As someone who considered herself a generally level-headed person, Noelle wasn’t one to make decisions lightly, only to regret them later. At least, that had been the case before she started mingling with a certain crimson-haired little devil.
Now, she found herself breaking more and more of her taboos, and it made her wonder… how far was ‘too far’?
Although she had already made up her mind to never give an inch when it came to certain ‘principles’ that she considered important, regardless of what had already happened between them, the grey-haired girl still found herself wondering if she had perhaps gone a bit too far by turning down Emilia’s invitation.
The little beauty’s disheartened expression continued to haunt her not only through the rest of that day, but also throughout the night, and the argument she had with Sam didn’t help either.
Needless to say, her expression wasn’t exactly bright when she arrived at the office after being crushed by guilt all night.
The only plus point was that the dark circles on her already stern face terrified the staff into peak efficiency the moment she appeared, boosting their total productivity considerably.
Noelle couldn’t help but sigh. “How could I let myself get caught up in a little girl’s games? It’s only going to hurt the both of us later…”
But no matter how she thought about it, they were already past the point where she could just ‘back out’, and her actions so far only seemed to make everything worse.
At this point, if she tried to ‘break up’ with Emilia or maybe draw a line between them… Based on the crimson-haired beauty’s nature, Noelle was absolutely certain that it was sure to hurt the girl deeply.
On the other hand, if she continued to ‘indulge’ herself as she did… wasn’t hurting Emilia an eventuality?
Certain wounds hurt when they were dealt with, but not dealing with them was not only far from being merciful, but also a far more cruel thing to do.
Even if she could be absolved of personal guilt by indulging Emilia, Noelle wasn’t willing to do so because she believed that this kind of ‘relationship’ wasn’t meant to last, and it was better to hurt her a little now than hurt her a lot more in the future.
But although all of this made sense as she repeated it over and over in her mind while being crushed by guilt last night… what was this tight feeling in her chest?
Various compromises that she could have made without causing any ‘loss’ continued to come to her mind.
Even if she accepted Emilia’s invitation, wouldn’t it have been better to be there to control and monitor the situation? And if things really turned out to be ‘unsalvageable’ even for her, wouldn’t it have been fine for her to leave at that time?
While the crimson-haired beauty was willful and impulsive, Noelle knew that she would never detain her forcefully. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to do so even if she tried, but that was beside the point.
Plus, there always remained the possibility that things weren’t as she thought they were at all, and it really was just a normal dinner.
The fact that Emilia hadn’t contacted her at all since then weighed heavily on her mind, as it completely subverted the expectations she had of her pouting, throwing tantrums, and even crying into her arms.
Having desperately prepared to resist such temptations, Noelle couldn’t help but panic when none of it actually happened. It made her wonder if she was wrong all along, and what Emilia was actually doing.
Her fingers shook as they hovered over Emilia’s name on her phone, but she didn’t have the courage to call her.
”S-She’s probably busy… the compulsory classes must be just finished by now, right? N-No, there’s also that event, so she must be preoccupied. I-I shouldn’t disturb her—!”
The sound of a notification almost made her jump in shock and drop her phone, but thankfully she managed to control herself in time.
Looking at the ‘You have been invited to join the Group [Crimson Rose Sisters]’ message, her mind momentarily turned blank.
Had this not been her private number that was kept strictly confidential except for a select few individuals including important coworkers, Noelle’s first thought would have been that it was some sort of spam.
After hesitating for a while, Noelle still clicked in on the notification to check who invited her, and to her surprise, it wasn’t some coworker, but Dixie!
The gray-haired girl rarely used the messenger app on her phone, aside from sending batch instructions to her subordinates and the occasional ‘minor’ requests from Emilia. After all, calling people directly was not only easier, but also more efficient.
Knowing that the invite came from Dixie, Noelle didn’t think too much about it before accepting it, opening the group chat interface immediately.
[Noelle has joined the Crimson Rose Sisters (4 Members)]
To her surprise, the chat interface was almost completely blank when she arrived, but a couple of ‘typing’ messages appeared almost the moment she joined.
[Knight Lady]: Welcome, Noelle!
[Sugar Roll]: Hello~
Noelle already knew that ‘Knight Lady’ was the alias that Dixie used on messenger, and a quick lookup of the other member’s number revealed that the ‘Sugar Roll’ was actually Emilia’s little classmate, Crystal.
The mysterious third member who hadn’t welcomed her turned out to be Sam, who had the alias of ‘SisterLove’, but Noelle wasn’t surprised considering her phone had been set aside and turned off till she was done with some important documents today.
Looking at their ‘titles’, Noelle couldn’t help but shake her head with a smile. ‘They really are like little children, aren’t they?’
As for her own alias, it was naturally her first name, Noelle.
The thing that surprised her the most was that Emilia wasn’t a part of their group, but it didn’t stop Noelle from calmly returning their greeting and also subtly inquiring about their purpose for inviting her.
The instant ‘typing’ response gave Noelle a bad feeling, as if she had taken a step that she shouldn’t have by simply clicking on ‘accept’ earlier, but unfortunately, it was already too late for her to regret.
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In the Downtown area of Green Leaf city, Jake and Alexander were heading for the airport to receive some ‘important guest’ in vastly different moods.
Jake’s depression was obvious to anyone who bothered to look in his direction, and the reason for his poor mood was actually a certain crimson-haired girl.
After their previous conversation, she hadn’t taken the initiative to send him a message at all — not even a good morning or anything — and the sunny blond boy couldn’t help but wonder if she had only contacted him on a whim.
Naturally, Jake didn’t dare to start one on his own. To him, Emilia’s identity was far more intimidating than her presence was attractive, after all, and he could only console himself by staring at her previous messages from time to time.
Alexander, meanwhile, was in a completely different mood, with a relaxed smile and cool gaze, as if nothing could get in his way.
This was only natural considering that his mother had finally given in to his demands after almost an hour-long argument, and agreed to not only arrange the matter of the ‘Golden Crown’, but also send him a ‘helping hand’ to take care of miscellaneous matters.
The way that gray-haired bitch had dared to manhandle him like that left him with a huge shadow in his heart, but with this ‘helping hand’, he knew that he could finally relax and also get ‘certain things’ done more easily.
Knowing his friend’s nature and looking at his relaxed posture, Jake couldn’t help but wonder if something had happened to make him certain that his ‘conquest’ was an eventuality, as he had been quite furious after leaving the coffee shop that day.
He had also looked up the ‘Golden Crown’ event later, and discovered that it was a grand event with a very limited number of people being invited every year.
To receive an invitation, the minimum qualification one must have was to be either one of the top corporate or social influences in the world, and the number of people attending never exceeded three to four hundred!
How could it be possible for his friend to receive an invitation to such a place? Even if Jake believed in his ability, it wasn’t to such an absurd level! Not to mention the world, the Green Leaf city alone had thousands of people who were better off.
Of course, Jake believed that Alexander had the potential to exceed them in the future, but that wasn’t something that others would take into account.
But Jake didn’t dare to directly question his friend for fear of angering him needlessly, and could only go about in a roundabout manner. “Alex, bro… did something good happen recently? Could it be… did really manage to get that invite?!”
The dark-haired man barely gave him a glance before nodding, but didn’t bother mentioning what it was that made him happy, making Jake’s face sink in depression. ‘A-Alex wouldn’t lie to me… would he? No, I’ve supported him so much, I’ve definitely earned his trust. But then, if he’s not lying… what the hell is going on?!’
The only two possibilities he could think of would be either his ‘big bro’ had some big secret that he was completely kept in dark about, or he’d made some underhanded deal without consulting or even informing him.
To be able to get an invitation to such a big event that he wasn’t even qualified to serve drinks in, whatever deal his ‘big bro’ had made, Jake knew that the risk must definitely be huge. ‘How could he risk everything like that?! I’ve bet everything I have on him!’
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