Chapter 214. A Mistake (2)

Translator: Lili

Weekly Chapter 1/7

“Did you already forget what happened at the department store? Getting beaten to the ground? You said you were just going to buy a cake and came back crying?”

At the mention of the department store incident, Shushu’s indignation flared. She had defended herself well, after all—or at least, she hadn’t been beaten into submission. In the past, she might have panicked in such a situation, but that time, she had faced her attacker head-on. She was proud of that, despite the bittersweet reality of finding pride in such a thing.

Still, for someone who had gained so little from life, learning to stand her ground was one of the few invaluable lessons she had taken away—even if it had come from her time in prison.

Shushu felt a surge of pride, the kind you’d expect from a kid who just learned boxing and won their first fight. She clenched her fists, ready to recount how she had blocked Mel’s punches.

“And most importantly—”
However, she didn’t even get the chance to start her self-congratulatory tale. Henriad, having finally let go of her nose, smiled faintly and interrupted with a single line.

“You slept with me.”

“…”

She wanted to plug her ears at that instant. Her face went pale, and Shushu immediately clamped her mouth shut.

This overwhelming sense of humiliation—like having an unignorable reality thrust in front of her—was a feeling she hadn’t experienced since that one summer in middle school when her science score had been so low she had to take remedial classes. Back then, she could fix her grades with hard work. But there was no way to undo what had happened with the man in front of her.

Unless, of course, she grabbed one of the kitchen tools hanging nearby—a frying pan or cutting board—and used it to bash that annoyingly pretty head of his until he lost his memory.

“…I don’t see how that has anything to do with me wanting to see Mini Cat.”

Shushu shoved away the memory of an inmate at Augwell who had reportedly been sent there for hitting their cheating lover on the head with a ladle to erase their memory of an affair. Edwin had once casually explained which parts of the brain were responsible for memory during that story, and it wasn’t helping her now.

The temptation was undeniably strong, though. There was a ladle nearby, after all, and Henriad’s head was right there.

Still, Shushu told herself not to jump to conclusions. Surely Henriad didn’t know the specifics of her relationship with Mini Cat. Even she, one of the people involved, sometimes struggled to define what they were to each other. There was no way Henriad, no matter how perceptive he might be, could understand what emotions she and Mini Cat had shared in prison.

Clinging to what was essentially a prayer, Shushu mustered a calm smile.

Henriad, faced with her composed expression, responded with a magnanimous smile of his own.

“You called Mini Cat and sucked on my lips.”

“…”

Shushu finally decided who deserved to be hit with the cutting board. It wasn’t Henriad—it was herself.

In that moment, she felt a wave of shame so profound it nearly crushed her. At the same time, she realized just how terrifying Henriad truly was. He had known everything from the start, feigning ignorance the entire time.

Shushu didn’t have any siblings, but she was certain of one thing: if someone had come at her pretending to be her brother or sister, she would have knocked them unconscious and fled.

After a long, suffocating silence, Shushu forced her reluctant mouth to open and tried to offer an excuse.

“That was… kind of, you know, a mistake—”

“Ha.”

Henriad laughed lightly, as if amused by her feeble attempt. But his next words were far from funny.

“Sure. That’s a great excuse—one that even Mini Cat might find convincing.”

“Ugh…!”