Episode 4

Felix widened his eyes.

is it in vain

But it was definitely Lucy who stood stiffly with a tense expression and looked up at him with emerald eyes.

"… … Hello."

Lucy said hello in a small voice.

Did you come to see Adrian?

Felix thought, forgetting to respond to her greeting.

Then, when Lucy realized that he wasn't the one who came to meet him, Felix unwittingly turned it aside from the door and gave it to him. After a moment's hesitation, Lucy entered the room.

She rolled her eyes, unable to find a place to look, as if she had come to the wrong meeting at an uninvited meeting.

"I… … ."

It was when Lucy finally opened her mouth as she turned to Felix.

"Lucy?"

Adrian lifted his head from the bed with a scruffy face. He looked at Lucy for a moment with his squinted eyes and said:

"How did you get in? Girls' dormitories are not allowed in boys' dormitories."

In the Xenomium Academy, it was forbidden to enter the dormitory between the opposite sexes. At Adrian's words, Lucy held up a piece of paper. On the piece of paper that read 'Entry Permit' was scrawled the signature of the superintendent Lauren, who manages the boys' dormitory.

"I got permission from Inspector Lauren."

"It is worth knowing. Principal Lauren has always been kind to girls."

Adrian grinned and muttered, and sat up on the bed as if he had completely woken up.

"By the way, what's going on?"

He also seemed to think that Lucy had something to do with him. But after a moment's hesitation, Lucy turned to Felix.

"Senior Felix. I must pick up the book today. As soon as I opened the library door, there were four people who came looking for the book."

"book? Maybe ?"

The answer came from Adrian, not Felix. He ruffled his blonde hair and frowned.

"Were you overdue for the book?"

Seeing how even Adrian reacted like that, Lucy's statement that people come to borrow the book several times a day doesn't seem like an exaggeration.

"What the hell is that book that people are looking for?"

Felix asked with a look of incredulity.

"You said that you need the book for the homework that Arkel gave you this semester. All the sophomores taking history classes go through all the bookstores in the capital to find the book."

Adrian explained to his twin brother with a dissatisfied expression, and added, 'If you have a conscience, return it immediately.'

Adrian, who seemed to be completely awake from the morning heat, got up from bed and put on only a light coat over his pajamas.

"It's a lot of work, Lucy. Instead of my ugly older brother, I will apologize."

With one stretch on, he said as he walked across the room. He looked like he was about to go down to the restaurant and have breakfast.

As Adrian left the room, there was a sudden silence.

"Senior, the book… … ."

Breaking through the silence, Lucy carefully spoke again.

Felix walked to the sofa, sat down, and pulled a book out of his bag. He picked up a few pages from the back and showed it to Lucy.

"There is still this much left. I'll read it right away, so sit over there and wait."

He pointed to his bed with his thumb. Then, Lucy opened her eyes and rolled her eyes as if in bewilderment.

Restless in her place, Lucy crouched and sat down on the bed as Felix continued to read it without a word, with her eyes fixed on the book.

The room was quiet again. Amidst the suffocating silence, only the occasional sound of Felix flipping through the pages could be heard.

However, Felix's head was quite chaotic with questions and bewilderment springing up.

What are you doing pretending to read a book again? You can just give it away.

Even though his actions were ridiculous, he didn't stop pretending to read a book. He tightened his nerves to detect the slightest presence of Lucy Keenan sitting quietly on her bed behind her back.

What kind of expression are you making right now? Are you just going back and regretting it?

Or is he making a very annoyed face at himself, who blindly ordered him to wait because he was a senior?

Time has passed.

Finally, Felix couldn't contain his curiosity and glanced back.

Lucy didn't have a look of regret or annoyance.

She was looking lovingly at a painting hanging on Felix's bedside table. It was a portrait of him as a child.

In the picture, young Felix's expression looked fat and blunt. But looking at that face, Lucy's lips soon had a soft smile.

Then she gently reached out and gently stroked the face of the child in the picture. It's like treating a loved one.

Felix's eyes widened in surprise, and his lips twitched open.

… … why my face?

My heart began to flutter like meat on land.

But the next moment, when he remembered that it wasn't him that got up from his bed this morning, but Adrian, his fluttering heart pounded under his feet.

widely.

The book was gently covered in his weak hands.

Lucy was startled by the sound and withdrew her hand from the painting.

"Ah… … ."

Felix's eyes met, and she widened her eyes. Her face turned red in an instant.

Felix turned his head forward again and looked away.

Moments later, without looking at Lucy, he reached out his arm and held out the book to her.

"ruler."

"Aren't you reading more or less?"

Lucy's trembling voice was heard behind her back.

"… … All right, take it."

Then, after a brief sound of footsteps, the book slipped out of Felix's hand.

Taking the book, Lucy hurriedly walked to the door. The back of his ear with his hair tucked back was bright red. As she pulled the handle to open the door, Felix said to her back.

"That's my portrait."

Not Adrian.

Lucy looked at him for a moment, blushing, then quickly disappeared out of the door.

Felix, who had been left alone in the room, lay lying on the sofa, leaning his head.

Lucy Keenan stroked his face in the portrait, thinking it was Adrian. And with eyes full of love.

This made me realize one thing.

It was clear that she was in love with her twin Adrian.

* * *

So, it was the 'power of love' that could tell us apart at a glance, right?

That evening, Felix sat crookedly on the bed, looking at the back of Adrian's head and thinking.

There is always a halo behind the person you like, or something like that.

When he thought that the answer to the question he had been questioning and pondering for months was just such a childish reason, Felix was very disappointed.

Besides, I was a little annoyed at myself for not noticing it before.

When he meets himself, his expressionless face, when he meets Adrian, he smiles brightly. The lips that were tightly closed when they were with him, only constantly chattering when he was with Adrian.

Isn't that a very honest and clear expression?

"I wish you."

Felix said abruptly to the back of Adrian's head as he was changing clothes. Adrian turned and looked at him.

"what."

"Do you remember when you were young, your mother couldn't tell us apart?"

"You still are."

At Adrian's blunt reply, Felix laughed.

"right. Not even now."

As Felix spoke in a low voice, old memories that seemed to never be forgotten flashed into his mind.

As it is now, the twins of Confucius Berg when they were young looked alike, as if they were made from a single mold, and it was impossible to tell them apart.

Even the Duke and Duchess of Berg could only be recognized by the family crest engraved on Felix's inner thigh upon birth, meaning eldest son.

The crest was invisible while wearing clothes, so it was not uncommon for the duchess to misrecognize the twins and call them by name.

"Adrian."

"Adrian."

Felix could still vividly recall the voice his mother called him by his brother's name.

"Come on, Adrian."

A mother who secretly took her to an empty room and held a cookie in her hand.

"Eat before Felix arrives."

Felix as a child, unable to say that he wasn't Adrian while looking at his mother's anxious eyes constantly checking the door, had no choice but to munch and swallow the sweets that his mother gave him.

"You can't tell Felix."

A mother who gently brushed the cookies off her lips with her soft hands.

"It's only given to Adrian. got it? Whatever your mother secretly gives you, keep it a secret from Felix."

Not wanting to disappoint his mother, he had hidden his sorrows as a child. He also asked the question of why he couldn't love like Adrian.

"therefore."

Adrian, who had finished changing his clothes, said as he sat down on his bed.

"What do I want? Why are you talking?"

"Hmm, well."

Felix deliberately lifted his younger brother and laid him flat on the bed.

The child recognizes you who did not even recognize the mother who loved you so much. Just because you like it.

Felix swallowed the words he wanted to shout at his brother in an angry tone through his throat.

The desire to shout and the desire to never tell him were fighting fiercely in his heart.

A pillow suddenly flew from Adrian, who was full of drugs. Felix, who was hit by a soft pillow, burst out laughing.