Permission to Interfere

Despite Ensi’s urging, Agniele did not easily open his tightly closed mouth. On the contrary, he tried to avoid his gaze by looking down obliquely, which made Ensi twitch his eyebrows.

Did he intend not to speak. As he scrutinized Agniele closely, he discovered a faint hesitation lingering in Agniele’s eyes. It seemed he had no mind to speak right away, though…… then would he talk after his emotions were sorted out.

Thinking of Agniele’s usual personality, it seemed he would eventually open his mouth if he waited quietly. It was just that Ensi’s own personality wasn’t good enough to wait tamely.

“Iel.”

Ensi put strength into the hands cupping his cheeks to fix Agniele’s head, which was avoiding his eyes, toward his own direction. Ensi, who took a step forward to completely eliminate the few gaps remaining, stopped his movement for a moment.

Usually around this time, he would wrap his arms around his waist, but Agniele remained without a single movement. Therefore, Ensi personally caught the opponent’s wrist and placed it on his own waistline. Assuming a posture where he fully leaned his body against Agniele, he swept his cheek with his thumb.

“It seems you dislike even conversing with me.”

Ensi, who cast his gaze down, whispered with bitterness. Since he felt inwardly disappointed by the fact that Agniele did not speak a single word even though they met after two days, there was no need to purposely fake his tone either.

Agniele, whose shoulders flinched, reflexively curled his fingertips. Thanks to that, as he distinctly felt Ensi’s waistline which had become thinner than before, he eventually parted his lips.

“I heard you didn’t eat your meals properly for the past two days though…….”

Unlike him, he trailed off the end of his words. Even though he clearly felt that he was purposely turning the topic, Ensi decided to move as Agniele wanted for the time being.

“It was because my stomach was not good. Did you perhaps worry?”

“Since it is your affair, naturally.”

“Is that so. Since it means you care about me that much, I am happy.”

Ensi, who hung a faint smile on his lips, stared intently at Agniele. His transparent eyes urged him to bring out his inner thoughts instead of turning the topic, but Agniele avoided that gaze by closing his eyes.

“Has today’s treatment, already ended?”

“……The time has not arrived yet. Have you already forgotten?”

“No way. I didn’t forget. I merely asked out of a heart wondering if I had come too late.”

“I see.”

What kind of matter could it be that he tried to avoid it like this. By this point, stubbornness arose. Ensi, who bit his lips, painfully smoothed his eye shape which was trying to grow sharp.

Instead, letting out a deep sigh as if to let Agniele hear, he leaned his face against his chest. Following that, he lowered the arms that cupped his cheeks and caught his shoulders with force.

“Is it because I am untrustworthy?”

“That is not it.”

“Then for what reason are you being like this. We met after two days, yet I am disappointed if you keep doing this.”

Why must they waste time in this kind of thing, when the time wouldn’t be enough even if they only cherished each other. Most of all, as there was a record of fighting once while raising their voices, Ensi did not want to leave even a bit of leeway. Even if they covered it up, wouldn’t it amount to nothing more than postponing the date.

“Did the Duke of Lacius happen to change his words? Is that why your mood is not good?”

“No. He did not do so. Soon, Lady Mother will send a contact to the estate to discuss the engagement period.”

“If that is the case, what is the problem.”

Everything was untangling well, so what could there be to have his mood upset like this. If he knew it would be like this, should he have attached a person to Agniele to receive reports on his every single move.

If he had done so, even if he couldn’t completely find out the cause, at least a corner that could be guessed would have arisen, wouldn’t it.

“……Must I speak right now?”

“Even though you told me you wished for me to speak every single matter without hiding it, do you intend not to do so yourself, Iel?”

Agniele, who received back the words spoken just a few weeks ago as they were, let out a groaning sound. Since it was a word he spat out with his own mouth, he couldn’t deny it either. Covering his mouth area with his palm, he breathed out a long breath.

“Just now, I met your friend in the garden.”

If it was in the garden of the estate, it would be Luke. Since he was the only friend remaining here. However, as far as he knew, Luke wouldn’t be alone right now—.

Did some problem happen with Luke’s family by any chance. While rolling his head quickly, Ensi nodded his head slightly as if to tell him to keep speaking.

“By some chance, I heard the conversation he shared with his family but…… Ensi, they suspected whether you had feelings for Luke.”

“—Me? For Luke?”

He was sorry to the serious Agniele, but Ensi could not hold back his laughter for a moment. It was that absurd, and furthermore, it was a matter he hadn’t even thought of.

At Ensi’s reaction, Agniele closed his lips like a clam. Because Ensi seemed to regard it as no big deal, he pondered whether he would think it strange even if he spoke the next words.

“So. Did you get jealous?”

“It is a matter that won’t happen anyway. I didn’t get jealous. Only—, because I was disappointed.”

However, wasn’t it late to shut his mouth by now. Agniele responded in a slow tone to Ensi’s question which was tinged with a subtle urging.

Thanks to Agniele who said at once that he didn’t get jealous, the displeased color he displayed was brief. At the expression that felt somewhat sudden, that he was disappointed, Ensi blinked his eyes blankly.

Resting his hand on the firm chest, he pulled his waist back to match his gaze with Agniele. Then, he tilted his head slightly as if expressing wonder. Seeing this, Agniele let out a faint sigh.

“It must mean you promised to do a big affair to the extent that the opposing family would make such a misunderstanding, yet the fact that I know nothing myself is…….”

Agniele, who was bringing out his sincerity through his mouth one by one, suddenly became embarrassed. At the time he was only suffering inside, he didn’t feel any strangeness, but when expressing it in words, it was somehow an absurd word.

He seemed to understand only now the reason he was reluctant to speak despite Ensi’s urging. It appeared he recognized unconsciously that his own thinking process was bizarre.

Formulating a face lacking confidence, Agniele lowered his head deeply. Ensi, who stared intently at such an Agniele, soon lifted the corners of his mouth.

So it meant in the end he wanted to know everything about him, didn’t it. Just as Ensi wished to grasp Agniele’s private life entirely, Agniele also possessed that kind of desire.

It didn’t matter even if the size of the greed wasn’t equal to his own. The important thing was the fact itself that emotions that could well be called control, monopoly desire, or perhaps obsession were lurking deep inside the heart of Agniele, who was nothing short of proper.

“What Luke has done for me is quite a lot. For the simple reason that he is a friend, he helped with many things without receiving any reward.”

“I know.”

“Such a friend requested help from me for the first time. Therefore, I decided to help him with a willing heart.”

As much as they were in a relationship of lovers, an appropriate level might be tolerated, but if the degree was excessive, emotions that could make the opponent fed up.

Because he knew that, Ensi had suppressed the greed that tried to run wild without knowing the degree every time.

“What kind of help did he request that you did so?”

“I haven’t heard the details, but he said he would lay down a road. Since he said funds were lacking, I said I would fill that lacking part.”

“……It is understandable that the Glancia family would make a misunderstanding.”

“Yes, thinking of it now, it is so. And Iel, it is not a strange thing either that you felt unfairness at the fact that you didn’t know this matter.”

In the midst of that, for an affair he could try to utilize to his own taste to happen. Was the blessing Cyril engraved for him shining its light. Thinking that truly only happy things seemed to happen recently, Ensi held back the laughter that was trying to leak out secretly.

“Is it, so?”

“Of course. Are you not my one and only lover. Naturally, you have the right to know.”

“But I thought that one must also respect each other’s private life.”

“It is not a wrong word, but does the greed that you wish to know what I did mean you do not respect my private life.”

While being persuaded by Ensi’s argument, Agniele swallowed his answer at a somehow uncomfortable feeling. Then, Ensi caught his cheeks with both arms and pulled with appropriate strength to reduce the distance.

“Did you not say once before that you wished to know about me. With the condition added, that they are things I can let you know.”

“I remember.”

Since it wasn’t that long ago an affair either, Agniele remembered that day vividly. In the first place, it wasn’t a day that could be forgotten easily either.

Because on that day, Agniele lost his heart once more to Ensi’s appearance faced in the greenhouse.

“Iel. The current me can let you know my everything.”

At the assertion that followed in a low voice, Agniele recognized the weight contained within it before the joy. Informing that he could do so, and simultaneously that there was a state of mind wishing Agniele to do so too.

Of course, to count it, he too, like Ensi, could reveal everything to Ensi. There was no reason not to be confident. However, was it an affair that could be decided so easily. Something that couldn’t be described in words caught on his heart like a hangnail on a fingertip.

That might be due to Ensi’s atmosphere which turned around in an instant, or perhaps it was due to the corners of the mouth drawing an arc different from usual.

“Agniele, what about you?”

Ensi pulled Agniele, who shut his mouth once again, a little closer and matched his forehead. Leaving completely different body temperatures to mix, he moved his lips to make a gentle voice.

At the eyes which were clearer and more serene than anything else, he felt as if his inner thoughts were entirely laid bare. Because they held a beautiful light, it also felt like he was enchanted.

“I am also so.”

Agniele, who was breathing shallowly, eventually erased the complicated thoughts and nodded his head. Ensi smiled while looking at the opponent who returned the exact same answer as himself, though a little late.

Even if there was nothing that changed right away, the fact itself that it left leeway was important. With this, Ensi, who gained the justification to intervene a bit more deeply into Agniele’s daily routine, tilted his head slightly and matched his lips.