𝐒𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 - ★彡[ᴀʟʜᴀɪᴛʜᴀᴍ]彡★

𝟏𝟕 - 𝐂𝐎𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃

*This chapter is from Alhaitham's POV. (I forgot to change the chapter name when I first released it oops)

   

When I first met her, I didn't think anything of it. She was a typical office worker, not too extraordinary nor below average either. That's why, when she accepted my fake marriage proposal, I was somewhat surprised. Along the list of people I had lined up to ask, the probability of her accepting had been a one-in-five chance.

    Although I had to ask several things of her that one wouldn't normally accept, she didn't even bat an eye. Sometimes I felt suffocated around her due to the fact that I was doing nothing but manipulating her.

    She had exceeded my expectations in her overall performance and stature. Although she had a strange obsession with otome games, I let it slide due to the fact it seemed to familiarize her with acting in such a romantic way. When Ayato saw through our act, it was due to my own incompetence, not hers.

    I felt frustrated. She, who always acted so cheerful and energized, seemed to trust me as her boss. Coming into my room late at night and creating shadows as if we were in intercourse is an... awkward situation to say the least.

    Yet she came in with such confidence that I wouldn't attempt to hurt or take advantage of her that I, once again, felt pressured. She seemed to fill the position that was necessary for the job to a tee. It was a situation that was almost too good to be true, and when Ayato came with information on her, I was more or less intrigued.

    We began to grow closer and more familiar with each other. We ate our meals together, and she introduced me to several new things. I began to find that the time I spent with her seemed less of an obligation and more of an everyday occurrence, a time that I found myself somewhat looking forward to.

    But it all came crashing down when I was informed her father died. I was strictly told that if I were to inform her of this matter, I would be shunned by the media and public alike.

    In the grand scheme of things, I had to acknowledge that it was more important for me to uphold the reputation of my company than the respect of a single woman.

    The fact that I was keeping such an important fact from her began to weigh on me whenever I saw her, who smiled at me— a being who was undeserving of any sort of compassion she would give. I didn't deserve to eat the food she prepared for me, nor of the warm sentiments and comfort she provided.

    This girl who had always spoken to me first, one day, came crashing down before my eyes.

    In a way I had never seen before, she had been panicking, her normally charismatic front dissipating and showing nothing but a fragile, mourning soul.

    Her fragile body wracked with uncontrollable sobs, I watched her apologize profusely and meekly submit to the person on the other end of the phone.

    Tell her. It's not fair to keep this from her.

    My inner thoughts were screaming at me, my morals torn apart as I stared at her. She, who had given my bleak and mundane life a semblance of color, the one who trusted me more than anyone ever had—

    All I could do was provide her an artificial shoulder to lean on. Even now, I could not change my morals to the point where I would tell her what I knew.

    I was, undeniably, a coward.

    She, without knowing this, embraced me and held onto me.

    Let me be selfish, just this once.

    I wanted to protect her, but I wasn't sure why. There was no reason or meaning that I could pinpoint behind these emotions, it was simply just a feeling.

    Pouring gently into a wine glass, the emotions had been slowly filling up, spilling down onto me and leaving a permanent stain beyond removal. It was too late to clean it up, as it had dried long ago. No matter how hard I tried to wipe it away, I knew it would never fade.

    And so, this is how I came to the simple conclusion that I, for the first time, found myself enjoying her presence by my side.

    My employee, my client, my 'wife,' my companion— none of those titles mattered to me anymore. I found myself wishing for her to be happy, and that was all.

    "If it's not you, it doesn't matter. There's no one else that could do the job."

    After the words left my mouth, I found that familiar suppressing emotion in my chest. How could I be so selfish? I cursed myself for placing that invisible burden on her, then retreating right afterwards like a coward.

    Honestly, I had brought this upon myself. I knew that she wouldn't forgive me for keeping this information from her, yet in the end I chose to prioritize my company.

    In the business world, you must choose to either allow personal relationships to prosper or your own work. Someone who chose their personal relationships would never be able to run a stable company.

    There was no point in wishful thinking.

    I had made my choice, and the consequences were now rising to the surface. If I traveled back in time, I still would've done the same thing.

    I didn't need her forgiveness, and it wasn't necessary.

    If she will eventually grow to be happy once more, then that's all that I need.

hey guys, thank you for over 35k reads and almost 1k followers I'm actually in shock rn lmaoo
Sorry for the wait on this chapter, I've been super busy with schoolwork and stuff but i hope this was satisfactory. I wanted to provide a bit of Alhaitham's perspective on the situation. Im low key disappointed that he isn't evil in the archon quest but I'm grateful that he dissed paimon loll. He looked so fine in the cutscene w cyno i stg. Once again, if you want to know immediately when chapters come out, feel free to join my (and a couple other authors') discord server #linkinbio #smashthatlikebutton
<3, Wasabi