(Lyn's POV)
After a week of tension, secrets, and midnight drama, I was desperate for something normal. Or at least… something less potentially deadly.
But in the Amster estate, "normal" was a myth.
That became painfully obvious at breakfast when Daren practically tackled Kai in front of the orange juice.
"Good morning, dearest partner!" he declared, slinging an arm around Kai's shoulders with all the subtlety of a fireworks display.
Kai, stoic as ever, continued pouring juice as if nothing had happened. "We are not partners."
"Don't be shy," Daren insisted, winking outrageously at the footman. "Love blooms in the most unexpected places—like guard duty rotations and shared trauma."
The footman holding the bread basket choked on air. Rosa froze mid-sip of her coffee. Ethan's pen stopped scratching against his notebook.
I blinked. "...Excuse me?"
Michael raised one brow but didn't even look up from his newspaper. "Ignore them."
"I cannot ignore this!" Daren cried, tightening his hold on Kai's arm. "Fate has entwined us!"
"Release me," Kai said calmly, sipping his juice, "or I will break your wrist."
Daren gasped dramatically, clutching his chest. "Such coldness! Such denial! Oh, cruel love!"
The footman bolted from the room before he burst into laughter. I dropped my spoon into my porridge with a clatter.
Rosa's Warning
Later that morning, I cornered Rosa in the hall.
"So… Kai and Daren…?" I asked cautiously.
Rosa gave me a long, withering look that could have melted steel. "No."
"But Daren literally called him his dearest partner," I protested.
"That man," Rosa said, stabbing her pen into a folder for emphasis, "would call a chair his dearest partner if it didn't collapse under him."
"…Fair," I admitted.
She walked off muttering something about fools, liabilities, and paperwork.
Lunch Escalation
The misunderstanding only got worse at lunch.
Daren burst dramatically into the dining room, pulling out a chair with an exaggerated flourish. "Sit here, Kai! The seat of honor, beside me."
Kai didn't blink. "No."
"Oh, come now, don't be coy."
"It's not coyness. It's refusal."
Daren collapsed into his own seat, sighing dreamily. "He plays so hard to get."
I nearly choked on my soup. "I—what—what is happening?"
Michael didn't glance up from his steak. "Noise."
Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose. "Daren. Please."
"No one understands our love," Daren whispered theatrically, leaning across the table.
Kai, without looking up: "There is no love."
"Exactly!" Daren gasped. "A forbidden romance!"
Rosa set her fork down with a sharp clink. "If this continues, I will stage an intervention."
I leaned toward her. "I thought you said it wasn't real."
"It isn't," Rosa said flatly. "That's the problem."
Courtyard Interrogation
That evening, I found Kai in the courtyard, trimming a hedge with mathematical precision.
"Um… Kai?"
"Yes," he said without looking up.
"Do you… like Daren?"
He paused just long enough for my heart to leap. Then he said, "I like oxygen. I like efficiency. I tolerate Daren."
I sputtered. "That's not a no!"
"It's not a yes," Kai replied, snipping another perfect angle.
Before I could respond, Daren erupted from the next hedge like an overgrown squirrel. "You tolerate me?! That's practically love!"
Kai dropped the shears. "Get out of the shrubbery."
Daren clasped his hands to his chest. "Love has no boundaries!"
"Love will have a shovel if you don't move," Kai muttered.
Gossip on Fire
The "romance" spread through the estate faster than fire.
Servants whispered in corridors. Guards exchanged knowing looks. The chef "accidentally" prepared double portions of meals, setting them in front of Kai and Daren with a wink.
A maid left a bouquet on the training field with a note: To my silent knight.
Daren swooned and snatched it up immediately. "I'm the knight, obviously. You're the silent part."
Kai deadpanned, "I will bury you."
"Romantically," Daren agreed.
Rosa nearly combusted when she caught two junior maids making bets on when Kai would confess his "feelings." Ethan confiscated three anonymous love letters—all in Daren's handwriting, of course.
Michael Snaps
By the third day of chaos, even Michael lost patience.
"If I hear the words 'romantic tension' from one more staff member," he growled at dinner, "I will bankrupt three tabloids for practice."
"Bankrupt them in my honor!" Daren cried, raising his glass.
Kai took the glass from him, drained it in one gulp, and said calmly, "Consider it erased."
The staff watching from the corners nearly fainted.
Lyn's Notes
Later that night, I scribbled in my journal:
•Daren is impossible.
•Kai is terrifying.
•Together they are chaos.
•I am 97% sure it's not romantic, but 100% sure it's the funniest thing I've ever seen.
Walk with Michael
"They're cute," I told Michael the next morning during our walk. "Like a romcom!"
"They're liabilities," he said coldly.
"Liabilities with chemistry," I teased.
His jaw twitched. "If they are a couple, I will fire them both."
"Why?"
"Distraction."
"That's not distraction," I said solemnly. "That's destiny."
Michael gave me a look sharp enough to silence empires. I grinned anyway.
Poetry Disaster
The misunderstanding peaked in the library.
Rosa walked in to find Daren standing dramatically on a ladder, reciting poetry.
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day—"
Kai, holding a book upside down, cut him off: "You are humid and irritating."
Rosa pinched the bridge of her nose. "I am instituting a no-poetry rule."
"You can't outlaw love!" Daren protested.
"I can and will," Rosa said flatly.
From behind the shelves, I whispered, "I ship it."
Ethan's voice drifted from the next row: "Don't."
The Peak of Absurdity
By the end of the week, the rumors had reached absurd heights.
A footman swore he saw Kai secretly slip Daren a ring. A maid claimed Rosa had officiated their "wedding" years ago. The guards argued over who would be best man at their "second ceremony."
Rosa confiscated a betting pool ledger predicting when Kai would "finally confess." Ethan burned three of Daren's forged love letters.
And still, the chaos continued.
Final Straw
I caught Kai folding laundry one evening with unnerving precision.
"You know everyone thinks you two are in love," I said.
"I know," he replied evenly.
"And you don't care?"
"Correct."
"Not even a little?"
He looked up at me finally. "Do you?"
I froze. "…What?"
"Care," he clarified. "If people believe you are something you are not."
The question stung deeper than it should have. I thought of Michael. Of the hooded figure. Of promises and choices.
"…Maybe I do," I admitted softly.
Kai nodded once, satisfied. "Then you know why I don't."
Before I could answer, Daren appeared with a tray of cookies. "Snack date!"
"It's not a date," Kai said.
"It is now!" Daren beamed.
Kai sighed. "I require transfer."
Rosa's Verdict
That night, I overheard Rosa snapping in the corridor.
"They're not your partner, they're your babysitter!" she hissed.
"Potato, potahto," Daren replied serenely.
Kai's voice drifted in, perfectly dry: "I will strangle you with the potato."
And so the estate continued humming with chaos:
One hooded figure lurking in the shadows.
One tycoon carrying storms inside his chest.
One orphan-turned-heiress struggling to survive promises.
And an entire household quietly debating whether the real love story was happening between two bodyguards.