Chapter 544: Extra - 3: Unfulfilled Love, Part 2
Nadia had fantasized many times about what expression Levi Young would wear when they met, and how she should act in response.
But she never expected it to be like this.
Levi Young did smile at her, it was true. His expression even held a hint of distant nostalgia.
And yet… that only lasted until she was welcomed into Concordia. Then it was gone…
He started to space out—obviously spacing out.
He was completely out of it!
Nadia gritted her teeth, her entire being quivering with rage.
“Are you okay?”
The voice snapped Nadia back to her senses.
The one hosting her wasn’t Paige Summers, who had stepped out on business. The man who had spoken was Sean Raines, whom she knew from her time in Central City. But right now, she wished she didn’t! His eyes, which seemed to see through everything, made her feel utterly mortified, and her own eyes began to sting.
‘I can’t, I absolutely cannot cry again!’
‘I already lost my composure just now. If I do it again, what will everyone think of me!’
“I know you must be emotional, seeing so many old friends at once,” he said. “Mm, but try to save some of it. Paige Summers will be back tonight, and she’s been talking about you for ages. If you don’t burst into tears with her the moment you see her, she’ll get all petty and think you didn’t miss her enough!”
Sean Raines’s good-natured joke made everyone else laugh, all of them assuming they understood the situation.
Nadia tilted her head back, forcing her tears to recede, and then flashed them a brilliant smile.
“Don’t worry! I’ll definitely save my tears for her!”
After that, she didn’t spare another glance in Levi Young’s direction. But it felt as if a knife had been lodged in her chest, carving into her heart with every passing moment.
‘It really… hurts so much…’
She spent the rest of the afternoon in a complete daze.
A smile remained plastered on her face, but she couldn’t focus. Perhaps the pain had grown so intense it had become a numbness, robbing her of the ability to even think straight.
Thankfully, Sean Raines didn’t press the matter. He first gave them a brief tour of Concordia before arranging for her and her companions to get some rest, saying that everything else could wait until the welcome banquet that evening.
Nadia was very grateful to him.
She knew she was in a terrible state. She had come here on official business, after all, yet she couldn’t control her own emotions…
‘But, even Sean Raines could see what a state I’m in. Could it be that Levi Young doesn’t care at all?’
It wasn’t until dusk, as they were getting ready to head to the welcome banquet, that she overheard two of her colleagues talking behind her. “…Ah, so that’s the guy who developed the Land Activation Agent? I heard he used to work at the institute, but I never met him! Man, it’s a shame he left right after we arrived. We could have at least said a few words!”
“Shhh, stop talking!”
“What?!”
“That guy is…”
The rest of the sentence faded to a whisper. Nadia couldn’t hear it, but she didn’t have to. She knew it was about her.
Walking at the front of the group, she tried to force a smile, but failed.
‘So, he left right after we arrived?’
‘It’s true… I don’t even exist in his eyes…’
A sudden surge of resentment flared in Nadia’s heart.
She stopped abruptly and said to the person who had come to escort them, her face devoid of expression, “I just remembered I forgot something. I’m going back to my room…”
The handsome young man blinked, then smiled, about to say something.
But Nadia didn’t wait for him to speak. “Have Levi Young come get me.”
A troubled look crossed his face. “I’m sorry, but he went into his lab and hasn’t come out. I’m afraid…”
But Nadia completely ignored such excuses.
Whether it was true or not, she didn’t care. She repeated stubbornly, “Have him come get me!”
Then she spun around and stalked back toward her room.
Her back was ramrod straight, yet it somehow gave off the impression that she was fleeing in disgrace.
The handsome young man arched an eyebrow for a fraction of a second before his composed expression returned. He courteously asked the others if they would like to proceed.
He had offered them an easy way to defuse the awkwardness, and no one was about to refuse.
From her room, Nadia heard the sound of a vehicle starting. She sat on her bed, slowly curling into a ball and burying her face in the palms of her hands, which rested on her knees.
‘I must seem so detestable right now, don’t I?’
‘To my colleagues, and to the people of Bloodfall…’
‘This was supposed to be a happy occasion, and I’ve probably ruined it for everyone.’
‘But I just, I just can’t stand it!’
‘All this pain, this torment, and it turns out I haven’t left a single mark on his heart?!’
‘No! I don’t believe it!’
She sat there in silence, listening to her own breathing in the cold, empty room. An unknown amount of time passed before a knock finally echoed from the door.
Nadia moved.
But she had been in the same position for too long. The moment one foot touched the floor, her entire body tipped sideways. She couldn’t tell if she’d done it on purpose or not. The next instant, her body hit the floor with a heavy THUD.
The door was thrown open, and Nadia felt a pair of familiar hands lifting her up.
Once she was sitting on the bed again, she steadied herself and slapped his hands away.
Levi Young froze, then silently drew back his hands. He just stood there, not saying a word.
At the sight of his silence, Nadia’s anger quickly reignited. She shot to her feet, tilting her chin up to face him. “Why aren’t you saying anything? It’s only been a year. Is there really nothing left for us to say to each other?!”
Levi Young’s brow furrowed slightly. He shook his head. “I… I just don’t know what to say.”
“Haha.” Nadia let out two sharp, mocking laughs. “Is that any different from having nothing to say? In that case, why don’t you tell me how relaxed and happy you’ve been this past year? Without me, the girl with the pathetic one-sided crush, you can finally hang around Paige Summers without a care in the world! Oh, that’s right, she already has a man she loves! Ah, but that doesn’t matter, because you’re her ‘little brother’! You don’t need some lame excuse to stick by her side. A little brother following his big sister around—what better reason could you need? It’s just…”
“That’s enough!” Levi Young’s expression darkened. His voice was low but cut her off with undeniable force.
After a brief, stunned silence, Nadia broke into a cold sneer.
The outburst had been an impulse, a torrent of jealousy she had kept buried deep in her heart and never intended to voice. But in that moment, seeing Levi Young’s body suddenly tense and his gaze turn to ice, she felt a perverse sense of satisfaction.
“You did it, so why are you afraid to let me talk about it? You don’t want to hear it? Well, I’m going to say my piece! Just how much are you in love with Paige Summers that you don’t even care she has another man? You just have to shamelessly follow her around, huh? I heard she even has a child now. Are you still not going to give up? You—Ah!”
Nadia’s scream was choked off in her throat. Levi Young’s hand shot out, clamping around her neck like an iron vice, cold and unhesitating.
There wasn’t a hint of impulse in his eyes, only a dead, chilling calm.
Her body was lifted slowly off the ground. Just as her vision went black, her mind turned to static, and her breathing faded to almost nothing, the hand abruptly released its grip…