For Your Failed Unrequited Love

Felix’s eyes widened in surprise.

Am I seeing things?

But it was definitely Lucy, standing stiffly with a tense expression and looking up at him with her emerald eyes. “… Hello.” Lucy greeted in a small voice.

Did she come to see Adrian? Felix thought as he forgot to respond. He unknowingly stepped aside from the door. Lucy hesitated for a moment and went into the room. Her eyes darted around, not knowing where to look, as if she had come to the wrong room.

“I….” Lucy turned to Felix and spoke.

“Lucy?” Adrian lifted his head from the bed with a scruffy face. He squinted his eyes as he looked at Lucy. “How did you get in? Female students are prohibited from entering the male student dormitory.”

In the Xenomium Academy, it was forbidden to enter the dormitory of the opposite sex. At Adrian’s words, Lucy held up a paper that read ‘Entry Permit’. Superintendent Lauren, who managed the boy’s dormitory, had signed it.

“I got permission from Lauren.”

“Knowing that Lauren always has a weak spot when it comes to girls.” Adrian grinned and sat up on the bed. He had completely woken up. “Anyway, what’s going on?”

He also seemed to think that Lucy had something to do with him. But after a moment’s hesitation, Lucy turned to Felix. “Felix sunbaenim. I have to get the book today. As soon as I opened the library, there were four people who came to look for it.”

“Book? Is it <History of Murinen>?” Adrian replied instead of Felix. He ruffled his blonde hair and frowned. “You were the one who overdue the book?”

Lucy’s claim that students come to borrow the book several times a day doesn’t seem exaggerated in light of Adrian’s reaction. “Why the hell are people looking for that book?” Felix asked; he had no idea.

“I need the book for the assignment that teacher Arkel gave me this semester. Sophomores in history classes are scouring the capital’s bookstores for the book.” Adrian explained with a dissatisfied expression and added, “If you have a conscience, return it immediately.”

Adrian, who appeared to have recovered completely from his fever, got out of bed and wore only a light coat over his pajamas. “Lucy, you’re working so hard. I apologize for my ugly brother.” He said as he crossed the room. He seemed to be on his way to the dining area for breakfast. When Adrian left the room, silence quickly flooded in.

“Sunbae, the book…….” Lucy carefully spoke her words again, breaking the silence.

Felix walked to the sofa, sat down, and took the book from his bag. He picked up a few pages from the back and showed them to Lucy. “There’s still about this much left. I’ll read it quickly and give it to you, so sit there and wait.” He pointed to his bed with his thumb.

Lucy’s eyes widened into a round, and her pupils shook in bewilderment. She was restless but still sat on the bed. Felix began to read silently, his gaze fixed on the book.

The room was quiet again. Amidst the suffocating silence, the occasional sound of Felix flipping through the pages could be heard. Felix’s mind, on the other hand, was a whirlwind of questions and confusions.

Why am I pretending to read a book? I can just give it to her.

Although his behavior was outrageous, he did not stop pretending to read the book, tightening his nerves to detect the slightest presence of Lucy Keenan sitting quietly on his bed behind his back.

What kind of expression are you making right now?

Does she want to go back and regrets coming here? Or is she making an annoyed expression at him, who blindly ordered her to wait because he was a senior? These questions ran through Felix’s mind.

Time has passed. Finally, Felix couldn’t hold back his curiosity and looked back. Lucy didn’t have a look of regret or annoyance. She was looking affectionately at a painting hanging at Felix’s bedside; it was a portrait of him as a child.

The young Felix’s expression in the picture looked grumpy and blunt. However, looking at the face, Lucy’s mouth soon had a soft smile. Then she quietly reached out her hand and gently stroked the face of the child in the painting. It’s like she’s treating a loved one.

Felix’s eyes widened in surprise, and his lips opened gently. Why my face?

His heart began to flutter. But the next moment, when he remembered that it wasn’t him that got out of his bed this morning, but Adrian, his fluttering heart fell under his feet.

Thud

The book fell from his weakened hand. Lucy was surprised by the sound and withdrew her hand from the painting.

“Ah….” She was startled when she made eye contact with Felix. Her face turned red in an instant.

Felix moved his eyes and looked forward again. Moments later, he held out the book without looking at Lucy, with only his arms outstretched to her.

“Here you go.”

“Are you done reading?”

He heard Lucy’s trembling voice behind his back. “It’s okay, take it.”

Then, after a brief sound of footsteps, the book slipped out of Felix’s hand. Lucy hurriedly ran to the door, book in hand, the back of her ear turned red. As she pulled the handle and opened the door, Felix said, facing her back. “That’s my portrait.”

Not Adrian.

Lucy looked back at him for a moment with a red face and quickly disappeared out of the door. Felix, who was left alone in the room, leaned down with his head against the sofa. Lucy Keenan stroked his face in the portrait, thinking it was Adrian. And with eyes full of love. It made him aware of one thing.

It was clear that she was in love with his twin, Adrian.

* * *

So you were able to distinguish us at a glance because of ‘The Power of Love’.

That evening, Felix sat crookedly on the bed, looking at the back of Adrian’s head. They say there is something like a halo behind the person you like or something like that. Felix was devastated to think that the answer to the question he had been pondering for months was a childish reason.

He was also a little annoyed with himself. Why hadn’t he noticed it before? She had an expressionless face when she met him and had a bright smile whenever she met Adrian. The lips that were tightly closed when she was with him were constantly chattering when she was with Adrian. It was so obvious.

“I’m jealous of you.” Felix suddenly said to the back of Adrian’s head as he was changing. Adrian turned and looked at him.

“What?”

“Do you remember when we were young, when our mother couldn’t tell us apart?”

“She still can’t.” At Adrian’s blunt reply, Felix laughed.

“Yes. Not even now.”

As Felix spoke in a low voice, old memories he seemed to never forget flashed into his mind. As it is now, the twins of Duke Berg when they were young looked alike, as if they were made from the same mold, and it was impossible to tell them apart.

Even the Duke and Duchess of Berg could barely recognize them. The crest of the family was engraved on Felix’s thigh as soon as he was born. It was covered when wearing clothes, so it was not uncommon for the duchess to mistake the twins and call them incorrectly.

“Adrian.”

“Adrian.”

Felix could still vividly recall the voice of his mother, who had called him by his brother’s name.

“Come on, Adrian.” A mother who secretly took him to an empty room and gave him snacks in her hand. “Hurry up and eat before Felix comes.”

Felix, of a young age, unable to say that he was not Adrian while looking at his mother’s anxious eyes that were constantly checking outside the door. He had no choice but to munch and swallowed the snacks his mother gave him.

“You can’t tell Felix.” His mother gently brushed off the snacks around his mouth with her soft hands. “It’s only for Adrian. Okay? Keep everything I give you a secret from Felix.”

Not wanting to disappoint his mother, he had kept his sorrow hidden as a child. Along with the question of why she couldn’t love him like Adrian.

“So?” Adrian, who had finished changing, sat on his bed and said, “What do you want me to do? Why did you stop talking?”

“Hmm, I don’t know.” Felix deliberately lied down on the bed, teasing his younger brother.

‘She recognizes you, who even our mother who loved you so much can’t. Just because she likes you‘. Felix swallowed the words he wanted to shout at his younger brother in an angry tone for some reason.

The desire to shout and the desire to never let him know fought fiercely in his mind.

A pillow suddenly flew from Adrian, who was drinking medicine. Felix burst into laughter as the soft pillow found its target.