Chapter 366: Jack Warren and Sean Grant

Besides, Joanna Kennedy didn’t have much strength left.

He looked utterly relaxed, lazily sliding his finger in and out. It was clearly deliberate. After the second time, Joanna Kennedy felt she was being toyed with. “Pfft,” she huffed, releasing his finger in disgust.

“Don’t talk to me tonight. I don’t want to have anything to do with you.” Joanna Kennedy added resentfully, “And don’t talk to me tomorrow, either.”

Her voice was still a little hoarse, tinged with the remnants of her tears. But the words she spoke were hardly satisfactory. Simon Lockwood’s brows furrowed. “Why?”

“I wasn’t lying. I used Safeguard.”

Simon Lockwood was indeed telling the truth, which was another reason for Joanna Kennedy’s fury. Safeguard—it had been a bar soap for decades! Who the hell knew they’d come out with a Safeguard shampoo!

Joanna Kennedy’s eyes had gone wide when she saw it. She’d nearly choked, feeling utterly betrayed! Betrayed by a bar of soap!

“It’s your fault for not being clear!” Joanna Kennedy blamed it all on Simon Lockwood. “You’re always like this. Would it kill you to say a few more words?!”

“Simon Lockwood, you’re really too much! You just wanted to trick someone, to trick me! It’s only because I’m so kind that I believe you! If you don’t cherish a kind person like me, I’ll turn evil! I’ll turn yellow and green and red, and then I’ll abandon you and go find other yellow, green, and red people, and I’ll never talk to… Ow! Simon Lockwood, let me go! Are you some kind of pervert?!”

Joanna Kennedy’s rambling tirade was cut short by a smack on her butt. The crisp sound echoed clearly in the room. ‘Simon Lockwood actually dared to spank her?!’ Just like you would a child!

“Abandon me?”

“That’s right!”

“Mm.”

Another crisp smack echoed through the silent room.

Joanna Kennedy was stunned, her face flushing crimson with shame.

This was the last straw! Furious, Joanna Kennedy began to struggle in Simon Lockwood’s arms. “Simon Lockwood, you’re dead! You’re so dead this time!”

“Oh.” Simon Lockwood’s expression didn’t change as he easily pinned the “flailing fish” in his arms. He issued a deadpan threat, “Go on, move again.”

Joanna Kennedy subconsciously moved again.

“…Very good.” Simon Lockwood laughed in exasperation. He knew Joanna Kennedy could be dense about certain things, but he never thought she was *this* dense.

‘Turn evil? Abandon him to find yellow, green, and red people? Never speak to him again?’ Heh. Simon Lockwood was truly amused by his anger. He had no idea where Joanna Kennedy found the audacity.

A problem like this had to be nipped in the bud. Right in front of Joanna Kennedy, Simon Lockwood raised a hand and unhurriedly removed the hearing aid from his ear. As her eyes slowly widened, he tossed it aside and pressed down on her.

*

「Aethelburg.」

After the Lunar New Year, the wealthy scions who had been under the thumb of their family elders were finally free again. God knew how annoying it was to follow their parents around, greeting guests and attending all sorts of banquets.

Whenever these rich kids got together, they were bound to discuss the latest gossip circulating in their circle.

“Did you hear? Eldest Young Master Grant brought someone home for the New Year.”

“What ‘Eldest Young Master’? You have to call him President Grant now. He’s officially taken over the company; he’s the head of the Grant Family.” The topic shifted, and the person added, “But yeah, I heard that too.”

“It was his classmate from abroad, right? The one named… Jack Warren.”

“Tsk, tsk. A guy, huh? No wonder those two are inseparable. But that man is not someone to be trifled with. I ran into him at a banquet with my old man. His presence is pretty intimidating. You can tell at a glance he’s incredibly shrewd.”

“So, you’re saying Eldest Young Master Grant was tricked by this guy?”

“‘Tricked’ is such an ugly word. Do you really think Sean Grant is the type to be easily fooled?”

That whole “sunny, cheerful boy-next-door” persona was just for show. If Sean Grant were really that naive, he wouldn’t be managing the massive Grant Group so effectively. He wouldn’t have landed so many new projects overnight—all of them major deals—and single-handedly turned the Grant Group into the leading player in Aethelburg’s business world.

“But can his family accept that? If I brought a guy home, my family would definitely never accept it.”

“That, we don’t know. But rumor has it they were kicked out.”

The two who had been “kicked out” were now standing on a construction site in the old city district.

After the Lunar New Year, various projects gradually started up. The one Sean Grant valued most was the demolition and redevelopment project in the old district. It wasn’t the most profitable one, but Sean Grant cared a lot about it.

A voice in his subconscious told him, ‘This project must be completed perfectly.’

“What are you thinking about?” Jack Warren asked him.

Sean Grant didn’t mention the nonsensical thought that had just flashed through his mind. Instead, he heaved a long sigh. “I’m thinking about how to bring you home.”

Jack Warren stiffened and looked away.

“You can just go back by yourself. Why bring me?”

“That’s not it. You’re my—”

“Sean Grant!” Jack Warren cut him off, annoyed. Sean Grant immediately feigned slapping his own mouth. “Okay, okay, I won’t say it. I won’t say it.”

“…Tomorrow is the Lantern Festival. Are you really not going home?”

“It’s no fun going back by myself.” Sean Grant slung an arm around his shoulder, patting it firmly. “We’ll just grab some sweet rice balls to celebrate, and then I’ll take you to set off some firecrackers!”

“JJ, have you ever played with fireworks before? Do you know how to light them? Have you ever heard of double-bangers?”

“Bottle rockets! The kind that go WHOOSH and shoot up into the sky. Have you ever seen those?”

“…”

‘Go WHOOSH and shoot up into the sky,’ he’d said. Jack Warren now wanted to tie Sean Grant to a bottle rocket. He unceremoniously removed the hand that was constantly patting his shoulder. “Go play somewhere else.”

“Nooo~” Sean Grant shamelessly sidled closer. “But I only like playing with you…”

Jack Warren turned and walked away. Sean Grant immediately followed, trailing him like a shadow. He was like a piece of sticky plaster. “JJ, wait for me~”

“…” Jack Warren was speechless, but he slowed his pace, allowing Sean Grant to catch up and continue chattering endlessly in his ear.

This “sticky plaster” had been stuck to him from abroad all the way back to their home country, and Jack Warren found he’d actually grown used to it. He didn’t even realize when his eyes had filled with amusement.

‘From the moment I agreed to go home with Sean Grant,’ Jack Warren thought, ‘I already had my answer.’

He came from a divorced family and had lived abroad with his father. His father quickly started a new family, so he had considerately moved into the school dorms. That was where he met Sean Grant, a fellow Celestrian.

Jack Warren had never told anyone that a figure had always lingered in his memory, accompanying him through those lonely times right after he moved into the dorm.

The figure was slender. The figure didn’t like to talk. The figure didn’t like to interact. The figure was always sad. The figure was as lonely and solitary as he was…

Gradually, the figure grew tall and straight, yet remained just as silent and solitary.

Jack Warren couldn’t see his face clearly. He only knew it was a man—not Sean Grant, nor anyone else he knew.

The tall, aloof figure in his mind had never turned around. ‘I shouldn’t keep staring,’ Jack Warren thought. ‘He’s just… someone I made up.’