Rosaline wanted to call his name and embrace him right now, using the longing she’d suppressed as a springboard. She wasn’t even surprised. He’d always been the one to shatter all her rules and shields.

His hand gripping her chin was merciless without consideration, and his lips held only cold arsenic that pained her heart, but affection still won.

“Romeo……”

His brow furrowed with displeasure. But Rosaline, blind to everything, gently grasped the wrist of his hand holding her firmly.

“I’m sorry… for appearing before you again. And I’m sorry for being glad to see you.”

Romeo let out a cold scoff, but Rosaline clung as if he might leave. Whether he was dumbfounded or not, she willingly pressed her cheek against his loosened palm.

“I thought Miss would die if I ran away with you. No, actually I didn’t trust you.”

She revealed her shameful truth without reservation. A pitiful whimper like a beaten dog.

“It was obvious we’d become fugitives together, and I was afraid you’d blame me and leave someday. In the future gained through Juliet’s death, I feared I’d resent you.”

She didn’t say this hoping he’d forgive her or take her back. The words burst out like a cough. No, no more pretense. Now that they’d met again, she wanted to hold him. If possible, she wanted forgiveness.

Please be shaken by me.

I hope you missed me as much as you resented me……

“So what?”

But the response was only coldness. Rosaline flinched and froze. Though he’d been prickly when first meeting her, he hadn’t been this heartlessly cutting. His current self was cold as an extinguished fire.

“If you’d known I was Kata, you could have chosen me readily since your Miss would live even if you became mine—is that what you want to say?”

His words became blades scraping Rosaline.

Yet because his blade was directed at her, Rosaline felt both pain and exhilaration.

“Truly abandoned, you must feel like you’re standing at a cliff’s edge.”

Each word Romeo bit off and spat made the entire bathroom shake, starting from beneath his feet. Rosaline feared his hatred toward her more than the collapsing bathroom. Yet she was also glad.

She felt like she was losing her mind.

“You must be afraid of living and dying alone for life. So you seek me not because you want me, but because you simply can’t bear being alone.”

He bared his teeth and spoke right in her face. His appearance covered in red blood seemed less human than something drawn by dragging out formless emotion.

“No, no… Romeo.”

She couldn’t criticize him for making such a fuss over a mere three-month love. Rosaline had loved Romeo terribly too. She’d loved the first person to understand her, the first to tell her he loved her, the one who was first in everything.

“You didn’t choose me. You left!”

“Romeo.”

“You destroyed me!!!”

The last words, nearly a shout, echoed through the bathroom. She’d always thought so, but he acted as if she’d abandoned him tens of thousands of times. She didn’t think to question it. No, she didn’t even have time. When Rosaline only froze, Romeo whispered almost inaudibly.

“This is the truth.”

His echoing voice gradually ceased, and the shaking room also stopped. He glared at her until his harsh breathing disappeared, then moved away from her self-mockingly.

“What am I even doing……”

“……”

“You don’t even know me.”

He spoke coldly and sank into the tub fully clothed. When he submerged, the water began turning red with blood. With no will to even wash, he sat there, propped his elbow on the edge, and pressed his forehead.

“Leave, Rosaline. We’ll never meet again.”

The command that came after a long breath was as dry as if the emotions that had raged moments ago never existed. He closed his eyes as if it was over.

“Romeo……”

His heavy eyelids lifted when ripples formed in the bathwater. Rosaline entered the spacious tub and removed her clothes with trembling hands.

His gaze watching her nakedness showed no desire or longing. It was as dry as a caged beast watching something.

Rosaline swallowed her shame and sat between his legs, wiping his cheeks where blood had dried. The rare sight of his open wounds already healing themselves unfolded, but Rosaline paid no attention and kissed his wounds. Cheeks and neck, collarbone and firm chest. In order.

“Please forgive me.”

“Forgiveness?”

He tilted his head.

“Leaving me wasn’t a sin.”

Rosaline shook her head, crying like a child. It had to be a sin to be forgiven, so she hoped he’d treat it as one. The him who’d just shouted at her felt like a dream. She just wanted to hold on again. Any reaction was fine… she wanted confirmation that some part of her remained with him.

She pressed her lips to his jaw and pleaded with her whole body against his.

“I’ll do anything for you, please……”

“……”

“Please don’t abandon me. Don’t say things like we’ll never see each other again. I’m begging you……”

She held his waist tightly, afraid he might push her away. With no expression or emotion, he truly felt like something other than human, and Rosaline lost her reason like someone whose last salvation had vanished.

“You say you’ll do anything……”

Words like a sigh fell from him. She raised her head like someone grasping at hope. Still without any particular expression, he spoke in a flat tone.

“Even if I told you right now to spread your legs and shake your hips, could you do it?”

“……”

“Like a dog, moving worse than a mere beast. Just as I did for you.”

When Rosaline froze, unable to say anything, he smirked as if he’d expected as much. Even if Rosaline died and came back to life, she could never truly become a dog.

If she’d been truly devoted to Juliet or her wretched mother, if she’d given up being human, Romeo’s words wouldn’t have shaken her at all.

Rosaline was someone who wanted to be loved like everyone else. She just wanted love from others, not Romeo. Right now she was acting like this from loneliness, but once she had somewhere to lay her head, she’d surely leave again.

“I-I’ll do it. I can.”

Romeo watched her trembling with emotionless eyes, then propped both arms on the tub’s edge like armrests and gestured with his eyes as if to say go ahead. His gaze held no expectation, as if asking what she could possibly do. Rosaline was awkwardly positioning herself when—

“Don’t touch me.”

His voice was cold. Rosaline barely managed to remove her hands from him and gripped the tub’s edge tightly while slightly raising her hips. She clumsily aligned her opening with his already fully *rect c*ck. But even with just the gl*ns slightly entering, it felt like she’d tear.

“Ah, hng.”

Despite being soaking wet, this size had always been difficult to take. No matter that they were in water, inserting it all at once was impossible. Rosaline reached down to spread her own l*bia, widening the opening. Even so, the blunt tip only scraped against the entrance without entering.

Rosaline moistened her dry lips, pondering with difficulty, then moved her hand’s position. She began rubbing the nub hidden in her flesh directly. Not satisfied with this, she rubbed her l*bia against his shaft, shaking her hips back and forth.

“Hah, ah.”

His bumpy, hard c*ck brushed her cl*toris and her hand, and she clumsily pressed and pulled at her nub with hands that kept losing strength. Though she followed instinct, compared to his usual overwhelming caresses, this was weak. It felt insufficient, but she tried hard.

She closed her eyes and tried to recall their lovemaking. But what actually surfaced was the man from her dream thrusting into her frantically. The sensation of his blunt gl*ns swelling while pressing somewhere she felt—at the same time, Rosaline pressed her cl*toris painfully hard. At the shallow cl*max, her thighs shivered and her head tilted back.

Like an idiot with her mouth hanging open, she tried to attempt insertion again. But it didn’t work properly, slipping and bouncing out repeatedly. The sensation of his c*ck scraping her perineum was dizzying, making her thighs clench involuntarily.

“If I try again… it’ll work. I can do it.”

Disheartened, Rosaline slowly wrapped her arms around his neck instead of rubbing her cl*toris again. Looking at him cautiously with eyes worried about abandonment, without even fully connecting.

Yet claiming she’d try harder, she rubbed her p*ssy against his hard shaft. Her l*bia spread like clam flesh, wrapping around his c*ck. Feeling the size that crushed everything of hers, she shook her hips until she came again.

“Haah……”

Romeo watched her.

The faint splashing of water, her br*asts swaying with her movements, hair clinging to her pitifully haggard body, eyes reddened and wet as if seeking help.

Did this woman even know how she looked? He who’d suddenly been made to assist her m*sturbation finally burst into laughter. Clear mockery. Closer to self-derision at himself for not being able to reject a woman clinging desperately. Rosaline, misunderstanding his laughter, moved more actively in fear.

“I can do it.”

But Romeo, far from being moved by her submissive attitude, only thought how desperate she must be.

Yes, quite desperate.

Rosaline, having reached a light cl*max, tried to take more of him into her slightly loosened interior. She moved only her hips awkwardly, not wanting to release the arms barely holding him. But she only managed to barely grip his gl*ns. She whimpered without realizing it.

“If you’d just help a little……”

Romeo grabbed and spread Rosaline’s buttocks, then pressed down hard. His c*ck carved through her flesh and plunged in at once.

“Aaah!!!”

Rosaline arched her back and cried out. Her crumbling inner walls clenched in fine spasms when he struck the spot where all sensation gathered. The sight of her face unraveling while gripping him tight was magnificent. Romeo smiled, forming long dimples.

If he licked up Rosaline’s wet eyes with his tongue, they would surely taste sweet. The sensation of her flesh clinging to him—forgetting she’d ever refused—was horrifically ecstatic.

D*mn it all.