Chapter 59 – A Sister’s Advice
“Don’t just gawk at her! Go say something nice, add a touch or something!”
Lucius, who was pushed ahead by Alexandra, hesitated to touch Tiana. They both slightly avoided eye contact with each other.
“Tiana…” He trailed off as soon as she locked eyes with him.
“Yes?”
“You look… beautiful. Stunningly beautiful.”
“Thank you,” she blushed deeply.
He didn’t know what to do with his trembling voice, so he didn’t say something else. Gazing into her eyes with his face red with anxiety, he stepped forward to grab her hands as if he’d never let go.
“Can you two get a little closer than that?” Alexandra’s voice interrupted their staring contest.
“Closer?” He questioned nervously.
“Yes, closer!”
“Uh, isn’t this already too close?”
“It isn’t like I’m telling you two to kiss. We’ll save that for the real wedding ceremony. Oh! Unless you’ve already done it? I knew you’d take my advice!”
“Excuse me?” This time it was Tiana who spoke. What advice? Tiana gave the empress a bizarre look, who avoided her stare and purposefully changed the subject.
“Bring me that veil.” She waved a maid over.
One of the waiting maids holding a veil scurried over to give it to Alexandra. She took the veil from the maid, then returned to Tiana’s back and pushed her toward Lucius.
“Wha—”
But before she could protest, Alexandra held her firmly in place.
“Stay there and don’t turn around. Put your foreheads together and pose for us.”
“Alexandra!” She exclaimed nervously. She kept her glare on the empress who was still acting busy in fixing her veil. Eventually, she gave up on trying to catch her stare and turned her face towards the man in front of her.
She knew that she had given Lucius some advice. They’d been busy with their own separate things, so how did he find the time to meet his sister? Perhaps she wrote him a letter? That’s probably why he was so aggressive the other day; because of her advice, whatever it was.
Tiana thought it was strange of her to do that. While she was silently looking at Lucius’ face, he furtively tried to avoid her stare. His earlobes were bright red and he looked cute, shyly reading the atmosphere, so she could only be amused at him. He’d gotten advice from his sister, and still was shy, looking like he’d never had a girlfriend or something. Tiana liked it because she had found a hidden part of him, but at the same time felt strange.
It was hard to focus on anything else when they were standing this close. They were much closer than the last time. At that time, she had looked down slightly. But this time, he was looking down at her from above, and she could feel his warm breath on her forehead. It was a feeling she hadn’t experienced before.
She had never been in another relationship, and since she had never liked anyone else before, she hadn’t been this close to any other man. She had never even held hands with male family members, so her experience of physical contact had drastically increased since the ‘new Tiana’ arrived. Though she had always been ever so curious about how it would feel. It was more reassuring than she had thought, and more comfortable. Lucius’ warmth put her at ease.
Alexandra, who had been fixing the veil for a long time, asked Tiana in a low voice.
“So… did you two really kiss?”
“We didn’t.”
“What? Then why are you so flustered? I thought you’d at least kissed or something.”
“What did you say to him?”
“You really want to hear it? I think my brother’s going to lose his mind. But it isn’t that big of a deal because I didn’t say much. ‘Be more forward and aggressive’ was all I said.”
“Seriously? You didn’t say anything specific?”
“No, I didn’t. Really, that was all I said. Oh, and I told him to practice holding hands a lot. Aside from that, I didn’t really say anything. Your progress is interesting, but it’s not good for me to intervene too much.”
When Tiana didn’t say anything, she looked at her carefully.
“What’s wrong? Did he do something?”
Tiana rapidly blinked, trying to avoid Alexandra’s eyes, and as Lucius saw her doing this, the flush from his ears spread to his face. She saw his reddening face and closed her mouth. Looking at it now, there wasn’t a reason for him to desperately avoid her eyes. It was right for him to get advice from his sister, but in the end, the behavior he had displayed at that time was genuine. Since he had only acted naturally, she wondered if he was not a lamb but a wolf in disguise?
Maybe it will be good to see him, whether it be day or night.