15. Because It’s the Body of the Woman I Like

“A place I can’t see?”  

He asked again. Then, as if he understood, he looked Judy over with a calm gaze—not sticky or lingering, but dry and matter-of-fact. It didn’t make her feel embarrassed or uncomfortable, just a bit dumbfounded.

“Why are you looking at a woman’s body like that?”

“Well, it’s Asilly’s body.”

“……”

“Do I need to look at her body with such care? If it were your body, maybe.”  

That last line, tossed out as if in passing, lodged itself squarely in Judy’s ears and mind and thoroughly broke her train of thought.  

“What is that supposed to mean? Why would you look at my body with care?”  

“Because I care about it.”

“What? You care about my body? Why do you care about my body? You’re really weird.”

Though she hadn’t returned to her original body, Judy felt a strange discomfort in their relationship and instinctively stepped back, widening the gap between them. Theo looked a bit sulky at her reaction, but soon regained his composure and looked at Judy plainly.

“Because it’s the body of the woman I like.”

At his words, for a moment it was as if she could not hear anything, could not think, could not see—she became utterly defenseless, going blank while the ringing in her ears spread.  

What did he just say? Did I hear that right?  

‘The woman he likes?’ The woman he likes! No way. He likes me as a woman?’

Images of Theo’s past behavior toward her flashed by in quick succession. He was always nagging her, making her feel like she was constantly being poked and wounded.

She had nothing but memories of not even receiving the respect and manners a ‘lady’ should naturally be given—so since when had he liked her?  

“Because it’s the body of the woman I like. I need to check how badly you’re hurt.”

“…….”  

“Even if you get bitten by a tiny bug, it bothers me and makes me worry.”  

“I’m grateful you’re worried, but still…… it’s not a place I can show you.”  

“……Hah. Get treated properly. So it won’t hurt for long.”  

“Okay.”  

“And if it keeps hurting even while you’re being treated, you have to tell me. I’ll change your primary physician.”  

His worry repeated again and again.  

“Y-yeah. Okay.”  

“Then rest. I have to go to the study and take care of some work.”  

As Theo left, Judy was fixated on one thing.

“Theo Crawford likes me?”  

It was still a statement too much for her to bear. They had played ‘house’ together since childhood and stuck together like glue, but from Judy’s perspective she had never thought of him as a man.  

They were so close that sometimes she had worried about him and been concerned for him, but she had never once crossed into the realm of imagination she could have for a romantic interest. Meaning, for example…… wanting to hug Theo, or wanting to kiss him—things like that.  

Of course, it might also be that she had not been able to imagine such things at all after she became an adult because she had not often seen Theo after he shed his boyishness and stepped into the world of men. She had not had many chances to face Theo as a ‘man’ after their snotty-nosed childhood, and at the time she had been blinded by Wesley—an utter specimen of patheticness—so Theo or anyone else, no other man had entered her eyes at all.  

“Ugh! Horrible. Why did I ever date a guy like that……!”  

As Judy snapped irritably, the essence of what she had been thinking briefly blurring, she clawed at her hair and, after Theo left, looked at the tightly closed door with worry.  

“Is it really okay for me to keep maintaining this situation with him…….”  

She sighed deeply, feeling guilty for possibly giving him false hope. To Judy, Theo was still less a man and more her only companion after losing her mother and growing up under a distant father. Perhaps he had been more like a father than her father, a sibling she never had, and at times a presence as soft and warm as a mother.  

That was clearly different from a man. Judy’s worries deepened even more.  

***

‘I have no mercy for you.’  

Theo’s warning stuck in Asilly’s mind. She stared at herself in the mirror, recalling that day. Blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin, Judy’s face—beautiful but not so striking as to captivate someone deeply. She couldn’t deny it was pretty, but it wasn’t the kind of beauty that would enchant someone.

“Then why did Theo Crawford fall in love with her?”  

Asilly caught the look in Theo’s eyes—the one that had, in a single instant, fallen into profound emotion as he looked at her face. Humans could hide emotions tangled in complexity through expression or words, but hiding them through one’s eyes was impossible—that was the limit of human nature. No matter how close they were, it was highly suspicious that he would step into this mess even to the point of ‘marrying’ her.  

“It’s a sure thing. Unless he loves her, it’s just meddling to an extreme, isn’t it?”  

Especially if it was Theo Crawford, who did not leave even the slightest opening for other women—then it was something she could be even more certain of. The most harmless smiling eyes in the world, the depth of his seductive gaze, lips brimming with vitality, smooth marble-like skin, a narrow waist and full chest, a gentle and kind voice. If she had wanted, Asilly had always been able to pull any man into her arms.  

To Asilly—who had lived with towering arrogance, believing all men in the world had no choice but to kneel before her—the first person to make her taste bitterness for the first time in her life was none other than Theo. He might not remember, but that day was the day a party had been held for Baron Seder’s birthday, with the Baron—as usual—completely infatuated with her.  

It was a party Judy had also attended, and Asilly noticed Theo staring at Judy without taking his eyes off her for a moment—even when Judy stuck to Wesley like glue. Among that crowd, he had a presence so distinct it caught the eye at once. A sturdy build filling out clothes that looked rather large, looks that made one sink into intoxicated delight, a tranquil air. The other young ladies around them were also blushing, whispering and sending glances toward Theo.  

Asilly bravely approached Theo, tried speaking to him, and even smiled at him with her eyes. There had never been a man who did not fall for that smile. But he warned her with eyes sharpened to a fine edge.  

‘Stop lingering around and get lost.’  

Then Judy noticed belatedly and came over to greet him, and he even uncrossed the arms he had folded and chatted with a softened expression. It was completely different from how he had kept a stern face and stayed taciturn with the women who had approached him just moments earlier.  

At the debutante ball, the only thing Judy had over Asilly was that she had been born as a ‘Marquis’s daughter’—a higher-ranking noble. And yet she was receiving the attention of such an impressive man; it made Asilly jealous.  

From then on, Asilly oddly wanted to make Judy suffer. She wanted to claim Theo Crawford, who had humiliated her, and Judy was also a higher-ranking noble……. It felt like Judy was coasting through life and seemed to have everything handed to her.

That was why she made Wesley her man, and it had not been difficult at all.  

“But Theo Crawford is impossible, isn’t he?”

As Asilly went “Tsk,” in disappointment, there came a knock.  

“Come in.”  

To dress her up, Gianna—her attendant maid—and a few servants hurried in. A servant approached, took her hair, and began combing it slowly.  

“Miss, what hairstyle would you like today? Shall I do the half-up style you usually like?”  

Right, Judy always wore her hair in that old-fashioned half-up style.

At the servant’s question, Asilly shook her head.  

“No. Tie it neatly into one. But leave the side hair slightly.”  

“Yes, understood.”  

As the servant continued combing, a few strands of hair were tugged painfully. Irritation surged up in an instant, and Asilly roughly knocked away the servant’s hand holding the comb.  

“It hurts!”  

In an instant, the room fell silent as if cold water had been thrown over it. The servants bustling to choose a dress, even Gianna choosing jewelry, all stared at Asilly with startled eyes.  

But Asilly did not notice their reactions at all; she only glared at the servant who could not even comb properly and had left her with a stinging ache.  

“I-I’m sorry, Miss……!”