Chapter 1
A tear finally slipped from Agnes’s eyes as she stared at the bouquet that had been mercilessly trampled beneath her feet.
“Aiden, you really are… the absolute worst…!!!”
Wiping away her tears, Agnes disappeared into the distance.
And Aiden simply watched her retreating figure with an indifferent expression.
“Ha…”
Watching my friend diligently add to the karmic debt of a future regretful male lead yet again today, I clicked my tongue.
Seriously. What did he do this time?
Pressing hard against my throbbing forehead, I walked toward Aiden.
“Leticia.”
The moment he spotted me, Aiden’s eyes curved softly into crescents.
As if nothing had happened with Agnes just moments ago.
But honestly…
He really was ridiculously handsome.
If he looked this good smiling, couldn’t he at least smile kindly at Agnes too?
And I wasn’t just saying that because he was my friend—Aiden’s smile was unfairly, absurdly handsome.
With features so beautiful they seemed unreal, dark black hair, and crimson eyes glowing like they held the colors of sunset itself, he was the very definition of a fantasy romance male lead.
Usually, with his expressionless face, he looked like the classic cold, aloof beauty. But when he smiled brightly like this, he even had the innocent charm of a sunshine-type heroine. His visuals were flawless from every angle.
I still couldn’t believe someone who looked exactly like a novel illustration could actually exist.
“Leticia?”
Oops. Looks like I’d zoned out admiring his face again without realizing it.
“Ah… y-yeah.”
Snapping back to my senses at Aiden’s voice, I glanced at the bouquet crushed on the ground and asked,
“You made Lady Carnarvon cry again? So what happened this time?”
Aiden’s expression instantly turned cold.
“…Nothing.”
He answered shortly while avoiding my gaze.
Seriously, talk about a textbook regretful male lead. Just hearing Agnes’s name made his face stiffen up.
Sigh. He really needed to come to his senses before he ended up drowning in regret just like in the novel.
“Please, can’t you try being nicer to her? The way you are with me—just casually, like a friend. No, even a quarter of that would be enough!”
“And why should I?”
“Well…”
Because you’re actually the regretful male lead of this novel, and after tormenting Agnes terribly, you’ll eventually regret everything and choose to die following after her!
…Obviously, I couldn’t say that.
If I started talking about being inside a novel, he’d definitely laugh and tell me to stop talking nonsense.
“I’m thinking about your reputation.”
Usually, whenever I nagged him, Aiden would just narrow his eyes with a bored expression…
But today, strangely enough, he was staring directly into my eyes and actually listening seriously.
Was the sun going to rise in the west tomorrow? Were my efforts finally paying off?!
Excited by his unusual reaction, I became even more enthusiastic in trying to make Aiden realize his true feelings.
“You’re seriously going to regret it someday, you know? Imagine finally realizing who you truly love, only for that person to have already married someone else. Wouldn’t that tear your heart apart?”
“You’re right, Leticia.”
Aiden stroked his chin and nodded.
“What’s the point of regretting things after it’s already too late?”
“You finally came to your senses! Exactly. I keep telling you—timing is everything in life!”
Pleased, I reached out to pat Aiden on the head.
But just before my hand touched him, Aiden suddenly grabbed my wrist.
“Aiden…?”
Blinking slowly, I looked at him in confusion.
But Aiden simply held onto my wrist and silently stared down at me.
What’s gotten into him all of a sudden…?
An awkward silence passed, each second feeling like an entire year.
Come to think of it, I didn’t think we’d ever stood this close before…
Was that why? My cheeks suddenly felt hot for no reason.
“Um…”
Embarrassed, I laughed awkwardly and tried to pull my hand away, but for some reason Aiden refused to let go.
“You said it yourself. Timing is everything in life, right?”
“Huh? O-oh… yeah, that’s right!”
Feeling strangely unable to meet his eyes, I nodded while looking away. Aiden let out a quiet laugh.
“That’s why I’m planning to formally propose today.”
“Ah… th-that sounds like a great idea! But if you’re going to do that, shouldn’t you let go of my hand first? You can’t exactly propose while holding my hand.”
Unlike me—who was panicking over the possibility that Agnes might see us and misunderstand—Aiden looked completely relaxed.
“No. This actually works out better.”
The moment he said that, Aiden abruptly yanked my wrist toward him.
“?!!”
Our faces were suddenly less than a handspan apart, and before I knew it, a firm arm had wrapped around my waist.
Wait… am I in Aiden’s arms right now…?
“A-Aiden…? Why are you acting so weird all of a sudden?”
I was already flustered enough by his strange behavior.
But then came something even more shocking.
They say the unexpected always gets you in the end.
And right then, words far more bewildering than anything else came out of Aiden’s mouth.
“Leticia. Marry me.”
…Excuse me? Did I hear that correctly?
“W-what…? Who’s marrying who…?”
What was I supposed to do now? Something had gone very, very wrong.
“Obviously you and me.”
All I wanted was to stop my friend from becoming a regretful male lead…
“Will you marry me, Leticia?”
And somehow, I ended up receiving a marriage proposal from the regretful male lead himself.
It all started with a memory that suddenly resurfaced out of nowhere.
I had been leisurely enjoying tea with Aiden in the middle of the Crofton Count’s garden, just like any other day.
“Really? But these are your favorite Earl Grey cookies.”
“I don’t like them anymore. Eat them yourself, or throw them away.”
Resting his chin on one hand with a bored expression, Aiden closed his eyes as though he couldn’t care less.
“They say your tastes change as you grow up.”
I pulled the basket overflowing with cookies closer to myself.
“Then I’ll eat them all. Lady Carnarvon really is so kind. She’s always taking care of people like this.”
Agnes Carnarvon.
The only daughter of the prestigious Carnarvon Count family, she possessed beauty praised by everyone, along with a gentle personality to match. She was the very image of the ideal noble lady admired throughout the era.
“I wonder about that.”
Ah, except for one person.
Aiden.
“Do you even think anyone is a bad person by your standards?”
Aiden half-opened his eyes and asked mockingly.
I quietly stared at him.
As his childhood friend of ten years, I prided myself on knowing Aiden better than anyone.
But there was one thing I truly couldn’t understand.
Why he hated Agnes so much.
Other men were desperate just to exchange a few words with her, so what exactly did he dislike? She was pretty, kind, and even from another woman’s perspective, completely lovable.
“Well, there is one.”
“Who?”
“Hmm… you?”
I answered teasingly with a grin, and Aiden frowned.
See? He was so fun to tease.
“I’m joking, joking. Anyway, then I’m eating all of these.”
That was when it happened.
I was admiring Aiden’s slightly irritated expression while taking a bite of a cookie when—
Crunch.
“Huh…?”
At that exact moment, I realized something.
‘No way.’
I had reincarnated into a novel.
The silhouette of a man standing precariously atop the Han River bridge, silently staring down at the calm waters below.
Driven by a sense of justice and the urge to save someone, I instinctively rushed forward.
Honestly, I don’t know what kind of confidence I had back then.
I wrapped both arms around the man’s legs with all my strength, but unfortunately, I ended up plunging into the deep river together with him.
And somehow, I apparently reincarnated into this damn novel right afterward.
Ha… I’m seriously screwed. My luck is unbelievably awful.
And I could say this with absolute certainty.
Out of every novel I had ever read, this one had the worst ending of them all.
