Villainess X Villain: They are obsessed with each other!

Chapter 53: Chapter: 52 Rosalina’s genius.

7 days before the student council president election

In Rosalina’s private cabin (the special room the academy gave her for the election campaign)

Julius was sitting on the couch, tossing a paperweight up in the air and catching it again and again like it was a toy.

”Babe,” he said with a lazy grin, ”how come it’s always just the two of us in here?”

”I’ve been hanging out with you almost every day since I lost that duel to you, and we’re always in this room... but I never see anyone else working. Where are those two girls who are supposed to help you?”

He threw the paperweight higher this time, caught it smoothly, and looked over at her.

Rosalina was at the big desk in the middle of the room, sitting straight in her chair, pen moving fast across a sheet of paper.

Her cheeks were a little pink, something that happened a lot these days whenever Julius was around.

”They’re... busy,” she said quickly, scribbling even faster like she wanted to hide behind the words.

”Busy with what?” Julius asked, still playing catch with the paperweight. Up, down, up, down.

”Hamh!” Rosalina made her famous little snort and turned her face away.

Julius’s eyes lit up. That snort was too cute. Every time she did it, he just wanted to tease her more.

”Wait a second...” He leaned forward, smirking.

”Did you send them away on purpose so we could be alone?”

”Hamh! Don’t be ridiculous!” she snapped, snorting again, which only made her look even more adorable.

Julius laughed under his breath. He didn’t know it yet, but he had guessed exactly right.

The truth was, ever since she beat him in that duel a few months ago, Julius had been spending almost all his free time with her.

And Rosalina loved it.

She loved it so much that she didn’t want to share even one minute of his attention.

It felt like... money. Even if you have tons of money, you still hate giving it away.

That’s how she felt about Julius’s time. She wanted every second of it for herself.

So whenever she heard his footsteps coming down the hall, she would quickly shoo the two helper girls out the back door before he walked in.

Rosalina cleared her throat loudly.

”Ahem! Anyway...” She kept her eyes glued to the paper, pretending to be super focused.

”You’re way too calm for someone who’s about to do something super dangerous.”

Julius caught the paperweight one last time and set it down.

He leaned back, arms behind his head, smiling like he didn’t have a care in the world.

”Dangerous? Nah. Sounds fun to me.”

Rosalina’s pen stopped moving.

She stared down at the half-finished page, then let out a long, quiet sigh.

”I don’t know if you’re brave... or just...”

She almost said ’stupid’. The word was right there on her tongue, but she caught it at the last second and swallowed it back.

Calling ’him’ stupid felt ridiculous now.

She glanced at Julius, still leaning casually against the edge of her desk like the whole world was one big game, and shook her head slowly.

”Four months,” she murmured, almost to herself.

”Just four months... and look at everything you’ve pulled off. Sometimes I still can’t believe a fourteen-year-old could do all this.”

Her eyes narrowed a little, like she was trying to solve a puzzle that refused to make sense.

”And the craziest part? You told ’me’. Everything. Even though you knew, you ’knew’, if I breathed a single word to anyone, it could all collapse.”

A tiny, warm smile crept onto her lips before she could stop it.

She quickly turned her face away and pretended to fix the papers in front of her, cheeks going pink again.

’Stupid,’ she thought for the second time. But this time the word felt soft.

He had trusted her completely.

Julius pushed off the desk and stepped closer, hands in his pockets, that familiar amused glint in his eyes.

”Come to think of it...” he said lightly, ”it’s been exactly four months since I proposed to you, hasn’t it?”

Rosalina’s heart slammed against her ribs so hard she was sure he could hear it.

She kept her eyes glued to the desk, fingers tightening around her pen.

”Marry me, Rose.”

His voice from that day echoed in her head like it had happened five minutes ago.

She had dreamed about those words a million times, late at night when everything was quiet and sleep wouldn’t come.

In every daydream it felt soft, romantic, impossible... like something from a storybook.

But when it actually happened?

It wasn’t gentle or perfect. It was sudden. Messy. Real.

And terrifying.

She still couldn’t say yes.

The thought left a bitter little sting behind her eyes.

’It would’ve been so much better... if I could have just said yes.’

Julius stepped forward and leaned right over her shoulder, close enough that she could feel his breath tickle her ear.

”Is it over?” he asked, eyes sliding down to the paper she’d been scribbling on for the last twenty minutes.

Rosalina’s face instantly turned the color of a ripe tomato. She ducked her head so fast her hair fell forward like a curtain.

”W-Wait—!” she squeaked, pen flying across the page in one final frantic stroke.

”Haaa...”

She let out a long, relieved breath and slowly held the paper up between two fingers, like she was offering him a treasure she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to share.

Julius took one look and his jaw dropped.

”Whoa!”

Big black circles covered most of the page, first circle, second, third, fourth... each one connected by arrows, each one packed with scary-looking equations, symbols, and formulas that twisted and looped in ways that made normal math look like baby addition.

”What ’is’ this, babe?” His voice was half awe, half disbelief. ”Did you seriously just create this... right now?”

”Hamh!”

Rosalina lifted her chin high, cheeks still flaming red, tiny nose pointed proudly toward the ceiling like she could stab the clouds with it.

It was supposed to look haughty and impressive.

Instead it looked like the single most adorable thing Julius had ever seen in his entire life.

He burst out laughing before he could stop himself.

”You really are my sweet, adorable princess darling,” he said, voice warm and teasing as he gently took the paper from her fingers.

The second the sheet left her hand, something shifted in his eyes.

They lit up, bright, sharp, hungry.

Like a dragon that just spotted the shiniest piece of gold in the hoard.

’This time...’ he thought, fingers tightening just slightly around the edges of the paper, ’you won’t get your hands on ”that”, hero of the world.’

Rosalina tilted her head, studying him.

”You’re making that face again,” she said quietly.

”What face?”

”The one where you look like you’re about to steal the moon and nobody will ever know it was you.”

Julius blinked once. Then twice.

Then he laughed, real this time, and ruffled her hair with his free hand.

”Can’t help it,” he said. ”You keep giving me the best toys to play with.”

She swatted his hand away, but not very hard.

”Stop messing up my hair, idiot.”