After resisting for a while, Leon could not help but laugh out loud. Then, he waved to Heather. “It’s too difficult.” He could not even continue to stare at her and burst out laughing continuously, as if his laughing point had been triggered.
Annoyed by his actions, Heather pointed at him as she asked, “Can you be more serious?” I’m so mad at him that I can’t wait to tear him apart.
He tried to stop himself from laughing, but he was actually quite fearful. All of his laughter was to mask the uneasiness within him. In the past, he always imagined how it would be like if he and Heather were together as a couple. Although his wish was now granted, he felt uneasy.
Even Leon himself thought that he was quite annoying, but he did not have the courage to look into Heather’s eyes as he was feeling guilty. Even though he did not force her, he could not get past his own mental barrier.
“What the hell do you want?” she emphasized helplessly. Leon did not even reply to her, which made her quite troubled.
He took a step back and sat on the couch. “I think it’s too difficult to pretend to be a couple with you.”
Heather pinched her chin and looked at him in confusion. “You were the one who initiated this, yet you are backing away now. Do you think it’s appropriate?”
As she questioned him, he felt slightly embarrassed and awkwardly looked at her. He did not know what to reply to her, and he also felt that he was a failure. However, he felt that he could not maintain the pretense anymore.
“Heather, we don’t have to be serious when we are just pretending.” Leon tried to run away from the problem. Before this, he even thought of slightly taking advantage of her, but this thought had completely disappeared in his mind.
Looking at his cowardice, Heather dramatically sighed. “Who do you think your grandfather is? Do you think he’s someone whom we could easily fool?”
On a coincidental occasion, she looked into his family background. His grandfather, Dave, was a legend who called the shots in Europe. She could not fathom how a legendary character like him had raised a playful and easy-going grandson like Leon.
Heather knew that Leon’s family was exceptionally strict on him. I wonder how he grew up in that environment. He’s considered lucky that his grandfather did not tear him to shreds by now.
Leon merely gave an awkward smile. As soon as he remembered his own grandfather, he immediately lost all confidence and glanced at her with a troubled look. “I guess no matter how good we are at acting, we still can’t hide it from him.”
She rolled her eyes at him and tried to console him. “Don’t be so discouraged. I already told you to treat me as though I’m your actual girlfriend.” After all, they were quite close to begin with, so she believed that they could overcome this difficulty.
Leon merely shook his head in exasperation. “I know who my grandfather is. I’m afraid we aren’t going to pull our tricks off in front of him.” At this point, it was he who could not take it anymore. In fact, he regretted his previous suggestion.
Heather hated people who gave up even before trying. Hence, she responded seriously, “Don’t make me look down on you.” She could only say such words to motivate him at that stage.
Leon pouted with mixed feelings. As the situation became increasingly complicated, he could not continue to be that useless.
Suppressing the uneasiness within him, he said, “Alright. Let’s do it again.”
He was not a decent person to begin with. Since he had pretended that Heather was his current girlfriend, he merely acted in the way that he usually would. After jumping down from the couch, he pulled her into his arms, “Heather, this is my grandfather, Dave.”
As Heather and Leon exchanged glances with each other, she felt that his introduction seemed slightly off to her. Then, she told him about it. “Don’t you think that your introduction is too informal?”
Upon hearing that, Leon scratched the back of his head as he smiled awkwardly. “I seldom talk to him, so…” He truly had no idea how to have a proper conversation with his grandfather at all.
“Is the relationship between you both this bad?” Heather had once tried to ask him about his family, but he passed it off with jokes.
Now, he felt even more awkward. He knew that she was almost being isolated at the Langston Family and his situation was not any better than hers. His grandfather did not even dote on him like how Robert had treated her, so Leon would occasionally envy her.
“In my years growing up, I can count the number of times we spoke with both my hands.” If Dave had not tracked Leon’s location all the way to Bradfort City, Leon planned to continue avoiding him and acted as if he did not have such a grandfather.
Leon really hated his own family and he would sometimes direct his hatred toward Dave. However, after thinking about it from a rational point of view, he realized that Dave had been treating him quite well, so he slowly let go of his hatred toward Dave.
Since young, he had grown up with hatred toward his own family and he had spent a long time convincing himself to overcome it. He even once thought about destroying his own family, but he gave up on the idea in the end. It was mainly because Leon did not have the power to do so and he did not want to work with the enemies of his family. Apart from that, he actually did not hate Dave that much.
“In that case, I bet it’s not because of you that he’s coming all the way to Bradfort City this time around.” Heather confirmed her hypothesis even more firmly, which was another bad news for them.
“I’ve already thought of that. It’s just an excuse for him to visit me this time.” Leon smiled exasperatedly because Dave did not even care about him. After all, he was an illegitimate child, so no one in the family had respected him.
She scooted closer to Leon and looked at him with a soothing expression. She did not imagine that his family was worse than hers. Even though she acted as though she did not mind how her family treated her, she, in fact, cared about it a great deal. Fortunately, she had a grandfather who doted on her a lot. After the comparison, it was obvious that Heather’s situation was better than his since he was a trivial person in his family. When she thought about this, she felt even sorrier for him.
“Don’t look at me like this, Heather. I’m not as pitiful as you think,” Leon said nonchalantly as he did not want to expose his family matters to outsiders. So what if my life was tough? It’s all over now.
Heather apologetically glanced at him. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t—” She felt that she should not look at him with pity as it would make him feel even more miserable.
“Why are you apologizing to me? Actually, sometimes I kind of fancy you. Maybe it’s because you remind me of myself.” He laughed self-mockingly. Nevertheless, it was a fact that she was quite similar to him; even their family backgrounds were quite alike.
“How narcissistic could you be to fancy another person like you?” Heather asked in disgust. At this stage, she merely wanted to lighten up the atmosphere so that Leon would not continue to wallow in the past that hurt him.
He laughed out loud. “Don’t you start laughing at me. You are the same after all, you narcissistic woman.” He had always wanted to tell her this statement. Now that he had said it aloud, he felt much better.
“Haha, let’s not criticize each other any further. We are the same type of people.” At this moment, Heather could not help but think about Matthias, whose family background was also extremely similar to Leon’s.
Leon noticed the change of expression in her eyes and asked mischievously, “Are you thinking of someone else?” Actually, he was not very happy about it, so he forced himself to smile when he saw her falling deeper into the relationship.
His question was spot on. Her thoughts were visible on her face, but she did not like the feeling of being seen through by others. “Actually, I’ve been thinking about something.” At this moment, she felt that she had a lot of doubts to share with him. If she continued to hide it further, her mental health could take a beating.
Upon hearing that, Leon curiously scooted closer to Heather. He loved to hear her secrets and he guessed that this time around, it had to be related to Matthias.
“You can tell me anything. I’ll keep your secrets for you.” Leon was quite dependable on this as he had always guarded her secrets and never told anyone about them.
Of course, Heather well understood that he would not simply blurt her secrets out. Apart from that, his circle was very different from hers, so he was a good option for being her confidant. She did not want to hold herself back anymore, especially when she needed a good listener at this moment.
“Leon, let me ask you seriously—am I a peculiar woman?” She felt that her thoughts were divergent from that of an average woman. It must be tiring to be with someone like me!
He nodded. “Quite weird, but also very unique.”
It was rare that she had received such honest feedback, but upon hearing his reply, she was not angry and nonetheless smiled.
However, Leon was shocked by her smile and thought that she was irritated, so he changed his comment. “I mean—you are a very unique woman who is different from others.”
Looking at his nervous expression, Heather could not help smiling. I wonder what he is worried about. “Don’t think of me as such a fierce person. I’m not angry at you. I just agree with what you said.”
He looked at her in disbelief. I don’t believe her at all. Which woman would want to be commented as ‘weird’?
“Since you know about this, what are you thinking?” Leon had no idea why Heather had asked him such a question, but he had an ominous feeling about it.
“Is it difficult to be in a relationship with me?” she asked in repentance. Matthias was a good person, but I’ve always bullied him. Now that I think about it, I truly regretted my actions.
However, he vehemently shook his head. “Nonsense. It’s not difficult at all. Instead, it makes people envious.” He was the one being envious about it and he wanted to be in a real relationship with her.
Heather mocked in reply, “There’s nothing to be envious about being with me. You know that I have a bad temper with many responsibilities on my shoulders. It’s exhausting to be with me.” With a tone of repentance, she felt slightly unfair for Matthias.
Leon merely nudged her forehead. “Heather, please be your normal self. Why are you thinking about this suddenly?” After patting her forehead, his hand froze in midair as he thought that it was unnecessary.
However, Heather never noticed his movement and she pushed the bangs on her forehead aside as she smiled bitterly. “Why don’t you teach me how to have a normal relationship?” Seeing how experienced he was in relationships, she thought she ought to learn something from him in this aspect.
He looked at her in amusement, thinking that they were straying further away from the main point. Did she get the wrong point here? We are just pretending to be a couple, but things seem to be more serious. Does she plan to actually be in a real relationship with me?
“Heather, why are you suddenly thinking about this?” To Leon, it was not a good thing because he lacked the courage to be her real boyfriend. After all, she had already fallen for another man and it was making him uncomfortable to even think about it.
Upon seeing his reaction, Heather fell silent. Her words had indeed seemed suggestive earlier, so he might have the wrong idea. She wanted to slap her head. What have I been doing? “Just treat it as if I said nothing,” she replied awkwardly.
In sync with her, he agreed. “Alright.” We can’t continue with this. After all, we haven’t even carried out the real plan.
Hence, Leon took the initiative to remind her. “Heather, the most important thing right now is the party on the day after tomorrow.” He was not confident that he was able to hoodwink his grandfather, but he did not want to embarrass himself at the party either.
As soon as he recalled Dave’s usual character, he felt worried for himself. I don’t want to be punished by him during the party. If that happens, it would be so embarrassing!
“Why don’t we think about how to create a huge news today?” The party was not happening immediately, but they had to somehow make their relationship official so that everyone would be aware about it.
