I Need the True Ending to Graduate - Chapter 64

With a gentle yet distinctly bright light overhead, Jeran Ennessy greeted me with a warm smile.

“Welcome, Miss Even. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Despite all my worrying over what kind of face I should put on after exchanging that survey with him, he wasn’t all that different from usual.

He was as unfailingly kind and polite as ever, and as handsome as if he’d been drawn.

“Ah, hello, Professor.”

After closing the door, I bowed my head awkwardly in greeting.

Still smiling, Jeran Ennessy spoke to me and gestured to a seat.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you at this hour. I’m sorry to call you so late. But there was no other time that was appropriate and had so few people around. Calling you any later than this didn’t seem right.”

“Ah, yes….”

“For now, why don’t we sit and talk? Please, make yourself comfortable.”

“Ah, okay.”

Feeling needlessly embarrassed, I couldn’t properly meet his eyes and just dragged over a chair and sat down.

In front of my seat, as if it had been prepared in advance, there was a teacup filled with warm tea. The clear yellow tea gave off a faint floral scent.

“It’s a tea that helps relieve tension. It has a calming effect. I thought you might need it, Miss Even, so I prepared it to be ready right on time.”

He looked at me with gentle eyes as he spoke.

His tone was softer than usual, and his gaze warmer, and I could feel that he knew I was nervous and was doing his best to put me at ease.

“Please, go ahead and drink. The wind was quite chilly today too, so it’ll help warm you up as well.”

“…Thank you for preparing it. I’ll enjoy it.”

At his urging, I took a sip of the tea. As the warm, fragrant liquid went down, my stiff body loosened a little. Before I knew it, the tension in my shoulders slowly began to melt away.

Watching me quietly as I drank, Jeran Ennessy asked, “How is it? Do you feel a bit more relaxed?”

“Yes. The aroma is nice and it’s warm, so I feel much more at ease. Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. I’m just glad you like it, Miss Even.”

With that, the conversation paused for a moment.

A shallow silence settled between us.

Both he and I knew that we hadn’t met at this late hour just to enjoy a relaxing cup of tea.

Our purpose was clear, and the subtle current in the air between us told us plainly that this was the point where we should stop with the light pleasantries and move on to the main topic.

After a brief, awkward silence, it was Jeran Ennessy who spoke first.

“…To be honest, I didn’t think you would accept my proposal, Miss Even.”

With that, he began, running a graceful hand over his teacup as he continued.

I glanced at his face. I had thought he looked the same as usual, but now he seemed to be carefully hiding his nervousness.

Faced with this unfamiliar side of him, I quietly swallowed and listened to his next words.

“After I said it to you, I… no, I regretted it quite a lot. That it wasn’t something I should have suggested as a professor.”

“….”

“It’s embarrassing to say this in front of my disciple, but I’ve spent my entire life doing nothing but magic research, so I’ve never done anything else, and I’m not good at it either. If I had been more adept at social life, I probably could have protected you better without having to make that kind of suggestion.”

At that point, Jeran Ennessy fell silent for a moment.

Though he kept his expression composed, it felt like I could see the turmoil of his inner conflict swirling beneath it.

“But I’m neither good at handling rumors nor skillful at using them. The same goes for building connections by socializing with the other professors. So that was all I could come up with. In that regard, I feel sorry.”

“…No, Professor.”

“Miss Even, you’ve accepted my proposal and even come all the way here, but you don’t have to do anything you dislike.”

“…What?”

“I’m saying it’s fine if you just have some tea and then go back, Miss Even.”

When I asked back in surprise, Jeran Ennessy spoke with a faint smile.

“I’ll take care of what comes after. It won’t be easy to correct the rumors with my ability alone, but since you’ve come to see me at this late hour….”

“….”

“Rumors spread quickly here, so this fact will be all over the place soon, and people will say all kinds of things. I don’t know exactly how it will all unfold, but I’ll handle what comes after, so that you can focus on your studies, Miss Even….”

Jeran Ennessy said something more, but nothing after that reached my ears.

I’d come here fully expecting to do it with Jeran Ennessy, so to be told there was no need once I arrived was just absurd.

Of course, after sending Jeran Ennessy that survey, I’d been anxious and on edge. I worried he might be disappointed in me, and I also wondered if it was really okay to do it with my advisor, even if he was young and handsome.

But when it came down to it and he said we didn’t have to, I felt let down.

‘I’ve been waiting for this day!’

On top of that, I’d thrown away my pride and answered that survey honestly, so if we didn’t do anything and I just went back, it would end with nothing but my kinks exposed to Jeran Ennessy.

That was absolutely not what I wanted.

“…Once you finish your tea, you can just head back. This tea is good for calming and soothing you, but it also helps you sleep well. I’ll pack some leaves for you to take with you. If you drink it before bed….”

“Professor.”

Looking straight at Jeran Ennessy’s face, I firmly cut him off.

The words that had been spilling out as if to fill the silence were cut clean off, like they’d been snipped with scissors.

As if he hadn’t expected me to interrupt him, Jeran Ennessy looked at me with a slightly surprised expression.

“….”

The moment I met his light green eyes, I realized, belatedly, that he was very anxious.

Maybe the pressure of having to deal on his own with all the rumors swirling around about the two of us was what was making him so uneasy.

Or maybe, since he’d said he’d never done anything in his life aside from studying and researching, stepping forward himself to protect someone felt awkward and frightening to him.

‘Well, in this class-based society, just taking me in as his disciple was already a huge gamble.’

Even if what he’d fallen for in me was my dazzling talent, no one could understand his choice.

‘If they had, there’s no way I wouldn’t have gotten at least one reply when I was first trying to find an advisor.’

In the end, everything happening around me and Jeran Ennessy was a problem we had to solve together. It wasn’t something for him to shoulder alone while I just stayed under his protection.

“Miss Even…?”

As the silence dragged on, for the first time, Jeran Ennessy took off his professor’s mask and showed a face of someone my own age. Young, sometimes immature, at times emotional, and occasionally honest.

Staring at his face, I opened my mouth with resolve. “Professor. It may be presumptuous of me to say this, but I’m fine.”

“…What do you mean you’re fine?”

“I’m not here because you forced or threatened me. I accepted your proposal purely of my own will.”

“….”

Jeran Ennessy fell silent.

I put my thoughts into words as calmly and clearly as I could. “I know very well that you care about me, and I’m truly grateful for that. But I don’t want to just be protected by you without question. I especially don’t want to be a burden to you.”

“….”

“The last time I visited your lab, you told me I didn’t need to concern myself with your circumstances. But this isn’t just your problem, it’s my problem too.”

“….”

“I want to work through this issue together with you, Professor.”

I finished speaking, putting strength into my gaze.

I had wrapped it up in dignified-sounding words, but in short, it meant I wanted to do it.

At that, Jeran Ennessy’s expression clouded a little. The place where his smile had been filled with a hint of melancholy.

Jeran Ennessy parted his lips several times as if searching for the right words, then finally asked me:

“Miss Even… are you all right with this?”

“….”

“After we spend this time together, other people will see you as a puppet being exploited by me. Of course, with things as they are now, the best option is for me to take on the role of the villain who torments you, Miss Even. But at the same time, there will be no small number of people who look at you with sexual eyes. Will you be able to endure those gazes?”

“….”

I didn’t understand what the problem was. Even if I didn’t sleep with him here, people already saw me that way as they walked past. Whether we did it here or not, nothing would change for me.

Seeing that my expression didn’t waver in the slightest, Jeran Ennessy hesitated and then added, “And… It’s embarrassing to say this, but I know I’m not all that attractive to you, Miss Even. Spending time with me will surely be unpleasant for you.”

“…?”

“Are you really all right with spending time with someone like me, who isn’t attractive and doesn’t appeal to you sexually?”

I had no idea what he was talking about, and his absurd question left me speechless.

‘What, does this man not look in the mirror when he washes his face?’

For someone with that face to declare so firmly that he wouldn’t be attractive as a sexual partner was ridiculous. He must never have seen what a truly unappealing man looked like.

At a loss for words, I barely managed to squeeze out a single line.

“…I’m fine with it.”

Then, realizing my answer was too short, I hurriedly added another line.

“I understand very well what you’re worried about, Professor, but I’m really fine.”

Jeran Ennessy let out a small laugh, perhaps sensing my polite yet nervous expression.

Only then did the tense atmosphere that had filled the room deflate like a balloon losing air.

And he returned to his usual self, a faint smile on his lips, as he said, “I’m sorry. As your advisor, I swore I would protect you, but the moment I actually saw your face….”

Jeran Ennessy trailed off there and closed his mouth for a moment. A faint disgust whose target I couldn’t tell flickered across his face like a new shadow.

I was briefly startled by the way his green eyes dulled and sank, but then he returned to his usual composed expression and spoke again.

“For a moment… I felt like I had become someone like Karl Evenhart, and that made me hesitate. I’m sorry for asking such a strange question.”

I had no idea why Karl Evenhart’s name was suddenly coming up here, but it wasn’t the mood to ask, so I decided to let it go for now.

“Ah, no. I’m the one who feels sorry for pushing my own thoughts onto you, Professor. And….”

“….”

“Whether it was accepting your proposal or coming to your lab today, both were my will and my choice. I appreciate your concern, but you really don’t have to worry so much. I trust you, Professor.”

“…All right. Then I’ll show you to the room, Miss Even. Follow me.”

Jeran Ennessy slowly blinked, then rose from his seat and walked toward the inner part of the room.

I also stood up and followed behind him.