He gently rubbed his warm thumb over her cold skin until she calmed down, as he usually did every time she nearly exploded due to her turbulent emotions.
Charlotte was so sensitive and so restless, a double-edged vessel divided by black and white.
On reflection, Leonid has not lived near Charlotte for more than a month and a few days, and yet he knows her well, which makes it all the more pathetically obvious.
Charlotte's character was easy for eyes like Leonid's to know.
Charlotte's black eyes were shining like orbs as she tried to contain the tears inside her while looking into Leonid's eyes, this was heavy on her heart, why was she weak when she could crush anyone in front of her.
Leonid continued to rub his thumb over Charlotte's skin. Based on her cold skin, it was ruled that she had been teased utside the apartment building.
Well, Leonid had to revise the plan.
Was it really helpful to force Charlotte to talk since what happened to her happened outside the apartment building?
After thinking, even if Leonid does not benefit anything later. He had already made up his mind and was not going to back down from finding out why Charlotte looked so broken.
Charlotte may be dramatic sometimes, but when she refuses to talk about what happened to her, it means there is something wrong with her.
In addition to seeing her red face that looked like she was about to cry somehow.
"At least tell me what happened."
Leonid whispered gently, hoping to get an answer from her.
It's been a while already and she still refuses to tell him anything.
"Charlotte."
His warm breath was hitting Charlotte's face, but she was in no mood to blush under Leonid's influence.
Today's Charlotte certainly exceeded Leonid's expectations.
"please."
She moved her free hand and tried to push Leonid away from her.
"Let me go."
Charlotte politely demanded that he let her go.
"no."
But Leonid, who had a different opinion, insisted on making her tell him everything.
"Tell me first."
He stopped Charlotte from pushing him away and moving one step further. He caught her other hand in his fist and gently pinned her to the wall.
"I won't let you go until you tell me everything, okay?"
If Charlotte was stubborn, Leonid was more stubborn than her.
When he finished speaking, Leonid smelled something coming from Charlotte's chestnut hair or perhaps her body in general.
This smell was familiar to him as a smoker, but why was this smell so attached to Charlotte, the woman who had always quarreled with him because he had once smoked next to her?
"This smell. Have you been smoking?"
"no!"
Charlotte immediately denied Leonid's accusations against her. It was a shame that she would smell like cigarettes and get caught by Leonid, but what was done was done, and she couldn't do anything now.
"Then why do you smell like cigarettes?"
"This is because…"
Charlotte pressed herself to tell Leonid without shedding a single tear. She closed her eyes tightly and said in one go.
"There's a guy who blew his cigarette smoke right in my face!"
"Who did what?"
Leonid felt his mind stop for a moment. Did she really say that a man blew cigarette smoke in her face? Where and who was doing this at this time?
"A man I don't know came out of nowhere and sat next to me on a chair in the garden, then blew cigarette smoke in my face twice for no reason."
Charlotte confessed what happened to her while still keeping her eyes closed and resisting the tears.
"On top of that, he was a very rude and provocative man."
"Well did you confront him then?"
"No, I didn't do anything."
Leonid narrowed his eyes at Charlotte's unexpected but unwanted answer.
"seriously."
Leonid exhaled deeply and let go of Charlotte's hands and stepped back, brushing his hair back and lifting it away from his sharp eyes. He was trying hard not to yell at her.
Just what do you expect from a woman like Charlotte, a sweet and naive woman to the core, who will not be able to act forcefully in front of those who try to tease her, but why?!
Leonid turned his icy blue eyes and stared at Charlotte, who lowered her gaze. He knew that she knew how foolish she now seemed to him.
"Listen, I feel compelled to ask you this, just tell me why you didn't do anything about the person who tried to teases you… no wait."
Leonid raised his hand at her and then said again in a sharp way at the words.
"I mean the one who really teased you?"
Leonid was prepared to hear two answers, a logical one that might improve his mood somewhat, and an emotional one that might cause him a nervous breakdown that Charlotte would not be happy about.
After thinking, how would Leonid get another answer.
As someone like Charlotte who was raised with good manners and such, there would be no room for anything other than emotion to win, and based on her response Leonid would not be able to hold back his anger anymore.
"I didn't do anything to him because…"
Charlotte paused for a moment to think after muttering.
Honestly, she didn't quite know why she wasn't doing anything. There was no word why when she decided to leave the garden and leave that man alone.
Did she act out of fear for herself or for the sake of her valuable principles?
But what about the other side, what if she didn't do anything to that man so that someone else wouldn't call her a scary, horrible woman?
Since when did she start thinking this way?
"Because I…"
Charlotte continued to stretch in a low voice, confused as if she had many different answers based on her feelings, which she couldn't separate.
"I don't know… "
"You don't know, really?!"
Leonid smiled in amusement and rolled his eyes at Charlotte's answer, seriously wondering how far she wanted to go to make him lose his mind and show her the cruel taste of life.
For Leonid, introversion is not a defect, but to be as spontaneous and naive as Charlotte is a crime against yourself. In this case no one will stop taking advantage of Charlotte because of her good thinking side.
Because she remains silent, she will definitely become the weakest link in front of everyone, and then her life will not be happy at all.
"Hheh."
Leonid laughed a soft, light laugh. It was funny that this woman occupied a space in his mind that he himself could not account for and deal with, as he dealt with others.
Leonid narrowed his eyes and suddenly his fist hit the wall behind Charlotte's head.
Since when had he become so interested in her, he couldn't be so cruel to her without feeling pressure on his chest.
Charlotte flinched as Leonid's fist slammed into the wall next to her head. She looked at him with wide eyes and tried to say something with her trembling lips, but she couldn't.
"You…"
Leonid whispered coldly and slowly approached Charlotte's face, no longer caring about the safe distance between them to the point that his nose collided with hers.
"Master…Leonid."
"You are incredibly pathetic Charlotte."
He whispered very coldly and continued to stare into Charlotte's teary eyes. If this woman did not want to change her very good personality, Leonid would do so and give her the change card at his own expense.
"Don't you know this too?"
"no. "
Charlotte answered as she felt the wet heat flowing over her eyelids.
"I know. I know very well that I'm pathetic, and I also know that I'm so naive and stupid and self-righteous that it disgusts anyone, even my family…"
"You know all this and yet you continue to remain the same."
Leonid moved his hands to Charlotte's cheek and wiped her tear-filled eyelids with his thumb.
"Answer me honestly, Charlotte. Do you really like what you're doing to yourself?"
"What do I do with myself?"
Charlotte closed her eyes and felt the warmth of Leonid's hands on her cheeks and his thumb wiping away her tears.
"Yes, do you like being in this miserable state, weak, shaky and pathetic?"
Leonid continued to speak at a low, cold pace, while his hands continued to move at a warm pace on Charlotte's cheeks.
"No one wants to be like that or likes that, but I would like to hear your answer. Even if your answer is yes, I will be prepared not to go crazy because of you."
"Why do you think I would say yes?"
Charlotte smiled faintly despite the intense tears sliding down her cheeks.
"You should know that the choice was not mine from the beginning."
"Are you playing the victim now, Charlotte, huh?"
"Of course I don't!"
Charlotte suddenly became emotional and pushed Leonid with his chest away from her, but Leonid did not budge from his place. She began to feel disgusted by his closeness to her, and the need to leave now before she revealed details that she did not want to tell anyone.
"Well, do you blame your family and the society around you!?"
"Let me go, I don't want to talk to you!"
"You know, there is no family that raises its children to be victims in this dark world."
"Maybe you're right but you don't know anything, you're not me so you can decide for me‼"
Tears streamed down Charlotte's cheeks, yet she did not stop screaming at Leonid.
"You don't know how i was raised! i lived in a house that told me to give up myself and my dreams to please them!"
Leonid slowly pulled his head back and continued to hold Charlotte's cheeks in his fist. He didn't want to say it out loud, but seeing Charlotte now revealing some points to him made him indirectly happy.
"You're not the one who gets tossed aside and held accountable for other people's mistakes, okay!"
Charlotte clenched her fists and her nails penetrated her soft skin. She wanted to stop and keep her mouth shut so as not to tell Leonid more, but she was unable to do anything. I suddenly felt the urge to reveal everything.
"How can I live now! How!... Because of you, because of them, because of everyone, I don't want to live anymore. I've had enough of you and this world!"
Charlotte covered her face with her hands and cried bitterly. Her glass heart, which she had built over the previous years, was shattering into small pieces, leaving her deeply wounded.
She had always buried everything inside her, which made her even more indiscriminately emotional in front of Leonid.
"You can live as you want."
Even though she was weaker than Leonid expected her to be, he was not going to abandon her now that she had blown up in his face like this.
"You don't have to give in to anyone."
Leonid continued to speak and did not give up holding Charlotte's cheeks in his grip.
"You don't have to bear anyone's mistakes."
Leonid raised Charlotte's head and moved her hands away from her face.
"And of course you don't have to leave this world after you have enjoyed the right to live in it."
Leonid's voice was calm and low. He rested his forehead on Charlotte's and stared into her eyes with an indecipherable look. Seeing the warm tears streaming down Charlotte's reddened face was activating reactions inside his chest that he didn't know were still there, things Leonid had been hiding since he was a sixteen-year-old teenager.
"I will always be by your side."
Leonid said gently and caressed Charlotte's cheeks with his thumb. Maybe it's time to admit that Charlotte has a special place in his heart from the beginning until now.
The woman who tried to communicate with him even though she was suffering from social phobia, the woman who stayed up until he returned from work in the middle of the night, the woman who invited him to breakfast, lunch and dinner several times to offer him some food and comfort.
She is cute in a way that he did not accept at first, and dear to his heart in the end.
This was the story of Leonid's crush and the reason for his intense monitoring of Charlotte. He didn't doubt her as much as he doubted the people around her. He always wanted her safe and occupied only with him.
Was he cruel in his treatment of her? Well, he was always cruel to those around him, and he could tell that Charlotte always had a soft side to him which he never showed to anyone.
Leonid stared at Charlotte, who cried and snorted and wiped her eyes and face several times. She was sniffling and shaking in his hands most of the time.
Leonid looked at her and was quite sure that he did not enjoy seeing her tears at all. He may have had a passion for teasing her, but dropping her tears was his last dark requirement.
He moved and pulled her to his chest and hugged her.
"It's okay, you can cry as much as you want."
Leonid consoled Charlotte, rubbing her back with one hand and gently caressing her hair with the other, while resting his chin on the top of her head.
"I hope you don't hate me later."
Leonid whispered lowly and kept Charlotte's embrace.