Victor was undoubtedly the most victimized in this situation. He was kidnapped from his restaurant to another restaurant. As if that wasn't enough, he was shamefully dragged away like a child.
Aside from the psychological effects of all this, his ass was extremely pained from being dragged.
After leading them both into the room, James released his hold on Victor's neck and spoke, putting distance between them:
"Talk, both of you. It's time to sort out how many years of ridiculous misunderstandings you've had. I'll wait outside."
Then, without saying anything more, he walked out and closed the room. His quick movements gave neither Lucy nor Victor a moment to react.
Lucy could only sigh. James had interfered in her private life with his overly reckless behavior. It was disturbing. But she did not take any action against the closing of the door.
Victor, on the contrary, tried to open the door as soon as James closed it and stood up to leave. In such a situation, Victor could not be proud to face Lucy in the first place.
Lucy sat down in one of the chairs in the room. James had locked them in the storage room with the spare chairs.
Lucy spoke as she smoothed her fingers through the bunches of golden hair in front of her eyes:
"How have you been, Vic?"
Her tone was casual. No anger, no sadness, no resentment, nothing.
Victor, convinced that the door wouldn't open after a few more attempts, gave up, sat with his back to the door, and looked at Lucy in exasperation.
Vic... How long had it been since he had been called that? Inwardly, he was happy, but then immediately disgusted with himself. Victor shook his head from side to side, then looked questioningly at Lucy and asked:
"What's the point, Lucy? And don't call me that. My name is Victor."
Lucy looked at him with her blue eyes and sighed.
"Are you still offended by me?"
Victor smiled falsely as he stroked his black beard.
"Offended? Why should I be? To a woman incapable of understanding my feelings."
Lucy frowned. She didn't seem to understand what he was talking about.
"What are you talking about, Vic?"
Victor used the door handle to force himself to his feet. It was extremely rare to use doors like this. The Vestals had advanced in technology and nothing had become as normalized as an automatic door.
Such a door would probably only be seen in restaurants like Lucy and Victor's, which preferred to stick to the old ways or try to look exotic. At least that could be said about the doors inside.
Victor stood up and looked at Lucy with contempt. His heart ached inside. After all these years, had she never noticed? Had she never thought about it?
He answered in an angry voice that contrasted with his expression:
"Nothing, nothing."
Lucy stood up with him. She couldn't quite understand what he was talking about. All this time there had been some hope that, despite everything that had happened, even if they had fallen out, they could still be friends. But Victor's anger didn't seem to have gone away.
"I hoped... I hoped your anger had subsided. Maybe we could be like before..."
Victor's whole body trembled at these words. It was as if he had been struck. His face twitching with anger, he asked:
"Like before?"
He asked the same question twice more, his voice getting louder and louder as he walked a few steps towards her. Finally, looking into Lucy's blue eyes, he spoke aloud:
"Are you still talking about the way things used to be? I should be the one to say that!"
Despite Victor's sudden rise, Lucy just stared at him. She asked softly:
"What do you mean?"
Victor became even angrier at Lucy's expression, which seemed almost indifferent. She was always like this. Whenever there was something he hoped Lucy would understand. Nothing drove him mad more than this attitude, as if it was none of her business!
He took deep breaths and tried to calm down. He sat back and closed his eyes. He was clutching his beard, tearing it out. He couldn't tell if Lucy was doing this on purpose or not.
Lucy frowned. She was confused. She genuinely didn't understand Victor's behavior. She thought he'd been holding a childish grudge all this time. So what was the reason behind his words?
As she walked towards him, her curiosity blended with anger. Wasn't it Victor who had avoided seeing her all this time? Wasn't it Victor who had been living in his own closed box all this time? He hadn't even bothered to come and see her once, and now he was saying things to confuse her.
She stomped her high heels furiously on the floor. He looked at Victor as a sharp sound rang out in the silence:
"What do you mean? All this time I've been waiting for you, waiting for your childish hatred to pass, waiting for you to calm down."
Her voice was getting louder every second. Victor trembled slightly as she finally uttered these words.
"And now, after all this time, you speak nonsense. Speak! What do you mean?"
Lucy could be really overbearing at times. James, of course, had never been able to experience that. Maybe it was a good thing he hadn't.
Victor knew this side of her very well. When he had seen her as a child, he had feared her anger every time he saw her. Even now he could feel his trauma. But this time… he wasn't going to hold back. He stood up, tossing a few hairs from his beard to the ground.
He laughed with anger and obvious resentment that hid his fear:
"Anger? Grudge? Haha! You are right. Of course I have anger. Of course I have a grudge. Do you know why?"
Lucy blinked and looked at him. She was waiting for him to continue. She seemed calm, but Victor could see that she was confused and therefore angry. Occasionally a vein would bulge in her forehead when this happened.
Victor realized that there was no point in trying to back down at this point. He couldn't get out anyway. Should he keep up this stubbornness? Lucy was stubbornly refusing to understand him.
Inhaling and exhaling deeply, Lucy impatiently grabbed Victor by the collar. With an anger that even a fool could understand, she asked again:
"I want to know. Tell me why? You obviously have nothing against the restaurant. Then what is it? What is the reason for your foolish behavior?"
Feeling her anger even from here, Victor swallowed. Finally, he managed to utter these words.
"Because I wanted you to need me! Because I love you! Is that so hard to understand?"
Lucy froze in an instant. She looked surprised. She let go of Victor's collar and looked intently at his face.
Victor, on the other hand, continued to stare at her, not avoiding her in any way. At any other time, he would undoubtedly not have had the courage. But with the intensity of the emotions he felt at that moment, he continued speaking:
"All this time I've wanted to tell you this, but every time I've tried, you've always turned away from me. Always, always, always. You built an invisible wall between us and no matter what I did, I couldn't get over it."
Lucy continued to listen in silence. Her confusion seemed to be slowly fading. It was clear that things were starting to make sense in her head. Victor swung his arm furiously to the right!
"I opened the fucking Eclipse restaurant for you! Just so you could see what I could do! Maybe then... Maybe then things would change... But not!"
He paused. Then his face turned depressed.
"Nothing has changed. You didn't understand! You thought I had some bullshit grudge."
He took deep breaths and looked at Lucy as if waiting for a reaction. A look of regret crossed his face, knowing that all his years of effort had meant nothing. He had let go of the grudge he had taken refuge in. His anger had turned to exasperation:
"What more do you want me to do? Do you want me to go and destroy the royalty? What do I have to do to make you realize my love?"
With that, Victor collapsed. His legs were weak. After so much emotional intensity, after expressing the feelings of his youth and his current weariness, he felt a sigh of relief.
Lucy, on the other hand, just remained frozen. Her one eye was twitching. She waited for a while after Victor had finished expressing himself. She had indeed distanced herself from Victor for a while. But it was not intentional.
After a moment, she said these words:
"You could have said it directly. I never tried to put up a wall or anything like that. I focused on my work like anyone would."
She continued with a slightly regretful expression:
"I apologize if I neglected to talk to you in the meantime. I've always... I've always considered you as my closest person after my family."
Then her expression of regret turned to anger.
"I never told you to go and open a restaurant, you didn't have to try to accomplish anything. You could have just said it, like now."
Lucy looked at Victor. There was a fire in her eyes. But rather than the hostile anger of before, she was openly condemning him.
"I love you. These three words are not so difficult to express. You don't have to be a brawler or a restaurant owner. After all..."
At that moment she paused, the word escaping her mouth. As Victor stood silent, his eyes lit up at Lucy's words.
"What do you mean?"
Lucy panicked when she realized what she had said. She hurriedly tried to talk her way out of it:
"What do I mean? I don't mean, mean anything, I wish you'd just come right out and say it, that's what I mean."
Victor finally seemed to understand something, but he didn't get the answer he wanted. But if he had been patient until now, he could be patient for the answer. He already knew. He knew from her behavior. That she too loved him.
Some things couldn't be straightforward. Still, it was comforting to know that he was not in the friendzone of Lucy.