For some reason, the saint of our school drops her façade when she's with me (GL) - Chapter 21

By the time I reached the clubroom, gasping for breath from my first full sprint in ages, the sun was already beginning to set.

Stepping inside, I found it unchanged.

The safe remained exactly where it had been.

I was baffled at how I had managed to overlook something so conspicuous.

But perhaps that only proved how much turmoil I had been in.

“I hope this isn’t just some prank.”

With trembling hands, I inserted the key into the lock.

It turned smoothly.

The heavy, well-secured safe clicked open with a dull sound.

Inside were several documents and sheets of paper.

Swallowing hard, I picked them up and began reading.

Just as Her Holiness had said, the contents were about her.

Karen Aizen—the girl beyond her title.

And her family.

Some details I already knew.

But there was so much I didn’t.

I read on.

Karen Aizen was born as the eldest daughter of the prestigious Aizen family.

Originally, there should have been another child before her.

But due to an unfortunate accident, her mother suffered a miscarriage, and so Karen was born as the firstborn daughter.

Her busy parents left her upbringing in the hands of her father’s old friend and caretaker, Kondo.

She hardly ever saw her parents.

She grew up starved for their love.

As the daughter of a noble family, she was raised with strict discipline, trained to excel in all things.

At first glance, it seemed like she had everything.

But just like me, in her own way, she had been deprived of affection.

I remembered something she had once said.

“When I met you in the park, the loneliness inside me felt a little less unbearable.”

I didn’t know if that was true.

But according to those in the mansion, she had seemed calmer after meeting me.

Even so, it hadn’t been enough to truly fill the void inside her.

And at some point, she realized—

No one in her current world could ease that emptiness.

I recognized that feeling.

Even with my uncle and Mizuki by my side, even knowing I was fortunate, I still felt like I had to hide a part of myself.

Like there was only one person in this entire world who could truly understand me.

The more I read about her past, the more I felt our circumstances—so different on the surface—were eerily alike.

But she had left behind more than just her past.

She had also left behind the truth about her future.

Her parents—though distant—hadn’t been devoid of love for her.

Believing it was in her best interest, they had constantly sought a good match for her to marry.

The one pushing for it the most had been her mother.

Her father, on the other hand, had been indifferent, leaving all decisions up to his wife.

And that, in turn, had only fueled her mother’s determination.

Karen’s parents had had an arranged marriage.

And her mother, who had found happiness through it, believed that the same would be best for her daughter.

So, in between her busy work schedule, she had arranged a formal engagement.

Without considering Karen’s feelings.

Her fiancé was the son of a company closely affiliated with her father’s business.

He was twenty years old.

Already an executive at her father’s company.

A future heir.

Handsome, highly regarded, and successful—

A “perfect” candidate.

And the condition he set for the engagement?

Karen had to leave high school and move in with him immediately.

It felt like every possible red flag had been crammed into this one arrangement.

But her mother had agreed without hesitation.

Supposedly, the man had little interest in romance.

That alone had been enough to convince her mother that he would make a “stable” husband.

And she had already begun securing the groundwork for the engagement.

Karen had known.

But there was little she could do.

She had refused her mother’s proposals countless times.

Yet now that things had been settled behind her back, her mother had taken a more forceful approach.

She had anticipated this, of course.

That’s why she had left these documents behind.

And at the end of the last page, written in her elegant handwriting, was this:

“I do not wish to marry. I have no desire to be wed.”

Clear and resolute.

“But my mother is stubborn. If she learns about you at this moment, I can’t predict what she might do. That is why I cannot see you.”

That was why she had canceled her part-time job.

Why she had stopped coming to the clubroom.

“I can’t promise she will do nothing. I don’t know her well enough to make that claim.”

Her words were raw, filled with unspoken frustration.

“If she had that much time to interfere, I wish she had spent it getting to know me instead.”

And then—

“I don’t want to involve you.”

Before I could even ask why, I found the answer.

“I don’t want you to bear this burden because of me. I don’t want there to be even the slightest chance of you being hurt.”

My chest tightened.

“I will figure something out. But if—if the worst comes to pass, and you are suffering because of me—then please… forget me.”

Now, I finally understood.

The meaning behind her words that day in the park.

“If it ever becomes too much… forget me.”

Back then, I had been too confused to grasp what she truly meant.

But now, I knew.

A marriage arranged in secret.

A situation that even Karen might not be able to fight.

Her desperate attempt to keep me out of it.

And now, knowing all of this—

What am I supposed to do?

I had unlocked this safe because I wanted to know her.

And what I found was a girl fighting in a world beyond my reach.

What can I possibly do?

“Forget me.”

How am I supposed to accept that?

Before I knew it, tears were spilling down my cheeks.

Overwhelmed by too many emotions—too tangled to understand.

I love her.

Karen Aizen.

I love her.

And yet—

I can’t do anything.

That helplessness—

That reality—

It crushed me.

I sat there, alone in the dimming clubroom, unable to stop the tears from falling.

Helpless and miserable, drowning in my own powerlessness.

And then—

“Yukie.”

A familiar voice broke the silence.

I turned around.

Standing in the doorway, without her usual bright energy, was my best friend—

Mizuki.