Chapter 32 - Separated Dinner

It was the third day after a certain medic and a marshal became a couple. After some discussion with her boyfriend at dinner yesterday, Eira Heallint would confess to three young women in front of her regarding this matter tonight.

"I know what you are going to say but I want to hear it directly from you. I've been waiting for this," said Lizette. A wide smirk craved on her face. Elbows on the table, chin resting on the hands, she stared straight at Eira's eyes which kept avoiding her gaze.

Eira bit her lower lips while her fingers were fidgeting on her lap. Her cheeks were blushing, and her face was burning. She was so embarrassed.

"Spit it!" Stella demanded, eyes sparkling with excitement and curiosity.

"Tell us! Tell us!" Raine shook her clasped hands up and down, impatient to hear Eira's story. Her voice was so loud it echoed in the room.

Fortunately they were in the vip room in this restaurant so no other customer would be bothered by the noise they created.

Moreover, Eira was going to spill a secret about the marshal and her. She definitely didn't want any other people beside those three girls to hear about it. And that was why they were having dinner in a private room.

"I knew you all could guess it…" Eira murmured.

"No!" "We don't know." "No, of course no." The three other girls talked at the same time.

Eira raised her head and then glanced at each of them. Their eyes shimmered and their lips formed a wide grin. Obviously they knew exactly what Eira was going to say.

Taking a deep breath, Eira then said—almost whispered to be exact, "We are officially a couple..."

"We?"

"You mean…?"

"You and the…?"

Eira nodded then looked down to the table. She was too shy to look at her friends' faces.

"Aaaaa!" Raine cheered.

"Oh my God! Yes! Yes! Yes!" Stella jumped from her seat.

"I knew it!" Lizette exclaimed. "Why can't you just tell me yesterday? Aaaa!"

"Well… Because it's not just about me, but about the marshal too…" Eira explained. "I need to discuss it with him before telling you."

"Ugh… Yeah, you're right." Lizette nodded. "But! I'm so happy to hear that! We should celebrate it!"

"We are now, right?" Stella grinned. "We are no! Yeaaayy!"

"Let's order lots of food!" Raine took the menu book.

The four of them hadn't ordered their food yet and they had spent almost half an hour only to wait for Eira to talk about this. Good things that they had ordered their drink first, otherwise the waiter probably would interrupt their secret talk to ask for the order.

"Yes! Yes!" Stella also opened her menu.

"Oh!" Eira almost forgot about something, "Please don't tell anyone about this."

"Of course we won't!" Stella said. "Your secret is safe in our hands. Moreover, if we're bad at keeping secrets, everyone must have known about the fact that you had a movie date with the marshal since last year."

Eira blushed. "Thank you."

"We're happy that you and the marshal trusted us." Raine glanced at Eira before looking back at the menu.

"I've told him that you all already knew that I liked him. And he asked if you knew about our date all of this time, and I said yes." Eira giggled. She wanted to say that Cor was blushing when she told him about it, but she wanted to keep that one a secret. "Therefore, he said that of course it's okay to tell you all that we've become a couple. You all knew too much after all."

They giggled hearing Eira's story. Meanwhile, Eira drank her oolong tea while still lifting the corners of her lips. She drank almost half of her glass to wash down her nervousness. Of course telling her friends about it made her anxious. Glad that she finally told them. Now the burden of keeping it secret had been lifted from her heart.

"So, so, so, did you kiss?" Stella asked, which made Eira cough and almost spit her tea.

"Stella!" Eira grunted.

"Come on. Did you kiss already?"

"I won't answer." Eira pouted.

"Muuuu!" Stella pouted, imitating Eira.

"Come on Stella, that's privacy." Raine warned her friend.

Looking at Raine, Stella said, "I'm curious! My best friend here, having a fucking marshal as her boyfriend! Finally they are a couple! That stern marshal! As my best friend's boyfriend?! Oh Shiva!"

"Still I won't tell you." Eira sipped her tea again.

"Muuu!" Stella pouted. "Oh, well… At least finally Eira had a boyfriend."

She then looked at Lizette, "So, the only single person here is Liz…" she then smirked, "Want me to set up a blind date for you?"

"Eww… No…" Lizette rolled her eyes.

"No man is capable of enchanting Lizette's heart. Forget it." Eira put down her menu then pressed the calling button, "Hungry. I'm going to call the waiter."

"We can set up a blind date with women too," Stella added.

"Nah, no, thanks." Lizette waved her hand, trying to make Stella stop insisting.

"You're not interested in having a romance?" Stella asked.

"Hmm… A little bit. But it's not my life priority." Lizette said. But Stella stared at her sharply so Lizette added, "Well… To be honest, recently there's a guy who's trying hard to get my attention. But… Let's see…"

"Eh?! Who? You never told me!" Eira quickly raised her voice.

"This guy is kind of a womanizer though. I'm sure he just wants to waste his time." Lizette answered casually.

"Who is this?" curious Stella intensely stared at Lizette.

"A crownsguard?" Eira was also curious. Of course, the Lizette who never talked about men in the past year after her last breakup now was talking about a certain someone.

"Yeah," Lizette nodded.

"Gladio," Raine answered. "It must be Gladio."

All of them quickly turned their heads toward Raine in surprise.

"What? Really? Woah!" Eira grinned widely, unable to hide her excitement.

"Oh my Shiva!" Stella exclaimed, but then she giggled. "Right. Definitely him."

"How do you know?" Lizette frowned at Raine.

"I have ears and eyes in the training room." Raine smirked.

"Ugh… Nicole." Lizette rolled her eyes as she mentioned the name of Raine's boyfriend who was also a crownsguard.

Raine giggled.

However, before they could continue their chatter, the waiter knocked on the door. And thus, the conversation halted.

Cor was sitting rather uncomfortably in a spacious vip room at an elite restaurant in Caelum Hotel. Clarus—who was sitting across his seat—was smirking at him, happy that Cor agreed to have dinner tonight to celebrate his birthday—which was two days late from the day. Next to Cor, there was a lady from House Chamberlain, sitting elegantly as she was invited by the damn Clarus.

Not wanting to be impolite, especially in the presence of the King, Cor should do the courtesy of not ignoring the lady whenever she spoke. Monica and Dustin also presented, he didn't want to create a fuss here.

Ah, he missed Eira…

"Ms. Chamberlain, as I've told you beforehand, our precious marshal is single and available." Clarus looked very pleased to arrange such a meet between Cor and Ms. Chamberlain. Meanwhile, Cor was struggling not to sigh in displeasure.

Regis, who was sitting in the center end of the table, laughed softly. "Pardon him, Ms. Chamberlain. Clarus is really concerned about Cor whom he sees as his own brother."

"And this brat hasn't had any woman in the past ten years which bothers me." Clarus added.

"I apologize for putting you in this kind of situation, Ms. Chamberlain." Cor slightly turned his head to look at the blonde haired woman on his left.

"Emma. Please call me Emma." She smiled. "Also, you don't need to apologize. It's a great honor to be able to have dinner with the King, the Royal Shield, and the Crownsguard Marshal."

"Emma is a good woman, you know? And she's single." Clarus smirked.

"Clarus..." If it was allowed, Cor really wanted to kick the baldie right now. Clarus might be a Royal Shield, but his personality never changed from years ago. The man loved to tease Cor, because he was the youngest in the party. Yes, he is still the youngest, but Cor was forty three already. Yet, Clarus still saw him as a fifteen years old boy, it seemed.

A chuckle left Regis's throat as he saw the interaction between two men with the highest rank in crownsguard—old men acting like teens. "Well, everyone, please enjoy your meal. And once again, happy birthday for our marshal."

Regis raised his glass, and was then followed by the rest. They had a toast before finally touching their food.

Cor didn't talk as he ate, nor did he want to. Sitting next to a stranger was definitely uncomfortable. Glad that Emma occasionally talked to Monica instead of him. Probably because both of them are women. He didn't really care.

"So, Marshal, what do you usually do on your day off? Do you have any hobbies?"

Cor quickly turned his head when Emma suddenly talked to him.

"Nothing in particular," he said.

"Maybe you can introduce him to some interesting things so he can have some hobbies, Emma." Clarus, again.

"What about you?" Cor asked, even though he wasn't really interested in starting a conversation. But he preferred to hear about her than talking about himself.

"Baking. I love to spend my weekend making cakes."

"Oh…"

"Therefore, I made one for today." Emma then looked at the waiter who was standing in the corner of the room. The man nodded, then opened the door which revealed a huge cake which was brought by another waiter.

"Woaaah! Look at that!" Of course, Clarus was so excited to see the cake which was then placed right in front of Cor.

"Oh… So pretty…" Regis complimented. "What a pleasant surprise. You're very talented, Miss. Emma."

"It's coffee cake, I hope it suits your taste." Emma explained.

Oh, how much Cor wanted to escape this situation.

.

.

.

Two hours in that dinner was suffocating. Now that it was finally over, Cor should accompany the lady Chamberlain to her home. Again, it was Clarus who forced him to do so.

One day, he promised to beat him and make him stop mingling into his private matters. Cor really needed to educate that old man about respecting other people's boundaries.

"Marshal, I'm happy for the offer but you don't need to drive me home." Emma suddenly said as they were in the elevator.

Raising an eyebrow, Cor looked at her, "Why?"

"I'm with a driver."

"Oh. Okay."

Cor looked back to the steel door in front of him. He was bad at making conversation. Also, he wasn't interested in her. But, it seemed that he should apologize to her because of Clarus.

"Emma, I'm so sorry for Clarus. He loved to mind other people's business." Cor explained.

"No, no problem at all," she laughed.

"And…" Cor cleared his throat. It was kind of embarrassing for him to talk about his private matter, but he didn't want this lady to put a hope in him because of this whole setting up things, "I want to talk about this in advance, but I have someone I fall in love with. So…"

Emma widened her eyes. She blinked a few times before bursting out laughing. "Ahahaha!"

Cor frowned, confused by her reaction.

"I'm rejected even before trying to get closer to you. Ahahaha!"

Oh, shit…

Emma then continued, "It's okay. I clearly sensed that you're not interested in me. Also, I'm indeed single but I also like somebody else. It's just that Clarus didn't catch my words."

"Huh?" Cor was still confused.

"Oh, of course the one I meant isn't Clarus as well! And I accepted the invitation because I heard this person also joined the dinner."

Cor frowned more. This person also joined the dinner? Not him and Clarus. The King? Nah, it didn't seem like it. Dustin, then?

Ding! They arrived at the ground floor.

Walking out from the elevator, they continued their way toward the lobby.

"Why don't you tell Clarus that you already have someone you like?" she asked as they arrived at the hotel entrance.

"It's something that can't be disclosed, yet."

"I see." Emma nodded. "I won't tell him either. Even though I'm a bit curious about what kind of person that's capable of stealing the marshal's heart."

Cor cheeks warmed. He wished he wasn't blushing right now.

Glad it didn't take a long time until Emma's car arrived at the lobby. She bid goodbye and when the car left, Cor gave a long exhale.

It was exhausting. He was now determined to challenge Clarus for a duel if he set him up with a woman again. Today he was lucky that Emma wasn't interested in him. But what if Clarus set up something like this again and the woman liked him. Ugh.

Taking his phone, he looked at the clock. It was nine past twenty. He wondered if Eira had already returned home, yet. She did tell him that she was going to have dinner with her friends—also announcing their relationship to them. Okay, by now probably they already knew that she had a relationship with him.

Typing in the chat box, he asked her,

Cor : Back home already?

It didn't take a minute for Eira to reply to him.

Eira : Just finished the dinner. I was going to go home right now. You're finished over there?

Cor : Yeah. Want me to pick you up?

Eira : Eh…?

Eira : Um…

Eira : Sure…

Eira : If it's not troubling you.

Cor : Will be there in fifteen minutes.

A smile bloomed on Cor's face as he put back his phone into his pocket. Striding toward the elevator, he couldn't wait to see his lover's face after this exhausting dinner.

Eira thought that she wouldn't meet him again today. But, Cor was now driving her home and she was so happy that she couldn't stop smiling when she was sitting next to him.

"So, how was the dinner?" Eira asked.

Cor didn't answer soon. The man cleared his throat a few times while scratching his cheek.

"Normal," he then said.

Eira frowned, then giggled, "Normal?"

"Dinner was… just dinner." Cor shrugged.

Sensing that Cor was hiding something, Eira smirked and asked, "Really? Nothing in particular?"

"Okay…" Cor glanced at her then spoke, "Thing is… Clarus tried to set me up with a woman."

"Oooh…" Eira chuckled. Of course she was a bit jealous hearing it. But, she tried not to overthink it and asked, "Then?"

"Then I said to her that I have someone that I love."

Oh, Eira was blushing to hear that. Placing both of her hands on her cheeks, she felt the heat sipping into her palms.

"Eh…? I'm happy to hear that…" she muttered. Her heart throbbed faster, butterflies swarmed in her stomach.

Then she blinked when Cor patted her head. "Are you jealous?"

"A bit…" she said, being honest.

Cor's hand then returned back to the steer. "Oh…"

Both of them then stopped talking. Until finally the car stopped at a red light and Cor called her, "Eira..."

"Hmm?" she turned her head then gasped when she felt his soft lips on hers.

It was just a fleeting kiss and Cor quickly sat properly on his seat. But the surprise kiss froze her.

"Still feel jealous?" Cor asked.

"Uh… It's… better…" She was so embarrassed.

"Good." Cor chuckled.

And Eira was blushing the rest of the trip to her home.

Author's Note :

Hah! You won't get any triangle love in this series :p