I Became The Male Lead’s Female Friend - Chapter 27

Even then, I thought it was no big deal, but as I looked at Rudrick, who was trembling strangely, I replied refreshingly.

 

‘Yes, everyday.’

 

‘Everyday?’

 

‘It’s easy, right?’

 

Then, when I looked at him asking for his consent, I could feel Rudrick avoiding my gaze.

 

Was it because you’re still shy? But if you do it, it would be nothing compared to what you make yourself of.

 

However, Rudrick had a look that he wanted to run away at any moment as if this never happened at all.

 

I couldn’t leave it like that. Reluctantly, I decided to give a demonstration first.

 

‘Look Carefully.’

 

Then I took a deep breath and shouted loudly.

 

“I’m pretty! I’m cute! I am lovely! I’m beautiful! I’m…!”

 

After pondering for a moment at the last sentence, I shouted, ‘Hah, I don’t know anymore’.

 

“Sexy-!”

 

Sexy- Sexy- too-!

 

My voice echoed through the room.

 

After that, I did it. Forgetting my shame and wiping the sweat from my forehead with a refreshed face, I asked, looking at Rudrick.

 

“Easy, right?”

 

But Rudrick’s face was completely pale.

 

“You want me to… do it?”

 

“Yes, every day, five times.”

 

“Pretty, cute… something like that…?”

 

I smiled brightly.

 

“Yes!”

 

Rudrick closed his eyes tightly.

 

“I can’t!”

 

That’s how we’ve been fighting until now.

 

Rudrick, whose face turned from red to pale and then to various colors, was adamant no matter how much I tried to comfort him.

 

I stared in Rudrick’s eyes and begged him to do so.

 

“Oh, Rudrick. Originally, it’s difficult at first. But let’s give it a try. It’s easy once you try it.”

 

“…”

 

“Hey, it’s a joke to repeat exactly what I said, and you just have to praise yourself in front of the mirror. Any compliment is fine. Okay?”

 

“… any compliment?”

 

“Yes!”

 

Rudrick, who was a little weakened after I begged him, glanced at me.

 

I grabbed his two hands and looked at him eagerly. As he bit his lips and was in conflict, he then spoke sullenly.

 

“But I couldn’t think of any compliment to say to myself…”

 

“Then I’ll decide it for you today.”

 

“Uh, okay…?”

 

“Come on, copy me. ‘I am lovely’.”

 

Rudrick was silent. For some reason it seemed that I could feel Rudrick’s resentful gaze, but I pretended not to know and said again.

 

“I am lovely!”

 

Rudrick slowly opened his trembling lips.

 

“I, I…”

 

“I am.”

 

“I’m… lo, lo, love…!”

 

“Lo?”

 

The moment Rudrick opened his mouth wide and was about to speak.

 

“Rudrick, let’s go home now.”

 

“Mother-!”

 

“No-!”

 

At that moment, the joy and sorrow of the two of us couldn’t cross like that.

 

Rudrick’s tears welled up as if he had seen a savior, and his face fell into the depths of despair as if he had seen me as a demon.

 

The Duchess smiled as she looked at the two of us, who had clearly intertwined conflict expressions on our faces.

 

Then she asked him politely with a satisfied smile thinking, ‘I guess he was having fun.’

 

“What happened?”

 

…I had no choice but to send Rudrick as he was.

 

In front of the Duchess, I said, “Your son doesn’t admit that he’s adorable. I’m disappointed,” because he thinks he’s still not good enough.

 

But I never gave up.

 

Giving up was the only word used to count cabbages.

 

And every time Rudrick comes, I would say, ‘Shall we go see the mirror?‘ I asked persistently, ‘This was a mirror I’ve prepared hard for…’ and ‘How are you today?’.

 

Of course, every time Rudrick looked in the mirror, he was busy running away screaming.

 

But I was the one who won in the end.

 

When I persistently begged, threatened, acted cute, pretended to be upset and didn’t talk, Rudrick said, “Then only once,” and allowed it.

 

Now that we’re standing in front of a full-body mirror.

 

“I, I, I’m… lo… lovely.”

 

“Five times.”

 

“Dahlia…”

 

Rudrick looked down in tears, but I shook my head resolutely.

 

“Five times!”

 

“I, I’m…”

 

With such a face carrying all the anguish and resentment of the world, Rudrick said ‘I’m lovely’ five times, intermittently but surely.

 

“…I’m, uh, lovely… I’m…”

 

“…”

 

“Lovely…”

 

I looked at Rudrick proudly and hugged him.

 

“Yes, Rudrick is lovely.”

 

Looking at me exhausted, Rudrick only said a word in a weak voice.

 

“You can’t just say things like that.”

 

Since then, I have practiced the methods that Rudrick and I have found one by one.

 

As the librarian said, I wrote down the tasks to be done that day and tried to do them one by one, and as my father said, I also did the things he liked—for example, brushing his hair.

 

In addition, as the maid said, I tried the so-called “compliment ping-pong” to accept compliments as they are.

 

‘Compliment Ping-Pong’ was a method I devised from my previous life’s ‘Of course’ game.

 

In other words, it was a game where we complimented each other one by one and ended with “Of course.”

 

Of course, it was only a game for me, and for Rudrick, it was nothing like a suffering.

 

“Hurry up and praise me.”

 

“Dah-Dahlia is…”

 

“Yes.”

 

“…”

 

“Yes, yes, yes…”

 

Rudrick wasn’t good at complimenting.

 

“Rudrick is cute.”

 

“…”

 

“It’s true.”

 

“…”

 

He couldn’t even answer.

 

Afterwards, when I became frustrated, I had to suggest, ‘Then, let’s give regular compliments instead of embarrassing compliments’, and Rudrick’s face only brightened

 

Fortunately, Rudrick accepted compliments such as ‘careful’ and ‘meticulous’ well, even though he was shy.

 

‘What the hell was the standard for being shy?’

 

Rudrick has been giving me this compliment when I’m seriously contemplating.

 

“Dahlia is wonderful.”

 

He said it proudly with a smile.

 

“Of course.”

 

And after many games, the last thing we always exchanged was, of course, the ‘exchange diary’.

 

Originally, we were going to exchange diaries once a week.

 

But in the first place, we didn’t see each other every day, and our parents only met when the time was right, so we decided to change the rules, saying that it would be better to exchange diaries every time we meet.

 

And it’s not long before I bitterly regret that decision.

 

“Did you write it anything?”

 

Because there was no such word as ‘give up’ in my dictionary.

 

“Oh, no, I wrote! I did use it, but…”

 

Rudrick, who was flipping through his empty diary with hazy eyes, stopped at one point.

 

He quickly glanced over the paper, then looked at me with bright eyes.

 

There was only one line written there.

 

[Rudrick came to play today. It was fun!].

 

“… Dahlia.”

 

At his dreary voice, I picked up Rudrick’s diary.

 

“You, how hard did you write…!”

 

Then I quickly went through the diary -.

 

『Imperial Year 332, August 11th.

 

Today, my mother was suddenly invited to the Earl’s tea party, so I couldn’t go to the Duke of Averine.

 

It had already been over a week since I had not been able to go there, and it was the day my mother had promised we would go, so I couldn’t help but feel a little sad.

 

However, I couldn’t complain because I knew that my mother was taking care of the things that she had to catch up with instead of my father.

 

But it wasn’t all bad. I met a gardener for the first time while I was making up my mind in the garden, and he was kind enough to…』

 

Having read up to that point, I was surprised to find that such a content fills one page.

 

I was even surprised twice to see that the whole week we haven’t met has been written like that.

 

Still, I kept turning the pages with the hope that there would be an empty space.

 

Eventually I had to admit it.

 

“…you worked hard on it.”

 

Because his sincerity exceeded my imagination