I Became The Male Lead’s Female Friend

 

From that day on, I began to visit the Bouser’s mansion regularly.

 

At first, I was only stopping by to check on them because I was concerned about their relationship.

 

But the two had already gone to the north, and I, who was left in vain, had a cup of tea in the drawing room and came back home.

 

The next day was the same.

 

I went to the mansion once more to see if they were there today, but the situation was the same as yesterday.

 

And the next day, and the next…

 

And another day. I kept going back and forth to Bouser’s mansion until I finally saw them.

 

However, just like the last time, I was shocked to see them together, unable to take their eyes off of each other.

 

‘I’m not going here again.’

 

I thought,

‘I’ve already seen how they are, and I don’t need to go any further.’

 

But my decision was not made lightly, it was made with a lot of determination.

 

A day later, I saw the two of them together again, and I felt like I had to check it out right away, so I headed to Bouser.

 

Several times, I witnessed the affectionate behavior again.

 

They were even getting more and more antagonistic by the day.

 

At first, O’Neill would try to hide it a bit, as if she was embarrassed, but then she’d show up later with arms around him or clinging to his side.

 

On top of that, the other day, O’Neill accidentally called Rudrick ‘

darling’

while telling a story about her time up north.

 

After hearing that with my own two ears, I was mesmerized all day long. 

 

No matter what I did, I couldn’t stop hearing O’Neill’s sweet ‘

darling

’ sound echoing in my ears.

 “I’m not really going!” 

But the next thing I knew, I was sitting in the drawing room again.

 

‘Hah…’

 

After repeating it a few times, it has become a daily routine for me to visit the Bouser mansion every day.

 

Whenever I left the house, someone would ask me,

“Are you going to Bouser’s?”

or even my parents would ask me in passing,

“Are you in a relationship?”

so I said everything.

 

‘What about dating?’

 

But unlike the people who were just curious, some people were not happy with the situation.

 

Jeron, for example.

 “What are you up to these days?” 

Today, I still stopped by Bouser’s mansion and came back weak and ran into Jeron as I entered the main gate.

 “Jeron?” 

He must have returned from the north with Hestia, and for some reason, I felt like I hadn’t seen him in a long time, so I approached him happily.

 

But when I saw his angry, hardened face from the front, I took a step back.

 “I need to talk to you for a moment.” “Oh, I suddenly remembered something urgent…” “What? I thought you were done with your work for the day, since you went to Bouser.” 

I could tell he was upset about that.

 

But it was true that I had been sneaking off to the Bouser mansion whenever I could, so I didn’t have much of an excuse.

 

I could only hope that his nagging would end soon.

 

‘Would I rather talk about it?’

 

I was getting tired of keeping it to myself. Jeron wasn’t about to back down unless he knew why.

 

Having been dragged by him so obediently, I narrowed my eyes at the nagging voice that began as soon as the door slammed shut.

 “You know this isn’t the time for this, don’t you? We don’t know what Myers is up to, so we have to come up with the solution quickly, right?” “Oh, well, I’ve been instructed to find out what Myers is up to…” 

“

What about hotels? What about popularization? Are you saying you are increasing the number of single rooms? Have you figured out how to cover the costs? What are the specific plans for efficient reorganization?” “I don’t have one…” “You really…!” 

Jeron sighed in exasperation as he watched me turn away.

 

After ruffling his hair and letting go of his anger for a moment, he flopped down on the sofa and continued speaking calmly.

 “Okay, honestly I’m not saying this because I’m expecting anything in return, but you know you’ve been acting weird lately, right?” “…” “As soon as you open your eyes, you go straight to Bouser, spend the whole day there, come back when you feel tired, and when you feel like you can’t wait, you stay out all day. What on earth are you going to do? Why are you so distracted?” 

I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed to hear the details of my behavior from someone else’s mouth.

 

I stammered, unable to answer, and thought to myself.

 

‘Did I… go that far?’

 

No, it certainly went too far.

 

Normally, I would have done my own thing and seen things in moderation, but these past few days I’ve been completely distracted by Rudrick and O’Neill.

 

It’s like someone who doesn’t have to be caught between the two right now.

 

All of it. But I was just as frustrated.

 

What on earth was the purpose of why I kept going to see those two? I couldn’t say anything when I met them, and I’m just upset every time…

 

After a long pause, I finally spoke up.

 

I told him everything that had happened, and as he listened, he asked me out of the blue.

 “Are you jealous?” “Who?!” 

I jumped up. Either way, Jeron crossed his arms awkwardly.

 “I thought you said you were bothered by what the two were doing?” “Oh, huh? No, not really, it’s just that O’Neill doesn’t have anything to do up north, so why does she keep staying there…” “Why wouldn’t she have something to do? I heard you previously requested the development of a new power source?” “Huh?” 

I stared at Jeron blankly, then quickly broke into a furious expression.

 “That’s right!” 

Oh, my gosh. I’d forgotten. 

 

Before O’Neil was the heroine of the original work, she was the wizard who came to the Magic Tower with a request.

 “Yes, I did.” 

Apparently, back in the North, I had gotten straight to the point when I met O’Neill.

 

I told her I was looking for a new power source, asked if it was possible to extract the magic power within the beasts, and discussed the direction of my research.

 

Of course, four months later, I couldn’t proceed with the work any further — I even forgot about it, but O’Neill remembered the request and was in the North doing research.

 

It should have been a relief to have the questions solved.

 

But this was not a relief, but rather…

 “It bothers me more!” 

Is that why you stayed? To explain the situation to Rudrick and to get a demon corpse for the experiment.

 

So in the end, do you mean you have to stay together until the research was over? Do you have to keep receiving research materials?

 

Jeron, who’d been watching the whole time, narrowed his eyes as I clutched my head in agony again.

 “I thought you said you weren’t interested?” “I’m not interested!” “Then be your usual disinterested self. You knew this was coming at some point, didn’t you?” 

I flinched, and shuddered.

 “What’s the big deal? You said it yourself before, it’s realistically difficult, we have to keep our families together.” “Well, that’s…” “So you confidently said you’d have a spouse, right? Then isn’t it natural for you to get that other spouse?” “…” “On the contrary, you should congratulate him if he has a girl he’s interested in, since he’s your friend, right?” 

I lowered my head at his painfully pointed words.

 “Yeah… that’s right…” 

Honestly, there was nothing wrong with what Jeron said. I’d been anticipating this situation for quite some time, ever since I realized that this was a world of books.

 

At the time, I even expected it to happen.

 

It was a fateful encounter between the female and male protagonists.

 

‘I’ll have no feelings for Rudrick anyway, so I’ll take a step back and have a good look when the day comes.’

 

I’m sure that’s what I told myself…

 “You don’t want to congratulate him, do you?” “…” “Oh, I should have known when you insisted that you would never do that.” “No, I really didn’t mean to…” “Dahlia.” 

He muttered as if it were a final argument, but I shut my mouth at the urgent call and looked up to face the road ahead.

 

Jeron was staring at me, a thin smile on his face.

 “Make it sure…” 

He asked again,

“What do you want?”  

‘What do I want…?’

 

After the meeting with Jeron, or not-so-meeting. I finally stopped going in and out of the Bouser mansion.

 

Jeron was right, now was not the time for me to be lazing around, and even if it wasn’t, there was no reason for me to be there anymore.

 

I was beginning to understand why I had gone to such lengths to see them.

 

‘Maybe this is…’

 

To be honest, I wasn’t without my suspicions.

 

Objectively speaking, I definitely cared about them too much. I would go over to the mansion every day and sit there, and I felt like I was jealous of them… I think that’s what I did.

 

It was undoubtedly a feeling that I couldn’t explain as a friend.

 

‘So maybe, just maybe, I… like… Rudrick.’

 

‘Really?’

 

As I sat at my desk and looked through the papers, I sighed deeply, which I might not even know how many times it was.

 

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand it.

 

Just a few days ago, I hadn’t felt that way about Rudrick at all.

 

On the contrary, I felt friendly, like family, but in a healthy way, like a rational tension…

 

‘Was it really not there?’

 

…Wow, I wouldn’t say it was completely absent.

 

Still, I still didn’t feel like I was in love with him, or that I would die without him, or that I was on the verge of being lost in love.

 

Instead, the feeling I get when I think of Rudrick, it was comfort. I feel safe with him, like I have his back, like I could trust him, like I want him to be with me forever…

 

‘Ahh.’

 

Suddenly, I realized.

 

I realized that I was the one who had imagined a future where we would be together for the rest of our lives.

 

Just as Rudrick had said that he wanted to stay with me, even as a friend, I had never imagined a future without him.

 

I’d been labeling it as

‘friendship,’

but if that’s what you mean by ‘

that kind of feeling,’

then I realized.

 “What am I going to do…” 

Rather, I eventually buried my face in my hands, feeling even more complicated than before.

 

As if to ease my complicated deliberations, I soon heard a knock at the door. With my permission, a maid soon entered the room, bringing some unexpected news.

 “Lady, you have a visitor.” “A visitor?” 

I looked up in surprise. Few people could visit me so unexpectedly, and if it was one of the few who could, it could be…

 “She asked me to tell you that her name is O’Neil.”