A way to win her heart back

Selene, upon entering the mansion, headed straight for the piano room.
Originally, she had planned to go to bed early without playing the piano today, but after encountering Theron Cox, her heart was boiling even more.
This anguish was, in a way, similar to when she had heard that her parents had passed away.
Although there were no cries, she felt as if her insides were rotting.
So, Selene sat down on the piano stool, just as her younger self had.
Recalling the day the piano had cried for her.
Selene, without even taking off her usual going-out gloves, sat on the piano stool and roughly opened the lid.
As if to turn her head away from the vaguely emerging memories of Theron Cox, Selene began to play any piece that came to mind.
A rough sound, neither delicate nor exquisite, flowed out.
The notes, which continued without her even knowing what she wanted to play, formed a precarious harmony.
Selene vaguely realized that she had played in this manner on the stage of the competition finals a short while ago.
Fierce notes filled only with anger and sadness.
Perhaps it was because she had contained that stormy emotion that she was able to win.
In that sense, should she say it was rather fortunate that she had found out that terrible secret before going on stage?
While sneering at the thought, which she didn’t know whether to take as a comfort or a mockery of her situation, Selene continued her frantic playing.
Until her fingers ached as if they would break.
Until the piano strings snapped.
At the end of the piece, whose purpose she did not know, the unbearable strings snapped, ting, ting, and a wretched sound was produced, but Selene did not stop playing.
Selene thus mourned her poignant first love until the night grew deep.
Hoping she would never run into that man, Theron Cox, again.

The empire had a winner of an international piano competition.
Since the Gravanian Empire was a country that had been far from the arts, people were happy and celebrated the birth of a talented pianist.
However, there was also someone who could not accept that news with pure joy.
Ironically, he was the lover of the main character of this happy news, Selene Ashcombe.
More precisely, ‘the one with the rumor of being her lover.’
Even without wanting it, the news of Selene was heard everywhere, pouring water on the already dying embers of Theron.
“This time, it seems really serious…”
Even Theron’s secretary, Gary, who always nagged without fail, could not carelessly add a word.
“How long are you going to be like this? Do you think the company will run on its own?”
Lysander, who had come to see his friend who had been in seclusion for several days, also looked at him seriously.
However, Theron could not give any particular reaction.
Because he himself did not know how long he would be like this, and he knew better than anyone that the company would be stagnant without him.
Still, the reason he had started doing the minimum amount of work after about a week was because he had realized that if the company went bankrupt at this rate, even the ability he had to show off to Selene would be thrown to the ground.
‘That can’t happen…’
Although Lysander was happy that his crazy friend had finally returned, Theron’s insides were still half-rotten at this point.
Lysander, unaware of that fact, sat on the edge of Theron’s desk and chattered lightly.
“Rumor has it that you and Lady Ashcombe broke up, is it true?”
“No.”
Theron replied immediately, even while signing documents like a machine.
It was perhaps a sense of crisis.
The crisis that if he admitted that fact, the faint relationship between him and Selene might be completely severed.
“Really? Then what are people chattering about…”
‘It’s probably because I didn’t give Selene a bouquet on the day of the competition finals that such a rumor started.’
But Theron did not admit to the breakup.
Although Selene had said she couldn’t even trust his breathing anymore, she had not formally declared a breakup.
Although he knew it was a sophism, Theron was denying it because he felt that if he didn’t believe it that way, he would become no different from a doll that just breathes, sunk to the ground.
“Anyway, since you seem to be in a bad mood these days, I’ll tell you one piece of good news.”
Just then, Lysander, with a generous look on his face, took out a piece of paper from his pocket and held it out in front of Theron.
“The completion date for Cox Corporation’s second building has been set.”
Theron’s reaction was emotionless.
Although he had said it was good news, the completion date had already been somewhat predicted, and it didn’t sound particularly happy now that his mind was filled with Selene.
Rather, he was reminded of Selene, who had said she would congratulate him on the day of the completion ceremony, and his mood sank even lower.
‘f*ck.’
Just as a short curse flowed out from inside him, Lysander, who had clicked his tongue at Theron’s bland reaction, said he would contact him later and left the office.
Theron, left alone, leaned back in his chair and tilted his head back.
As the world turned upside down, it felt as if the place he was in now was not the real world, which made him feel better.
But he was still troubled.
‘What on earth should I do?’
Every time he recalled Selene’s cold gaze, his mind went blank, as if he had met the eyes of a beast in a field.
It was to the extent that the time when Selene had called him a two-faced hypocrite, a cancer of society, and had pushed him into a fountain felt gentle in comparison.
Selene, who was glaring at him with such resentment, made Theron’s heart go cold.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t expected such a gaze.
Since he had been planning to voluntarily confess the truth to Selene after the competition was safely over, the order was just a little messed up.
So, even if he had confessed it himself and not Evelyn, Selene would have looked at him with the same eyes.
That was a strange comfort.
The fact that this situation would have happened in some way or another.
Chirp, chirp.
Suddenly, birds flew by, chirping above the inverted sky.
As he heard that sound, it seemed as if a forgotten resolve came to mind.
He had vowed that no matter what happened, he would not be listless like now, but would move and find an alternative.
Theron straightened his tilted neck.
‘Yes, come to think of it, I don’t have time to be like this.’
‘Even if Selene reports me as a stalker, I have to do my best until the end, don’t I?’
‘Now that my life has no meaning without Selene Ashcombe. That’s no different from death to me.’
‘Let’s just think of it as going back to the beginning.’
‘It’s not the first time I’ve received Selene’s contemptuous gaze.’
Still, there was one thing that was bothering him.

“What was the situation where you needed money urgently?”

It was Selene’s question that had momentarily frozen his mouth.
Even while saying he could do anything for Selene, Theron had frozen in front of that question.
It was perhaps a shame that he wanted to hide even more from Selene, no, rather because it was her.
That his irresponsible biological mother had been hit by a car in his place one day and had become a vegetable, and that he had to buy a vineyard on the Rigus Coast to escape that guilt.
Even if Selene knew that he had grown up in a poor and crappy house, this was not a story that anyone could easily understand.
Since Selene had grown up in a completely different environment from him, she would see him even more differently if she heard this story.
Unhappy and gloomy.
Besides, doesn’t it make him look like a cold-blooded person with no parents or children?
It was a story that Selene, who had had a fond relationship with her parents, would not be able to understand even more.
There was a high probability that he would only gain her antipathy, instead of her sympathy, if he confessed it.
‘So let’s put that aside for now.’
‘I have to find a way to win Selene’s heart back.’
Even though his mouth tasted bitter every time he recalled the fact that Selene had been about to give up on studying abroad because of him, still.
Theron, who had made up his mind, stood up.
The second hand of the clock he had checked after a long time felt as if it were ticking particularly fast.

Every day, gifts and letters were piling up at the entrance of Selene’s mansion.
Congratulations and gifts had poured in after the competition.
Most of them were from people she didn’t even know the names of.
Although she had probably been introduced to them at parties, Selene was particularly bad at remembering people’s names.
And among them, there were also some names she could never forget, so Selene was not in a good mood.
Theron Cox, that tiresome name.
Even when they were in a relationship of sorts, he hadn’t sent gifts, but funnily enough, now that their relationship was completely over, Theron Cox was sending gifts and cards every day.
As if to win back the heart of a departed lover.
But unfortunately for him, Selene didn’t know what was in the gift boxes Theron sent every day.
“Mr. Cox has sent a gift and a letter again. Shall we just throw it away without opening it this time as well?”
At Gwendollyn’s question, Selene gave a concise nod.
“Yes.”
Because Selene had not once checked the numerous gifts and letters that Theron Cox had sent so far.