Chapter 57

Julie lowered her gaze and was silent for a moment. Then she denied, "No, I misunderstood."

Lucian's voice passed briefly on the other end before his tone turned serious. "Which of my actions led you to such a misunderstanding?"

Feeling a wave of embarrassment, Julie hesitated before softly explaining, "It was what Blaine said at Zayn's place. That's why I misunderstood."

"Anything else?"

"And when we were at your grandma's house. You helped me put on a Band-Aid."

As the words left her mouth, her voice grew quieter and was barely audible.

Lucian let out a low chuckle.

Both mortified and annoyed, Julie tightened her grip on her phone and inwardly berated herself. There wasn't a single doubt that he was silently laughing at her for being childish and naive.

"Paja, you're really something."

Before he could finish, Julie hastily interrupted. "Alright. That's enough. I get it."

"Get what? That's nonsense."

Lucian continued, "You've never asked me, but you've been sulking and distant this whole time. Don't you think it's ridiculous?"

Julie was flustered and weakly retorted, "I wasn't sulking."

Lucian sighed and said nothing more.

Sensing the growing awkwardness between them, Julie quickly changed the topic. "I-I heard Blaine say that you have some kind of stress reflex reaction to women?"

The corners of Lucian's lips quirked up into a faint smile as he teased, "You've been asking about me behind my back?"

Julie's cheeks flushed, and she immediately denied it. "No. T-That was just a casual question."

Lucian wasn't bothered by her reply at all. Instead, he said in an unhurried tone, "Since you're so curious, I'll tell you."

"Huh?" Julie froze. In truth, she wasn't that eager to know, but for some reason, words of rejection were stuck in her throat and refused to come out.

Lucian was undeniably attractive. During his time studying abroad, he'd garnered a lot of attention from women. He'd gotten hit on and received love confessions. These were just the tip of the iceberg.

There were more extreme cases, including stalking and sexual harassment.

"One time, a woman followed me all the way to my house…" Lucian trailed off.

Julie's curiosity was piqued, and she urged, "And then? What happened?"

Lucian chuckled lightly and teased, "Didn't you just say you weren't that interested?"

Julie was at a loss for words. She silently grumbled to herself, "You started it. What's with the suspense now?"

Lucian laughed without saying a word, and it only made her more exasperated. She impatiently muttered under her breath, "Fine, tell me. What did she do after she followed you? I'm curious."

"Forget it. It's in the past. No point in talking about it."

Julie was almost certain now that Lucian was fooling her around on purpose. He'd just been dangling the story out of reach. How annoying.

Deep down, she cursed, "What an annoying guy."

Lucian's amused laugh came through. "Cursing me in your head, huh?"

Julie froze and quickly denied it. "No, I wasn't." That didn't count as a curse, right?

Lucian clicked his tongue and continued, "Fine. I'll finish the story for you since you're so curious."

Julie perked up at his words. "Go on. Tell me quickly!"

The woman had followed Lucian to his apartment. When her advances were rejected, she called the police and accused him of assaulting her. Back then, Lucian had just been forced to study abroad and was already in a bad mood. Frustrated and enraged, he ended up giving the woman a beating. After that incident, he developed a stress reaction whenever a woman got too close to him. He wouldn't be able to stop himself from wanting to lash out. Julie was caught between laughter and disbelief. She half-jokingly said, "In that case, I'd better keep my distance from you in the future."

"You don't have to."

"But I'm afraid you'll lash out as a stress reaction and give me a beating."