend’ initiated the meal invitation.
The problem is, it seemed to be seen differently in the eyes of others.
Yeah, I realized that only after I spoke.
Even if Alice and Charlotte initiated the conversation, there were hardly any people who would misunderstand that they liked Leo. This was because the class difference was too severe. There was no need to look for a logical reason why jealous people only interpreted things that way; they just wanted to gossip behind their backs.
The issue here is that ‘I’ initiated the conversation.
Usually, I wouldn’t invite someone to eat first, especially not Leo.
And he even replied with a smile.
Ah, if others see this, it might look like some special treatment—only realized that after speaking up.
At least it was fortunate that I didn’t look around. If I had done that, I would have immediately realized my actions and scrambled to read the room, like a cool but slowly returning dere heroine.
“…”
I felt a blazing gaze directed at me from the side.
Claire was squinting her eyes at me. That ‘Claire Grace’.
Usually, she would have looked up at me with sparkling eyes like a golden retriever.
No, that’s not it. You’re not thinking that, right?
Saying that would be pointless now. By this point, doubts had already penetrated deep into my bones; whatever I say would be taken as a suspicious excuse.
“Claire.”
Then, someone moved first while I was too cowardly to voice it.
Charlotte.
“Uh?”
Claire was startled and turned to look at Charlotte, who suddenly grabbed her shoulder.
“I found a nice restaurant nearby, want to go eat together? It’s a place that serves Velbur cuisine, and I’ve tried it; the taste is quite excellent.”
“Oh, then I could go with you and Leo—”
“Ah, but unfortunately, it’s a shame. The seats are almost fully booked. I barely made a reservation yesterday. I can only bring one or two more people, and I certainly don’t want to look like I’m on a date with Leo. It’d be better to go with two girls!”
She was doing something completely useless.
Well, it would still be a problem if I tried to ask Claire to join. She was already suspicious of me liking Leo, and Claire was against me marrying Leo.
This was definitely going to make the situation extremely awkward.
And I had my own plans for talking to Leo.
“Then can I join the remaining seats? I’d love to see what kind of Velbur restaurant a proud person recommends.”
Saying that, Alice stood up and quickly took a place next to Claire.
And Claire was then unexpectedly dragged out of the classroom by both of them.
“Uh, wait, sis, sis—!”
Claire screamed as she was pulled out of the classroom, and everyone inside watched with astonished expressions.
Then, their gazes shifted back toward us.
…
Well, fine.
So you’re leaving, huh?
I also have my own thoughts.
Leo had already grown somewhat close to Sophia yesterday. There’s hardly a better way to build intimacy than doing things together. And if that ‘thing’ was community service, even better. It’s a chance to showcase how good a person you are and subtly highlight similar interests.
Most importantly, it’s nice to spend time together.
So, calling Sophia over for a meal with the three of us wasn’t that bad of an idea. Leo wouldn’t refuse either.
If Leo had ‘one definite girlfriend’, the jealous stares directed at him from around might lessen a bit.
Even if we came from different countries, we were both from Baron and Knight households, so it wasn’t a huge difference. Given Sophia’s current personality, the Grace couple would likely accept her.
There’s the issue of the Papal State spy, but… well, that’s something to solve later.
Thinking like this, I turned my gaze toward Sophia’s seat—
—only to find Sophia looking back at me.
Her eyes were half-filled with tears.
Ah.
Wait, that’s not it.
Before I could even think of an excuse, Sophia jolted up from her seat and dashed out of the classroom.
“…”
And after everyone in the classroom witnessed that scene, they all turned back to look at me.
“Huh? What’s wrong? Is there something troubling Sophia?”
It’s you.
It’s you, it’s you!
No, of course, the current situation was something I created!
“…Sylvia.”
Someone called out to me, and when I turned my gaze, Mia had quietly approached and was looking up at me.
Was she perhaps suggesting to eat together—
But before I could finish that thought, Mia gently took my hand and said,
“Finally, you’ve learned about emotions.”
What a ridiculous ghost making a remark.
After about 2.5 seconds of being stunned, I recalled what she meant.
That was what I said to Mia when I found Marmaros and the gun in her room as an excuse.
Mia smiled gently as if she truly congratulated me, then quickly let go of my hand and rushed out of the classroom.
“…”
While I stared blankly at her swaying black hair, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
“Crown Princess, good luck.”
With a serious expression and tone, Rena said that to me.
And without needing to say anything more, she nodded once knowingly before leaving the classroom.
By the way, Jake and Roti had already disappeared long ago. They probably dashed out as soon as lunchtime started to cause mischief somewhere.
As a result, the only acquaintance left in the classroom was Leo, who was sitting in front of me with a puzzled smile.
“…”
Why is this story panning out like this?
*
Not again!
I didn’t shout, but while carefully holding onto the last strand of my reason, I thought this was actually a pretty decent opportunity.
It was extremely embarrassing, but sitting across from Leo and having a face-to-face conversation was a chance to understand the situation Leo was in and what was truly on his mind.
No matter how friendly a sister can be, there are things you can’t say just because the other person is a sister.
Especially when it comes to the difficulties of school life.
With Claire’s personality, even if she always seemed to bicker with Leo, she would immediately step up when it came to helping him…
When it comes to friendship issues, it doesn’t get solved that simply.
Such problems need to be approached systematically by identifying the root cause.
“Somehow, it turned out that just the two of us are having lunch today.”
I thought it would be a bit awkward having lunch in the classroom where all the eyes were on us, so we came outside.
Yet, it wasn’t the academy garden either. It was quite cold to sit outside and eat.
So we chose a small bakery not too far from the academy.
Even though it was lunchtime and students occasionally dropped by, this bakery had only one table. If the two of us just sat there, no one could squeeze in next to us.
There were a few kids lingering around to eavesdrop on our conversation, but when our eyes met, most of them quickly left the place.
“Now that I think of it, this is the first time I’m doing this.”
“That’s true.”
I replied immediately.
“I’ve hardly ever had a meal with someone one-on-one.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah.”
I was desperately wracking my brain to continue the conversation while slowly chewing on a baguette spread with cream cheese.
“Thanks to that, I think there’s been a ridiculous misunderstanding in the classroom.”
“Haha….”
At my words, Leo forced a laugh.
“Well, everyone always misunderstands something anyway.”
And then he said that with a slightly exhausted voice.
“…”
I silently stared at Leo and asked.
“Has someone been bothering you lately?”
“…Huh?”
At my question, Leo widened his eyes as he looked at me.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because your behavior seemed a bit off lately.”
“Ah, that….”
Leo smiled awkwardly and sighed deeply.
“I guess my… uh, how should I put it… my friendships have been a bit skewed, so maybe I don’t have someone to talk to frequently?”
“Is that so?”
So that really was the case.
I held back a sigh that was about to escape.
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