Chapter 297: Plural Admirers

“…A fan?”

Kael narrowed his eyes as he repeated what he had just heard, only to be immediately corrected by a surprisingly exasperated Aya, who pushed up her nonexistent glasses out of sheer habit.

“Actually, my lord, it’s more like the alleged official fan club president. And I mean alleged in the sense that you could attach that word to every single part of that title.”

She didn’t pause to breathe as words toppled out of her mouth.

“Because how could something be official when Riley here never acknowledged it. And how could the people in that club call themselves fans when they honestly act more like devotees. So really, isn’t that closer to a cult than a club?”

She gestured animatedly with one hand.

“Then there’s the alleged presidency. How could she call herself president when it functions more like a dictatorship. And yes, before anyone says anything, she is fully aware of my very pointed opinions as I usually hold a quarterly intervention for her.”

“Not that it worked. But I tried,” she muttered, this time softly.

Kael watched as the small blob seemed to deflate even further, drooping against the chair like a melted glob.

The golden dragon, on the other hand, had no idea what the hell she was talking about, or how the conversation had suddenly veered into cults, devotees, and all that, when they had originally been talking about that creature called Bailey.

Well. Apparently, it had all started moments ago.

__

Whatever survival instincts had awakened in that woman, they kicked in the instant Kael experienced a moment of weakness.

Of course, he made sure (failed) not to make a big deal out of it.

In accounts that definitely couldn’t be his, he had stared, genuinely dumbfounded, at Riley after he spoke so openly about their relationship as an established fact.

But forget about his alleged reaction. What was important here was how suddenly, the female blob looked like she might throw herself to the floor in apology.

Kael glanced at his mate. Legs taking up space and even prouder now.

“She knows you probably heard our conversation,” his twig said calmly. “Actually, given her field of focus, it would be impossible for her not to know that you did.”

Hm.

So that explained the fervent apologizing.

Kael leaned back in his seat, posture languid. Anyone else would have been reduced to terror by the way he lounged, relaxed and dangerous all at once. His mate, however, didn’t even blink.

“But rather than hear it from her,” Riley continued, “I’ll just explain it myself. In reality, she’s more like a colleague than a close friend. Not because I didn’t try, but because of a… dynamic I only realized existed later.”

“Dynamic?” Kael asked, eyes narrowing.

“Yes. Dynamic,” Riley confirmed. “I’m not even sure it qualifies as a relationship, which was part of the oddity.”

“Explain.”

He definitely needed an explanation. Because he didn’t like Riley saying the word relationship when there were other people involved. It was enough he was related to all those competitors back at the estate. He couldn’t possibly allow dubious relationships with even more cretins.

“I didn’t find out about it until our second year of college,” Riley said, tone thoughtful.

“In truth, it was largely because I didn’t really recognize her as someone I knew from when I was younger. So, believe it or not, it caught me off guard too.”

Kael waited, patient.

“Apparently, back in elementary school, I helped her with something important. From that day on, she decided she owed me eternal gratitude.”

He hesitated but ultimately continued.

“It’s just that her way of showing that gratitude wasn’t exactly conventional.”

“…?”

Riley clicked his tongue, clearly struggling to find the right word. “I’m not sure it’s accurate, but Aya used to say she was like a fan.”

“Ry, sure,” Aya cut in, sounding strained. “On very good days. But unfortunately, on most days, that word would sound like an oversimplification.”

And that was how Kael found himself listening to a story about a woman who exalted his mate while steadfastly refusing to get closer to him.

“…A fan?”

More importantly, it was during this conversation that the golden dragon realized something deeply unacceptable.

His twig had admirers.

Plural.

An entire gaggle of competitors.

Competitors who apparently possessed collections of photos and videos that even he, the officially acknowledged fiancé, had never seen before.

Kael’s eyes darkened.

That simply wouldn’t do.

__

The dragon lord went quiet.

Not exactly the calm kind, but more like the kind where too many things were happening all at once and his mind was trying to put them in order.

A fan club.

Back then.

For his twig.

More than one person. More than a few. Enough that the small blob had words like devotees and cult ready on her tongue.

The air around the table grew warmer, and how generous was he that it didn’t turn scorching.

__

But as someone who had waited all her life to meet dragons, the overly observant Aya surely noticed.

She shifted in her seat.

Then she shifted again.

The dragon lord’s fingers tapped once against the table.

Slow.

Measured.

And Aya fought the urge to run to the bathroom. Instead she swallowed as she thought of something insane.

It was probably a long shot and she was probably going to die if she interpreted things wrongly, but for some reason she thought it would work.

After mistakenly word vomiting about Riley’s popularity, Aya had no choice but to sell him out a bit.

“Well, my lord, by any chance would you like a demonstration of what I meant by a fan club?” she said carefully, and with those brows giving her the go signal, Aya staked her life on the line.

But while Aya had gingerly slid her phone towards the dragon lord like offering her clan’s tribute, Riley had his eyes closed as he rubbed his temples.

Only when he realized what kind of photos Aya would actually have, his eyes flew open.

“!!!”

But it was too late.

His golden dragon was already looking at it.

Riley surrounded by people who stood too close.

Riley smiling at faces that weren’t Kael’s.

Riley in candid shots, caught mid-stride, jacket slung carelessly over one shoulder.

Riley on stage, confident and magnetic.

Riley laughing with friends, head tipped back, hair catching the light in a way that felt unfair.

All such things, Kael never got to see for himself and yet everyone else managed to witness it.

There was a tense silence. Unexpectedly, the golden dragon’s first words were, “These are all to be transferred to me.”

“Yes, my lord,” the woman who took a chance, replied immediately while Riley looked at her incredulously.

But just when Aya thought she’d been saved, the fire-breathing being actually paused.

His gaze flicked back to her.

“And why do you possess them?”

She stiffened, getting a clearer understanding of what could and could not come out of her mouth today.

“…Journalism club.”

Kael stared.

“I was the official photographer, my lord,” she rushed to explain. “Riley was involved in many events. He was popular. Unfortunately. It was my job. It’s just that the fan club members would usually store copies of the photos because they were generally available for public consumption.”

And it wasn’t like she took bad photos or that Riley could make himself uglier just to avoid all the fanatics. But Aya didn’t dare say such a thing.

The dragon lord flipped to the next photo.

Then stopped because Riley actually made a grab for it.

“What are you doing?” asked Kael as Riley leaned forward to grab the phone.

“I think we should go back to what we were talking about earlier.” Kael eyed his twig, but Riley couldn’t give that one away.

Naked. Naked would have been better, but Riley couldn’t allow his mate to see his dark past of having to join that campus pageant while cross-dressing.

The outfit was fine. It was but a disguise and he had worn worse things. But what he had done for the sake of their department? It better be buried and never be found again.

His golden dragon, as expected, harumphed at being denied, so Riley had to continue.

“I couldn’t really do anything about her,” he said. “Because she never actually did anything to me.”

“Huh?” Kael said, attention split.

“That’s why I said it was a weird dynamic,” Riley explained. “I wasn’t followed around. I wasn’t harassed. I didn’t lose anything. No physical or material damage.”

He shrugged.

“Psychologically, it was odd, but never in my face. She usually avoided me unless we had to interact for school. And when she did, she behaved.”

Aya nodded.

“If not for people telling me there was a fan club,” Riley added, “I honestly wouldn’t have noticed.”

“And,” Aya said carefully, “Riley couldn’t reject her admiration because she never even confessed.”

Kael’s ears twitched.

The heat spiked at words that sounded dangerously hostile to him, and if not for his twig’s finger immediately wrapping around Kael’s on the table, who knew how ashen the place might have become.

“Riley is mine.”

“I… I now know that my lord. And I think Bailey, who also happens to be my friend, isn’t really thinking of ending up with Riley,” she winced.

“I don’t really know her reasons,” Aya said, “but the fan club stayed calm for a long time because Riley was so studious, so the news likely came as a shock to her.”

The apparently studious youth snorted softly.

“We had too much schoolwork to date,” Aya continued. “Some fans get attached to that. They treat people like celebrities.”

“Celebrity—,” Kael repeated, probably about to ask something, but before he could respond, Riley suddenly held out his own phone.

The golden dragon leaned back instinctively as he looked at what his mate was showing him.

Rows of threads.

Photos.

Titles.

Kael blinked.

“…What.”

“Fan clubs,” Riley said. “Yours.”

Silence.

And now the all-powerful golden dragon lord was trying to figure out how to explain that clearly dubious photo!

He was innocent!

“!!!”

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