What is Hot and Cold? Is it a Sweet Food Made of Flour? – 3

A week passed from that point. Hestia’s words were true. Cordelia is completely stubborn. Thinking she would open up soon after seeing how she wavered when called by name was a hasty judgment. It had been over a week, and she still showed no signs of opening her mouth. Even though she clearly didn’t know what to do whenever I called her name and said burdensome things, she gritted her teeth and kept her mouth tightly shut.

I sometimes wondered what would happen if she revealed everything through her expressions and gestures while just not speaking, but Cordelia didn’t seem to care about that at all. She seems to think that as long as she keeps her mouth shut, it’s fine.

“Cordelia, are you ignoring me today too? This is really too much.”

One day, I tried calling her just by name without attaching “Lady” and used informal speech. For some reason, Cordelia seemed disappointed. What’s this? Did she dislike me using informal speech? Since the reaction wasn’t great, I decided to go back to formal speech. But not attaching “Lady” seemed to have a good effect. Since then, I’ve been calling her just by name without any honorifics, but still using formal speech. After experimenting with various combinations, this one had the hottest reaction.

Even this time, Cordelia twisted her body as if at a loss for what to do, but still didn’t open her mouth. After repeating this process for over a week, I’m starting to think that Cordelia might be half-enjoying it too. If she’s going to ignore me, she should do it thoroughly, but she shows a vivid reaction every time I talk to her. Even now, she’s squirming.

When I was young, there was a doll at home that spoke when you pressed its belly. I quite liked that doll. It wasn’t because it was cute, but because I liked the fact that it responded to whatever I did. I used to press its belly repeatedly until I got tired of it.

Cordelia now was just like that doll. And her responses were incredibly diverse.

“Aren’t you enjoying this?”

“What do you mean?”

Hestia narrowed her eyes. While she had worried about Cordelia at first, after a week of maintaining such an ambiguous attitude, she just stopped paying attention. Rather, she sometimes threw sideways glances, seemingly displeased.

I avoided her sharp gaze. In truth, I felt guilty because she had hit the nail on the head. As she said, I was slightly enjoying it. After confirming that Cordelia didn’t genuinely dislike me, I approached it with a mindset of conquering a game. What words elicit good responses, what words don’t. Finding out these things was quite fun in its own way.

That must have seemed a bit distasteful to Hestia’s eyes.

“Perhaps you’re jeal—”

“…”

“No way. Um, yes. You’re worried about Cordelia, right?”

As soon as the word “jealous” left my mouth, Hestia’s expression turned icy cold. I felt a chill, as if the surrounding temperature had dropped several degrees. Even after I hastily took back my words, Hestia’s expression remained far from good.

Cordelia also started sneakily checking Hestia’s mood. She tried to slip away but was caught by the back of her neck by Hestia. Where do you think you’re going, when you’re the main cause of this situation?

“Lady Cordelia, where are you going? You should stay here.”

Cordelia sat back down without saying a word. She shot a glance at me as if asking for help, but then seemed to belatedly remember that she was supposed to be ignoring me, so she shook her head and tightly closed her eyes. How can anyone take her seriously when she’s acting like this?

Hestia looked at Cordelia as if she couldn’t believe it, then resumed her interrogation towards me.

“Name.”

“What about the name?”

“You’re calling Lady Cordelia just by her name now.”

She had a somewhat pouty expression. Is she unhappy that I’m calling Cordelia just by her name?

“Well, it just happened? And we’ve gotten closer now.”

Hestia’s expression remained pouty even after hearing my words. I feel like a criminal even though I haven’t done anything particularly wrong. Looking into her eyes, excuses naturally spilled out. Hestia listened to my excuses and made a “hmm” sound through her nose.

“You two seem to be getting along better now than before.”

Cordelia flinched. While I’m not particularly perceptive, I can clearly tell this is jealousy. Hestia is currently jealous of me and Cordelia. That fact was both chilling and somewhat pleasing. It’s a bit of a trashy thought, but doesn’t jealousy mean she has feelings for me? If she had not cared at all and just said, “You two figure it out yourselves,” that would have been more shocking.

“Don’t you think? Recently you’re always sticking together. It seems like you’re more interested in Cordelia than in me.”

By the way, her immediate anger was frightening. Of course, I was confident in my feelings, but it wasn’t me who would judge that, but Hestia.

Hestia was smiling as usual, but it didn’t seem like she was smiling at all. Compared to when Seol-ah clung to me before, I’d rather have her openly expressing anger like then. Back then, she openly expressed her anger, but now, perhaps because Cordelia is her closest friend, it feels like a cold, compressed practical anger with emotions tightly bottled up.

Hestia looked down at me and Cordelia with her arms crossed. Even though Hestia is clearly the shortest among the three of us, I felt as if she was pressing down on us from above.

“Why are both of you silent?”

“No, I really didn’t have any special intention when I…”

Despite my desperate excuses, she didn’t seem to feel any better, as she kept her arms crossed. Cordelia was completely pale and restless.

Hestia looked at such a Cordelia with displeasure, then sighed deeply.

“No. Just, sigh. It’s nothing.”

She seemed quite troubled.

Hestia was contemplating what to call this suffocating feeling that was tightening around her heart recently. The cause was clear. It was because of Mikhail, who was tactlessly sticking to her best friend Cordelia and constantly whispering embarrassing words.

Of course, Hestia knew that Mikhail wasn’t being sincere. Naturally, because Mikhail had shared his entire plan with Hestia. Nevertheless, it was hard for Hestia to watch Mikhail attached to Cordelia.

When she saw Mikhail saying things to Cordelia that he had previously only said to her, and saw Cordelia blushing and being embarrassed, a dark and sticky emotion naturally welled up.

Unbeknownst to Hestia herself, her closed heart was steadily opening towards Mikhail. Of course, the resentment towards him hadn’t completely disappeared yet. It was unreasonable to resolve emotions that had built up over 10 years within a month. However, that month was enough time for Hestia, in the flower of her youth, to feel fluttering emotions towards Mikhail.

The hand-holding from a while back was an example. Mikhail might not have known, but it was quite a difficult attempt for Hestia. Despite Mikhail’s constant compliments and expressions of affection, she was still afraid of being rejected by him. For her, reaching out first and requesting skinship required considerable courage.

Nevertheless, the strongest emotion Hestia still had for Mikhail was not affection but possessiveness and exclusivity. Of course, it wasn’t that she had no affection, but it was at the level of what’s commonly called “having a crush.” But possessiveness and exclusivity were different. For Hestia, who had endured over 10 years of neglect with the pleasant memory of their first meeting, his suddenly changed attitude was enough to make her feel various emotions.

She, who had been craving her fiancé’s attention, wanted to monopolize that emotion entirely rather than returning it when that attention was directed at her. This was because she still had the thought that she might be abandoned again lingering in her mind. Thus, she developed a possessiveness wishing that Mikhail would never abandon her again, and an exclusivity wanting him to pour his attention only on her.

Simply put, Hestia was just unaware of her true nature: a clingy woman with severe jealousy and obsession. And she was on the verge of realizing that nature through her best friend.

“Aren’t you enjoying this?”

Hestia was surprised by the chilling sharpness she felt in her own words. Even though she knew that this was just empty talk Mikhail was doing to improve his relationship with Cordelia, not at all sincere—and it absolutely shouldn’t be sincere—her mouth was already beyond her control.

When Mikhail uttered the word “jealous” in response to her question, her entire body stiffened as if freezing over. Jealous? Who was she supposed to be jealous of? Cordelia, her most precious friend? Her childhood friend of nearly 10 years? That can’t be right. Hestia herself trusts Mikhail and Cordelia. There should be no room for jealousy in relationships of mutual trust.

Hestia looked at Cordelia’s expression. Over her stiffly frozen face, she could see the overlay of her earlier bitch-like face, blushing at Mikhail’s compliments.

What? Bitch?

Hestia immediately denied the fact that she had thought of such a vulgar word. Cordelia is her friend. Even in her inner thoughts, she shouldn’t use words like “bitch” for a friend.

During all this, Cordelia tried to slip away from her seat. Hestia felt a sudden surge of heat rise within her. Who is the cause of this situation, and yet she’s trying to slip away alone? Hestia very calmly called Cordelia back.

Cordelia sat back down with an expression like a horse being led to slaughter. And then, brazenly, she shot a glance of help towards Mikhail. Hestia couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

No matter how much she tried to remain calm, the attitude of the two was too suspicious. Even giving them the benefit of the doubt, while Mikhail might be excused, Cordelia’s attitude was highly suspicious.

Yes, this is not suspicion at all. It’s merely confirming the facts. Hestia resumed her interrogation towards Mikhail with a mindset that if you asked 100 people, 120 would call it jealousy. The reason she didn’t directly ask Cordelia might have been a trace of fear that her suspicion might turn out to be true.

First, calling Cordelia by name. Hestia had been thinking to herself that being called by name was a form of address reserved only for her. Of course, Mikhail hadn’t attached such deep meaning to forms of address, but that wasn’t Hestia’s concern. What mattered was that she had been robbed of something she believed was exclusively hers by Cordelia. Hestia was, more than she thought, the type to obsess over such trivial things.

Listening to Mikhail vaguely mumbling excuses like “it just happened” or “we’ve just become closer now” in response to her question, Hestia felt her insides burning. She decided to press a bit stronger.

“Don’t you think? Recently you’re always sticking together. It seems like you’re more interested in Cordelia than in me.”

Both of them remained silent. Like people who had truly committed a wrongdoing, they kept their mouths shut and avoided her gaze. Especially Cordelia, whose restlessness was visible to the naked eye. Hestia suddenly felt foolish for getting so angry.

“No. Just, sigh. It’s nothing.”

She still didn’t want to admit that this sticky feeling constricting her heart was jealousy.