When Geoffrey arrived at the event, he was immediately hounded by the school dignitaries. Not wanting to be rude as he was currently a student at the school, he let them lead him to their tent.

Although he was standing with them, his eyes roamed the area to check if Serena has already arrived. When he did not see her, he positioned himself so that he can peek at the entrance from time to time. Anyway, after the principal gave his message, the man decided to talk to him. After a while, he saw Serena entering the field with her friends. 

Like always, she took his breath away, and he could not help the upward tilt of his lips. She actually came. Suddenly, everything seemed to move in slow motion, and she was all that he can see. The words the principal was saying turned into some buzzing sound he could not even understand. 

"Geoffrey?" the principal called. It seems like Geoffrey stopped listening and was lost in his own world.

"Geoffrey?" he repeated in a louder voice while waving his hand in front of him. 

Geoffrey saw the hand blocking his view and that was only the time he remembered that the principal was still talking to him.

Vaguely, he heard Diether's announcing something as he apologized to the principal.

The principal did not take it to heart and just commented with "Ah… young love. Anyway, I will go ahead. You go and enjoy the night." 

"thank you." He replied. At the corner of his eyes, he saw Serena being pulled by her friends. 

When the principal left, he took the time to observe her. A part of him was jealous that she can smile and laugh so easily with them than with him. For a moment, he wanted to pull her away from them and keep her all to himself. He shook his head to break that line of thought. He knew that that would be wrong. Yet, perhaps, it was her continued rejection plus her expressing that she wanted to break the engagement which woke something feral in him. 

Whenever he sees her, he wants to hold her, touch her, and do all those sinful things a man could do with his woman. And she's bound to be his woman. He took a deep breath. He should not think this way. That is already his lust talking and he must not touch her that way. No matter how tempting, they must remain pure until they were bound by the holy matrimony. 

Perhaps he should let her be and let her enjoy the freedom she still has. She already expressed a couple of times that she wanted to focus on herself first and he should respect that. He should not keep on insisting for her to be with him now. For at the end of the day, they were still bound to get married. However, when he noticed that the dancing has halted and he heard the introductory notes of the Sellinger's round playing, he still went to approach her. 

--

Charlton turned to his right only to see Kylo. "Why?" he asked.

Kylo's eyes pointed to the right.

Charlton followed where his eyes went and saw Geoffrey whose eyes were zeroed in on Serena, walking straight to where she was. He was so focused on her that he did not even notice him and Kylo standing only about 5 steps away.

"that was a close call." Kylo said.

Charlton can only sigh. It was indeed. "Thank you. Anyway, I see that the girl standing to Serena's right is Via. Perhaps I can…"

"Don't even think about it."

"But…"

"Fine. I will help you with Geoffrey this time, but you need to tell her to remember this favor and you know what I mean. Okay?"

Charlton can only chuckle. "Well, you too have it bad."

Kylo chose to ignore him and walked to stand on Via's left.

--

When the song ended, the next tune that played was the Sellinger's round which was performed in a mix gender circle. The girls remained in the circle and excitedly waited. Whoever stands on their left will be their partner for that dance. 

Serena always knew when Charlton's eyes was on her, it was almost intuitive. So, while dancing the carole, she was able to spot him smiling her way. Thus, she expected that he will be standing on her left soon enough. She was enjoying the party, but she wanted to leave as soon as possible with him as she had another thing in mind.

So, imagine her surprise when she turned to her left and saw that it was Geoffrey standing next to her. Her big smile suddenly turned awkward. What if he insists on following her all night?

"I almost thought you were not coming. You look lovely tonight by the way." He greeted as he gave her a smile.

Serena has no words for him, but she still blushed instinctively. Promise to god she did not make herself do that consciously, but who the hell would not blush when the male lead, with his male lead halo, releasing his male lead pheromones, looked at you with that earnest, smiling, and, well, not as handsome as Charlton's, but still super handsome face? Still, she turned away from him.

Geoffrey would have felt bad about her trying to ignore him if not for him seeing her blush. Thus, his mood did not plummet. Knowing that he has that effect on her was rewarding enough. Perhaps she was acting the way she was because she was still miffed about the bridal carry earlier. 

Anyway, Serena was about to break from the circle so that she would not need to dance with him. However, before she can do that, the song reached the part where everyone needs to start dancing and Geoffrey held her left hand. Also, if she pulls her hand away, he might just follow her too. 

She understands her position and knows that this kind of situation will remain unavoidable in the future. But not tonight. Come on, she has a fantasy already planned out. She was just at her wits end when someone coughed from her right.

When she turned to see who it was, she saw it was Kylo. He winked at her and she sighed in relief.

She has never been so glad to see him. Thank god, it seems like the night can still be salvaged.

--

TBC

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