Everyone knows that I'm not his Luna, except for me

Chapter 3

Thorn Fang and Ember Hide’s territories weren’t far apart. Ten minutes later, I pulled up in front of Alexander’s house.

I opened the shoe cabinet.

Empty.

I froze for a second, then instinctively started looking around.

In the end, I found them in the trash can outside the door—my beige house slippers.

Next to them lay my toothbrush, my pajamas, my hair ties, my water cup… all stuffed into the same garbage bag.

To keep his “future Luna” from getting the wrong idea, Alexander had scrubbed my existence out of this place.

I squatted down, staring at that bag of things, and it felt like something slammed hard into my heart.

The butler saw me and walked over, lowering his voice. “Miss Barbara, the young master told me to take care of these. If it’s inconvenient for you to change shoes, you can put on a pair of shoe covers instead.”

“It’s fine.” I pushed my emotions down as deep as they could go. “I’m okay. Thank you.”

The moment I pushed the door open, I saw Alexander sitting on the couch, slowly slicing fruit.

His face held a focus I’d never seen before.

Not once did his attention land on me.

Not even for a second.

Jessica sat opposite him, calm and elegant in a pink suit, the corners of her lips tipped up as she answered every question he said.

From travel and art to territory legislation.

Alexander kept talking, one topic flowing into the next. His tone was light, but there was a deliberate care in every word.

He even wore a rare, slightly nervous, ingratiating smile. The tips of his ears were faintly red.

It was the first time I’d ever seen him like this.

He wasn’t flirting. He was seriously trying to please someone.

I stood in the doorway, watching his posture and all those unguarded little gestures, and suddenly felt like I’d barged into someone else’s life by mistake.

Just then, I heard Jessica say,

“We really were fated in high school. We weren’t even on the same floor, but I kept running into you.”

A soundless laugh climbed up my throat.

“Fated”? That was a path Alexander had carefully mapped out.

Taking the long way around, pretending to “pass by,” deliberately stopping in the hallway she always used…

I’d followed him since we were kids, watching him bend over backwards for a girl and yet never dare say a word.

And I was naïve enough to believe that once she left, I’d be able to fill that empty spot.

But the truth was—there had never been an empty spot.

I was lost in my own thoughts when I suddenly heard my name.

“I heard you have a friend you grew up with,” Jessica said, lifting her eyes to look at me. “Her name’s Barbara, right?”

I hadn’t even had time to answer before Alexander’s parents jumped in with a smile.

“Of course, they’re close! They’ve trained together and gotten into trouble together since they were kids. We even used to joke that maybe Barbara would be the future Luna.”

Before they could finish, Alexander’s face changed. He cut them off immediately.

“Don’t joke about that.”

He stared straight at Jessica and said, firm and clear, “I could never like Barbara.”

For half a second, the air stopped moving. Even my fingertips went numb.

To keep the whole scene from collapsing into awkward silence, I forced a smile and followed up smoothly, “Same here. No matter who I marry in the future, it won’t be Alexander.”

The moment the words left my mouth, Alexander’s gaze flickered.

But he recovered quickly, going back to that careless playboy act. He even clapped a hand on my shoulder like I was one of his buddies.

“Hear that? We’re the purest kind of friends.”

Laughter rippled through the living room.

While his family wasn’t paying attention, Alexander leaned toward me and murmured, “You did well today, Barbara.”

I looked at him.

That was the moment I really understood—he thought I was helping him.

But every single word I’d said… had been true.