I’ve fallen for you.
I’ll take full responsibility.
I’ll be your shield.
Hearing those words, tears streamed down Aris’s face.
Like a broken faucet, tears flowed continuously from Aris’s eyes.
Aris sobbed.
His warmth was felt on her cheek.
Warm and cozy.
As if she were in her dad’s embrace.
Thump.
Aris’s heart raced.
“My ally…”
Aris mumbled in a small voice.
“I’m on your side, senpai.”
In response, Kim Deok-Sung’s voice whispered in Aris’s ear.
Flash.
Aris’s face turned red.
Thump, thump.
Aris’s heart rate increased.
“W-Whatever happens…?”
Aris asked in a trembling voice.
“Yes. Whatever happens.”
Pat.
Kim Deok-Sung patted Aris’s head.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
Her heartbeat skyrocketed.
Aris’s face became beet red.
‘You’re saying you’ll be on my side…’
Aris stuttered.
I’ll be on your side.
From the time she was bullied as a child until now.
Words she yearned to hear, wished someone would say.
But no one had uttered them until now.
She had always been alone.
No one had reached out to her.
Everyone had condemned her.
She wanted to lean on someone, but there was no one to rely on.
After entering Shuo Academy and putting on the perfect superhuman mask, she had made some friends, but none were true friends.
As the perfect superhuman Student Council President, Aris was seen as an object of everyone’s attention, expectation, and reliance—not someone who should rely on anyone.
And Aris thought so too.
As a perfect superhuman, as the Student Council President, she shouldn’t need to depend on anyone.
Sometimes, the chairman Seira would help her, but Seira was the chairman, not a peer.
It felt odd to call that kind of relationship a friendship, and they rarely met in person due to her busy schedule.
Besides, Seira wasn’t the right person to be spoiled by Aris.
In fact, Aris would often be the one indulging Seira.
Loneliness in a crowd.
That had been Aris’s life until now.
Aris bit her lip.
Tears flowed from her eyes.
“C-Can I… lean on you?”
Aris asked Kim Deok-Sung.
In truth, she wanted to lean on others more than anyone else.
She wanted to be spoiled by someone more than anyone.
Although she was praised for being mature, deep down, she didn’t want to grow up.
She tried hard to wear the perfect superhuman mask but was incredibly imperfect inside.
Her inner self hadn’t grown a bit since her middle school years when she was bullied.
She had just put on armor.
He was just wearing armor.
The armor of the Student Council President.
“It’s okay.”
Pat.
As Kim Deok-Sung touched her head again, Aris’s heart raced.
Aris bit her lips.
Her face turned bright red.
“Um, is it okay if I act a bit spoiled?”
“Of course.”
Kim Deok-Sung’s answer came without hesitation.
Whoa.
Aris’s face flushed a deep red.
Thump, thump.
Aris’s heartbeat quickened.
She caught a glimpse of Kim Deok-Sung’s face.
Suddenly, memories from that day flashed through Aris’s mind.
During the Kyoto Training, the day she accidentally got drunk on champagne and her true self was revealed to him.
The warmth she felt from him that night was just as cozy.
Other memories flooded in.
The mishap during summer school when they accidentally bumped lips, the intense training they did together every day, enjoying the summer festival side by side, eating ramen while preparing for the cultural festival and showing him the rooftop, and even yesterday’s cultural festival venue inspection they did together.
All her memories with him played in a blur.
In that moment, Aris realized something.
‘He’s never once revealed my true identity.’
The man in front of her, Kim Deok-Sung.
He had never once disclosed that she was a country girl.
Her true identity was her biggest psychological weakness.
He could have maliciously exploited it to manipulate her for his gain, yet he didn’t.
He simply kept her secrets and showed her kindness.
Maeda Shinji obtained her identity not through Kim Deok-Sung but through other routes using the power of the Maeda Conglomerate, which was proof of that.
He had kept her secret until the end, and when her identity was revealed through Maeda Shinji in the old school building, he calmed her down in her panic.
A man like him was telling her to trust him, to lean on him.
Thump.
Aris’s heart raced.
‘I······.’
Aris placed her hand on her chest.
She felt her heartbeat strongly against her palm.
It felt as if her heart was tightening painfully.
The emotions she had desperately suppressed, feelings so intense they felt painful whenever she met him, erupted like a volcano.
‘In fact, I’ve liked him for a long time······.’
Aris finally realized.
That day.
When they accidentally slept together during the Kyoto training.
When she felt her father’s warmth in his embrace that day.
Even after her identity was discovered, he kept her secret and embraced her country girl side.
All this time, she had actually fallen for him.
The truth that she had denied her feelings like a child, using her position as Student Council President as an excuse.
It was only now, with the mask of Student Council President losing its meaning, that she realized she had returned to being a country girl.
“Ugh······.”
Aris bit her lip.
She liked him.
She had genuinely started to like him.
Only now did she realize she had fallen for him.
Thump.
The heart of a girl who acknowledged her feelings raced relentlessly.
Aris’s face turned bright red.
“Uhhhhh······.”
A moan escaped Aris’s lips.
She had put in countless efforts to act like a perfect overachiever up until now.
But there were no strategies for handling love in the perfect overachiever study guide.
‘What should I do, what should I······.’
Aris’s head swirled with pink thoughts.
Her silver eyes spun around.
Would it be strange if she confessed her feelings?
Would he come to hate her?
What?
A myriad of thoughts raced through Aris’s mind.
At the moment her brain almost short-circuited…
“Senpai, are you okay now?”
The voice of her crush reached her ears.
Thump.
Upon hearing Kim Deok-Sung’s voice, Aris’s heart raced.
She didn’t know what to say.
“W-wait a minute…”
But one thing was clear.
Slam.
Aris wrapped her arms around Kim Deok-Sung’s waist.
“Please just stay like this for a moment… no, please stay…”
She didn’t want to leave the warmth of his embrace.
With that thought, Aris buried her face in his chest.
Thump.
Aris’s heart raced.
Not from fear, but from excitement.
*
[Wow, partner. You’re quite the player. But isn’t Saionji’s favoritism a bit too much? You’ve never been this sweet to my little sister.]
The voice of the Black Prince echoed in her mind.
Favoritism?
What on earth was he talking about?
He had said he’d take responsibility at Olivia’s engagement ceremony too.
No, I’ll take responsibility for all the trouble caused by twisting the original story.
After all, if it weren’t for me, none of this would have happened.
Since it was my doing, I should take full responsibility.
But it was still too early to explain this to the Black Prince.
So I chose silence.
Instead, I gently patted Aris’s head, who was nestled in my arms, her face flushed.
I could feel her trembling gradually subside.
“Are you feeling a bit calmer now?”
Aris nodded instead of answering.
I slowly eased her from my embrace.
I don’t know how much she cried, but Aris’s eyes were puffy and red.
I had managed to calm her down after some effort, but the situation was not completely resolved.
I needed to show her the supportive reactions of the extras, no, the cadets, directly.
Thus, I had to help resolve her trauma.
Only then could I truly say it was all over.
“Well then, let’s go.”
“W-where to?!”
Aris stammered in surprise, her voice tinged with a dialect.
Not the perfect Student Council President, but the rural girl, Aris.
This was the side that occasionally appeared after the seventh volume of the original work.
Additionally, it was a side I found endearing.
“Before the cadets.”
“T-that’s…”
Aris’s face turned red.
Her eyes wavered.
Although I had calmed her down, the trauma was still present.
But to help her overcome her trauma, I had to show her the cadets’ reactions.
I steeled myself internally.
Having already made a cringeworthy comment earlier that nearly made me vanish from embarrassment, if I was going to present Aris to the public, I’d need to go even cringier.
“Don’t worry, I’m here. Just trust me.”
As I delivered a line straight out of a light novel, Aris’s face turned even redder.
She mumbled with her lips, bowing her head.
Her ear tips were visibly flushed.
“Y-yeah…”
Aris nodded.
“Okay, I-I’ll believe in you, Kim Deok-Sung…”
With a voice as small as an ant’s, Aris spoke.
She timidly grabbed the cuff of my sleeve.
“B-but you have to come with me… you have to stay by my side…”
Aris said in a tiny voice.
Staying together?
That was easy.
“Understood. Let’s do that. Then, let’s head out.”
“Uh, okay…”
“Uh…?”
Aris, still looking down, stammered.
Despite her timid response, I could see her gripping my hand tighter.
Unintentionally holding hands with Aris, we descended from the rooftop.
Descending down to the academy corridor where the students gathered, the students’ gazes were fixed on Aris.
“Ehhh…”
Aris released a groan.
I may not have the ability to read minds, but I could tell what she was thinking without even trying.
Now that her identity was revealed, she was probably worried about being hated by the students.
“It’s okay, Senior. Everyone will like you.”
As I whispered this into Aris’s ear, her face turned red.
Just as Aris nodded her reddened face.
“Look over there! It’s our Senior!”
“Where? Where?”
“It’s really our Senior!”
“She’s with the Black Beast, right?”
As the students murmured, Aris shrunk back.
Swiftly.
Just as she hid behind me.
“Senior! I missed you!”
“Saionji-san, are you from Kansai? Your dialect is super cute!”
“The ones who ignored such a cute Senior are bad!”
“Maeda-senpai, I’m super disappointed. To slander our Senior like that…”
“I never liked that gloomy Maeda kid from the start.”
“Please speak in your dialect! I want to hear it again!”
“Senior! Amazing! Growing up so well in such a tough environment… I would have given up.”
“You’re the best! Saionji-senpai!”
“President, your eyes are so puffy.”
“Don’t cry! Senior!”
“Did the Black Beast comfort you? He’s nicer than he looks.”
The students’ voices filled the corridor.
Since falling into this light novel world, it was the first moment that these extras, who had only been daydreaming in the Black Beast universe, truly helped out.
“Eh…?”
Aris’s eyes widened.
The hand she held onto me trembled slightly.
“Senior, didn’t I say I’d be fine?”
As expected, in this kind world, Aris’s secret wasn’t a problem at all.
I pulled Aris out from behind me.
Her silver eyes wavered.
“Go on. To the students. As Student Council President.”
Hearing my words, Aris’s silver eyes locked onto me.
Tears welled up in her eyes.
Aris nodded.
“…Understood. Kim Deok-Sung. And…”
Aris approached me.
Peck.
A soft touch lightly brushed against my cheek and fell away.
It was Aris’s gentle kiss on the cheek.
“Eek! Senior! How bold!”
“Breaking news! Senior kissed the Black Beast!”
“The Black Beast managed to capture the Student Council President too…”
“So the rumors of them doing those kinds of things in practice rooms every day were true…”
“Ugh… Even the Student Council President has fallen into the Black Beast’s grasp…”
The buzz of the extras filled my ears.
After the kiss, Aris flushed red and softly whispered to me as she fell back.
“…Thank you.”
Just as I was flustered by Aris’s sudden intimacy, I caught sight of someone.
A beautiful girl with dazzling platinum hair and blue eyes.
It was the tsundere princess, Olivia, puffing up her cheeks.
Wait, when did Olivia show up here?
