Deflower Me If You Can Chapter 20

“So what exactly is supposed to be fine about that?”

It was still amusing and absurd at the same time, but seeing Bliss so excited, spouting nothing but nonsense, Cassian felt an urge to tease him. Playing dumb, he asked.

“Are you saying you’re going to marry your Daddy? You just said I was like your Daddy.”

Now he’ll have nothing to say. How will this little brat get out of this one? Just as he was beginning to find it interesting, Bliss came up with an astounding solution.

“I’ll be both your kid and your partner. Then it’s fine.”

Cassian froze for a moment, and Bliss, going one step further, beamed and shouted.

“Honey-Daddy!”

Cassian felt as though he’d just heard something incredibly dangerous. Dizzy for a moment, he hurriedly steadied himself and took a deep breath. What am I even trading words with a snot-nosed brat for? Overcome with sudden emptiness, he stopped saying anything and just walked on. The marshland, their destination, spread out before them.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Wow, it’s big! Huge! Cassian, look! It’s this big!”

Cassian flinched and turned around. There was Bliss, frantically raising and lowering his binoculars, shouting excitedly.

Phew. Cassian unconsciously wiped his chest in relief, then belatedly felt embarrassed and quickly looked away. The damage from the day before must have been greater than he’d thought. Perhaps for the rest of his life, he’d live in fear—heart dropping every time he heard the word “big.” A chill ran down his spine, but Cassian quickly composed himself.

It’s ridiculous to be so affected by a seven-year-old’s words.

He shook his head vigorously a couple of times and focused again on assembling the equipment. In the meantime, Bliss was deeply absorbed in birdwatching, moving his binoculars here and there, eagerly searching for birds.

“See many birds?”

After setting up the assembled field scope on the ground and adjusting the focus, Cassian asked. Bliss answered with a “Yeah.”

“Through this, I can even see their beaks clearly. It’s amazing!”

In an excited voice, the child kept chattering on.

“Earlier, I saw a bird that was all white, but here on its head—right on the top—it was red.”

“The crown.”

Cassian supplied the word, and Bliss repeated “crown,” then hurriedly continued.

“The other birds with it were all white, but only that one had the red spot. I wondered why, and then another bird kept pecking at that spot with its beak, you know?”

A bird being ostracized.

Cassian thought idly. The animal world wasn’t so different from the human one. It was common for the weak to be excluded and bullied within a group.

“Poor thing.”

Bliss seemed to pity the bird. As expected, he’s just a child, can’t be helped, Cassian thought, about to offer some perfunctory agreement, when Bliss spoke.

“He must have gotten caught cheating. Serves him right—he should have divorced first. Now that he’s bald, no one’s going to have anything to do with him. What’s he going to do? He’ll have to live out the rest of his life alone and lonely. And bald.”

Bliss kept saying “Bald and alone,” sighing, as Cassian stared at him wordlessly.

“…How old did you say you were?”

After a pause, Cassian asked. Bliss answered brightly.

“Seven!”

Just as Cassian had known. Frowning, he asked in a slower tone than usual.

“But you—where did you learn about things like… getting caught cheating and getting divorced?”

Could Ashley Miller and his partner’s relationship be less solid than it appeared on the surface?

There were countless couples whose public image differed from their private reality. It was even more common in high society, where appearances were prized, and window-dressing marriages were not rare. Perhaps the Millers were in such a situation…

“From Larien!”

At the unexpected name, Cassian furrowed his brow and asked.

“Lari… who?”

Looking up at the bewildered Cassian, Bliss answered excitedly.

“Larien, my sister!”

Ah. Finally understanding who Larien was, Cassian listened as Bliss continued.

“Larien and I watched ‘Sweet Betrayer,’ and Larien said that all cheaters should have their hair pulled out and made bald. In it, the main character’s husband kept cheating, so the main character and her family beat him up. It was awesome. They pulled his hair out, hit his willy, grabbed anything they could and went wham, wham like this.”

Watching the snot-nosed brat clench both fists and swing wildly, Cassian felt utterly weary of everything.

“Do you even know what cheating means?”

Bliss, still running around the ground, answered Cassian’s question.

“Of course I do! It’s when you get hit in the willy and go bald.”

He doesn’t know a thing.

Cassian simply shut his mouth and focused on his task.

Yeah, what would a seven-year-old know?

Thinking about how Bliss had blabbed to his Daddy less than five minutes after promising to keep a secret, it was just as laughable that Cassian had placed such high expectations on a mere seven-year-old.

No, I’m worse. He’s seven, but I’m an adult now.

Adding that self-reflection, Cassian soon took his eye off the field scope and gestured to Bliss.

“Alright, come here and look at this.”

“Wow!”

Bliss, who had brought his eye to the scope as instructed, let out another cheer. Cassian, having adjusted the telescope to the child’s height for birdwatching, spoke.

“That’s a rare sight—you’re lucky. This marshland often has endangered bird species, so I’ve come here often since I was a kid.”

He’d always thought it was incredibly fortunate that such a marshland was part of the estate. Thanks to that, he could observe birds leisurely whenever he felt like it, without rude interruptions.

“See that bird with the black-tipped feathers? That one comes here around this time of year, and when the seasons change, it flies across the sea to the opposite continent. Isn’t it amazing, being so small?”

“Yeah! Amazing.”

Bliss, repeating Cassian’s words verbatim while frantically watching the birds, made Cassian chuckle. Just then, a flock of birds flew in. Cassian said “Wait a moment,” moved Bliss aside, adjusted the field scope toward the flock, and focused it.

“Alright, now look.”

He waited for the child to bring his eye to the lens again, then spoke.

“Those birds came here to mate. If you wait, you might see the males perform a courtship dance for the females. The sight of them dancing in a flock is quite spectacular.”

For quite a while, Cassian shared information about birds and amusing anecdotes with Bliss. And throughout the observation, Bliss listened intently to Cassian’s words, utterly captivated, losing track of time. So when it was finally time to leave, Bliss visibly slumped his shoulders in disappointment.

“We can come again next time.”

Cassian patted Bliss’s head as if to comfort him, but the child couldn’t easily perk up. Seeing that, Cassian opened the backseat of the car, pulled something out of his bag, and held it out.

“Here.”

Bliss, who kept glancing back toward the birds with regret, tilted his head at what Cassian was holding.

“What’s this?”

There was nothing written on the cover of the fairly thick book. Still puzzled, Bliss turned the book this way and that, when Cassian spoke.

“It’s a bird field guide I made myself.”

“Huh?”

Bliss’s head snapped up at the unexpected words, and he belatedly opened the book to hurriedly peer inside. Each page was densely filled with bird illustrations—clearly drawn by hand—accompanied by descriptions in neat handwriting.

“Did Cassian draw all these? And write all this too?”

“Yeah.”

Cassian said with a faint smile.

“When you observe birds, it’s good to record the ones you’ve seen yourself. It helps refresh your memory, and it’s also enjoyable to look back on later.”

“You’re really giving this to me?”

“Yeah.”

When Bliss shouted in excitement, Cassian nodded and added.

“About half of it is empty. From there on, you can fill it in yourself. How about it—think you can do it?”

“Of course!”

Bliss answered without a second thought. Cassian had given him such a present. His friend had given him a book he’d made with his own hands. A one-of-a-kind treasure! His heart swelled so much it was hard to breathe.