Our Summer Is Not Over - Chapter 11.1
She wanted nothing more than to shut his mouth right that instant.
She wanted to point out that there was nothing he wouldn’t say, but knowing Dylan, he would only back her into a corner with some bizarre explanation.
Giving up on talking with him, Mia let out a short sigh, took the dress, and walked behind the partition.
Spreading out the folds of the dress that filled both her hands, Mia stopped thinking altogether and began to change clothes, step by step. But when she realized she couldn’t fasten it on her own, she came to a standstill.
“Is there a problem?”
When Mia didn’t come out even after a while, Dylan asked from beyond the partition.
“It’s nothing. I just don’t think I should wear this one.”
“Is it because you can’t fasten it?”
He caught on instantly, as usual.
“No, I just don’t like it now that I’ve tried it on.”
It wasn’t true.
When Mia looked at herself in the large mirror inside, she couldn’t speak for a long time.
She had always thought her emotions were steady, but seeing herself like this for the first time, she couldn’t help but stare, dazed.
Seeing the gemstones intricately sewn throughout the dress, it was easy to tell just how much care had gone into making it.
But that was all. There was no point in feeling anything over something she could never have.
The flare of emotion soon faded, and as always, Mia’s eyes grew calm.
She decided it would be best to take it off now, and as she slipped her arms out of the dress, Dylan’s voice sounded again.
“I’ll come in for a moment.”
He stepped past the partition before she could answer.
They had seen each other’s bare bodies before, but perhaps because of her earlier indecent thoughts, a wave of embarrassment rushed over her.
“What…!”
Mia’s eyes shook violently. Covering her chest, she glared at Dylan.
Dylan looked her over slowly and asked,
“Are you embarrassed, wearing marks I left on your body?”
Realizing the traces Dylan had left were still visible, Mia clutched the falling dress even more tightly.
He squinted at her, as if looking at some kind of ruffian, and said,
“What happened to the woman who once undressed in front of a man she’d never met before?”
Mia understood immediately what he meant. On the night she married Dylan as “Cydemia’s” substitute, she had stripped completely to prove to him she wasn’t the real princess.
It had been less than five hours since they first faced each other.
In a room prepared for the newlywed couple, in front of him in his crisp dress uniform, she had never felt so wretched. The scent, the atmosphere, the sounds of that day seemed to replay all over again.
“Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?”
“Turn around.”
Even as Mia trembled and protested, Dylan seemed unmoved. He took her by both shoulders and turned her around.
Then he began fastening the dress, starting from her waist and working upward.
As she felt his hands slowly tightening the dress around her, Mia squeezed her eyes shut. At this point, she would have preferred to hear his sarcasm.
But there was no sound between them, except for their breathing and the sound of him fastening her dress.
On top of that, Dylan’s hands kept brushing against her bare skin. Each time, her body flinched involuntarily.
He had to notice, but he simply continued quietly arranging her dress.
When his hands finally left her, Mia was able to breathe again. She had held her breath so long her cheeks were flushed.
“Is anything uncomfortable?”
“…No.”
Dylan checked the shoulders and sleeves one by one as he asked.
Not wanting to look at him too closely, Mia turned her gaze to the mirror in front of her.
What she saw was a woman with unusually bright eyes and flushed cheeks, unlike her usual self.
Seeing the faintly upturned corners of her mouth, she remembered the beaming face in the photograph she kept inside her locket necklace.
Unable to turn away, she stared at that reflection for a long time as she finished getting dressed.
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