An Unexpected Proposal

September 21, 2020

"Why—why are you looking at me like that?"

Mikael stammered, caught off guard by the piercing gaze directed at him. Cabelenus, instead of responding, turned his head away, chewing his cookie with more force than necessary. He had been called a monster countless times, yet hearing it from a child with her face sent a jolt through his chest.

"What are you staring at?"

Unwilling to admit that he was scared, Mikael raised his voice even louder. Cabelenus bent down toward him, his posture tense, like a cat bristling its fur. The sudden closeness made Mikael instinctively swallow hard. Now that he could see him up close, it felt strange.

Only after meeting those sharp, elongated eyes, their pupils standing out, did Mikael finally understand what Chris had meant when he said he couldn't even meet the man’s gaze.

"Piece by piece, you don’t look that much alike…"

"……."

"……Forget it. What the hell am I doing, scrutinizing a child’s face?"

Cabelenus ran a rough hand through his hair, straightening up again. Staring at the boy's face wouldn’t change anything. What mattered was convincing Alicia, and the child was merely a tool for that purpose.

Attaching emotions to a tool held no meaning—no, he had to think that way to suppress the emotions that kept stirring inside him. From the beginning, Mikael had never been a welcomed presence to him.

But…

Cabelenus ruffled his hair again, as if trying to shake off the thoughts floating around his mind. It was ridiculous to be thinking this now, but every time he registered how much the boy resembled Alicia, one particular thought refused to leave him.@@novelbin@@

"You… could it be—"

"Mikael! Mikael! S-Something terrible happened—hieek!"

"Chris?"

Chris, who had been running toward them, froze in place the moment he spotted Cabelenus.

"That looks like your friend over there—"