Kissing The Wind

Aleksander led Sydnee in the corner where there was no one. Sydnee then pull away her hand from his hold. “What do you want?” she huffed.

The man looked down on her and grinned again. What on earth did he want with her? Sydnee frowned.

“It looks like the duke’s favor is on you, huh?” he said.

“So?”

“Be careful with the people around you. You never knew who is secretly watching you.”

Before Sydnee could utter a word, a man stood beside her. She was startled. She did not notice how the man got close to her. It was surprising because Sydnee was trained to notice every movement in her sorroundings under the duke’s command, that’s why there was no one who could get past her defense, and this is also the reason why Sydnee could counter attack Catarina in every petty tricks.

“Sydnee,” the man called.

Her eyes widened when she recognized the voice. It was Anthony. Sydnee tipped her head back to look at him and her breathe hitched when their eyes met. Anthony smiled at her. “What are you doing here? Go back to the hall,” he said.

“Uhm… o-okay.”

She looked at Aleksander and bid farewell before turning around to walk back to the ball. She did not try to look back again because she was afraid of any mistakes she would do if she stayed in front of Anthony.

“Sister, here you are!” Catarina called her.

Sydnee was startled before she looked at Catarina. The girl was standing not far away from her and there were at least two boys and girls watching Sydnee’s every move. She wondered what tricks this girl was playing at the moment.

“Hi,” she greeted and then looked at the four companions of Catarina. “I am Sydnee Mondragon, Catarina’s sister. It’s nice to meet you all.”

One of the girls laughed and held out her palm. “Nice to meet you. I am Generika Montelano.”

Sydnee smiled and shook hands with the girl. But she was startled when the other girl laughed. “Don’t make fun of her, Generika,” she said.

Generika pulled back her hand and laughed again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that this girl’s a country bumpkin who did not know how to salute.”

Her brow raised upon hearing the girl’s words. She smirked. So they were making fun of her because she shook hand with the girl named Generika? Well, the commoner do shook hands with each other, but the nobles do a salute expressing their greetings.

“I’m sorry,” Sydnee interrupted the girl. “It wasn’t me who held out their hand first. If I had known that you want a salute, then don’t stretch out your hand least you’re just making a fool of yourself.” She then turned to Catarina and smiled brightly. “Sister, you must listen well to your etiquette teacher. Don’t make other people laugh at you because that won’t look good specially when you want a notable reputation.”

The group went silent because of her words. Sydnee grinned at Catarina before bidding goodbye to them and turning around to walk away.

Jeez. That girl would always pick on her. Sometimes, she just wanted to smash Catarina’s face.

Sydnee stopped in the terace. She drew a breathe. The moon was shining brightly on the horizon. There was rustles in the trees not far away from where she stood. The noises from the meeting ball was faint and she enjoyed the caress of the night breeze on her skin. A smile crept onto her lips and she closed her eyes.

“Sydnee,” someone called from behind her.

She opened her eyes.

‘That voice…’ she thought and hastily turned around.

Her eyes widened when she met Rogie’s gentle gaze. “You…”

“Sydnee, I’m glad you came.” He smiled at her.

Sydnee took a step back and swallowed hard. “What are you doing here?”

“I followed you.”

“But —”

“Don’t worry. No one would know.”

Her lips twitched. Why did it sound like they were doing something illegal? She looked away. “What do you want?” she whispered.

“I want us to talk about you.”

She pursed her lips. She did not say anything so Rogie continued. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

“Then… are they treating you well? The duke –”

“Yes.” She frowned when she remembered what Selena revealed to her about Rogie’s identity. She looked at him.

There was no resemblance of the king in Rogie’s face, that’s why she did not notice that he was one of the king’s sons. She could still see that during these months of not seeing him, other than the maturity in his eyes, nothing changed about him at all.

“I was surprised to know that Duke Mondragon adopted you as his daughter.” He smiled again and looked away. “That’s good. No one would bully you again.”

She was silent for a few seconds before she asked, “How about you and Lisa?”

Rogie laughed. “Nothing’s new other than  she was more violent than when I first married her. She got jealous easily so I couldn’t work peacefully.”

Her lips twitched and she looked away. Silence hovered around them for a few minutes before Rogie broke the silence. “I heard that the first daughter, Catarina, is taking the side of the second prince. Please be careful.”

“I know.”

Silence. The atmosphere was awkward and Sydnee just wanted to escape from Rogie. After a few seconds of hesitation, she faced him. “I need to —”Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Before she could finish her words, Rogie pulled her and hugged her tightly. Her eyes widened in surprise. “W-What are you doing?”

“Let me hug you for a moment,” he whispered.

She pursed her lips. The memory in that fine afternoon resurfaced in her mind, where Rogie kissed and hugged her. She frowned. According to Selena, Rogie and her were cousins. But then, Selena did not know that Diana was not her biological mother, so Rogie and her were not blood related at all.

But feeling his tight hug, she contemplated whether to tell him the truth about them being ‘blood relatives’ to shake off Rogie’s advancement.

“Hey,” she said and looked at the stars in the night sky that were visible from her perspective. “Do you know that we’re blood related?”

She felt Rogie froze for a moment. He hugged her even tighter. Sydnee frowned. “Your mother and my mother were half-siblings. You are not thinking of being together with your cousin, right?”

Call her being heartless and inconsiderate, but Sydnee was unhappy of Rogie’s advancement on her. He was once her bully and it was not easy to forget those horrible memories.

After being a noble and knowing a lot of things, Sydnee regretted that she let Rogie took advantage of her when she was in highschool. How naive and clueless she was in those times? Rogie was clearly taking advantage of her and she was letting him do everything that she was supposed to stop.

So to stop this mess, she would let him believe that they were blood related. If Rogie would still insist on taking advantage of her everytime they met, she would really think that he’s insane.

“Blood related?” he whispered and chuckled. “I know that you don’t believe my feelings for you, but don’t try to deceive me, Sydnee.”

Her lips curled. “I’m not deceiving you. You should check my origin before confessing, else, you might marry your half-sister.”

It was true. There were many illegitimate children born from the king. It would be horrendous if he ended up with his half-sister.

Rogie pulled away from the hug. Sydnee sighed in relief.

He frowned when he noticed how Sydnee relaxed when he released her. “What are you sighing at?”

“Nothing.” She crossed her arms around her chest and tipped her head back to look at him. “Go back to your wife. I don’t want to have anything to do with you.”

“Sydnee…”

“What? You’re disappointed that I was not like before? Naive and easy to fool?” Sydnee laughed. “Don’t assume that I like you. It’s enough that you’ve bullied me before but I would never take any grievances again specially from you.”

“I… I’m sorry for bullying you. I just want you t-to fight back and not be a c-coward…”

“Stupid.” She shook her head. “Go. I don’t want to see you again!”

“Sydnee…” Rogie held her shoulders.

Suddenly, a high pitch voice sounded from the entrace of the terace. “What are you doing with my husband, bit**!”

Sydnee was startled. She pushed Rogie away and she came face to face with Lisa. The girl was not wearing any mask so she could see how knitted Lisa’s brows were and how hateful the girl’s glare on her.

“It’s not what you think,” she said.

“Not what I think? You tried to seduce my husband?!” Lisa yelled.

Before she could utter another word, Catarina’s voice sounded from where Lisa came from. “Oh my, sister! You tried to seduce a married man? You should have said that you wanted to marry so badly so I can recommend a young man for you!”

Sydnee froze. She looked at Catarina and she saw a lot of nobles staring at her in disgust. Her brows knitted. She knew it. Catarina led Lisa in the terrace to tarnish her reputation!

“Don’t spout nonsense, Catarina, else you will pay with your tongue,” she warned.

Catarina appeared afraid of her threat. “I just wanted to help you, sister! If it makes you mad, then I won’t say anything again!”

“Sydnee, you should not threathen Catarina. She just want to help you out,” Lady Geneva said in a calm manner, but she saw disgust and contempt in the lady’s eyes.

She chuckled because of the hypocrisy of the two. She turned her head to Rogie who’s face was dark. “You better explain to them what happen or else they would not stop pointing fingers at us,” she uttered before facing Catarina with a smirk on her lips.

Wanna play with her? Since Catarina wants to play, she will beat that girl in her game of playing as thoughtful sister.

“We were talking about personal matters,” Rogie said and looked away. His knuckles clenched tightly that it turned white.

Catarina gasped and looked at her and then at Rogie. “Personal matters? Is it about your ambiguous relationship with my sister?”

Many whispers started to emerge from the crowd because of Catarina’s words. Rogie knitted his brows. “Ambiguous relationship?”

“Yes.” Catarina nodded. “You two were once classmates. You bullied my poor sister back then, even forced her to submit to you unwillingly. There were many rumors that you kissed her in private. I don’t believe it at first, but seeing that you and my sister were alone in this terrace, and sister Lisa’s yelling that my sister is seducing her husband, it is now clear that you two are having a secret relationship!”

More and more eyes were staring at Sydnee with disgust. A woman even voiced out, “A typical bitc* who’s habit is to climb into a man’s bed.”

“You said so,” the other woman voiced out. “I heard that this new girl is hooking up with the bastard of Tamarin.”

There was laughter in the crowd. “A bitc* and a bastard. What a perfect couple.”

Sydnee narrowed her eyes. Who would spread the rumors here in capital? She looked at Catarina who was feigning wronged, yet she could still read the gloating in her eyes. Hah. What a pretentious girl.

“Is that so?” Sydnee said and smiled at Catarina. “Sister, you are wrong. Don’t spread false rumors or else you are destroying the duke’s prestige. You don’t want to be labeled as a slanderer, are you?”

“Sister, don’t say anymore. People won’t believe the words you said! Don’t deny what’s happening between you and that young man!”

Tch. This girl was really getting into her nerves.

Before she could utter a word, someone from the crowd said, “Who is slandering my fiancee?”

There was a pin drop silence in the crowd. The group of people parted to make a way for the man who was walking towards Sydnee.

Sydnee’s eyes widened upon seeing Anthony. There was a mask on his face so no one knew who he was, except for those who recognized his voice. She frowned. What was he saying?

He smiled at her and stood beside her. His arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her closer. “This girl is mine. She is not seducing someone’s husband.”

Catarina’s face darkened. What was this foolish man thinking? She was a step closer in destroying Sydnee’s reputation and this man just showed up to announce such non-existent agreement? She laughed. “What are you saying, young man? My sister has no fiance!”

Anthony turned his head towards Catarina and smirked. “You kept on slandering your sister’s name. Are you not afraid that it would also affect your reputation?”

“W-What?” Catarina stuttered. “What affect? My sister is the one hooking up with a married man. It has nothing to do with me!”

Anthony lowered his eyes on Sydnee. “You are just talking with your cousin. Why would your sister Catarina kept on blabbering nonsense accusations?”

The crowd went silent and looked at Rogie who was trembling in the corner. He raised his head and threw a sharp glare at Catarina.

“Are you done spouting nonsense? Just keep your mouth shut if you don’t know anything!” he spat.

Holding Lisa’s wrist, he walked out of the terrace. The crowd was parting wherever he passed by.

Sydnee’s brow knitted. He just accepted the words she threw at him earlier? Did he know already about them being ‘blood related’?

The show had ended so the crowd went back into the hall. Lady Geneva had long gone away with Catarina in tow. Duke Theodore was not present in the commotion because he was called in the palace by the king for an emergency order.

Just as she opened her mouth to speak, Aleksander’s voice sounded below the terrace. “Well, well… Sydnee, you are a trouble magnet!”

Her lips twitched.