𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐌𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞 (𝐑𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐢 X 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫)

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 25: 𝑮𝑹𝑨𝑽𝑬 𝒀𝑨𝑹𝑫

Love, according to a philosopher, S. Z., is dangerous.

It's both dangerous in a good and bad way. You'll lose your balance when you're in love because you'll devote yourself to the person you love, renouncing whatever it is that needs to be renounced. It's bizarre if you think of it, but it is what it is.

I'm Y/n Serizawa, the Serizawa clan's first granddaughter, and the one who is said to inherit the serpent will of my mother. I'm famed for prudence, intangibility, obsequiousness, and purity; but that's all a façade now, there's always something simmering underneath the surface. I have now become obnoxious, vile, and nefarious on my own volition-for love, for Ran.

To keep Ran with me, I dived into the pool of my own bloodcurdling vices. Running away would be my best option because no matter how sincere my love for him, to the eyes of the people in my world, Ran is a gardener and I am a rose, if put together, It's like a mere gardener holding a rose-unfit and eye-burning to look at. Whilst Takashi complements the rose, a prince, a future head of the Mitsuya clan.

What I'm doing right now has everything to do with the love I have for him-for it is true love.

To live is to suffer, and to love is to suffer, and I'm willing to suffer and lie to his face and to everyone else to get what I want.

Why shouldn't I love Ran? I adore him; he's my first love, my first kiss, and the first person with whom I've shared my body. The man I'd like to spend the rest of my life with.

"Y/n, for God's sake, I love you so much, how can I say no?"

Takashi is fighting back the urge to break down right in front of me as I just told him half of my plans.

Everyone is watching, we're in the garden, and everyone is inside watching Takashi propose to me, as the clans had planned.

They had no idea Takashi would be my way out and I'm working on it.

Some of them are crying and clutching their chests, believing Takashi and I are overly emotional over this proposal.

"Am I just really just brother to you?" Takashi asks, tears streaming down his face, "even to what happened to us that night? Do I really doesn't have a chance against that Ace you want to run away with?"

"Takashi, I'd burn anything for that person, including myself just for him. I know I'm asking too much, but you're my only way out of here."

"Can you tell me you love me just once?"

"Takashi-kun," I say, holding his face, "I love you-as a best friend and a brother, and if you're going to ask for more, even just to say it, I won't, If can't say it under pretense then I'm not going to say it at all."

Takashi chews his lower lip, suppressing his cry for mercy. "You're selfish, Y/n, and blind as well, yet I can't bring myself to hate you! I've loved you for as long as I can remember. I love you more than a best friend should've, but why can't you feel the same for me? In twenty years of my life, I cry for countless nights because I know for a fact you'll love someone else and that that would never be me! But I've always wanted what's best for you, even if it meant hurting me; I love you so much it hurts."

I hug him and stroke his hair, assuring him that what happened to us was our mistake.

Takashi-kun agreed, and after this dinner, he'll excuse both of us; no one will suspect anything, not even my parents or his parents; then we'll pick up Ran at his apartment; I told him to wait for me because we're going on a secret escapade; and finally, we'll use Takashi's private plane to get to their safehouse in Vietnam. After that, we would split ways with Takashi and go somewhere he doesn't know. Of course, Ran has no idea what's going to happen, I'll deceive him into thinking we're just having fun. I'm sure he wouldn't react badly to Takashi because he is clueless that I am aware of his relationship with Saeki. I haven't told Takashi about Ran and Saeki's old heinous relationship either because I'm worried he'll lash out.