Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 133

Whenever this topic came up, he would say things like, “I can just sacrifice myself,” or “I’ve already received more than enough payment, so it’s only natural,” or “Lilliana doesn’t need to do anything…”

“Damian! You’re also a part of my everyday life!” Lilliana argued back, her tone slightly angry.

“You said it yourself! That you would protect my everyday life! You’re my friend before you’re my bodyguard, so how can you not protect yourself?! What did I tell you earlier? Don’t die. Get my permission before doing anything dangerous. Cherish yourself as much as you do me. Is that so hard?!”

“I’m confident I can do my job while keeping all of that in mind,” Damian said confidently, leaving Lilliana speechless.

“And Lilliana, I need to be more mindful of separating public and private matters. As you said, I believe it’s true that one of our relationships is that of friends.”

Damian narrowed his eyes and continued, “But that doesn’t mean I should forget that I’m your bodyguard. And when it comes to priorities, I believe public matters come first. As your bodyguard, before being your friend.”

“Why?”

“Nothing major will happen to you if I neglect my duties as a friend. But if I neglect my duties as a bodyguard, you will be in danger.”

Damian had been hitting her with irrefutable logic, and Lilliana couldn’t find any words to restrain him further.

“Well, that’s… I understand for now.”

Lilliana reluctantly replied. Damian opened the elevator’s manual door as it arrived on the first floor.

“So, Lilliana, you and Casey…”

The image of the Carnell siblings from a while ago flashed through Damian’s mind.

Casey and Damian shared a similar emptiness. Living with it was like walking on a foggy road with no landmarks. Living without knowing what to do or what to become often made one feel excessively lonely.

But Casey had Lilliana by his side. She would decide what to do and walk alongside him.

Damian, on the other hand, had no such presence. He was jealous of that.

“You two can relax.”

He said so and got on the elevator. Lilliana, following behind him, was puzzled to see Damian’s dejected expression after he trailed off mid-sentence.

“Damian, what’s wrong? Why the sudden change in expression?”

Damian often found his employer’s unnecessary sensitivity to people’s emotions quite bothersome. Of course, she was asking out of genuine concern, but Damian found it difficult to talk about this topic for some reason.

“It’s nothing.”

He denied it for now, but Lilliana’s expression remained clouded. As the elevator ascended, she spoke with a hint of resentment, “When you make that kind of face, Damian, it usually means it’s not nothing. I wish you would tell me, at least a little. You always keep things to yourself.”

Then, she muttered with a pout, “Keeping everything bottled up isn’t always the answer.”

“Lilliana, the reason I don’t tell you is because I…”

Knowing that Lilliana was genuinely worried about him, Damian tried to offer an excuse. But he cleared his throat and said in a low voice, “It’s really nothing.”

If he wasn’t going to tell her, he should have kept his mouth shut from the beginning. Trailing off mid-sentence only served to irritate Lilliana further.

As the elevator reached the 9th floor, Lilliana manually opened the door and slapped Damian’s back with a loud smack.

“Hey!”

Damian was half thrown out of the elevator, and Lilliana followed him, fuming.

“Either tell me or don’t! Don’t start and then stop!”

At Lilliana’s roar, Timo started barking excitedly from inside the house. Damian looked at Lilliana, clearly flustered.

“That habit of yours has always annoyed me! Whenever I ask you something, you always deny it and say it’s nothing, but it’s clearly not nothing! That’s not being reticent; it’s just annoying!”

Lilliana hit Damian’s back a few more times. She unlocked the door and pushed Damian inside, still grumbling.

“Tell me! It’ll be better for you if you do! Don’t even think about getting away with saying it’s nothing this time!”

Damian was about to retort, feeling wronged, when Timo, excited to see them back, jumped on them.

Lilliana, trying to avoid stepping on Timo, sidestepped and tripped, falling over.

Damian instinctively reached out to catch the falling Lilliana and pulled her towards him. However, he couldn’t prevent her from falling completely, and he also fell backward onto the floor.

Damian, who barely managed to cushion Lilliana’s fall with his body, groaned involuntarily. His back hurt, and Timo was licking his face furiously, making it impossible to concentrate.

“Timo, sit.”

At Lilliana’s command, the well-trained dog moved away from Damian’s face and sat obediently.

“Lie down. Stay.”

After getting Timo out of the way, Lilliana leaned over Damian’s chest and glared at him. It wasn’t the kind of atmosphere where he would receive a thank you for catching her.

“Why were you trying to avoid telling me by saying it was nothing?”

Damian felt a sense of déjà vu. He had been threatened like this just a few days ago…

But if he kept his mouth shut this time, it seemed Lilliana wouldn’t move from on top of him until she got an answer.

“Well, you see…” Damian started with difficulty.

“When I say those things…”

He rubbed his face and covered his eyes with his hand, his voice trailing off, “If I say anything more, it feels like I’m being childish… I didn’t want that.”

“Childish? What do you mean, childish?”

He slightly moved his fingers away from his eyes and met Lilliana’s gaze. She was staring at him with wide, curious eyes. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Damian sighed and said, “Could you please get off me? I’ll tell you.”

“Okay.”

As Lilliana moved, Damian, with a suddenly exhausted expression, went to the sofa and plopped down. When Lilliana sat across from him, Damian frowned and spoke.

“I… I don’t understand family.”

Lilliana blinked at the unexpected words. Why was he suddenly talking about family?

“That’s why I don’t understand how you and Casey can be so close.”

“Why?”

“You said you weren’t that close before you lost your memories. But you suddenly became close two days after reuniting, and now you’re so affectionate with each other…”

Damian ran a hand through his hair and continued, “How is that possible? Is that what family is?”

Lilliana was a bit taken aback by Damian’s question. To her, family meant a relationship of unquestioning trust.

Of course, it had been a bit difficult to feel that way towards Casey before, but after believing Pascal’s words, she trusted Casey.

Relying on each other, being there for each other…

That was her definition of family. She could understand anything as long as it was in the name of family.

Lilliana crossed her arms and replied, lost in thought, “If you’re asking if that’s what family is… then yes, it is. Sometimes, just being blood-related solves everything. Brother and I, because we’re blood-related, we became irreplaceable to each other.”

Finishing her thoughts, Lilliana nodded and looked up at Damian. But his expression was strange.

He had his usual indifferent face, but for some reason, Lilliana felt like he was about to cry.

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