༺ Confession ༻
Vera stared at Renee intently before dropping his head.
The shame only kicked in after he said those words while facing each other.
He wasn’t drinking, but it felt like he drank until he blacked out.
His heart beat out of control, and the rising heat set his body ablaze.
His foggy mind made it difficult to come up with anything immediately.
Vera lowered his head, found the dented ring case lying at his feet, and picked it up.
“…I’ve prepared something for you,” he said.
When he tried opening the lock on the ring case, it wouldn’t even budge, perhaps because it was broken.
He smashed the case with a frown, took out the ring, and said.
“Saint… this ring is…”
He brought a ring with a faint ivory glow closer to Renee’s ring finger.
Before putting it on, he observed the ring and sighed in relief after he made sure that it was just the right size for Renee’s finger.
“…I prepared this because I felt that using words alone wouldn’t be appropriate. Will you acc… put it on…”
Vera’s words slurred.
Vera’s face went bright red from embarrassment, and he grew even more dejected.
Renee’s response came as Vera’s trembling hands held the ring in front of her.
“Uhh..”
Vera jerked up his head upon hearing someone gasping for air.
“Uh… uuuh…”
Vera’s vision was filled with Renee, who had stopped functioning.
Her complexion resembled a fiery sunset.
She moved her half-open mouth clumsily and kept spitting out a shrill sound.
Her shoulders couldn’t stop twitching.
Thump.
Thump.
There was a loud thump that even reached Vera’s ears.
Vera’s face went blank.
Then, as if a tension had been released, his face relaxed.
“…Will you accept it?”
Vera uttered these words with a sense of relief, realizing that he wasn’t the only one nervous after looking at Renee’s fervid reaction.
Renee’s breath caught in her throat, and she nodded her head once in a very slow manner.
It wasn’t what she intended to do.
Her body reacted to Vera’s words first.
Unfortunately, Renee never came to her senses, even after giving a nod.
It was only natural.
Wasn’t it too sudden?
Didn’t he just shove those words in her face without warning?
She had imagined multiple scenarios in her head until she got sick of them, but none of them included the moment when Vera straightforwardly said, “I like you.”
Renee felt something slip into her left hand’s ring finger.
Vera said it was a ring.
A ring for her.
A ring he had prepared to confess to her.
Renee made another groan.
“Uh…”
The voice was small enough as if it would fade right away, but the impact was strong enough to rock the entire continent.
Renee felt a sudden urge to cry.
The moment she had been dreaming of had finally arrived, and Vera had confessed to her.
However, she was hit by a belated realization that she only showed him her stupid side.
She instinctively wondered about what to do about her dumb scream.
Afterwards, Renee held Vera’s hand tightly and uttered.
“This…”
As expected, it was a failed attempt.
Her mind instantly went blank, and when she tried to think of something, her body refused to cooperate.
It was very frustrating and overwhelming.
Renee threw away all of her useless worries and rushed to hug Vera.
The boat shook violently.
Vera quickly kept the balance with a startled expression, while Renee buried her head deeper into his neck as though she had nothing to do with whatever he was doing.
“Uhh…”
Renee let out a groan that sounded like a cry.
No, she was really crying.
Vera flinched. He looked at Renee, who was clinging to him.
“Why, why…”
Vera didn’t know what to do when Renee cried, so he hastily swept her back while looking like a fool.
Renee bit her lip for a long time as she felt like Vera’s touch would make her cry harder, and then barely able to squeeze out something intelligible.
“You’re too late…!”
Why hadn’t he confessed until now? It was something she spewed out due to strong resentment.
At the same time, she expressed her joy and gratefulness that he accepted her heart even though it was so late.
Renee’s face grew hotter due to Vera’s body warmth.
Her heart squeezed at his strong scent.
It felt like she had fallen into a fire pit.
It felt like her whole body would burn to ashes if she didn’t escape right away.
But, strangely enough, Renee didn’t want to escape from this fire pit.
She wanted to stay here forever, even if it meant burning to ashes.
“Really…”
She blurted the words out, but was unable to finish.
Renee couldn’t find the right words to express her feelings.
Looking at Renee, Vera felt stuffy inside and removed Renee from his arms.
Then he reached out his hand to her tear-stained face.
There was light in the tears that touched his fingertips.
A rainbow reflected in a snowy field was also present in Renee’s tears.
A dazzling and heart-wrenching light.
Vera was momentarily stunned, and then wiped away that light.
“…I’m sorry for being late.”
He uttered an apology that sounded like an excuse.
“I’ve wanted to tell you this since we left the Cradle. I couldn’t just confess to you after all the trouble I’ve caused you, so I planned to give you an unforgettable memory…”
After he rambled on, Vera briefly bit his lips and took a deep breath before finally adding.
“…I don’t think it turned out well. I’ll make sure to do better next time.”
Renee stifled her tears when Vera began to behave out of character by making lengthy excuses and realized that it wasn’t a dream.
Then, she was hit by reality.
It wasn’t a delusion.
It wasn’t the evil dream demon’s trick, either.
At last, Vera and her heart started to look in the same place.
Renee lowered her head.
“…What’s next?”
She pestered him due to the rush of excitement and embarrassment.
Renee herself didn’t even realize what she was saying.
Vera’s body tensed in response to that.
He looked disoriented as though he had been hit in the back of the head.
“Th-that…”
Vera racked his brain.
It began to work beyond its limit in order to choose the right words to respond.
Thus, his words came out faster than his reasoning.
“…proposal.”
His reasoning only just realized how awful the word ‘proposal’ sounded.
Vera screamed curses inwardly.
‘You crazy bastard!’
He had just confessed to her and was already talking about marriage.
Wasn’t it too early?
Renee must be thinking about how foolish he was.
Vera clumsily turned his head away and suddenly realized he had overlooked something.
“P-Proposal… marriage…”
It was indeed too early to talk about marriage, but he was dealing with Renee here.
The delusions that Renee was prattling about daily were already further than that.
The corner of her lips that was drooping due to her crying suddenly curved upwards.
Her pupils moved around even though she couldn’t see anything.
Was she flustered?
It made his hair stand on end for some reason.
“T-That’s right…! There’s that, too…!”
Vera watched her with a blank expression and soon burst into laughter.
Renee flinched.
“Why are you laughing…?!”
“No, I’m not laughing.”
Vera held his breath while Renee squeezed his collar and breathed out slowly.
Feeling his movements, Renee knocked her head against Vera’s chest.
“It shouldn’t go like this next time. Prepare it well.”
Her response sounded both shallow and unbefitting of the situation.
Fortunately, the current Vera was already used to Renee’s pridefulness.
“Yes, certainly.”
As he answered, a faint smile began to spread over his face.
It was an instinctive reaction as he was overrun by the perplexing and joyful feelings.
As they got closer, Vera looked at Renee.
I like you.
I love this side of Renee.
From her honest and unpredictable side, the way her face flushed in embarrassment, to the way she got angry and threw curses.
Everything was so lovely that he couldn’t help but stare at Renee.
Vera, who looked stunned for a long time, began to mull over something that had just crossed his mind.
He gazed at Renee, feeling the sensation from their clasped hands, before suddenly leaning his head closer.
Although it was a disastrous confession, he felt that he should at least do this.
…No, he did it because he wanted to.
Chu—
Their lips met with a soft touch, and a warm sensation enveloped them both.
He felt Renee’s body tense up as soon as their lips touched, and it brought an indescribable excitement to him.
As Vera inched closer, Renee felt her breath catch in her throat.
She jolted when he bit her lower lip.
When his tongue touched the exact spot he had just bit, Renee trembled.
Vera savored that reaction for a moment before slowly pulling away.
The warm breath that they shared in the midst of chilly air began to disperse.
Her burning cheeks began to cool down.
At the edge of Vera’s gaze, Renee, who had been frozen like the world’s biggest fool, suddenly tilted her head.
“..Uhh?”
It was a breakdown so perfect it was worthy of applause.
On their second time, it was Vera who kissed her first. Renee, who was usually the aggressor, discovered that she was surprisingly vulnerable when on the receiving end.
With a slightly flushed face, Vera said to Renee, who turned into an idiot.
“…Please refrain from calling me an inexperienced blockhead in the future.”
He said, pausing for a moment as Renee took a few seconds to formulate her response.
“Yes…”
She reflectively replied because her gut told her to swallow her pride and give up for the moment.
The chilly air brushed past the two, who were enshrouded in silence.
Yet, they never felt cold.
They could not feel cold because of the intense heat that surrounded them.
Vera’s smile deepened.
Renee dipped her head a touch lower.
Amidst this, the lake shimmered, casting out shards of winter light.
In this very moment, Lake Tennern was witness to the happiest fool and idiot in the world.
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