I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 56

Lucia, her face now void of emotion, looked down at the tormented Ruad and said, “I’ve known for a while that you thought that way about me, but I wasn’t really angry. I didn’t even hate you. I just didn’t think much of it.”

“….”

“You were the only one who drove away those pests who bothered me. Honestly, when you hit the guy who spilled his tray on me in the cafeteria, it felt refreshing. And when you held that broken plate like a knife, I almost wished you’d just kill him. That would’ve been… really nice.”

As she spoke, Lucia took a slow breath and closed her eyes, as if quietly savoring the thought of what might have happened if Ruad had actually stabbed him, imagining the aftermath.

A faint, hazy bliss spread across her face.

Lucia exhaled and opened her eyes again.

“So I don’t hold much resentment toward you. While I was pretending to be friends with you, I could at least move around comfortably. In a way, we both used each other.”

“….”

“So let’s end this little friend act here. Alright? You and I both got what we wanted, and you must be tired of talking to me by now.”

“Lucy, I… I never once got tired of being with you. I liked spending time with you. I really do love you.”

As Lucia kept misunderstanding his feelings and trying to end things, Ruad, though in agony, desperately held onto her.

It hurt so much that it felt like there was a gaping hole in his chest. Breathing was painful, and his face was twisted in despair.

He knew he looked pathetic, neither impressive nor charming in the slightest, but he couldn’t help it.

“I don’t care about your weaknesses anymore. I don’t care if you’re the top student in the academy or in the entire empire. In fact, you deserve more than that. That position isn’t nearly enough for you.”

Lucia blinked slowly. For a moment, light flickered faintly in her brown eyes as she looked at him.

Ruad clung to that tiny glimmer of hope as if it were a lifeline.

“Please, believe me, Lucy. What do I have to do for you to trust me? How can I make you believe that I’m sincere?”

Just as he was about to say he’d die right here if she wanted, or drop to his knees to prove it, Lucia’s cold voice cut him off.

“Ruad Rochef. I don’t care what your sincerity is, and you don’t need to prove it to me. You may love me, but I don’t like you.”

“….”

Ruad was so shocked that he couldn’t even speak. It felt like the ground beneath his feet and the sky above his head were collapsing at once.

No thoughts crossed his mind. Even just standing there and breathing felt unbearable. He couldn’t even tell if he was still upright.

Lucia looked at him with faint pity in her eyes and said softly, “The things I said about liking you, about seeing you as more than a friend—they were all lies. I never liked you, not even once. So even if you try to prove your sincerity to me, nothing will change.”

“….”

“Proving your love won’t make me love you back either.”

“….”

“So stop wasting your time on me and go find another girl. Once you start dating her, you’ll forget someone like me soon enough.”

An emotionless, monotonous voice flowed into Ruad’s ears.

After a moment, Lucia lightly patted his shoulder with a gesture that could either be taken as encouragement or as a sign that she wanted to end things there.

At that small touch, the hand that had been holding onto her dropped helplessly, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

“Then please, stop pretending to be close to me from now on. I’m asking you.”

As soon as Ruad let go, Lucia repeated her dry request and moved away from him.

She didn’t look back, and there was no trace of hesitation in her steps as she left.

Ruad knew that once they parted ways here, Lucia would probably never speak to him again.

She wouldn’t meet his eyes, wouldn’t be pleased by the snacks he brought, wouldn’t respond even if he sat beside her, and would ignore him even if they attended the same class.

Just like that, she would act as if she had never once spoken kindly to him or sat under the tree on campus sharing snacks together, living as though those moments had never existed.

The instant that thought crossed his mind, a feeling close to conviction rose within Ruad’s chest.

Even if the words she said about liking him, or her confession that she had feelings beyond friendship, were all lies,

Even if all those moments when she held him and moaned were nothing but an act,

Ruad still couldn’t give up on Lucia.

“…Even if it’s all lies and acting, I don’t care.”

Ruad spoke toward Lucia’s retreating back. It wasn’t directed at her, nor at himself.

It was simply an unconscious declaration of will.

“Even if you don’t like me, no, even if you hate me, it doesn’t matter. You can think my feelings are fake if you want. I like you, and this feeling isn’t a lie.”

“….”

“I’ll make you fall for me, Lucy.”

Lucia, who had been walking ahead, seemed to pause for a brief moment, but she never turned back and eventually left.

In the dark, damp shade, only Ruad remained, standing there in sorrow.

***

The shocking truth that all the days he’d spent with Lucia had been nothing more than her little “friend act” left Ruad bedridden with a burning fever for days that night.

Because of that, Ruad had no choice but to miss all his classes. He took his medicine and spent the entire day sleeping alone in the same dormitory bed he had once shared with Lucia.

It was just a simple fever, but the timing couldn’t have been worse. Of all days, why did his fever have to spike on the very day Lucia broke up with him?

‘Now I really look like some pathetic guy who got dumped by the woman he loves and can’t handle the heartbreak.’

Lucia probably thought the same. Even if he explained later that he’d missed class because he was sick, she’d only take it as a convenient excuse.

The timing was unbelievable. Yet despite thinking that, Ruad couldn’t stop himself from dwelling on Lucia, like a man replaying the pain of heartbreak.

From the first moment he met Lucia to the final moment when she ended things with him, he thought of everything.

After turning those thoughts over and over again while lying in bed, Ruad finally began to accept the sharp, cutting words Lucia had thrown at him.

And he began to realize just how futile his pleas had been.

Even if it were him, he would have believed the evidence Lucia saw with her own eyes over hollow words that could be fabricated at any time, words with not even a speck of sincerity.

It was an undeniable fact that he had found out Lucia’s name, looked at her grades, and investigated her social circle.

On top of that, it was also true that he had approached her to dig up her weaknesses, and that he had pretended to be kind and acted friendly just to become her friend.

Even if his feelings had later turned genuine, the fact that he had approached her with impure intentions never changed.

So no matter how much he shouted that he had truly fallen in love with her, no matter how much he begged her to recognize his sincerity, it would only ever be a hollow cry.

Ruad realized the truth as he lay feverish in bed, burning with heat.

And as soon as he managed to get up, he went straight to find Lucia to apologize.

No matter what his intentions had been, whether they had turned genuine or not, it was undeniable that in one way or another, he had hurt her, and for that, he owed her a proper apology.

Ruad’s body remembered exactly when and where Lucia would be, and naturally, his steps led him to the library.

And there, Ruad overheard something completely unexpected.

“…So you wagged your tail at Lord Ruad to live comfortably, and he dumped you already?”

Just as Ruad spotted Lucia standing in front of the library entrance, hugging a stack of books as always, he froze at the words he heard.

Lucia was standing there with her usual armful of books, while two male students blocked her path. It was a scene he had seen far too many times before, a sight that had mostly disappeared while he had been by her side.

Ruad forgot to call out to her and instinctively stopped in his tracks.

The tone of the men speaking to her was unpleasantly familiar. It wasn’t their first time doing this.

They continued to speak.

“You should’ve done better when you had the chance. If you had, you could’ve kept enjoying Lord Ruad’s protection.”

“I told you before, you should’ve practiced with me. Lord Ruad doesn’t know you’ve slept with other guys anyway. As long as you keep your mouth shut, no one will find out.”

“Hey, I can teach you how to make men like you. You’ll have to learn it sooner or later if you want to get Lord Ruad back. With just one of my tricks, even someone as noble as Ruad of House Rochef would—”

Ruad couldn’t listen to another word of their disgusting nonsense. His face twisted in disgust, and before he knew it, he was striding straight toward them.

The two men froze when they saw him coming. Their eyes went wide, and all the color drained from their faces in an instant.

As Ruad glared at them with bloodshot eyes, they didn’t even dare speak. Like frightened dogs about to wet themselves, they turned and bolted before he could say a word.

“….”

“….”

Thanks to that, only Lucia and Ruad were left standing there.

Lucia’s gaze followed the retreating men for a moment before shifting to him.

Her expression asked, Why are you here? It was the look of someone who thought everything had already been settled after their last conversation.

But Ruad didn’t care whether Lucia looked at him with cold indifference or not. What mattered now were the insults those men had thrown at her, and the disgusting words they had dared to speak.

“When did you start hearing things like that?”