Only you in my love

Lowering his head, Leon turned his eyes away from Michelle's face. He couldn't bear to see the person he loved fear him.

Left with no choice, he had to continue.

"You made breakfast just for me, but why did you have to give it to someone else? And you even gave it to another man. From now on, you can only make breakfast for me, alright?"

Bending down, he gently pressed his forehead against hers. The tip of her nose felt cold on his skin.

Intentionally, Leon talked slowly so that he wouldn't scare her.

"Huh? Don't you have anything to say about it?" he asked.

Deep inside, Michelle did have something to say.

But she didn't want to be impolite and interrupt him.

Because Leon couldn't look at her face at this moment, he failed to see that her eyes were brighter now.

Michelle's eyes were clear and peaceful, like the blue sky after the rainclouds had passed.

There was no fear in her eyes. Only joy remained.

When it was her turn to speak, Michelle asked softly, "Tell me the truth, Leon. Are you jealous?"

She couldn't help but let out a few quiet giggles while she eagerly waited for his answer.

Then Leon finally raised his head to look at her face.

What he saw in her eyes was pure, innocent joy.

In that moment, Leon felt as if a warm, fluffy cloud enveloped his heart. In a split second, relief took over his chest and replaced the anxiousness he felt.

The overflowing happiness he felt in his heart made him smile.

"Alright, I'll admit it. Yes, I'm jealous," he said to her.

For Michelle, his jealousy meant that he really did love her. Three years ago, she learned that this was a foolproof way of knowing if someone was truly in love. It was absolutely impossible to fake. It was the sign that she had been waiting for.

In her heart, she was very satisfied.

Having heard the answer she wanted, Michelle jumped excitedly into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his waist as if hugging a big tree.

"Hey, Leon. I have something else in mind. Can you be more jealous from now on?"

It was such an unusual request.

Leon was left speechless, trying to think of an explanation for it.

Most girls hate it when their boyfriends get too jealous. However, Michelle was asking for the exact opposite.

'Jealousy doesn't just appear out of thin air. There must be a reason for it to exist.

Is it because she's planning to flirt with Tim? Is this why she's asking me to be more jealous?' he thought to himself.

Thinking of this, Leon smiled. 'Does she want me to die of jealousy?'

"That's a very risky idea." Pulling away from her, Leon wanted to scold her for her proposal. However, the words got stuck in his throat when he saw the gentle smile on her face.

Finally, all that he could blurt out was, "Just don't talk with Tim too much. I don't like it."

'Hmm. I guess he must be jealous since he's trying to keep me away from Tim. He really does like me, doesn't he?'

Michelle thought. She was sure that that was the case. "Anything else?" she asked eagerly.

Leon was surprised.

He felt as if there was something wrong.

At the moment, he still couldn't figure it out. So he decided to be transparent with Michelle and tell her what was in his heart.

Putting his hand on her shoulder, Leon looked straight into her eyes. "I don't want you to be in contact with Tim that much, Michelle. The same goes for other men. And also, I don't want you to call anyone's name intimately except for me." "Okay, agreed!"

Michelle answered, nodding a couple of times. "Anything else you had in mind?"

Never before had Leon seen a girlfriend so accommodating. For a second, he couldn't help but smile at her.

"Whatever I give you, I want it to be only yours. I don't want you to share or give it to someone else. I want you to have it, just you. That goes for the things you do for me as well. I don't want anyone else having the same privilege. So, I want to be the only person who you cook breakfast for. Just me, okay?"

"No problem. Deal!" At first, Michelle agreed to his conditions without hesitation. But after thinking it over for a while, she felt that it was a bit unreasonable.

"But what about my parents? Whenever I get up early, I fix breakfast for them as well. I just did earlier this morning," Michelle blurted out, frowning. "Can you not count my parents in?"

Putting one hand to his forehead, Leon answered, "Don't worry. I won't count them in."

He realized that she was not only obedient, but she was paying attention too.

To him, it felt like he was ruling over the meek girl with an iron fist. Besides agreeing to all of his conditions, she also looked for other ways to make him feel more comfortable.

When he realized how considerate she was to him, he felt guilty all of a sudden.

To ease his feelings of guilt, Leon wanted to do something for her as well. "What about you? Don't you have any conditions for me?"

Michelle shook her head and replied, "No."

For her, being with Leon was good enough. She didn't want any requirements. She was totally satisfied with the situation.

"Really?" Leon asked, looking at her in disbelief. "Well, you've just agreed to everything that I asked of you. I want to do something for you as well. So, tell me. I'll do my best to fulfill it." Michelle's eyes suddenly lit up. If he really insisted on doing something for her, she had one thing in mind.

"To be honest, I really hope you can like me more, Leon."

A week passed since she told him what she wanted, and he didn't waste any time taking action.

For the past five days, Michelle was late for work. Every time that she did, there was a penalty to her salary. By the time her paycheck came, t was substantially smaller than what she usually got.

For some time, Leon mulled over her request. Expressing affection wasn't as simple as giving material things. Finally, he thought that he would leave hickeys on her neck as his way of showing affection.

"I know you like strawberries so much, so I'll leave hickeys on your body. They look like little strawberry marks on your skin," he said to her.

Hearing this, she finally understood what "planting strawberries" meant. Now, she realized the meaning of what she said to Debra some time back. She wished that she could turn back time and take back the embarrassing words she said to them. The longer she thought about it, the redder her face became.

On the first day, Leon leaned over to her and left a hickey on her neck.

The second day, he put two hickeys. On the third, he left three on her neck. It went on and on, and with each passing day, he put more hickeys than the day before.

It was as if to say that as he put more and more hickeys each day, his affection for her also grew daily.

By the fourth day, Michelle had already lost track of how many hickeys he had put on her neck.

Since it was winter, it wasn't a big problem for her. She could just wear sweaters or collared shirts to cover them up.

But that morning, the fifth day, Leon declared that there were already too many hickeys on her neck.

With a sly grin, he told her that he needed to kiss further down. He needed the space for more hickeys. At that moment, Michelle was scared to death. She used every trick in the book to stop him from doing that.

Smiling, Leon held her in his arms and said, "Michelle, you told me that you wanted me to like you more. I'm just doing what you asked of me."

It was too late for Michelle to take back her request.

Since she couldn't completely avoid what he wanted to do, she just tried to compromise with him. He agreed that he would start from one hickey on the sixth day as a new round.

Otherwise, her whole body would be full of hickeys in just a few weeks or so. It was not that she didn't want it. Her problem was that it took too much of her time.

The more hickeys Leon wanted to put, the longer it would take. It might even take more than an hour if she let him have his way.

If that happened, she would be late for work every day.

That day, Michelle was behind time even more than the past four days. Caroline hadn't been in the office for several days because she was on a business trip to various parts of the country.

As a work policy, the attendance still had to be monitored so she couldn't get away with her tardiness. Although Caroline didn't say anything about her record, she deducted her salary without hesitation.

Since Michelle came in late in the morning, she had to work overtime in the evening. Her colleagues did their best to sympathize with her. Even so, they tried not to meddle too much with her personal life. Because she had been late for five days already, her salary was cut by more than half due to the deductions.

That day was payday. Michelle peeked at her measly paycheck and felt depressed.

Michelle remembered during high school how her teacher once said that falling in love would affect their grades. Now, she realized that her teacher was right all along.

'It seems that grades isn't the only thing affected by falling in love.

It's also distracting me from my job!' Michelle thought to herself.

Meanwhile, one of her colleagues stood beside her and patted her on the shoulder, trying to cheer her up.

Her female colleague gave her a smile. "Mimi, come on. Focus. You still have a ton of work left this afternoon."

A bit rattled, Michelle sat on her chair and opened her computer.

In the afternoon, she was going to take publicity photos of the Ballet Festival for Valerie.D