Betrayal (1)

Selene looked at Theron, who had appeared in the waiting room at almost the same time as Evelyn.
Theron neither confirmed nor denied anything.
So, Selene could still remain calm.
“Is it true, Theron?”
‘Because Theron hasn’t answered.’
‘Because I said I would trust him.’
But when Theron finally managed to speak after parting his lips a few times, Selene felt something inside her snap.
“…Yes, it’s true.”
“…”
“The thing I said I needed courage for was to confess this fact to you.”
Theron’s voice cruelly enveloped the surroundings.
“I, as your cousin said, approached you for the ducal family’s fortune.”
Selene’s focus, which had been on Theron, gradually blurred.
Although Theron Cox’s face in front of her hadn’t changed at all, she felt as if she were looking at a different person.
“But, Selene. Just know this…! I was going to confess the truth to you after the competition today.”
“Why?”
Selene asked in an emotionless tone.
“Uh…?”
“Is there a need for that?”
“Because… because now I like you. Because I’ve come to genuinely love you…!”
‘Come to love her.’
Those words, which she had once felt a thrill at, now sharply dug into Selene’s chest and scraped her insides.
“Miss Ashcombe. The final performance will begin soon. You should get ready now.”
Just then, a competition official appeared and broke the frozen atmosphere of the waiting room.
At the same time, Theron approached Selene and gripped her shoulders tightly.
“I know I don’t have the right to say this, but I’m still cheering for you and supporting you. I believe you will surely win.”
“…”
“I postponed this confession, at first simply because I didn’t have the courage, but later because I didn’t want to disturb the competition you had prepared so hard for.”
Selene remembered Theron looking restless at her.
He looked pained and distressed when he avoided her gaze, as if hiding something.
‘But.’
‘It can’t be as bad as my feelings right now.’
Selene finally realized.
That being betrayed and hurt by someone you like is more painful than you can imagine.
The intense emotion, which she had never known until now, was swirling inside her and shaking her.
The magnitude of the shock was similar to when her parents had passed away.
The sadness and anger that the first person she had opened her heart to had approached her with a purpose, like a spy in a movie.
Now she felt she could understand a little of what Evelyn had been chattering about.
‘Love makes a person lose their mind.’
It was so, considering she had fallen for such a pathetic man to the point of giving up on studying abroad.
“Selene, so…”
“Move.”
Selene said coldly to Theron.
“…Ah, okay.”
Theron let go of Selene’s shoulders and made way for her.
Selene walked past Theron and Evelyn, who was looking at her with teary eyes.
Although her heart was in a mess, as if a tsunami had passed through, she had to get through this stage.
Because it didn’t make sense not to show what she had prepared for so long just because of a man like this.
As she went up on stage, she saw the many people in the audience.
“Miss Selene Ashcombe, are you ready?”
“Yes.”
Selene answered the judge’s question calmly.
In the bright light of the spotlights pouring onto the stage, Selene placed her hands on the keyboard.
Whether that man, Theron Cox, was still wandering in her heart or not, she had to start playing.

It was no different for Theron, who had no idea what would happen next.
A few days before the finals, Theron was just feeling lighthearted, concentrating on his work and waiting for the day of the international competition.
This change in Theron had come about during his visit to Selene’s mansion a month before the competition.
On that day, when the anxiety of hiding a secret and the excitement of meeting Selene coexisted, he had never imagined he would hear Selene play ‘Ashes Nocturne’.
Because he had already heard ‘Ashes Nocturne’ rising from under Selene’s hands before.
It was in the first-floor practice room of the auditorium where the Velora Competition was held.
The performance Selene had shown in the piano room was exactly the same as the performance he had happened to hear that day.
The reason he had been able to immediately recognize that it was the same person’s performance was because ‘Ashes Nocturne’ itself, contrary to its title, was a piece with such flashy technique that pianists rarely chose it, and it was impressively played perfectly.
So much so that it was impossible to forget.

“That person should have won.”

He had often thought that, recalling the performance he had heard that day.
In that moment, Theron realized how uselessly he had been suspicious.
And also how pathetic he had been, slandering and envying an innocent person as a hypocrite who had bribed the judges, and making excuses not to fall for her even a little.
Of course, he had confirmed that his feelings would not change whether she was a criminal or a monster, thinking Selene was seriously injured, but if there had been no such trigger, he would still have been swayed by Orlando Ashcombe’s words and looked at Selene with prejudice.
So, Theron had decided on the spot.
That he would confess that he had approached her with an intention as soon as the competition Selene had prepared so hard for was over.
‘That I had coveted your family’s fortune.’
Although he was afraid of the reaction that would come back, he wanted to atone for having misunderstood her and judging her on his own in this way.
So, Theron was able to wait for that day calmly, with the heart of a sinner who had confessed his crime and was going to the execution block.
“Theron Cox, that man. He’s a fraud.”
“…”
“He’s someone who approached you because my dad ordered him to!”
It was just that he had never expected her cousin to barge in and tell Selene before he could reveal it himself.
“It’s true, Selene! I heard grandmother talking to dad!”
Theron felt as if he had been slapped in the face.
No, in fact, he had been slapped by Selene’s cousin, who was glaring at him fiercely, so it wasn’t just a feeling.
Anyway, Theron’s mind went blank for a moment.
In the midst of that, he was worried that what was happening now would affect the results of the competition that Selene had worked so hard for.
So he seemed to have said something, rambling on, but all that remained in his mind was Selene’s cold gaze.
Theron was adrift.
Not that his body was drifting here and there, but his mind had detached from his body and seemed to be wandering around.
While wondering if it would be better to just go back now and try to talk to Selene again later, the sound of the piano came from the concert hall, and Theron walked to the audience seats as if possessed.
‘The Age of Love and Romance’ was being played.
It was the main piece Selene had chosen.
Theron sat in a corner seat in the shadows and watched the performance.
He hadn’t known this piece, but knowing it was the piece Selene was preparing, he had often listened to it on the gramophone for a while.
It was a lyrical piece that didn’t quite match Selene’s indifferent face.
So he had also been worried if Selene could play this piece well.
Because this piece had to express both the joy that the narrator realizes through love and the frustration that comes with it, that difficult emotion.
Still, seeing Selene so confident, he thought that perhaps she had come to express her emotions much more colorfully because of him.
That’s why she was so confident.
Although it might just be the arrogant self-consciousness of an experimental subject, Selene’s recent appearance was certainly different from before, so Theron had dared to guess so.
But, contrary to all his guesses, the joy of love was not seen in Selene, who was playing the piece on stage.
Rather…
“Oh my, I never imagined Miss Ashcombe could give such a passionate performance.”
“I can feel the poignant sadness. Her expressiveness has improved tremendously since I last saw her.”
As the audience sitting next to him assessed, Selene was putting weight on sadness, not joy.
A surging anger and a self-loathing.
It was probably similar to the emotion of the husband in the original sonnet when he discovered his dying wife.
It was a fierce and destructive performance that did not match the romantic title ‘The Age of Love and Romance’.
But people were quickly captivated by the new performance she was creating.
Ding.
At the end of the long performance, when Selene finally pressed the last key, cheers erupted from all over.
Clap, clap, clap! Bravo!
In the atmosphere of surging excitement, the gaze of the lone, dead Theron was fixed on Selene, who was shining on stage.
Ironically, now that Selene was filled with the greatest sadness, the victory she had so desperately wished for was being decided.