By Zephyria 
Hugo’s eyes distorted at the cold question.
“…Leo.”
His sunken voice sounded intentionally stern.
To know nothing about the person with whom one had shared their heart. In a way, that was a stumbling block hindering the development of this relationship, and a fact he had not wanted to confirm. Yet, the very person who caused it was now pushing him away and using it as a means of rebuttal, even as Hugo desperately wanted to know. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t hurt.
“You ask what makes me so certain? When you can’t even remember? Fine, since you brought it up.”
It was only natural that subtle emotions laced his handsome brows and low voice.
“As you said, I don’t know everything about you. Sometimes I even wonder if there’s anything I actually do know. Because if you were to suddenly disappear one day, I couldn’t even be certain if I’d ever be able to meet you again.”
Though the underlying meaning was poignant, his tone was colder than anything Leonardo had heard recently. The corners of Leonardo’s lips faltered.
The pride he had held onto, intending to respond regardless of what was said, soon became useless. This was because a void, rarely seen in the eyes of the man who was always so aloof, was bleeding through.
“You asked why I came. If that wasn’t your purpose for visiting, you could have just met me later.”
Hugo repeated Leonardo’s own words back to him, taking another step forward even though there was no space left to move. Their feet, facing each other, overlapped, the outside of one shoe touching the inside of the other. Both felt the nerves in their thighs prickle as they were pressed firmly together. Even if they tried not to show it, the sensation was transmitted.
“I don’t know what ‘purpose’ you’re referring to, but if you mean an intention to fluster you and your teammates, you’re wrong. If I had truly come before you for that purpose, I wouldn’t have waited until they left. I would have just kissed you right in front of them.”
“…What?”
“I’m saying I wouldn’t have bothered playing the part of a petty gentleman. More than that, something else was more important to me.”
Hugo, who had no memory of ever exposing his emotions so nakedly in his life, wavered precariously between the reason trying to regain composure and the tide of his sincerity. Leonardo was quite flustered by the man’s words and actions, yet he glimpsed a turmoil in those blue eyes that matched his own.
It seemed as though he were pouring out his suppressed inner feelings, but in reality, he was lamenting his own loss of control. As if to prove this, a word like a sigh escaped from the lips that had been moving calmly.
“…I felt like I had to see you today.”
The heart conveyed through the eyes that closed and opened slowly and the low-set voice was incredibly fragile.
Leonardo’s gaze, which had been about to sharpen, softened in an instant.
“…Why?”
“That we met in the past, and that you remember that moment.”
The fingers that had still been infiltrating the collar of the glove took advantage of the gap to envelop the warmth entirely. The hand, which had been pushed away while caressing the lips, moved toward the cheek that had turned red, perhaps due to the heat of the mine.
“When I hear that you were aware of me even in a fleeting moment of time, how could I possibly not come find you?”
The gaze and touch that spoke those words flowed down Leonardo’s neckline and eventually settled on the collar of the magic robe he was wearing. Though his appearance was clean enough to make it hard to believe he had just finished a match, the man deliberately smoothed the fabric, tidying his disheveled attire.
Under an affection where tone and action were mismatched, the frozen Leonardo finally managed to speak.
“Is that important to you?”
“Of course it is. You might have been waiting.”
Facing those blue eyes, Leonardo clamped his mouth shut. His eyes, wary of letting emotion show, cast downward. As he suppressed his heart, which was already beginning to soften just from hearing a few caring words, Hugo tilted his head and entwined their gazes once more.
“I may not know everything about you, but it’s not as if I gained nothing during the time we spent together. You are exceptionally sensitive to the act of waiting, and your manner of speaking turns cold when you close your heart. You always live with a head full of thoughts, so you rarely do anything meaningless. Therefore, the fact that you wore the clothes I gifted you… must be evidence that there has been some change in your feelings.”
The Gold Eyes unconsciously looked down at the clothes he was wearing. An ivory magic robe that now roughly fit his body, which had gained muscle and flesh. It was the winged garment this man had given him for the day he would regain his freedom after being released.
For Leonardo, it was a highly symbolic token.
“That hunch led me here. Though not in a very positive way. You always tried to leave me while wearing those clothes.”
At those words, the golden eyelashes shot upward. It was because he hadn’t known that the token he kept to himself would mean the same to this man.
“No—”
He tried to reflexively deny the words, but the other’s expression caught his eye first. In the eyes cast in deep shadow, there was a mixture of the urgency and bitterness that had been tangled on the tip of his tongue.
Meanwhile, a large hand tenderly brushed back the bangs that had fallen. As if trying not to miss the meeting of their eyes.
“You whisper softly when you like me, but last night, the voice you sent me was freezing. Was I wrong? Hmm?”
The large man asked pressingly. It didn’t suit him, but that made it more stirring. Only then did Leonardo realize why he had come to find him so urgently.
Suddenly, moments from the past where this man had made such a face came to mind.
‘Did he think I was going to distance myself?’
When he tried to run away atop the great tree of the peninsula. And when they shared their final farewells before a parting in front of the closed waiting room.
Looking back at his attire then, the same clothes were pictured in every instance. Of course, the latter was a new garment made in the image of the former, but since the giver’s intention was for it to replace the first, it was effectively the same clothing.
In other words, this meticulous Duke seemed to have taken even a small piece of his pettiness so seriously. It was a complete reversal of the situation from just a few months ago. Just because his tone was a bit cold, just because he wore those clothes. Looking at the man who seemed to have agonized so much while weighing his inner feelings, Leonardo felt quite strange.
After reflecting for a moment, Leonardo let out a dry, intentional chuckle. Then, staring with narrowed eyes, he barely managed to open his blocked throat.
“You’re really an idiot.”
Hugo’s eyebrows reacted minutely. It was likely the first time in his life he had heard such a thing.
Leonardo needlessly tapped the man’s chest with the back of his hand.
“Whether it’s before leaving or not. Wearing gifted clothes means you wanted to show them to that person.”
“…….”
“It means I woke up, washed, got ready, and put them on piece by piece. Doesn’t that mean I’m paying an immense amount of attention? Wouldn’t I want to meet just because I’m curious about the giver’s reaction? Do I really have to explain that in words?”
Asking back with a furrowed brow, Leonardo whipped his head away.
“You’re quick-witted in other areas, but with this, you’re really….”
His voice trailed off in embarrassment. This man was hopeless, but what was so great about himself that he was stepping forward to chatter about it….
The resentment and agitation from last night, which had been lodged in his chest, began to melt away of their own accord. Even though it was his own mood, he couldn’t pin it down.
He swung between heaven and hell with every single word the other spoke. That love-hate relationship, like dominance and submission formed long ago, was utterly annoying and exhausting. It was only natural that a sigh mixed with frustration escaped.
“I—”
Rubbing his furrowed brow, Leonardo bit his lip and endured.
Honestly, when he heard the first words from the Communication Magic Tool, it was true that he had been so excited that his breath stopped at the expectation that the other might remember. But that was short-lived; what he brought was a half-memory. No, it was merely a suspicion of whether they had met before.
The resentment doubled as much as the inflated expectation.
If he had just lived in resignation, there would be no disappointment, but seeing a glimmer of hope that he might remember made him want to act like a spoiled child. Hearing the fragments of memories he had chewed over alone directly from this man’s mouth caused the emotions stored in a corner of his heart to surge uncontrollably.
Those emotions looked back at his past days of clinging to the possibility that they could become a destiny, and the long resentment he had suffered in loneliness with nowhere to go.
As if asking him to recognize the weight of his waiting.
But he didn’t want to say all that with his own mouth.
Leonardo stared at the remaining small gap between them and let out a complaint like a sigh.
“People say the Duke of Agrizendro is a genius like no other in the world, a brilliant Monarch.”
Instead, he glanced at the man’s chest visible diagonally. He extended his palm over it.
“It was all a lie. You don’t know a thing.”
Feeling the strong heartbeat spreading across the wide surface, he pushed the jacket aside and pulled out the navy blue tie neatly arranged inside. He wrapped the sliding piece of fabric around his fingers, applied strength, and yanked him sharply toward himself.
It happened so quickly that Hugo had no time to react.
Soft lips touched the cheek that had been pulled in. A kiss that didn’t even make a sound. Unlike the sharp eyes, the breath lingering on the skin was fresh.