Evading the Evil Duke’s Love

Laos drew in a short breath as he entered the room, noticing Laila’s health condition through her appearance. Her cold hands were tightly clasped around her small, lean body as she was regaining focus.

With a cold face and classic frown, he led a dazed-looking Laila to bed. After a while, a feeble sound was heard from Laila.

“Sorry, why am I here?”

Laos turned and looked at her while searching for some medicine with a careless expression on his face. His blank eyes were golden brown and his hair was a radiant silver.

His head tilted slightly as he felt something was strangely different about Laila today. After a moment, he blinked slowly as he realized what the difference was.

‘She’s not calling me big brother… Well, it doesn’t matter.’

He ignored the sudden mysterious feeling that he had and approached Laila who seemed better.

“Did you lose your mind?” he asked in a nonchalant tone.

Laila’s body was shaking. She couldn’t make eye contact with him and now, she looked depressed. Laila’s big brother, otherwise known as the Grand Duke of Estevan, Laos, watched her with an annoyed gaze.

“You’re getting on my nerves,” he sighed.

Laila slowly turned and gave him an empty gaze when he talked loud enough for her to hear.

“…” 

She stared into his exceptionally soft golden brown eyes. She always liked those eyes. No matter how cold his gaze was, Laila somehow thought that he was always warm.

Even when he refused her and constantly pushed her away, even when she knew that she shouldn’t bother him, sometimes, she secretly glanced at him. Laila really liked her big brother. In the original work, he was a gentle person towards the heroine, Amelia, and when she watched how he treated Amelia, Laila thought that her big brother was such a wonderful person.

But now, when she somehow recalled the last moment of her life when the door wasn’t opened for her, she quietly reminded herself that he wasn’t nice to her after all.

“If Rakiel, that reckless one, is annoyed, you should know that you’re not doing well, Laila Estevan. Pay more attention to yourself.”

Laos’s words continued without a pause, “Just live quietly. I will not tolerate this type of commotion again.”

“I tried to do that,” she opened her mouth. 

Laos looked at Laila as she spoke in a breathless, but strangely clear voice. Her cloudy and ashy lean body looked exceptionally small today, so Laos didn’t understand what she was saying at the moment.

“I tried not to be seen anymore, but…”

“What?” 

“Sorry…” 

He felt uncomfortable hearing her voice getting quieter. She had apologized multiple times before, but he didn’t know why her apology made him feel strange today. Perhaps it was because of her sunken eyelids.

“I won’t be a bother to you anymore. After a little while, I won’t be a bother to anyone anymore. I can do that. I promise.”

“…” 

Laos thought something was weird and quietly stared at Laila. He had heard she suffered a lot. There was a rumor going around saying that she couldn’t wake up all day and that it was serious enough that a corpse was going to come out of the hospital room. He tried to find out something by observing the old doctor’s face, but Laos didn’t have any luck, especially since he wasn’t talkative.

So, he just thought he should check up on her himself and decided to visit the hospital. But about what she said, he didn’t know how to respond.

“I won’t laugh. I won’t do anything. After a little while, I’ll get going.”

‘What does she mean by that? Where is she going?’

Laos suddenly swallowed the question he was about to ask and turned around.

“You won’t be able to do it anyway. You shouldn’t make promises that you can’t keep.”

Before the door shut, he noticed Laila’s expression. His golden brown eyes couldn’t find peace for a while after being startled by what he had seen. He wasn’t normally like this, but he stood still in front of the door for a while.

“…” 

On that day, he realized that a human could cry with just her facial expressions.

* * * 

Rain softly poured outside the window. It was a cloudy day. Laila watched in silence as she took in the smell of the gentle rain until it started to leak inside.

“…” 

The big brother, who she had missed so dearly before her death, disappeared just like that after saying that she shouldn’t make promises if she couldn’t keep her word.