Despite sleeping the whole day in The library, Avian managed to have a long, peaceful night. It was to the point that she needed someone to wake her up.
That morning, she woke up with a bit of a headache. It was most likely due to how much she had been sleeping, she guessed.
Funnily enough, there was a shadow towering on her once she tried to open her eyes.
Meeting those eyes, the young woman closed her eyes again and convinced herself: 'I am dreaming, I am still sleeping.'
"How can you sleep this much? That's almost a whole day."
Zenith, utterly unphased with her poor attempt to ignore him, sat down on the bed and teased. His slender finger poked her cheek a few times; a friendly teasing to wake her up.
The gesture was met with a light glare, 'I'm still sleeping.'
Pffft~
Zenith had to stifle his laughter while teasing her more, "Young man, wake up. You slept the entire day yesterday and now I find you sleeping in your room, too?"
"You're right, I slept for almost a day. Even my head is beating."
"My my, the sleeping beauty had finally awoken. I think I'm way better than that prince~"
Unaware of how his words sounded to Avian, Zenith was expecting her to snap at him again. However, he was surprised when she sat up reluctantly and rubbed her eyes.
Despite sleeping all that time, her appearance indicated how exhausted she was. Zenith bit his lower lip and lowered his head.
What could he do more? Did he say something wrong? Interacting with Avian seemed like a mysterious gamble where he was either losing everything or winning tiny bits of her affection.
'Did I offend her with my joke?'
The answer was no, but Zenith had no way of realizing that. Especially now since he was afraid to ask and annoy Avian further.
Unknown to him, Avian did not feel offended or bothered with his statement. Instead, she was thinking of how Carlos had left her the other day after the words she said to him.
A simple question lingered in her mind.
'Zenith or the Crown Prince.'
Choosing one of the two was not a possibility she would accept. If she was honest with herself, she at least likes Carlos. As for Zenith? Avian could not feel anything about it yet. If one day she was forced to decide to have only one of them, Avian was sure she would choose the Crown Prince.
'But I won't choose someone over another.'
Avian did not want to choose. She knew her options and she had already decided what she wanted to do. She would take both the Crown Prince, Carlos, and the Duke's heir, Zenith.
Her heart was surely going to accept the two of them as she also made them slowly fall for her. Carlos was easier as he knew more about her and would not abandon her any time soon.
'The one I need to work for is actually Zenith.'
As they just met recently, their knowledge of each other was shallow. It was not anything that could help them to establish a relationship, thus Avian decided to make the progress slow.
"Can you hand me that note?"
After sorting out her thoughts, Avian asked Zenith to bring her the note she saw yesterday. He blinked as he stared at the note, "Do you have friends or secret admirers already?"
"Heh, I don't think so," letting out a soft chuckle, Avian took the note and started reading it. Her brows furrowed, "It's an invitation for an apology?"
"Huh?"
"The note is saying the owner is wishing to apologize to me for the misunderstanding she made. Apparently she spread a small nasty rumor about me and is trying to apologize to me now."
Frowning, Zenith remembered something.
"Yesterday when I was asking about you around, no one told me anything. But their faces seemed to be weird. Not in a bad way, but as if it was teasing me or something."
'Teasing?'
Confused, Avian found herself doubting this message even more. But there was a name written on the end of the note with a message.
『Would you accept my apology?』
『Alina Rose』
"It's a lady from high society, her father is a low-ranking noble, however, he got the right skills to lick his way to the top. I doubt her father would be amused knowing his daughter tried messing with me, even with our current messy situation."
Shrugging her shoulders, Avian left the bed and grabbed a new suit before leaving for her bathroom.
"I will go, though."
"Should I accompany you?" leaning on the door, Zenith asked. He hoped Avian would say yes, but unfortunately she disappointed him again.
"Nope."
➳༻❀✿❀༺➳
'I probably should have agreed when Zenith asked me to join.'
Zenith found herself to be the only 'male' in this party with Lady Alina sticking as close as possible to her. Not only that, Alina dragged her to the corner while saying she wanted to apologize or something.
So now, she was face to face with Alina, who was somehow going around in circles and refusing to tell her anything about the rumor she was spreading.
What was worse than that, Avian's body was acting weird.
She finally was fed up, as heat was rushing to her head, "Get to the point."
"But I, I,..."
Alina stuttered and stalled on purpose, she was ecstatic internally while watching Avians's face twisting into various expressions.
'It's working, hehehe,' her eyes moved toward the cup next to them. Avian walked straight to her doom once she agreed to drink that thing.
'This slut fell to the most basic trick in the book, heh.'
"I'm sorry!" Alina finally decided to say something, "I saw you and Lord Zenith together and told the other young ladies about it. I had no idea they would misunderstand me!"
"What?"
But Alina did not say anything anymore, she ran from the room after pushing Avian away, rendering her utterly speechless.
"What the hell is wrong with this woman…" groaning uncomfortably, Avian leaned on the wall and closed her eyes. Her body was getting increasingly hot, which could not be natural.
Her gaze fell on the cup she was drinking and she could not help but frown in confusion.
Usually, females drugged other males to seduce them. If Alina thought she was a guy, why would she drug her and leave the room? Something was fishy, but Avian could not pinpoint it.
Closing her eyes and trying to suppress the drug effect somehow, Avian did not notice when someone sneaked into the room, until–
A pair of soft lips pressed harshly against her own, making her heart jump.