“You’re still pretty.”

“You’re the only one who says such things to me.”

“You’re still not interested in me.”

“You’re interested in everyone, young master.”

He pretended to be shocked and made an exaggerated crying sound.

“Oh, goodness. Rosaline. When I tried to propose to you as a child, it was sincere.”

“So, are you talking about when you were seven years old, young master?”

“The prime age.”

At his brazenness, Rosaline finally burst into loud laughter. Like Juliet, he was kind to everyone, and he was an innocent man, if innocent, who thought complimenting women on their beauty was the best thing.

Really, unlike someone else.

Wait. Have I been thinking about Romeo this whole time?

“Ah, I knew he’d do that. He said he wouldn’t come.”

It was the moment the music started. As he wrapped his arm around Rosaline’s waist, Tybalt spoke as if he couldn’t help it. Following his gaze, she saw Romeo dancing with Juliet.

Unlike his usually dry attire, his hair was slicked back with pomade, making his sculptural features sparkle under the chandelier. The black vest over his black tunic and the pants that fell with slight room showed his solid body without filter, and the ascetic black color created a strange harmony that made him look even more debauched.

Gasps and sighs burst out around them, but to Rosaline, Romeo looked like a demon who had descended with determination to enchant humans.

His gaze swept over Juliet’s features. As if she were a precious treasure. Though she knew it was merely a fabricated expression, Rosaline couldn’t help but recall Romeo and Juliet’s deaths.

Romeo’s words to discard useless thoughts suddenly came to mind. Could dancing with Juliet so conspicuously be a kind of warning?

Her heart raced uncontrollably, and the moment Romeo’s black eyes slid upward, their eyes met. Her breathing quickened as if she stood at the edge of a cliff.

“Rosaline?”

Tybalt, who felt her pulse directly through their pressed bodies, was flustered. But he looked where Rosaline’s protruding gaze reached and let out a deflated laugh.

“Ah, Rosaline. So you also like handsome ones. That bastard is good-looking, I’ll give him that.”

Romeo’s hand wrapped around Juliet’s back and gently combed through her hanging black hair. It was the hair Rosaline had spent all morning applying balm to and touching.

Juliet’s frowning face looking troubled and Romeo’s deep gaze looking at her as if she were cute.

The two were a perfect picture.

“Romeo Montague refused the title bestowed by the king. I heard they were going to place him as captain of the royal guard.”

In the midst of confusion, Tybalt’s gentle complaint stuck in her ears. He refused? Rosaline asked in a trembling voice.

“……Then does that mean he’ll continue staying in Valher?”

“Probably. There’s a rumor he’ll place a proxy in the territory he received.”

If Romeo continued to stay in Valher, she couldn’t guarantee Juliet wouldn’t fall in love with him.

Rosaline knew how immutable, foolish, and passionate love was. Because she herself loved Juliet as sister, friend, and mistress, she had started that absurd deal with Romeo. And because she still loved Juliet, who was sending her away.

In any case, it was a feeling she had cherished and held onto for a lifetime. It wasn’t an emotion that would disappear easily.

Of course, unlike the past, Rosaline couldn’t imagine Romeo being someone who could love anyone. But if he set his mind to shaking someone, they would surely be shaken.

Just as Rosaline herself was shaken.

Could there be a happy ending if Romeo and Juliet fell in love? No, he would surely create cracks. He would spout lewd words with that clever tongue and lead the once-wise Juliet back down the path of death. It would be a hundred times better if Tybalt jumped out and dueled Romeo like in the old days.

Baseless, irrational thoughts covered Juliet.

‘What should I do?’

Should she do as he wanted after all and just be abandoned?

Though it wasn’t such a grand relationship where they would abandon or not, he wanted her truthful heart. But this relationship was formed through a deal. An unilaterally disadvantageous deal for Rosaline at that.

He didn’t even say why he wanted her. Though he acted emotionally, he didn’t reveal the source of those incomprehensible gazes. She couldn’t figure it out either.

Only Rosaline had been exposed and given everything. No different from loving alone.

If it ended in this state, it would be the same as being abandoned. No, she would surely be abandoned.

She had to find a method.

Through her shattering consciousness, the string instruments’ scale rose as if announcing the dance’s cl*max, the sound of shoes striking the floor as they stepped, and the lingering image of death mixed together.

When Romeo and Juliet became invisible, tangled in the movements of others’ dances, Rosaline finally pushed Tybalt away. And she ran toward where Romeo and Juliet had disappeared.

“Miss Juliet!”

“Rosaline!”

Tybalt’s bewildered call was buried in the crowd, and the music that had been racing toward its cl*max ended, leaving an afterimage. In the heavy silence, Romeo and Juliet were nowhere to be seen. Rosaline turned pale and shouted.

“Miss, Miss!!! Juliet!!!”

Murmuring voices and sharp gazes stabbed at her from many directions, but she had no time to care.

As she whipped her eyes around and pushed through people searching for Miss, when she couldn’t see her in the hall, she entered the corridor lined with guest rooms when a familiar voice cut through the air.

“Rosaline, what on earth are you doing?”

It was her mother, who hadn’t shown her face for quite some time. Since she had acted conspicuously in the hall, it seemed she had come unable to bear watching anymore. It wasn’t that Rosaline wanted to see her mother either, but finding Juliet and Romeo immediately was the priority.

“Mother, Miss has disappeared.”

“What……”

“She was dancing with Romeo, but suddenly, she vanished……”

Her mother shook her head.

“Mr. Montague was dancing with a different woman from the start. Didn’t you mistake her because they both have black hair?”

Come to think of it, she had only seen Juliet’s back and side profile. Black hair was common, so it might not have been Juliet. But in that moment, it had seemed so certain it was Juliet.

“It wasn’t a mistake. It was definitely Miss……”

“Miss went to the office saying she had something to check. Where on earth is your mind wandering?”

“Don’t tell me she went with that man……”

“Rosaline!”

Her mother shouted as if scolding an improper imagination.

“She went with His Highness and a few attendants for guild business!”

Then was what she saw really just a delusion born of excessive worry? While Rosaline was confused, her mother continued speaking venomously as if she hadn’t finished what she had to say.

“You’re the one who lost your mind dancing with a man like a harlot, yet you make such a fuss.”

A harlot?

Had she heard wrong? Rosaline’s movements, which had only been cracking, stopped abruptly. Her mind became clear as if doused with cold water, but at the same time became distant as if slapped.

“Did you say harlot?”

“Why, does it upset you?”

Her mother sneered with cold eyes.

“I’m just passing along what people around are saying. Reflect on what you’ve done.”

“Don’t tell me because I danced with the young master……”

“So you know. No matter how lenient the temple’s rules have become, for someone who will become a priest to wear such clothes and dance with the young master!”

“Miss gave me these clothes. And the young master too……!”

“You should have refused!!!”

Though of commoner origin, her mother was a member of the Capulet household and as the master’s closest confidant, she had always been refined like a lady. But today her face was flushed red and blotchy like someone on the verge of death.

“Lately you’ve been constantly lying and are utterly impudent. Are you acting this way because you trust the man you’re meeting, hmm?”

Her mother’s speech mixed with metallic sounds and became hysterical. Her expression as she shouted as if she’d been holding back all this time strangely showed fear. But her hatred toward Rosaline seemed to overcome that fear.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know you’ve been fooling around with some lowborn bastard?”

Though she somehow knew she was fooling around with a man, calling him lowborn suggested she didn’t know who it was with. For a moment, relief came first. If she’d known the other party was Romeo, it wouldn’t have ended with just shouting.

“No matter how much you’re alone in the annex, if you shamelessly brought him into the house and hoped no one would know, you’re stupid. After everything Miss and the master have done for you, is this how you repay their kindness?”

The louder her mother’s voice became, the less the content registered properly.

“Ha, I feel so guilty for the days I let your filthy hands touch Miss’s body.”

Her sneer became a sharp ringing that stabbed her eardrums. But perhaps because it was too deeply embedded, she didn’t even feel pain. Rosaline became dazed and wondered. I’m just doing my best in my own way, so why am I hearing such words?