My Beloved, Whom I Desire to Kill - 304

—You can meet her after the war is over.

He worried that Giselle might be upset that the family member she’d risked everything to save chose to leave right after they met.

However, Giselle herself felt nothing but relief. As if she had finally completed a long-pressing mission.

Wasn’t their bond now more about duty than affection? Giselle had fulfilled her obligation as a family member and finally repaid her emotional debt.

Edwin seemed to think Giselle might feel disappointed that her brother chose his lover over his blood relative.

But I did the exact same thing. Perhaps it was a family trait that love was thicker than blood.

For a child, a blood relative is often the person with whom they spend time, but as one ages, the two concepts diverge. If family is defined as a precious person with whom you share your life, then for the Giselle of today, the man with whom she shared her time was family, more so than the brother with whom she shared blood.

While she generally takes Lorenz’s words with a grain of salt, his revelation that Edwin was heartbroken by the thought that he wasn’t her —true family— must have been true. Giselle knew she would be upset and sleepless if she heard him say he wasn’t real family to her.

This man might be thinking right now: The —real family— Giselle longed for has left.

But they never left.

Giselle burrowed into the arms of the man who was always by her side.

—You are my family.

His warm eyes, the color of the pre-dawn sky, were brimming with emotion. His sturdy arms wrapped around her, embracing her as if to fully engulf her.

Edwin quietly closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. Not satisfied with just that, Giselle leaned in further and pressed their lips together.

She took a deep breath, lightly kissing him and pulling away, steeling her resolve. It was a decision she’d made long ago, and she thought it would be easy, but her heart pounded now that she was about to say it out loud.

—Edwin.

The man, smiling faintly and tilting his head, likely couldn’t imagine what his lover was about to say.

—Will you marry me?

Edwin’s eyes widened. She had expected surprise, but why was his gaze trembling with such confusion?

His lips began to move, but no sound came out. She suddenly realized his chest, which had been regularly rising and falling, had stopped. Just as she worried he’d forgotten to breathe, a short gasp escaped, sounding like both admiration and a sigh. Then, words that seemed to be squeezed out followed.

—I misheard you.

The runway was quiet without takeoffs or landings, and the soldiers’ morning drill calls were distant. So he must have heard correctly; why did he believe it was a mistake?

Did you think I’d never say this? I can say it as many times as you want.

—I’m asking you to marry me, huff…—

Edwin responded not with words, but by covering her lips with his own. As if to swallow Giselle’s proposal and make it his own forever.

A group of soldiers jogging slowly past the runway to the rhythm of a marching song snapped their heads around, staring at the two officers passionately kissing in the middle of the military base.

Edwin had always thought there was nothing more unsightly than kissing one’s lover passionately in public, but to him now, the intruders were merely interrupting a precious, once-in-a-lifetime moment.

The two lips finally parted when a fighter jet’s roar exploded from the opposite side of the runway, startling Giselle.

Edwin smiled, as bright as the morning sun that colored his face. The answer was clear, given that her proposal had created such a radiant smile, but she still wanted to hear it in his sweet voice.

—So, you’re accepting my proposal?

—No.

Giselle’s mind completely stalled for a moment because the man, still smiling happily, had rejected her proposal.

—…You’re rejecting me after we kissed?

—You don’t have a ring.

—That’s unbelievable…….

He wasn’t paying her back for criticizing him for not having a ring in his own proposal. He was clearly being stubborn because he didn’t want to lose the chance to propose.

—And there’s no love.

—…Excuse me?

There was a limit to stubbornness.

—You say I don’t love you? How can you say that?

—Well, have you ever told me you loved me first?

—Of course I h—… haven’t.

She tried to confidently refute him but her lips clamped shut. No matter how hard she searched her memory, there was no moment where she had confessed her feelings first.

—…Why didn’t I?

—Why am I so attracted to such an indifferent woman…—

Edwin’s mouth flattened into a straight line, perhaps indicating how hurt he’d been. Giselle smiled sheepishly and clung to him, a typical reaction when cornered. Just as she was about to say she loved him, a large palm covered her mouth.

—I refuse to accept a confession of love I have to beg for. Tell me when the love is so overwhelming you can’t help but confess, after you’ve completely forgotten what I just said. So, it’s forbidden for the next week.

She pouted but kept her lips sealed, and he finally removed his hand.

—Anyway, this proposal is void.

Thus, Giselle Bishop and Edwin Eccleston became a couple who had failed to propose to each other twice.

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The afternoon of a dazzling summer day. A convertible drove slowly along a road rich with lush greenery. The lovers sat side by side, holding hands despite the scorching heat, but arguing back and forth.

—So this is what it feels like to have a proposal rejected.

Giselle grumbled, pretending to be sulky as she leaned against the window frame and looked the other way. Edwin scoffed loud enough for her to hear.

—No. You don’t know the slightest bit of how I felt then. At least I didn’t cut off ties with you, did I?

—Well, at least I proposed out of love, didn’t I?

The woman, who had been glaring at the man who immediately clammed up when the argument turned against him, suddenly spun around and leaned against him, as if a different person had taken over her body.

—It felt good, didn’t it?

Her smiling lips descended to his forehead.

—It’s the first time you’ve ever been proposed to, right?

He nodded and added,

—And it will be the last time in my life.

The man briefly pressed his lips to hers. As soon as he turned his attention forward, he pulled the car over to the side of the road. Only then did Giselle notice a road sign engraved with a familiar village name.

This was the place where she was born and lived as Natalia Rudnyck, where she survived, and where she met Edwin Eccleston.

At Edwin’s suggestion, they had decided to stop by her hometown on the way back to Richmond. It was the first time she’d returned since leaving with him.

The church spire that rose in the distance had been bombed and half-destroyed then, but now it stood tall as if it had never experienced war.

While she scanned the landscape, comparing it to her last memory, Edwin got out of the car. He motioned with his camera-free hand for Giselle to come out too.

He positioned Giselle next to the sign, where the village name was clearly visible, and took a commemorative photo. Standing in front of this man’s camera was familiar, but she didn’t know what expression to make now.

Click.

The straight line of his dark eyebrows furrowed above the camera. This was because, at the moment the shutter clicked, Giselle playfully stuck out her tongue.

—Behave.

Click.

And once again, she didn’t behave.

—Hah… Did you turn ten again just because you came home?

It was a trick she often pulled in her childhood. Edwin even had a separate box in his photo darkroom filled with pictures of Giselle that turned out so ridiculous they couldn’t be put in an album.

These were memories and funny moments, and he’d love to preserve them forever, but the problem was he hadn’t brought enough film to indulge her antics.

He lowered the camera and watched her with narrowly narrowed eyes to caution her, but Giselle pretended she hadn’t done anything, smiling innocently and demurely like a proper lady. Even though she would turn back into a tomboy the instant he pressed the shutter.

Edwin was about to honestly admit that they had little film left but stopped. He’d suddenly thought of an ingenious way to punish Giselle so she wouldn’t play tricks again.

He raised the camera back to his eye and simultaneously took a step closer, narrowing the distance.

—Try to ruin it one more time. I’ll make sure you can’t do it again.

He warned her, applying pressure to the finger on the shutter button. As the button started to go down, she stuck out her tongue again. Edwin, as if he had been waiting, quickly whipped the camera away, snatched Giselle’s waist with one arm, and pulled her close.

—Mph…….

He relentlessly pursued the tongue Giselle tried to pull back in surprise, trapping it with his own and tenaciously sucking on it. Her eyes, which had completely lost their playfulness, slowly closed in surrender. As soon as Giselle calmed down, Edwin broke the kiss.

—I’ll continue the rest if you take the pictures properly.

She was still pouting and glaring at him, but when Edwin stepped back and raised the camera, she quickly turned away. He thought she was going to play a different trick this time, but he was wrong.