i became the villainess twin sister

Part 23

Alver could admit when he was beaten.

More or less.

It behooved his ego to give in to acknowledge that he still could be defeated even after all his accomplishments but the reason he had become so successful to begin with was due to his hyper realistic assessment of his own capabilities.

It might not be his ideal state of affairs but it was better to accept a loss than to be ignorant of it.

Cale Henituse, despite her complete victory over him, seemed largely ignorant that she had managed to do so. Alver really didn't know how to feel about that. On one hand, it was probably for the best that she couldn't lord it in his face, but on the other hand it made it abundantly clear that she had defeated him so thoroughly without putting in any effort to do so.

It placed him in quite a complicated position.

Especially when faced with the ferocious beauty inches away from his face, her reddish brown eyes blazing with a determined fire that had a bad habit of stealing his breath away.

They say that the first one to fall is the loser. A ridiculous sentiment that compared romance to competition and ultimately sounded like the cruel jeering of an unseemly person.

Alver hadn't understood those words when he'd first heard them. He had deduced immediately that whoever had come up with this common knowledge was a deeply cynical and insidious person. Mocking those that developed feelings for him with cruel adages and a lack of compassion.

Alver understood the meaning now.

While his initial assessment might have indeed been accurate, it was also quite clear now why unrequited feelings felt so much like a loss.

The woman before him with her sharp words and her fiery personality could probably ask him for just about anything and he would grant it for her without a second thought. That was a dangerous amount of power for anyone to yield over another individual and yet, the idea of relinquishing that power was unthinkable.

The loss that came with falling in love with a person who didn't hold any such affection for you was the very real self imposed power imbalance.

And Cale had absolutely no idea, which somehow managed to make the whole thing just that much more worse.

The grip on his collar was a definite flagrant disregard for etiquette and could even be considered a bit treasonous but Alver didn't have any such thoughts. In one exhilarating moment, he'd realized that he lost and he would gladly lose a million more times if it meant that she kept her eyes on him.

What an utterly foolish sentiment.

Cale's hiss met his ears and snapped him out of his dramatic revelations. "What the hell are you doing here?"

That was a fair question. The trouble was that Alver didn't have a good answer.

He'd heard that the Henituse twins would be attending lady Orsena's tea party at the ducal gardens and from Cale's last letter, he knew that she had no desire to be there and a deep disdain for lady Orsena.

It was still the social season and they had certain expectations to meet though and Alver also had to attend a gentleman's party to celebrate the recent success of the Gyerre families heir. There was absolutely no good reason for Alver to be wandering these gardens around the time for the tea party to come to an end.

Yet he'd come. He hadn't realized why he'd snuck away to such a place until this moment but it was blatantly obvious now that she was glaring at him like that.

For whatever reason, Cale had chosen to drag him to a corner and practically pin him to a wall while she questioned him. He reflected this was the second time that she had more or less kidnapped him.

She really had some fearless audacity.

From the first time he'd laid eyes on her, she'd done what she wanted how she wanted to. Making Venion Stan suffer without any regard for her own reputation. Or rather, in order to enhance her bad reputation while getting back at a man she despised.

This alone made Alver relatively confident that Cale didn't actually hate him. If she did, it was unlikely that he would fare any better than Venion had. His position as crown prince really didn't shake her determination in the slightest.

"I came to see you."

Alver was probably more surprised at the shockingly honest words climbing out of his mouth than Cale was to hear them. Her eyes widened and he was treated with the shocking sight of pink blossoming on her pale cheeks.

The moment didn't last however. There was a rustle from somewhere in the garden and she placed a hand over Alver's mouth, glaring off into the maze of perfectly manicured plants and flowers towards the source of the noise.

"...did she go?"

Alver recognized the voice quickly as Cale's sister. Roksu also had quite a way of making an impression, although his interest in Roksu remained entirely platonic.

The pair remained hidden from view as Roksu and Choi Han walked past obliviously, hands held as they talked about the mysterious disappearance of Cale.

Alver, a bit more attuned to Choi Han's strength, was uncomfortably aware that Choi Han must have noticed them but chose not to share that information with the girl beside her. It didn't seem as though Roksu was in any rush to find Cale though.

As the pair completed their circuit, Alver heard the tail end of the conversation about going out to get sweets together since it was meaningless to search for Cale further. She had, most likely, returned home ahead of them and would be happily drinking her day away.

Cale relaxed once they'd left, releasing her grip on Alver and rolling her eyes at the obvious display of affection between the two women.

Alver was not the most savvy when it came to matters of the heart but it didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening. "You're trying to set them up?"

Cale turned a fierce glare towards him. "Why the hell would I do that?!" She snapped, as though the mere suggestion was a personal affront to her.

Alver fixed her with a look that plainly stated you've kidnapped me twice in the name of giving them private time together and a blind man could see that they're in love .

Cale grunted and pulled back, running a frustrated hand through her hair. "It's just annoying watching them. Idiots who have the self awareness of a goddamn goldfish. It's nauseating."

Alver felt a bit attacked by the insults, despite them being directed elsewhere. He had been listlessly chasing after Cale for some time now without the pivotal realization that he liked her.

If she knew, would she find him nauseating as well?

"It's hardly nauseating." Alver defended, his prickling heart making the rash words come out. "I think their feelings are sweet."

Cale shot him a disgusted look. "What kind of stupid bullshit are you spewing now?"

This was why the first one to fall was the one who lost.

Alver clenched his teeth and looked away, a frown taking over his normally amiable smile. It might not have been meant as such but Cale's words felt like a personal assault on his feelings.

How he felt about her was just stupid bullshit.

"Nothing." Alver said, his voice carefully emotionless as he gently pushed Cale away so that he could escape her imprisonment. He needed to retreat, before he said something that he would regret.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Cale grabbed his wrist impulsively, but he shook off her loose grip and didn't bother to look back at her.

"Nothing." He repeated and left her spiraling in confusion over his strange mood swing.

It was amazing how a single word from her could make him as happy as he'd ever been or as miserable as he could be.

He truly had lost.