“Ah, Mr.
Edward, please…”
Vill-V subconsciously wanted to tell Edward to stop, just as she had done countless times before when she was alone in her room with no one to care for her.
But the moment the words left her lips, she instinctively covered her mouth with her hand.
A deeper fear than ever before struck her heart.
The reluctance to lose something precious turned her words into a soft, pleading request.
“Don’t say anything more… Can you give me some time?”
The young man lowered his head slightly and offered a sincere apology right away.
“I apologize.
I seem to have been insensitive to your feelings.
I will be more mindful in the future.
Thank you for your gift.
On your next birthday, I will prepare a suitable gift for you, whether or not you consider me a friend.”
His emotional intelligence might not be particularly high.
But he was not completely unaware.
Perhaps his way of interacting with Elysia was entirely unsuitable for someone as self-deprecating as Vill-V.
Too much enthusiasm might only frighten her instead.
How many years had it been since she last met someone so sincere?
===
[The birthday banquet left Elysia feeling flustered.
No matter how skilled she was at communicating with others, when the number of people grew endlessly, it felt like being caught in a whirlpool in the ocean, making it difficult to break free.]
[This left her with almost no time to find Edward.
She could only somewhat perfunctorily lead everyone in offering blessings, but could not give them individually.]
[There shouldn’t be any problem, right?]
[Didn’t she already give her blessings yesterday?]
[It should be fine for the young man, right?]
[Even though she was itching to push aside the people around her to search for Edward, she could only continue dealing with the crowd that kept surrounding her.]
[The people around her remained noisy, still asking questions.]
[After a while, she finally found a small opening and could breathe a little easier.
Just as she was about to look for Edward in the crowd to speak with him…]
[Edward seemed to have already been taken away by someone else.]
[The young man was not alone.
He was chatting with a girl she barely knew, someone she only had a vague impression of.]
[Even in the chat group, that girl’s messages were almost nonexistent.]
[Yet now, the girl who had barely spoken before was chatting happily with Edward.]
[The young man’s face even carried a relaxed and joyful smile, one she had rarely seen from him lately.]
[Ah…]
[Why…]
[A strange, inexplicable feeling stirred in her heart?]
[Her heart felt heavy, filled with a nearly tangible discomfort.
Even though she was not far from the young man, it felt as if an entire world separated them.]
[It must be an illusion.]
[After all, the goal of the birthday banquet was to help with communication and socializing.
Edward making new friends was a very important, perhaps the most important part of it.
It would keep him from being confined to a journey of just the two of them.]
[That’s what she thought…]
[It was clearly meant to help the young man find friends.]
[She should be happy to see this scene.] The source of this chapter is g.com.
[So why did her mood feel so heavy?]
[This was a kind of suppression that should not belong to her, the flawless, flower-like beautiful fairy.]
[Even though she now had to communicate with others to change the world sooner and influence things from behind the scenes, she had even lost much of her desire to speak.]
===
[At nineteen, Edward’s journey with Elysia continued.
However, it was no longer the intimate experience it had been before.]
[After his birthday, he had left behind his more naive phase and truly become an adult.
Although the birthday banquet had not been perfect, the gains were still significant.]
[The exchange meeting Elysia had prepared allowed him to meet a very good friend.]
[Vill-V.]
[At first, he simply thought he had met a nice person by chance.
He never expected that after chatting for a while, they would add each other as friends.]
[One day, when he could find nothing to do and was once again being ignored, he opened his phone and sent a few messages to Vill-V, hoping to chat and pass the time.]
[Unexpectedly, the girl replied almost immediately.
They ended up talking late into the night, with no sign of annoyance from her.]
[This might also have been because of his continuous compliments.]
[It was not about currying favor or deliberately trying to please her.]
[He simply spoke honestly.
The girl’s knowledge was truly impressive.
She seemed to know everything, understand everything, and be skilled at everything.]
[The two of them talked about all kinds of topics, from small daily matters to astronomy, and then from science and technology to humanities.]
[This kind of life continued for several days.
For the first time since leaving his childhood, Edward felt that a day could be truly fulfilling instead of just watching others communicate meaninglessly.]
[On the fifth day, as he was preparing to send a goodnight message so they could continue chatting the next day, the girl gave him a different response.]
===
Looking at the goodnight message and the warm emoji on the brightly lit screen, Vill-V’s slender fingers froze in the air.
Even moving them slightly felt like it would take all her strength.
She really did not want…
did not want to end things like this.
It was the first time in her life she had met someone she could truly communicate with.
It was the first time someone had praised and comforted her like this.
Why did she have to push him away?
Why was she like a clumsy hedgehog, curling up and hurting others with her spines even when faced with warmth and kindness?
The girl could not understand it.
She could not accept it.
Yet in the end, she slowly and heavily typed out a message of rejection.
Vill-V: Edward…
can you stop looking for me to chat…
This was using coldness to hurt someone’s kindness.
How foolish.
From an outside perspective, anyone would probably call her heartless and undeserving of friends.
Ah…
Edward would surely be confused.
He would surely be sad.
He had actively helped and comforted her, only to be rejected and hurt by the very person he considered a friend.
Just imagining the expression on the young man’s face made her heart feel like it was closing up.
A suffocating discomfort washed over her.
It made her feel like garbage, and her young heart ached as if it were bleeding.
It had to be this way.
It could only be this way.
Vill-V was not incapable of feeling the young man’s kindness.
She was not truly heartless.
It was just that this was the only choice she had.
Because his help was too beautiful.
The girl was completely trapped in self-loathing.
Even with her exceptional intelligence, she could only endlessly hurt herself.
She loathed herself so deeply that, were it not for her talent, she might have ended her life long ago like so many others who suffered from depression.
She even created another self to escape from her own identity.
Such warmth, such praise, such gentleness…
she had never experienced any of it in her entire life.
It was like being in a turbulent, endless ocean.
She had been struggling with all her might when suddenly a warm and comfortable ship appeared.
For others, a ship might mean nothing.
They might already be standing on solid emotional ground.
But Vill-V did not even have a small boat or a wooden plank.
She did not even know how to swim.
She had only survived through sheer instinct, barely keeping her head above water after countless times of nearly drowning.
If someone like her boarded that ship?
If she allowed herself to be sheltered by that warmth?
She would never be able to leave.
If the ship ever disappeared, she would drown completely.
She could have accepted the darkness.
She could have continued sinking.
But now that she had seen the light and felt the warmth, everything had changed.
If one day Edward’s gentleness suddenly vanished…
she would surely die.
Unless there was some guarantee that this happiness would never disappear.
How could that be possible?
The young man already had such a perfect girl by his side.
Someone like her was not even worthy of standing in front of Elysia.
She was true perfection and flawlessness.
No matter who it was, Elysia could easily make friends and become close with them.
How could someone trapped in self-consumption like her compare?
Let it be evasion.
Let it be cowardice.
She had always lived like this.
It was simply continuing her old life of being tossed about in the waves.
The beautiful bubbles in the sunlight, though dazzling, would eventually burst.
And when they did, her heart would shatter along with them.
The only person she felt truly sorry for was…
Edward.
Ah…
I’m sorry.