“Th-that is….”
Johannes, his face turning red, stammered over his words.
Iris found his appearance adorable.
As Iris looked at him with a bright smile, her eyes suddenly widened as if she realized something.
Then, just as Johannes’ eyelids were about to open, she hurriedly covered them with her hand.
“…Iris?”
“Ah, no. If you don’t want to open your eyes, you don’t have to.”
“I mean… I can open them.”
“No. Don’t force yourself.”
Iris shook her head as she pressed down firmly on Johannes’ eyes with both hands.
She could feel his eyelashes fluttering against her palms.
‘Whew, that was close.’
In her eagerness to tease Johannes, she nearly made a mistake.
She’d forgotten that was a Skill that read thoughts, not just feelings of affection.
She’d wanted to let him see that she liked him, which was why she’d encouraged him to open his eyes, but if he saw everything in her head, that would be disastrous.
‘He might read my intentions to seduce him in order to steal his Skill. And worse, he might find out that I’m a Hero and that I know he’s a Villain…’
Now that her excitement had settled, she belatedly realized the position she was in.
Sitting astride Johannes’ body with just the comforter between them—wasn’t this a bit too racy?
The Goose Down Comforter was too thin for winter, too thick for summer, and through it she could feel his firm body.
Iris was wearing a dress today, and whether it was because her legs were bare or just because she was aware of it, she could feel Johannes’ body heat on the inside of her thigh.
‘Hmm, this is a really compromising position. If I stay like this, it might be impossible to explain away any misunderstandings…’
Should she just go ahead and seduce him? Or not?
After some hesitation, she decided to pull back for now.
There were several reasons, but above all, the uncertain state of the necklace—whether it was Abellus’ trap or just a delayed awakening—completely killed her enthusiasm.
She swallowed nervously and started to lift her hands away, only to flinch.
Johannes gently took hold of both her wrists.
Iris, eyes wide, looked down at Johannes.
“…Johannes?”
Johannes’ Adam’s apple bobbed roughly.
Maybe it was time to finally look Iris in the eye.
The reason he’d always avoided her gaze was because he was afraid he’d confirm that she disliked him.
Ever since he grew closer to Iris, every day was both blissful and terrifying.
Some days he felt confident, thinking they might even be more than friends, but then he’d remember when he’d only been able to watch her from afar, and he’d avoid meeting her eyes again.
He was scared to face the truth.
But now, they were quite close.
After their movie date, today she’d even come over to his house.
He’d been so nervous that he did the ridiculous thing of wearing sunglasses indoors, but Iris’ playful teasing had given him courage.
If she disliked him, she wouldn’t play around with him and laugh so happily.
‘How long am I going to avoid it? I want to look Iris in the eye, for real, just once.’
It felt like he could hear his heart thumping loudly in his ears.
Up until just now, he hadn’t realized he’d taken his sunglasses off, so he hadn’t thought of using .
But now, once he opened his eyes, he’d want to see what she was thinking, and before he could stop it, the Skill would activate.
He might be disappointed by what he read.
Maybe it wouldn’t be what he hoped for.
She might have another man in her heart, or maybe she only saw him as a friend.
But, no matter what Iris was thinking, he felt certain his feelings for her wouldn’t change.
‘If Iris doesn’t see me as a man, then I’ll make her see me as one.’
After fourteen years, he’d learned painfully that nothing happened if you just imagined it.
By overcoming his fear of rejection and taking action, he’d managed to get close to Iris.
If he’d just kept imagining things like always, they’d still be awkward strangers.
Thanks to his recent successes, his self-esteem, once at rock bottom, had started to rise.
For fourteen years he’d thought that not challenging anything meant he’d never fail—but that was wrong.
If you never try, you’ll never fail, but you’ll never succeed either.
You’ll be stuck in your imagination forever.
Looking at Iris, reading her thoughts—this was one of the things Johannes had avoided his whole life.
His tightly closed red lips parted, and a low voice came out.
“I-Iris. I…”
“Hmm? …Ah!”
Iris, staring dazedly at his lips, suddenly gasped in shock.
While she was distracted, Johannes had pushed her hands aside, holding her wrists to the sides.
Still with his eyes closed, Johannes spoke again.
“I’m okay. I-I’m not forcing myself.”
“E-even so…”
Iris tried to shake her arms free, but Johannes only gripped her wrists tighter.
At last, his eyelids opened and his red eyes locked onto Iris.
Iris, overwhelmed by the intensity of his gaze, couldn’t look away.
She’d been the one to urge him to open his eyes, so running away now would be ridiculous, and perhaps because of the Skill’s effect, she felt as if she were caught in his gaze.
‘Oh no… Or, maybe… hmm…’
Iris tried to clear her mind, focusing all her willpower.
For a moment, an odd light flickered in those red eyes.
He’d definitely activated .
His red eyes searched hers, as if probing, like he was trying to draw something out of her mind.
An eternity seemed to pass in that instant before Johannes finally released her wrists.
Iris glanced at him and shook her wrists lightly.
Thanks to her efforts to empty her mind, Johannes’ expression was perfectly calm.
‘What was that? Did he really read my thoughts? Ugh, now I can’t even look Johannes in the eye in case he reads even more…’
Iris forced an awkward smile and looked away.
The situation had completely reversed.
Now Johannes was staring directly at her, while she, who had more than a few secrets to hide, couldn’t meet his eyes.
Iris remained sitting on top of him, muttering softly.
“…This is the first time. Looking each other in the eyes, I mean.”
“…Is it?”
Johannes, quietly gazing at Iris, tilted his head in response.
After a lifetime of trying not to see, he’d finally read Iris’ heart.
If he had to describe how it felt, it was refreshing, astonishing, and blissful, all at once.
‘I feel amazing…’
Iris didn’t dislike him.
She liked him, thought he was cute.
Even more astonishing, she felt more attraction to him as a man than as a friend.
Knowing that, all his anxieties melted away, replaced with newfound confidence.
Iris hadn’t realized it, but this wasn’t just the first time they’d looked each other straight in the eyes.
It was the first time Johannes had ever spoken to her without trembling.
Iris’ frantic attempt to clear her mind the moment their eyes met hadn’t been in vain.
was a Skill that could read a person’s thoughts, but it wasn’t capable of digging up deeply buried secrets not currently in the mind.
It was like fishing with a net from a small boat—you could only scoop up what floated to the surface or near it.
So Johannes didn’t uncover any of her well-hidden schemes.
Instead, he found her feelings for him and the thoughts she couldn’t help but have, drifting around her head.
‘Me, a Villain? So she really thinks I’m a Villain. Anyway, Iris knew all along that I was a gifted one.’
He felt a little wronged.
He never thought of himself as a Villain—just someone forced by circumstance to do bad things.
He couldn’t defy his father’s orders, so he’d been helping Enrakakyo against his will, muttering excuses to himself that he couldn’t say aloud to Iris, then letting out a sigh.
He didn’t know how Iris had gotten information about Enrakakyo, but whatever the reason, the result was clear—he was a Villain.
Whether he enjoyed it or not, or did it against his will, the fact remained he was involved in wrongdoing.
So complaining about being treated like a Villain was just sophistry.
‘Phew, so even back on Pink Street, she knew everything and just pretended not to.’
He remembered searching for Iris during the fight at Pink Street, then running into her by the fountain.
Now that he thought about it, her reaction had been very awkward then.
At the time, he’d thought she was acting strange out of fear of being found out, but it turned out she knew his secret too.
In the end, both of them had pretended not to know the other’s identity, even while they knew.
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