“I don’t know my father either, Mother.”

Her mother, who had been lashing out, flinched and stiffened at Rosaline’s toneless speech.

“Meaning I’m not the only one who fooled around with a lowborn bastard.”

“You crazy b*tch……!!!”

Her mother raised her hand, but Rosaline caught it with blank eyes. It was an action born purely from the instinct of not wanting to be hit and the injustice of having to endure such humiliation out of nowhere.

“Let go, won’t you let go? You’ve finally gone mad.”

Without fully realizing how her body was moving, Rosaline gripped her mother’s wrist tightly and smiled faintly.

“Why do you say things that hurt yourself in order to hurt me?”

What pains me is that I cannot completely hate you. It would be easier if I could just feel hatred. But having seen you all my life, having tried to understand you all my life, I knew your twisted heart.

That the smugness born from looking down on someone sometimes satisfied you while also making you utterly empty.

“You’ve lived doing your best. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

No matter how much protection the family gave, her mother must have suffered unknown hardships after Rosaline was born. To affirm herself amid secretly pouring criticism, she must deny her daughter. But this ultimately attacks oneself.

“Stop blaming yourself, Mother.”

Rosaline slowly lowered the hand she’d caught and carefully stroked her speechless mother’s chin. Her mother’s eyes, which had been shaking helplessly, seemed confused, then sharpened again.

“Do you think you and I are the same? I’m questioning your sins, yet I don’t understand why you tell me not to blame myself.”

Her mother swatted away her daughter’s hand. Rosaline steadied her weakly falling hand and answered inwardly.

Because your sharp words hurt me too.

The reason she couldn’t say this aloud was because she knew her mother wouldn’t care about her pain anyway.

But that didn’t mean she wanted to act submissively. She felt the kindness she could offer her mother had run dry.

“If you don’t understand, that’s fine. It’s not my fault that you’re foolish, Mother.”

The thrill that rose each time she spoke honestly swept coolly around her throat. Her mother seemed dumbfounded, opening and closing her mouth while laughing coldly.

“Acting impudent just because you learned a little. You’re the one who knows nothing, Rosaline. You……”

“Stop.”

I don’t want to hear anymore. Rosaline roughly wiped away the meaninglessly flowing tears.

“Stop it. Even if I sinned against God, I haven’t done anything shameful to Miss, the Capulets, or you, Mother.”

“How dare you raise your voice!!! This won’t do. I need to tell Miss, no. Lord Capulet exactly what kind of b*tch you are.”

“Go ahead. No one will believe you anyway.”

Rosaline rebelled clumsily but certainly.

“Is there anyone who doesn’t know you hate me, Mother? Is there anyone who doesn’t know you’re desperate to drive me out? Even if you call me a harlot, I just have to deny it. Who would they believe more?”

She looked at her mother turning red and blue and laughed.

“You don’t even know who I’m fooling around with in the first place.”

“……Impudent b*tch. Ungrateful b*tch.”

As Rosaline passed her mother, venomous words stuck painfully to her back.

“Not knowing I tried to protect you because you’re my only daughter, I’ll find your lover bastard and……”

Rosaline rubbed her face and left the main building of the mansion. She should immediately find Juliet and confirm, but she wasn’t in the right state of mind. The faster she walked, the more the words she’d thrown at her mother returned as sharp guilt and regret. No, I hate thinking like this.

Why have these d*mn tears been flowing so tactlessly lately?

Without knowing where she was going, she walked and arrived at her room. Worried her mother might chase her, she firmly locked the door. Her vision blurred with tears wouldn’t adjust to the darkness at all, and she fumbled her hands several times just locking the door.

So pathetically.

“Hng, hup.”

Rosaline leaned her forehead against the door and covered her mouth with both hands, trying somehow to contain her crying. But she had no way to stop the tears from flowing.

She mustn’t cry. Every time tears burst forth, the dam of emotions burst with them and she couldn’t control it, so she’d held back her entire life. Because the only one who got hurt when it burst was herself.

Swallow this confusion, do what you need to do, Rosaline. Go to the monastery as Mother and Juliet wish and spend your life at the assigned temple. Occasionally seeing them and being grateful even for small happiness…….

For that to happen, Romeo must disappear.

At the cost of my heart.

“Rosaline.”

The moment she exhaled hot, thick breath, a thick arm wrapped around her waist. She was so startled her tears sucked back in. When she opened her eyes wide and turned around, not even moonlight but only darkness rushed in. No, not darkness but Romeo Montague pressed his lips against hers.

Her thighs were lifted by strong arms, and her back hit the closed door. As he pressed his entire body against her crushingly, both her legs ended up wrapping around his waist.

“Open.”

Even without deliberately opening, his thick tongue pushed in like a snake through her mouth that had opened in surprise. He grabbed her chin and forcefully turned it so he could enter deeper. His sharp nose tip pressed against her cheek, and his tongue invaded matching her tilted head.

The sensation crushing even her breathing passages was overwhelming. When Rosaline tapped his shoulder, the hand that had been on her chin grabbed her wrist and made it wrap around his shoulder. With the obstacle pushing him away removed, he devoured her tongue and lips with momentum to steal her breath. Their interlocked bodies, overlapping tongues, obstructed breathing.

Clear anger. When she realized this, his lips fell an inch forward.

“You asked for time to think with that pretty face, so I waited obediently.”

Still with foreheads pressed together, his eyes, more murderous than crooked, were fixed on her without moving.

“Did you plan how to deal with me while fooling around with another man?”

His eyes trembled as if unable to contain his anger at his own words. He smiled showing white teeth and whispered with his lips against her wet cheek.

“Tybalt’s outer skin must have been comforting because it resembles your pretty Miss. Though that bastard’s c*ck isn’t bold enough to violate someone who will become a priest.”

A damp, hot, yet chilling sensation crushed her skin. Then his hand moved up and pressed, pushing down her lower lip with his thumb.

“Since I left you alone nicely and you don’t know your place, what should I bite to make you behave prettily?”

His eyes looking at her lips glistening wet with saliva blurred with a mix of anger and l*st.

“Perhaps it wasn’t enough to just thr*st below, so you threw a tantrum?”

Romeo seemed to strongly wish for Rosaline to submit with a ‘yes.’ The moment his eyes, which had been clearly angry and threatening, blurred was fleeting.

“Were you crying?”

He smiled showing his teeth. As if he were crying.

“Do you hate me that much?”

His hands unable to let go of Rosaline while asking if she hated him were forceful. His black eyes shook violently with anger mixed with self-loathing. But the strange thing wasn’t Romeo, but Rosaline herself who wasn’t afraid of him.

“You hate me so much, want to push me away so much, that you pretended to comply and went fawning to Capulet?”

Though he acted roughly as if he’d tear her apart right now, in his shaking eyes was desperation firmly trampled down, and likewise fear seeped from his trembling fingertips.

For some reason, Rosaline felt she understood his heart.

In truth, you too are not honest, just like I endured without expression. Perhaps you are like me.

Just as I fear Juliet’s rejection, cannot overcome Mother’s denial, you fear me.

“Answer me, Rosaline.”

Instead of answering, she raised her hand. Puzzlement settled in Romeo’s black eyes. Barely suppressing the momentum about to burst out, he watched her gesture.

Gently, gently, Rosaline’s hand climbed along his arm and shoulder. She felt the massive body captivated by her small touch. Unknown exhilaration rippled in Rosaline’s chest.

When her hand finally touched his cheek, his expression crumbled between his disheveled blond hair. Rosaline swallowed heavy breath and carefully parted her lips.

“Have you been…… lonely for a long time?”

His incomprehensible anger, dissatisfaction. All these things seemed to resemble her, so she asked quietly. He didn’t particularly answer, but his shaking black eyes were answer enough. Rosaline smiled faintly and opened her mouth again.

“Why do you want me so much?”

“……If you’re asking for a reason.”

He smiled with eyes half-lowered as if surprised. It was a sharp, stinging smile.

“It’s been so long I’ve forgotten.”

Though she hadn’t expected a normal answer, since it was a completely unexpected response, Rosaline laughed out loud inappropriately for the situation. But she couldn’t continue laughing. Romeo’s eyes, worn of patience, were dangerous. If she delayed further, she felt she’d burn alone. Rosaline lifted her chin slightly and said.