I Ran Away And The Reverse Harem Started Chapter 81

Daniel’s face hardened.

“…What do you mean?”

His voice was low and serious. He asked, but somehow, it felt like he already knew. Like he had a guess.

I scratched my cheek awkwardly.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Colin always jokes around with me. He says that if money is my problem, I should just marry him and become a rich wife. Then I’d never have to worry about money again.”

“……”

“I mean, obviously, it’s a joke. Just like this is a joke.”

Ever since I reunited with Colin at the mansion, he had been teasing me, saying I should marry rich man and avoid a life of hardship. Of course, I knew he was joking, but… he wasn’t entirely wrong.

Colin was an important executive at Holden, meaning he was wealthy, smart, and had no plans to marry into the nobility.

‘If I ever decided to marry for money, Colin would be the best option.’

But that didn’t mean I wanted to marry him. Colin was just a friend.

“It’s just a joke, really.”

I shrugged, looking at Daniel, who had completely stopped smiling. If Colin could make dumb jokes like that, why couldn’t I?

I wiped my cold nose with the back of my hand.

Even if it was just a joke, saying I’d marry a friend for money wasn’t exactly… funny.

Maybe that’s why I wasn’t as confident about it as Mika was with her wild jokes.

And before Daniel could run off and tell Colin, I quickly added,

“Oh, and by the way, don’t tell Colin about this. It’s a secret. If he finds out, he’ll just tease me to death—”

“I was first.”

His voice was quiet.

“…What?”

Daniel was still leaning against the tree, but his expression was sharp.

Then, he slowly stood up.

His height loomed over me in an instant, and I blinked up at him in shock.

…When we were kids at the orphanage, we were the same height.

I had thought he was still the same as before, but right now, he looked like a completely different person.

His face was tense—not with anger, but with urgency.

His clenched fists, his burning dark eyes…

Something in my joke had clearly triggered him.

Daniel spoke again, his voice firm.

“I was first.”

“……”

“I was the one who searched for you. I was the one who brought you back. I was the one who paid off your debt. I was first.”

“……?”

“I was the one who loved you first.”

Daniel’s voice sounded strained, like someone choking back pain.

I couldn’t say a word.

…Love? Me?

My eyes widened in shock.

I opened my mouth to say something, but my mind was completely blank.

“So if you’re going to marry someone rich, if you absolutely have to— Marry me.”

The words jolted me back to reality.

I gasped.

“…Do you even realize what you’re saying?”

I lifted my fist, intending to push him away.

But before I could, he caught my wrist.

Not roughly, not forcefully—just firm and unyielding.

I was pulled toward him.

The space between us shrank.

“Do you think I said that without knowing what it means?”

“……”

“If you’re going to get married, then marry me. Not Colin.”

His voice was low and heavy, almost trembling.

The way he said it sent a shiver down my spine.

I was still too confused to process everything.

The rain had stopped.

But, Daniel…

You have to marry Deborah.

Whether you want to or not, the king is going to force you.

Before I could say any of that, Daniel leaned in and pressed his lips against my forehead.

I stopped breathing.

Then, he gently took my clenched fist and kissed my ring finger.

His eyes never left mine.

When I realized he had kissed my ring finger, I started shaking.

“If marriage is what you want, then marry me. I’m not joking.”

The rain had stopped, but I couldn’t breathe.

 

 

 

*****

 

 

 

Daniel entered the villa with a dark expression. Dawn had already begun to break, casting a bluish hue over the surroundings. There were no lights in the villa’s hallway, and he was alone there.

Wearing his wet jacket and shoes, he went straight up to his room—the one the maid had prepared in advance.

Once inside, he stood still on the carpet. He couldn’t bring himself to take off his heavy, rain-soaked clothes or lie down on the bed. Instead, he simply gasped for breath.

‘Why did I do that?’

His mind was already in chaos. He couldn’t even remember how he had managed to get his jacket and shoes back.

He already knew that Colin had spoken to Rosieta about marriage. Colin had bragged about it right in front of him.

Rosieta might have thought it was just one of Colin’s crude jokes… but Daniel knew better. There wasn’t even a hint of jest in Colin’s proposal.

It might have been wrapped in joke, but in the end, it was sincere.

‘Colin isn’t the type to joke about something like that.’

Having spent nearly a lifetime together, how could he not know? Maybe Colin had brought it up in front of him on purpose—as if declaring that they were now rivals.

And so… in his growing impatience…

“I’ve lost my mind.”

Daniel covered his face with his large hand and let out a sigh. A wave of shame crashed over him, it was all too late.

As he brushed the droplets from his chin, his eyes landed on the mirror in the corner of the room. Reflected in it was a man, drenched from head to toe, staring blankly.

Daniel exhaled deeply. The breath left his chest in a long sigh. His face burned with delayed embarrassment, his ears growing hot.

“This… this wasn’t how I meant to confess…”

But his lips had moved on their own, effortlessly. He had pressed them—like a seal—against her smooth, pale forehead and the ring finger of her hand.

When he met Rosieta’s wide, dazed eyes, it felt like a fire had ignited in his chest, heating him from the inside out.

But that was all.

He had returned alone to the mansion, and as soon as the rain stopped, Rosieta had gone back to the maids’ quarters.

*****

By the time she returned to the dormitory, the entire place was bathed in a soft blue light. After drying herself off with a towel and stepping into her room, she saw that Marie was fast asleep, as if she hadn’t woken even once.

“Of course. It snapped.”

I murmured to myself.

A red string with a broken end was tied to the bedpost. It must have snapped because I had tossed and turned too much in my sleep.

Of all nights, why did my sleepwalking have to act up today?

I fiddled with the loose end of the string before plopping down onto the bed.

‘Still… maybe it’s a relief. No one saw me staggering around in my sleep…’

Even if they did, I could just say I was awake at the time. It was dark anyway, so they wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

A chill ran through me, perhaps because my body had dried completely. Even after curling up under the blanket, the coldness refused to fade.

My body was exhausted from work, my limbs ice-cold. Yet, somehow, my cheeks were burning hot.

I quietly pressed my palms against my cheeks. My whole face felt like it was on fire.

‘…Did he really say he likes me?’

Daniel had definitely said it.

That he liked me.

That if marriage was necessary, I should marry him.

The boy I had fought with, laughed with, and grown up with, all those years—he was the one who said that.

And maybe that’s exactly why I could tell. That he wasn’t lying. That it wasn’t a joke.

Because Daniel never wore that kind of desperate expression when he was joking.

His words were sincere. One hundred percent.

“The Daniel I know… really likes me?”

Images of Daniel as a 13-year-old boy with a youthful face and the grown man he had become flickered back and forth in my mind.

Honestly, if I only thought about the troublemaker I had seen at his absolute worst in the orphanage, I might have laughed off this kind of confession as a joke.

I traced my fingers over my warm cheeks, then instinctively grasped my left ring finger.

The spot where Daniel had kissed me.

“Why is my heart pounding like this?”

He’s the guy I spent five years living with. Practically like a brother. And out of all people, it had to be that Daniel—the most insufferable one!

“This is crazy. Absolutely crazy!”

It felt like my gloomy mood had completely evaporated, along with the heat in my cheeks. As I kicked my legs under the blanket in frustration, Marie stirred in the bed beside me.

“You’re so noisy, Rosieta…”

“S-Sorry!”

Marie, half-awake, frowned and grumbled.

“Did you go to the bathroom earlier? You weren’t here.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. I just went to the bathroom. Did I wake you?”

“No, that’s not it.”

I quickly hushed her, urging her to go back to sleep. Before long, Marie drifted off, her breathing turning soft and steady.

Meanwhile, I struggled to calm my pounding heart.

“Haa…“

Looking out the window beside my bed, I saw that the sky had started to brighten.

“Even a little bit of sleep would be nice.”

But how could I possibly sleep when my heart was racing like this?

With Marie peacefully asleep beside me, I tossed and turned in bed for hours, unable to rest. It wasn’t until the sun had fully risen that I finally managed to drift off.

At some point in my half-asleep state, I thought I heard someone lingering outside my door.

But I was too exhausted to check.

When I finally opened my eyes, the sky was clear and blue.

Morning had come.