Walking through the mansion, Finn was filled with dread.
'Does she know about what Estelle did… What can I even say to defend myself? Nothing! I'm so fucked!'
They both walked to the second floor, where they entered the first door on their right.
Upon entering, Finn noticed that they had probably entered Sophie's room while he was lost in his thoughts.
The room was spacious, to say the least.
It had a king-sized bed, a huge TV that was mounted on the wall, and a desk that Sophie probably used for studying because it had some books on it.
There were multiple doors in the room, so Finn guessed that the room had its own closet filled with clothes and its own bathroom.
In the middle of the room were also four sofas surrounding a wide coffee table.
Sophie lightly folded her dress so it wouldn't get wrinkled and elegantly sat down. Finn also sat down across from her and began his apology.
"I am so sorry about-"
"Did you reject-"
But both of them started talking at the same time.
"You can go first."
Sophie made a hand motion, and Finn decided to talk first because the sooner he apologized, the better.
"I am so sorry about that thing. Back there."
"At least you know that you have done something wrong."
Sophie nodded, and her frown eased.
Finn wanted to say that it wasn't entirely his fault, but he could have stopped it whenever he felt like it, so for the most part, it was his fault.
"But I wouldn't mind if you had accepted it."
"You wouldn't?"
His concerned expression turned into a surprised one as he raised his head and looked at her with his eyes wide open.
Finn knew that Sophie's family was weird, but he didn't know that she was okay with her mother showing initiative towards him.
"No, you shouldn't have just accepted it. You should have also asked for more."
Sophie crossed her hands and looked at Finn with a determined expression.
"I should have?"
It was kind of weird at the beginning, but it was getting even weirder. So Finn's eyebrows kept getting higher as his surprise grew.
"If you have an opportunity like this, you should grab it, even if it might milk you dry in the process. It will serve as a valuable experience for you."
"…Huh?"
At that point, Finn was starting to doubt his ears or maybe the person in front of him wasn't Sophie but an impostor.
"Even if you accept, I can still join you, and we can do it together."
"…"
At that point, Finn's head was filled with multiple perverted images, but he quickly realized what the problem might be.
"W- Wait, Sophie, we are both talking about the same thing, right?"
"About father's guild? Of course we are."
Sophie tilted her head in confusion.
"Ohhh… Jonathan's guild… yeah… right…"
Now it made sense to Finn. Sophie wouldn't talk about him and Estelle like that, so she was talking about him becoming a guild master in Jonathan's guild while he was here having perverted thoughts.
Sophie looked at Finn, not knowing why he had asked such an obvious question, but she still continued speaking.
"Anyway, if you had rejected to be the guild master because you felt bad about me, you shouldn't have."
'Why didn't you start with this sentence!'
Finn's eyebrow twitched.
"…No, I mean, that was part of the reason why I said no, but the biggest reason is because I really do want to create my own guild."
Now that they were on the same wavelength, he could actually talk about what Sophie wanted to know.
"…"
Sophie just stared at him expressionlessly, but she decided to move on.
"Okay, do what you want. Now for the second reason I wanted to have a talk with you."
'Here it comes! Should I apologize again? No, that would be too weird…'
"What do you think about my sister Nina?"
"H-Huh? Nina?"
Finn was relieved at first, but he was stunned right after.
"I saw how she acted during lunch, so I want to know your feelings about her. I love her dearly, and if you make her cry, I will break your neck."
'T-That's a joke, right, Sophie? Don't stare at me like you are looking at a piece of meat, please!'
He started to sweat a little and he decided to answer before Sophie killed him.
"I mean, your sister is really cute, and I think she would make a great wife-"
THUD
Suddenly a noise sounded from behind Finn, but there was no one else other than him and Sophie in that room, so he didn't know what it was.
"Continue."
Before he could turn around to check, Sophie spoke to him in a calm tone, waiting to hear his answer.
"Right. I think she is cute, but I don't really see myself being with her. Besides, I already have someone I like."
Suddenly, Sophie frowned.
"Are you saying my sister is not good enough for you?"
"That is not what I said. I said she is perfect the way she is, but I like someone else already."
Shaking his head, Finn tried to calm Sophie down.
'You were supposed to ask who it is and not stare at me like you are about to jump at me with a knife in your hand!'
He was panicking inside his head because the conversation was not going the way he initially wanted it to.
"…I see."
'Is she not going to ask? Fuck it, I'm not a pussy! Let's do this!'
"Actually, the one I like is you!"
His decision was a little spontaneous, but he wasn't a little kid that would never talk to his crush, so when he saw a chance to confess his feelings, he took it.
Finn was hoping for a reaction, but Sophie just looked at him with one of her eyebrows raised and then looked behind her to see if he was talking to someone else who was behind her.
"I like you, Sophie."
He tried to resolve the misunderstanding while Sophie looked back at him and nodded.
"Oh... I see."
She answered him with a calm voice.
'Oh I see?! Did I just get rejected or not? I'm getting mixed signals here!'
He was hoping for a more definitive answer, like a no or a yes. What was he supposed to do with an "I see"?
"So, you are telling me that you like me even though you don't know almost anything about me. What do you like about me, then, my looks?"
Sophie crossed her arms and looked at Finn because she wanted to know what his reason for liking her was.
"Well, that was true when I first met you. I thought that you were the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, but even I knew that it was just a temporary crush."
Finn thought about it some more, and then he looked at Sophie.
"But after playing with you and meeting you today, I found out that behind that ice shell you are actually a warm person that cares for her little sister and her best friend Mia."
He paused, then continued.
"...I don't know why you don't like to show emotions, but as long as you give me a chance, I'm willing to give it my all to see you smile. So will you please be my girlfriend?"
"..."
Sophie was speechless.
She had multiple guys confess to her before, but after asking them why they fell in love with her, it was either because of her looks or her parents' money.
Of course, they didn't say they were after money, but if they gave a stupid reason, she would connect the dots.
Sophie's so-called "friends" have always betrayed her or used her since she was a young child.
This made her close off all emotions that she might feel, and growing up like this made her into someone who was more like a robot.
She started seeing everything logically and not emotionally, so her choices were always perfectly calculated.
Slowly, she became a perfect person on the outside, getting perfect marks and great sports results, but on the inside, she started becoming colder and colder.
But she wasn't completely hopeless.
When she was with Mia or Nina, her ice wall that she built around herself would always shake a little, and she would show a part of her emotions.
Sophie never really cared about having a love life. To her, it was something useless that might make her parents lose money or make her lose time.
Studying or doing sports was more logical to do since you would get rewarded with money in the end, and with enough money, you could do anything.
Even playing Second Life was something she was initially against, but after Mia told her that she didn't have anyone else to play with, Sophie agreed to play with her.
Now that Mia was dating Leo and her own sister Nina still hated her, she was slowly diving deeper and deeper into a dark ocean.
The further she dove, the less emotions she would feel or show.
Her two floating rings that were holding her up were now gone, and she wasn't the best at conversations, so there was no way for her to talk to them and make them understand her situation.
She wouldn't say she loved Finn, but she had a favorable impression of him, and if she was forced to choose between liking or hating, she would definitely pick liking.
He was handsome and easy to talk to, so Sophie would probably develop a crush on him, if she had this emotion called "love," that is.
It wasn't that she acted coldly towards him because she hated him or even despised him. It was because she just didn't know how to smile or how to show happiness.
Now that Finn had confessed to her, and he even seemed to understand her situation, she wanted to accept it, but she needed to think logically about it.
She needed to think about whether it would be beneficial to start dating him or if it would be beneficial for them to eventually get married.
If she could use his fame in Second Life to make herself and her guild more popular.
If their relationship would help her not only in Second Life but also in the real world.
If she would gain more than she would lose.
If she… No.
She kept lying to herself.
Even though she was becoming more and more emotionless, she still had a tiny bit of emotion left.
It was the emotion that started it all, and it was the emotion that would hurt her until the day she died.
The fear of being betrayed.
She wanted to believe in Finn and say "yes," but what if he gets bored of her or what if he just uses her and then throws her away.
Sophie was scared, so scared that she took a very long time to answer.
Saying "yes" was simple, but it would be a huge risk.
On the other hand, saying "no" wouldn't put her at risk of being betrayed.
She could then continue living her life like before, but deep down she knew that if she rejected Finn, she would lose the last person that was willing to help her and she would dive so deep into the ocean that there would be no way for her to feel emotions again.
Finn didn't rush her and just patiently waited because he knew that love needed two people to work, so he was willing to give her all the time in the world to decide.
After a long while, she finally opened her mouth.
"I don't know how to smile, I don't feel comfortable holding hands, and I hate the idea of kissing, so I won't be the perfect girlfriend you are looking for, and it might take a long time for me to open up to you."
She tried to keep her cool, but when she looked up, Finn saw how her lips kept quivering.
"It is okay for you to take your time, and I don't want to date a perfect girlfriend. I want to date you, Sophie."
Finn nodded and smiled at her.
"And if you turn out to be a perfect girlfriend, then that will be a bonus for me!"
He chuckled, but his heart was beating really fast because he was scared that Sophie might say no.
Finn had told himself that he would accept being rejected with a smile, but now that he was in this situation, he was afraid that his feelings wouldn't be reciprocated and his hands started trembling.
He really wished to be with Sophie, and he felt like every second she took to decide, his heart kept being torn apart by the amount of stress he was feeling.
Hearing Finn's confident voice made Sophie's face turn a bright shade of pink.
It wasn't even close to a blush, but it was a start.
She then finally opened her mouth while looking into Finn's blue eyes.
"Then my answer is… yes."