・・・・・
‘Why were you so desperate?’
If they were to ask that, I would answer with just one line:
‘Because I can’t imagine a life without you.’
That one sentence was enough to mark the beginning of a new morning.
Looking back, happiness often bloomed from the smallest things.
Even in moments when life felt unbearable — when death seemed like the only escape — a single smile could lift me from the depths.
So much so that I’d find myself thinking things only a tragic hero would dare to say: ‘If it’s in your arms, then I could die without regret.’
I had lived for this moment.
I truly believed I could give my life for it, just to share a simple, peaceful life with both of them.
Because we all understood exactly what was most precious to us.
Like a fragile seed wedged between a brick that somehow found a way to sprout, I found my happiness in the joy of those two siblings.
And perhaps they, too, found the meaning of life in the same place.
So let’s just call it our happiness.
It was a crisp autumn morning, just after dawn.
I opened my eyes, already feeling warm, just from the thought of Felix and Claudia.
“Good morning.”
Felix’s low, velvety voice, sweeter than any cup of coffee, was what truly signalled morning.
“Rin, come here.”
His whisper sounded especially sweet and gentle today.
Hmm... why was that?
Could it be the contrast with last night’s shamelessly sinful passion?
Thinking that way, it almost sounded kind of languid — like the hazy afterglow following an intense encounter.
Sunlight poured in through the window, warm and radiant like waves washing over the bed.
Even though I’d already shaken off the last traces of sleep, it was one of those mornings when you just wanted to stay tangled in the blankets, sink deeper into the mattress, and bury your face in the pillow.
‘I'm not going over there.’
I muttered it silently to myself and squeezed my eyes shut, pretending I hadn’t heard him.
I was so tired I felt like a ragdoll — no, more like a sickly chicken with no strength to move.
If I could, I would’ve just passed out right then and there, and woken up the next morning as if today had never existed.
“Rin.”
Then, as if sensing my stubborn act, Felix gently spoke again.
“No, no. Don’t lick my soles.”
Huh?
‘Soles?’
And more importantly, I wasn’t the one licking Felix’s feet right now.
In fact, he was the one who’d done that last night.
To be precise, I was the one on the verge of tears, begging him to stop because it felt too weird and indecent.
I curled my ticklish feet without thinking and cracked one eye open.
Glancing down at myself out of reflex, I saw my upper body covered in red blotches — like I’d caught some strange rash or illness.
‘I told him to use healing magic…’
I didn’t feel sore down there, and my whole body wasn’t aching like I’d been run over, so I figured he must’ve used it.
‘Then why leave all the marks behind?’
Felix let out a soft sigh, the kind that said ‘you’re impossible,’ and whispered, coaxing like always:
“Don’t even think about climbing on top of me.”
Did I climb on?
Well, technically, it wasn’t really me who climbed on.
To be precise, it was Felix who pulled me up there!
He lured me on with that holier-than-thou angel act — and before I knew it, I fell for it.
Now that I think about it, maybe he just wanted to see my ever-changing expressions, moment by moment.
Every time he played my body like an instrument, coaxing out one sensual note after another, I could feel it: that unwavering gaze, obsessively tracking the way my face twisted and contorted, even in the haze of everything else.
The instant I remembered that, the scenes from last night came rushing back, vivid and unstoppable.
When I hit my breaking point and clung to him, he licked the tear-salted sweat clinging to my chin.
With lips no longer noble — utterly debauched — he urged me to cry more.
And then, as he looked down at the mess he'd made of me, he even licked his lips, like he was pleased with himself…
“Ack!”
I couldn’t bear the embarrassment and kicked off the blanket as I shot upright.
Felix’s eyes, now tinged with confusion, turned to me.
He was lifting the cat that had shamelessly climbed onto his chest.
The cat — Rin.
A sleek black stray with vivid yellow eyes, the very same one that had been hanging around the Amber estate for some time.
I’d heard Liam had recently been ‘chosen’ as her caretaker.
‘Oh…’
As I looked down at Rin, the realisation hit me.
I’d made a stupid mistake.
All this time, when Felix had been calling “Rin” so sweetly, he wasn’t talking to me — he meant the cat.
"Did you have a nightmare?"
Felix asked, peering down at me with concern as I jolted upright.
With tired, darkened eyes, I gave Rin a disapproving look as she strutted around my family home like it was her own.
‘Why does she have the same name as me?’
As if being treated like a cat by Felix wasn’t bad enough, now there was Rin, who shared not just my name but even my eye colour.
It was only natural that I’d feel defensive.
It felt like my territory had been encroached upon.
Not that I was jealous of a cat or anything, of course.
Rin and I locked eyes in a silent, pointless staring contest before I gave a small nod.
“I had a really scary dream!”
“Shall I hold you?”
Pursing my lips tightly, I spread my arms wide as if to say, ‘Hurry and hold me.’
Felix chuckled softly and gently set down the cat he was holding.
Then he pulled me into a tight embrace and collapsed sideways onto the bed behind us.
Caught off guard, I flopped down beside him and, after a moment of dazed expression, burst out laughing.
"Why did I have such a scary dream?"
I rolled my eyes and imagined what it would be like if I really had had a nightmare.
“Hmm, maybe because reality is just too happy?”
Just when I was sure I couldn’t be any happier than that, the next day came and was even more miraculously joyful.
Sometimes, I couldn’t believe how suddenly reality had turned so friendly that the thought struck me — maybe it was all just a fleeting dream.
Or other times, I worried what would happen if the author of the novel suddenly grew moody and desperately wished, ‘I hope my story’s heroine utterly fails!’
“I honestly thought everything would be over once we took care of those three — like the curtain falling at the end of a play, with the words, ‘And they all lived happily ever after.’”
But when peace finally arrived, I realised it wasn’t quite that simple after all.
"Is that so?"
His expression, as he repeated the question, was incredibly clear.
His blue eyes reflected the vast, cloudless autumn sky perfectly, almost as if everything I had seen last night had been nothing but an illusion.
"Hmm."
After a brief moment of thought, he slowly moved his beautifully shaped lips.
“When you're physically worn out, pointless thoughts usually don’t even come to mind...”
"...What?"
“Looks like I’ve been going too easy on you all this time.”
Before I could even be flustered, the sky reflected in Felix’s eyes shimmered with mischievous energy, curving gently like a crescent moon.
His hand, which had softly cupped my cheek, traced down along my neck and lingered around my collarbone.
“Get some more sleep.”
“I’m wide awake now.”
“I’ll help you fall back asleep.”
This guy?!
"You'll fall into a deep sleep, with no room for nightmares to slip in."
I looked up at him, who was flashing an angelic smile that could effortlessly disarm anyone.
Wasn’t that basically a declaration of war — to torment me until I was so exhausted I’d collapse and fall asleep with no thoughts left?
Actually, Felix probably knew I was lying.
The night before, I had passed out and fallen asleep without even the luxury of a nightmare — because he was the very one who made it happen!
There was no way he didn’t know that; he was as shameless as ever.
With a slightly taken-aback expression, I asked seriously:
“Angel, do you happen to know the concept of ‘death by pleasure’…?” [1]
Was he planning to take me to heaven just because he was an angel or something?
As I muttered this under my breath, Felix burst out laughing.
He must have thought I was joking, but no.
I was being a hundred per cent serious.
“Was it really that hard for you?”
He whispered with a teasing, amused tone, like soothing a sulking child.
I pouted and answered grumpily,
“Well, anything is hard if you overdo it...”
“Oh dear.”
Felix sincerely sympathised with my answer, but he never once said he’d stop if it was really that hard.
That was the true nature of an angel — pretending to give in during the day, then at night tossing out bait to lure me in.
Even though I knew it all, I was completely enchanted, following him blindly, only to be swallowed whole.
Honestly, my man was the textbook example of someone who lost during the day but won at night. [2]
“Ah, I surrender, I surrender. That was a lie.”
I whimpered, wriggling to break free from Felix’s embrace.
He chuckled softly, then willingly withdrew his persistent touch and lightly stroked the nape of my neck.
A white light burst from his palm, and the red marks that had stained my body gradually began to fade.
As I quietly watched, I thought I saw a brief flicker of regret pass through his blue eyes.
“Then it’s fine if we stay like this.”
"Like this?"
“Yes. Until my wife feels completely at ease.”
Ah, right.
I opened my eyes wide in surprise.
Now that I thought about it, Rin the cat and I no longer had overlapping roles.
From now on, when it was just the two of us, I was to be called ’wife.’
Felix, who had been lazily blinking his eyes, simply shut them completely.
“Are you going back to sleep?”
“My heartbeat is way too loud for that.”
He whispered with a teasing smile.
After blinking for a moment, I suddenly felt my whole body flush bright red.
His words were more tantalising to the heart than any lewd talk.
“Want to take a bath?”
“We're not just going to take a bath, right?”
“Of course not.”
"So, you don't like it?" Felix asked gently.
It seemed like he would back off without hesitation if I just said I didn't like it.
I clutched my ear where his breath had touched and shuddered.
It was remarkable how it still felt fresh and exhilarating every time, even though it had happened more than once.
“…Then shall we make today’s date in the bathroom?”
In an instant, I lost all sense of reason and forgot why I had come this far.
Smiling sweetly, I naturally wrapped my arms around his neck as he gently pressed his lips to mine.
<I Have Become The Heroes’ Rival> — Side Story: The End
Translator's Corner:
[1] "Death by pleasure" means death during sexual intercourse.
[2] "Lost during the day but won at night" describes someone who seems passive or gentle during the day but is dominant or assertive in private, often romantically.
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