Justine’s Feelings

My name is Justine, the daughter of an influential royal family from Italy, I have been forced to marry in order to save my country from the brink of war.

My partner is Damon, the top student in our school's academic division, he is the one who helped me the most with my studies before we got married.

Although I was pestering him with many questions every day, he didn't turn me down even once and he would answer all my questions in a rather simplified way so that I could understand it easily.

I respected his attitude of taking everything seriously out of obligation. One day when Damon was solving a problem in front of me, I couldn't understand the way he solved it, so I told him,

"I guess this kind of problem is too hard for me to solve"

Damon says with all confidence,

"Don't worry I will think of another easier method to help you solving it"

I could feel Damon's undeterred determination as he said that, but I didn't want to burden him anymore so I said,

"You don't have to worry about it, you have got your own studies to do as well."

I thought that this matter would end here, but the next day Damon came to my class early in the morning and gave me a pile of papers saying excitingly,

"Here are 7 different methods with detailed steps to solve this problem!"

,

"Now you will be able to solve any problem of this kind with ease in the upcoming exam," Damon says that proudly with his chest held up as if he did a huge favor for me.

That day Damon had red eyes and his hair was a mess and even his uniform was crumpled all over.

it seemed as if he was awake the whole night coming up with those solutions, and the first thing he did that morning was to deliver those papers to me without even caring about his own appearance.

I was so touched by Damon's unyielding will to help me so I smiled at him and said,

"Thank you for your hard work, I will make sure to get a high grade for sure."

As soon as Damon saw my smile he looked down on the ground avoiding my gaze, like a hot balloon that got blown, then he left the classroom without saying anything.

Now it's been a little over a month since we started to live together, as expected at the beginning we stumbled upon many problems, but we overcame them slowly together.

My female friends would swirl around me not letting me go to ask me about my married life with Damon, they didn't know that we were sleeping separately, so I just made up cheesy stories for them to let me off.

As we started living together, I got to know him even more; I found out how understanding he can be.

The more I knew about him the more I was attracted to him even though I knew in my mind that we were just a pretend couple.

I didn't know if this attraction was just out of respect and gratitude or if I really was in love with him, so I kept those feelings for myself till I became more certain of my feelings towards him.