They Hated Me in My First Life, But Now I Have the Love System

Chapter 479: If She Falls For Him All The Way...

He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, she rushed on, as if worried he was too polite to tell her the truth.

"I’m still learning," she said, her voice gathering strength, her hands curling lightly in her lap. "Trying to understand you better. We didn’t grow up together, like you did with Arthur and Somto. Or even Stephanie and Nicholas. I didn’t have a lifetime to figure you out."

She lifted her chin then, meeting his gaze with a quiet determination that stunned him.

"But we’re family now," she said firmly. "And every day, I’m consciously trying to understand you more. Little by little." She took a slow breath, as if to steady herself. "I know one day, we’ll be much closer than you are to any of those people who grew up with you."

Her voice softened at the end, threaded with something fragile but unshakable.

"Because I’m willing to understand my big brother."

For a long moment, the room felt hushed around them.

Carl looked at her, at the earnest hope in her eyes, and something inside him went so tender and pained he had to look away, just for a heartbeat.

He couldn’t tell her the truth. That he wasn’t angry. That he was proud of her, always. That he wished, selfishly, she would look at him first, before anyone else. That he was already closer to her than he had ever been to anyone.

But he could never say any of that.

So instead, he reached across the desk and lightly rested his hand over hers, warm, steady, a promise in the simplest form.

"No," he said finally, voice quiet but clear. "I’m not upset, Nnenna."

He gave her a small smile, gentler than any words.

"And you’re already doing better than you think."

elaborate, because if he

promised himself he would always, always, protect her peace, even from his

annoyance left in him. Just something quieter. He wasn’t sure what to call it, maybe a kind of ache, maybe just a

him, so earnest, so determined, it was impossible to

thought. She wouldn’t

about it, her actions spoke louder. She was trying, every day, to meet

to steady something that didn’t quite need steadying. Then he let out

we understand each other more than we

that was, it didn’t soothe everything. Because one thought had begun circling in the

feelings

heart broken if I let this continue, he

the person he loved, someone who

falls for him all the

tensed almost

can’t allow

wasn’t as if he could dictate her heart. And she was clever, she would see

he admitted silently. Time to figure out

do was plant a few

Nothing that

hope, the gentleness, the unguarded sincerity that

calm, reassuring smile, his tone soft as if

know," he began lightly, "it’s good that you’re

against the closed notebook, a

about understanding everyone can make

gaze to meet hers, steady and warm, but edged with something that might have been caution, or perhaps