Deflower Me If You Can Chapter 21

“Thank you, Cassian. I’ll cherish it.”

I said it with sincerity, but it wasn’t enough. My overflowing heart kept making me short of breath. Bliss hugged the book with one hand and thrust his face toward Cassian, who was leaning his body close to him.

Huh?

Cassian was bewildered by the soft sensation that touched his cheek. For a moment, he didn’t understand what had just happened and stared at Bliss. Seeing him like that, Bliss, with both cheeks flushed red, gave a shy smile and said.

“Thank you. You really are my sweetheart. My Daddy Number Three.”

At the sudden remark, Cassian finally realized what had just happened and was dumbfounded. Not only was it absurd that he’d been kissed by a little squirt like this, but the peanut was spouting nonsense that was just as ridiculous.

“What’s Daddy Number Three?”

He could guess where ‘sweetheart’ came from, but Daddy ‘Number Three’ was completely beyond him, so he frowned and asked. Bliss answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Daddy Number One and Number Two are my Daddy and Papa in America, of course. So you’re Number Three.”

“Ahhh…”

Finally, Cassian understood. Right, that kid had fathers.

Realizing a beat too late that he’d been having a depraved thought, he cleared his throat hastily with an “Ahem,” and then spoke.

“Hurry up and get in. We need to leave now.”

“Okay.”

Obediently doing as told, Bliss climbed into the passenger seat and, before even fastening his seatbelt, turned back to ask him.

“Let’s come see the birds again tomorrow. I want to see that bald bird again.”

“No.”

Bliss’s elated face instantly turned pale white. Deliberately looking away from the child’s expression, which had gone ashen as if the world were crumbling down, Cassian continued casually.

“I have work, so I can’t play with you. Instead, how about you draw the birds we saw today?”

“What? You can’t play together? Why?”

The child’s voice was filled with disappointment and sadness. Cassian unconsciously glanced at the drooping eyebrows and the large, wavering eyes and suddenly felt at a loss. Oh no, I didn’t know he’d be this disappointed. But that wasn’t the end of it.

“I, I, came all the way here… to play with you… and I thought we… would be together every day.”

Seeing the child, completely dejected and trailing off, Cassian’s heart softened endlessly. So much so that for a fleeting moment, he felt the urge to cancel his own schedule.

That’s ridiculous.

He quickly denied the thought he’d just had and recalled coolly. This is the only chance to spend the night in the forest with his friends and do the stupid things he’d never done before. He couldn’t give up this plan. Instead, he chose to make the child give up.

“I’m sorry, Bliss. But when you become an adult, you can’t just play every day like you do. You have things you need to do.”

He soothed with a gentle voice, but Bliss’s expression didn’t change.

“Oh… but…”

Then what am I supposed to do.

Bliss looked up at him again, but Cassian’s mind was unchanged.

“I’m sorry, Bliss.”

At the second apology, Bliss had no choice but to accept reality. It seemed it really wasn’t going to happen. He was terribly disappointed, but he couldn’t just throw a tantrum. Because before coming here, he’d promised his Papa and Daddy over and over again.

‘Behave politely so as not to cause trouble, and don’t be stubborn or force things.’

In other words, it meant giving up right away when told ‘no.’ And this was probably that moment.

“…Okay.”

In the end, Bliss murmured reluctantly in a small voice. Cassian said, “Good,” and stroked Bliss’s head.

“Instead, after my work is done, let’s play together all day. I promise.”

“Okay.”

Bliss nodded, then looked up at Cassian again.

“When does your work end?”

Cassian stroked his chin as if calculating, paused for a moment, and then spoke.

“Well, a week?”

“A whole week?”

Bliss turned pale and shrieked. Cassian could no longer suppress his guilt and quickly added.

“I can’t help it. But I’ll finish it as fast as I can.”

“…Mmm.”

Bliss nodded gloomily. Cassian straightened his back as if that was settled and said to Bliss.

“Sit tight and buckle up. I’ll wrap things up quickly.”

Then Cassian added with a smile.

“When we get back, we’ll wash up and have some snacks. I have a video about birds, so it’ll be fun to watch that together.”

“Okay. Sounds good.”

Bliss nodded again and sat up straight. Cassian, who had fastened his seatbelt for him, closed the passenger door and hurriedly began to pack up his gear. He had decided to spend the whole day playing with Bliss, so he intended to do his best.

That’s good enough for me.

And just as he’d promised himself, he played with Bliss until dinner time.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Yaaaawn.”

Bliss stretched lazily with a big yawn. After wiping the tiny tears gathered at the corners of his eyes with his fingers, he turned his eyes back to the booklet, but soon drowsiness crept in.

Boring.

He scrunched up his face and roughly flipped through the pages. It was already the second day of being left to play alone. At first, when he received the gift from Cassian, he’d been overjoyed, but when he actually tried to read it seriously, it was incredibly dull. Just tell me the bird’s name, why do you have to include the scientific name and classification? Just saying ‘canary,’ ‘oriole,’ ‘canaries like candy, and orioles like jam’ should be enough—why is the weight, lifespan, and that difficult name written next to it all necessary? On top of that, the biggest problem was that there were too many words he didn’t know.

“This is no fun!”

Eventually, Bliss shouted loudly and flopped down onto the bed. Just looking at the pictures was over in no time. Bliss lay staring at the ceiling, blinking his eyes.

What should I play with?

The castle was so quiet. The servants didn’t show their faces unless they had something to do, and there wasn’t a single person in the castle who could play with Bliss. He’d barely managed to get through one day, but on the second day, he felt like he was dying of boredom.

“I wish I could watch a drama…”

Just as he was murmuring to himself and sighing again, there was a knock, knock, and a moment later, a servant entered.

“Hello, Master Bliss. The Duchess is asking if you could spare a moment? She would like to invite you to have some tea together.”

“I’ll go!”

Before the servant could even finish, Bliss shouted out. Finally, something to do! Hurriedly rolling off the bed and jumping down, he dashed across the room, and the servant called out urgently.

“Master Bliss, wait a moment. I’ll escort you. Please wait a moment!”

The servant called out urgently and hurried over to lead the way. Bliss tried to contain his excitement and followed him briskly.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Bliss! Come in.”

The Duchess, who had been waiting for Bliss while sitting in the tea room, bathed in sunlight streaming through the window, smiled warmly at the child who appeared behind the servant.

“Hello, Duchess.”

Placing one hand over his chest and bowing politely, Bliss climbed onto the chair the servant pulled out for him and faced the Duchess. After the servant poured tea for Bliss and left, leaving the two of them alone, the Duchess pushed the plate of cookies toward Bliss and spoke.

“Thank you for coming. Drinking tea alone is terribly boring. Thanks to you, I can enjoy teatime today.”

At that, Bliss picked up a cookie and replied.

“Please call me anytime. I’m bored too.”

Then the child let out a short sigh and added.

“Cassian is busy, so I have to play alone. I came all the way here to play with him, and I feel so sorry for myself.”

“Oh dear, is that so.”

The Duchess said with a feigned sympathy, but in fact, she already knew. She knew that her only son had gone off, leaving their precious guest behind.

That insufferable brat. If he could just hold out for one month.

Leaving such a cute child, and a guest who came all this way to see him, behind without a care—it was truly rude and mean-spirited.