TFUL Ch 4

Felix’s eyes widened.

Was it a hallucination?

But no—it was undoubtedly Lucy, standing stiffly at the door with an anxious expression, her emerald-green eyes looking up at him.

“…Hello,” Lucy greeted in a small voice.

Was she here to see Adrian?

Felix, lost in thought, forgot to respond. The possibility that she hadn’t come to see him crept into his mind, and he instinctively stepped aside from the doorway. Lucy hesitated briefly before entering the room.

She looked around awkwardly, like someone who had stumbled into a gathering she wasn’t invited to, her gaze flitting nervously.

“Um…”

Lucy finally turned to Felix and opened her mouth to speak—

“Lucy?”

Adrian stirred, lifting his head groggily from the bed. He squinted at Lucy for a moment before saying, “How did you even get in here? Girls aren’t allowed in the boys’ dorms.”

At Zenomium Academy, cross-gender dormitory visits were strictly prohibited. Lucy raised a piece of paper in response to Adrian’s question. It bore the words “Access Permission” and the signature of Lauren, the dormitory supervisor.

“I got permission from Supervisor Lauren.”

“Figures. Lauren’s always soft-hearted when it comes to girls.”

Adrian chuckled lightly as he fully woke, sitting up in bed.

“So, what brings you here?”

He too assumed Lucy had come to see him. But Lucy hesitated for a moment before turning to Felix.

“Felix, I really need that book today. As soon as the library opened this morning, four people came looking for it.”

“The book? You mean The History of Murinen?”

It was Adrian who answered, not Felix. Pushing his blond hair back, he frowned.

“You’re the one who’s overdue with that book?”

Judging by Adrian’s reaction, Lucy’s claim that people had been showing up repeatedly to ask for the book didn’t seem like an exaggeration.

“What’s so special about that book that everyone’s after it?” Felix asked, puzzled.

“Professor Arkel assigned it for this semester’s project. Every second-year student in the history class has been scouring the capital’s bookstores trying to get their hands on it.”

Adrian explained, his expression disapproving, then added, “If you have any conscience, return it immediately.”

Seemingly fully awake now after his outburst, Adrian threw a light jacket over his pajamas and stretched as he stood.

“Thanks for putting up with my useless brother, Lucy. I’ll apologize on his behalf.”

He crossed the room as he spoke, heading straight for the dining hall for breakfast.

As soon as Adrian left, silence enveloped the room.

“Felix, the book…”

Breaking the quiet carefully, Lucy spoke again.

Felix walked over to the sofa and slumped into it, pulling the book from his bag. Flipping to the back, he pinched a few remaining pages between his fingers and held it out to Lucy.

“I’ve only got this much left. I’ll finish it quickly and give it to you, so sit there and wait.”

He gestured to his bed with his thumb.

Lucy’s eyes widened, and she looked flustered, glancing around nervously.

Shifting awkwardly in place, she hesitated until Felix fixed his gaze back on the book and began reading silently. Then, hesitantly, she moved to sit on the bed.

The room grew quiet once more, the only sound being the occasional rustle as Felix turned a page.

Yet Felix’s mind was far from calm. He was awash with confusion and self-reproach.

Why was he pretending to read again? He could just hand it over.

Even as he found his own actions ridiculous, Felix didn’t stop. Instead, he focused all his senses on the faint presence of Lucy Keenan sitting quietly behind him on his bed.

What kind of expression was she wearing now? Was she regretting coming here, wishing she had left already?

Or was she glaring at him in irritation for ordering her to wait, just because he was a senior?

Time passed.

Eventually, Felix’s curiosity got the better of him, and he sneaked a glance over his shoulder.

Lucy wasn’t wearing a regretful expression. Nor was she frowning in annoyance.

She was gazing fondly at a small portrait hanging by the side of Felix’s bed—a portrait of him as a child.

The expression on young Felix’s face in the portrait looked sullen and impassive. Yet, a soft smile crept onto Lucy’s lips as she gazed at it.

Then, gently, she reached out her hand to touch the face of the child in the portrait, as if she were handling something precious.

Felix’s eyes widened in surprise, his lips parting slightly.

…Why is she touching my face?

His heart began to pound erratically, like a fish flopping on land.

But in the next moment, when he remembered that it wasn’t him who had risen from this bed earlier that morning, but Adrian, his pounding heart sank to the floor with a thud.

Thwap.

The book in his hands closed as his strength faltered.

Startled by the sound, Lucy quickly withdrew her hand from the portrait.

“Ah…”

She turned to meet Felix’s gaze, her eyes widening in shock. Her face flushed red in an instant.

Felix averted his eyes, turning his head forward.

After a pause, without looking at her, he extended his arm backwards, offering her the book.

“Here.”

“A-Aren’t you not done reading it?”

Her trembling voice came from behind him.

“…It’s fine. Just take it.”

The faint sound of footsteps followed, and the book slid from his hand. Lucy, clutching the book, hurried toward the door, her ears glowing red beneath her neatly pinned-back hair.

As she opened the door, Felix spoke to her back.

“That’s my portrait.”

Not Adrian’s.

Lucy froze for a moment, her face red as a beet, before glancing back at him briefly and disappearing through the door.

Left alone in the room, Felix slumped back into the sofa, resting his head against it.

Lucy Keenan had mistaken the face in the portrait for Adrian’s and had caressed it with such affection.

This made one thing clear. She definitely liked his twin brother.

𓍢ִ໋☕️✧

So, was it all the “power of love” that allowed her to tell us apart at a glance?

That evening, Felix sat slouched on his bed, staring at the back of Adrian’s head, deep in thought.

Does a halo always shine behind the person you like? Is it something like that?

The thought that the answer to a question he had pondered for months was so childish left Felix feeling utterly deflated.

He was also slightly annoyed at himself for not realizing sooner.

When she was with him, her face was expressionless. When she was with Adrian, she smiled brightly. With him, her lips stayed sealed. With Adrian, she chattered non-stop.

It was so blatantly obvious.

“You’re lucky,” Felix suddenly said, addressing the back of Adrian’s head as he was changing clothes. Adrian turned to look at him.

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you remember when we were kids, and Mother couldn’t tell us apart?”

“She still can’t,” Adrian replied indifferently, making Felix chuckle softly.

“True. She still can’t,” Felix murmured.

Vivid memories of his childhood surfaced in Felix’s mind, memories he thought he would never forget.

Even now, the twin sons of Duke Berg looked so identical that they could only be distinguished by the family crest engraved on the inside of Felix’s thigh at birth, marking him as the eldest.

But since that mark wasn’t visible when clothed, the Duke and Duchess often misidentified them and called them by the wrong names.

“Adrian.”
“Adrian.”

Felix could still vividly recall the sound of his mother calling him by his brother’s name.

“Here, Adrian.”

Taking him to an empty room in secret, his mother would place a cookie in his hand.

“Eat it quickly before Felix finds out.”

The anxious glances she cast toward the door made young Felix unable to tell her he wasn’t Adrian. Instead, he silently munched on the cookie she had given him.

“Don’t tell Felix.”

She’d gently brush away the crumbs from his lips with her soft hands.

“This is just for Adrian, okay? Everything I give you in secret, Felix must never know about.”

Wanting desperately not to disappoint her, young Felix buried his sadness deep within him. Along with the question he never dared to ask: Why can’t you love me the way you love Adrian?

“So?”

Adrian, now dressed, sat down on his bed.

“What’s so lucky about me? Don’t stop halfway—explain.”

“Hm, I don’t know.”

Felix flopped dramatically onto his back on the bed, deliberately taunting his brother.

Even our mother, who loved you so much, couldn’t tell you apart. But she can. She knows it’s you, simply because she likes you.

Felix swallowed the words rising in his throat, unsure whether he wanted to yell them at Adrian in frustration or keep them hidden forever.

His emotions battled inside him—anger at wanting to shout, and the stubborn refusal to reveal his thoughts.

A pillow suddenly flew at him, hurled by a frustrated Adrian.

The soft pillow smacked Felix, who burst into laughter, a carefree sound filling the room.