Deflower Me If You Can Chapter 12

His mood wasn’t exactly great, but it wasn’t wrong either. Anyway, he’d gotten the result he wanted, so wasn’t that enough? Children that age go to sleep for one night and completely forget what happened the day before. For them, how long a year must be.

It’s more than enough time to forget about today’s events, and about me too.

Besides, their home country is England. Once their schedule is finished, they’ll leave this country right away. Then there’ll be even less chance of running into that brat. Thinking that, he closed his eyes contentedly. Soon Cassian would come of age and become independent. A free university life awaited him. As if he had time to deal with some snot-nosed little brat.

Imagining the London flat he’d be living in, he curled the corners of his mouth in pleasure. Goodbye, peanut. Let’s never meet again.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Yaaawn.”

Bliss let out a big yawn the moment his head hit the pillow. Even during his bath, he’d kept dozing off, nearly getting into trouble several times. Ashley gently brushed the child’s bangs back with his large hand.

“You must have had a really fun time today. Was Cassian good to you?”

“Uh-huh.”

Bliss nodded firmly, but his eyelids kept drooping despite his will. After yawning hugely once more, he spoke in a sleepy voice.

“Daddy, I’m definitely going to see Cassian…”

“Alright, I know.”

Ashley readily agreed and stroked the child’s cheek.

“I promise you’ll get to see him in a year. Now get some sleep for today.”

“Promise…”

“Yes, promise.”

The moment he reaffirmed it, Bliss’s eyes were already closed. After gazing down at the child, who was soon breathing softly in deep sleep, Ashley bent down, lightly kissed his forehead, and stepped outside.

“Bliss—is he already asleep?”

Koi, who had just finished his shower and come out, asked upon seeing Ashley entering the room. Ashley nodded and replied.

“Completely passed out. He was talking about the eldest son of the Strickland ducal house right up until he fell asleep.”

“Really?”

As Koi looked surprised, Ashley gave a short nod and then said casually.

“He’ll forget after he sleeps. Children lose interest quickly.”

After lightly kissing Koi’s lips, Ashley headed into the bathroom. Watching him go, Koi murmured to himself.

“I hope so…”

Surely he won’t remember and insist on going to England.

The thought suddenly crossed his mind, and Koi hastily shook his head. That couldn’t be—it was nonsense. Ash was right. Bliss was still young, so he’d forget soon enough. A year was a long time…

‘I’m going to marry Cassian!’

Suddenly, Bliss’s declaration came to mind. A laugh of disbelief escaped his lips. What could a mere six-year-old possibly know? Smiling and shaking his head, he got into bed and pulled out the book he’d been reading. It was a peaceful night, just like any other.

And then a year passed.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Daddy, Daddy!”

Early in the morning, while Ashley was still getting ready for work, he looked up in surprise at his youngest son, who came running urgently into the bedroom calling for him.

“Bee, what’s wrong? At this early hour.”

Ashley bent his large frame down and scooped the child up. The boy, his face flushed red, looked at him and shouted in an excited voice.

“I want to go to England!”

“England?”

“England, you say?”

Ashley, and Koi standing behind him, both repeated the boy’s words in surprise. Looking back and forth between his flustered and bewildered parents, Bliss declared confidently.

“Tomorrow! The one year Cassian talked about—it’s tomorrow!”

“What?”

“Oh.”

Koi, who had let out a sound of realization after Ashley, added an explanation.

“Th-that son of the ducal house, when he left…”

“Ah, right.”

Only then did Ashley also remember what had happened back then. Bliss immediately shouted.

“We promised, so I have to see Cassian! I want to go to England!”

“Wait, Bliss. That’s not that simple a matter…”

Ashley tried to calm the child down, but Bliss wasn’t listening. Of course not—he’d been waiting for this day for a whole year.

“I want to go see Cassian!”

Bliss started shouting and thrashing around. Out came Bliss’s special move. Koi looked on bleakly, simply watching the child. In the end, they couldn’t even last five minutes before throwing up their hands.

“Alright, Bliss. We get it.”

Letting out a long sigh as a sign of surrender, Ashley picked up the now-calm Bliss and continued.

“But we can’t just leave whenever we want. We need to check what the situation is on their side first, okay?”

“Why? What’s that?”

When Bliss tilted his head, Koi explained from the side.

“It means we have to get permission to go, Bee.”

At that, Bliss tilted his head to the other side.

“But Cassian said I could come?”

“Even so, we need to ask again.”

Koi repeated the same words over to Bliss, who still didn’t quite understand, then looked up at Ashley.

“Should I contact the duchess?”

“I’ll handle it, so just wait for now.”

Saying that briefly, Ashley handed the child he was holding to Koi and began to tie his own tie.

“I’ll be back. Don’t come out. Koi, leave Bliss with the butler. Don’t stay alone together.”

He finished getting ready in an instant, gave Koi and Bliss each a kiss, and left the room. Other times, Koi would follow him out and watch until he drove away, but today he didn’t. Staying in the room as Ashley had told him, Koi saw him off and, once alone with Bliss, finally turned his attention to the child. Normally, he shouldn’t spend too much time alone with the child, but today he had a particular question to ask.

It’ll be fine as long as I’m careful.

“Bliss, why did you suddenly decide you have to go to England?”

After sitting the child down on the sofa in the living room connected to the bedroom, he asked. Bliss answered without hesitation.

“It’s not sudden—I’ve been waiting for a whole year, remember?”

“So you’ve been remembering that all this time…”

It felt strange that this young child had been thinking about something even he himself had forgotten. And that wasn’t all. Bliss continued in an excited voice.

“Cassian said he lives in England, right? England gets a lot of rain. So I packed my raincoat. I’m all ready!”

Seeing his thrilled face, Koi simply couldn’t bring himself to say no. Instead, he asked another question.

“Ready? What do you mean? Did you pack something?”

Bliss nodded, saying yes.

“Wait a minute, Daddy.”

Bliss hopped off the sofa and ran out in a hurry. Probably heading to his room, Koi thought, and waited. Soon the child returned, lugging a large backpack. With a grunt, Bliss set the backpack down in front of Koi, unzipped it, and began pulling out the contents one by one. First, he pulled out the yellow raincoat he’d mentioned earlier and set it down. Next, he pulled out a crumpled baseball cap.

“I heard that when you greet someone, you take off your hat and hold it over your chest like this. So I need a hat for that, right? So I put in my favorite one.”

You could just not wear a hat, Bee.

Koi thought, but kept his mouth shut and waited for what came next. Next, Bliss pulled out some butter cookies—who knew when he’d put them in—as presents for the duke and duchess. Then he pulled out board games to play with Cassian. Then a handkerchief in case he caught a cold and got a runny nose. And finally, he even pulled out a table clock with his favorite character on it, so he could tell anyone who asked the time.

“…Is that everything?”

Koi asked, gazing down at the assortment of odds and ends spread across the floor. The child shook his head and answered.

“I couldn’t pack boots and an umbrella for when it rains. And I need to bring Sanchez too. And…”

Bliss kept rattling on diligently, but to Koi’s ears, more than half of it was still useless stuff. Still, thinking that the child had been preparing so earnestly all by himself for an entire year to go to England, Koi felt a surge of affection. He stroked the child’s head and said this.