Peerless Perverted Actor Has a Celebrity Harem?!
Chapter 44: The Target and Blame-AbsorberThe servant’s face went white. Emmeline stared at Park with the wide-eyed excitement of someone who had just witnessed an anime protagonist reveal a secret skill.
Aveline looked at his hands as if she were personally offended that he had done something useful.
Evangeline looked down where his hand rested close to hers, the rescued cup between them.
She pulled her fingers away but she did not flinch or jerk back as if he had frightened her. She simply returned her hand to her side, restoring the space between them automatically.
He smiled inside his head.
’Lucky, you shameless little rat. Breakfast gets peaceful for three seconds, and you immediately throw tea at someone so I can look cool.’
He placed the cup on the dry side of the saucer.
"Careful," he told the servant, keeping his voice calm. "It’s okay. Nothing happened."
"My apologies, Young Master. Lady Evangeline." The woman bowed so quickly Park worried she might headbutt the table.
Evangeline checked her skirt.
There was not a single mark on it, she looked at Park.
For a moment, she said nothing. Her pride and her manners seemed to be wrestling somewhere behind those grey eyes, and pride was putting up one hell of a fight.
"Thank you," she finally said.
Her voice was soft and controlled.
It was gratitude, yes, but a tiny travel-sized gratitude. She had acknowledged the debt without opening even one window in that wall around her.
"You’re welcome, Sister."
Park released the cup and sat back.
Evangeline’s eyes followed him for another second before she turned away.
’Progress,’ Park decided. ’Microscopic progress, but scientists celebrate bacteria and shit, so I’ll take it.’
Aveline had watched everything.
"You really are behaving strangely."
Park reached for his coffee. "Emmie has been saying that all morning."
"Because it’s true."
"He’s improved," Emmeline said, leaning slightly toward him.
"He’s performing," Aveline corrected.
That word hit the spot harder than the others.
Emmeline’s expression changed immediately. "You think everything he does is a performance."
"He is an actor."
"And you say that like he has a disease."
"Stay out of it, Emmie."
"No."
Park put his cup down before the old fight climbed onto the table, kicked over the fruit bowl and started eating the eggs with them.
"Aveline has a point."
Emmeline whipped her head toward him.
The betrayal on her face was so dramatic Park felt a bit bad.
He patted her back again to reassure her she’s the most important person here and replied: "I am an actor. And I did change overnight. Being suspicious makes sense."
Aveline looked genuinely surprised.
Park faced her across the table. "You don’t have to believe me yet."
"Believe what?"
"That I’ve changed and I mean well or whatever you think I’m trying to prove to you, as if I am a stranger here who has to fight for a spot to fit in this family."
She watched him for several seconds. "And what are you trying to prove?"
"Nothing." Park gave her a lazy smile. "It’s breakfast and I haven’t even finished my eggs but you’re already assuming I am suddenly the devil’s incarnate. At least wait until lunch before giving me an evil plan."
Emmeline laughed first in a tiny sound escaped her, then turned into a proper laugh when Park didn’t look offended by it.
Even Evangeline’s lips moved.
It was barely anything, only the smallest twitch at one corner before she lowered her gaze.
Aveline did not laugh. Still, some of the stiffness left her shoulders. Only a little, and suspicion quickly moved in to occupy the empty space.
She returned to her breakfast as though the whole conversation had become boring.
The Two Musketeers, as Emmeline liked to call them, soon slipped back into their own conversation. Aveline mentioned a foundation meeting later that afternoon. Evangeline quietly asked about the guest list, then brought up some noblewoman Park had never heard of. They moved between subjects with the smooth ease of people who had done this together for years.
They also talked around Park more than they talked to him.
Even Emmeline remained outside the centre of it, occasionally jumping in to disagree with Aveline because apparently peace made her skin itch. The two eldest had their own little world. One glance between them could continue half a conversation nobody else had been invited to.
Park did not try to force his way inside.
He ate. He listened. When they spoke to him, he answered.
When they ignored him, he let them.
Today was the tutorial. Charging at two of the few the final bosses while still learning which button controlled jumping was how idiots got deleted.
Besides, Park could not completely blame them.
He had arrived at the Bennett estate when he was three years old, carrying Alexander Bennett’s betrayal in his face and blood; he had been too young to understand any of it and Emmeline had barely been older.
To her, he had simply been a little brother she never had, now she could follow around, annoy and claim as hers.
Aveline and Evangeline had been old enough to know.
Old enough to hear the arguments behind closed doors, watch their mother’s trust in their father break and understand that Alexander Bennett’s perfect public image had a huge ugly crack running through the middle of their home; his arrival as years passed had only damaged the family even more the more Park had stayed.
He had received a bedroom, a place at the table and the Bennett name and every time they looked at him, they saw the proof of what their father had done and the reason why their mother had buried herself in her work as she lost all her warmth for them.
They could not scream at Alexander every morning, Park, unfortunately, had been much easier to look at.
The whole thing was unfair. To Park. To the sisters. To their mother.
Honestly, Alexander Bennett deserved an award for creating a problem and leaving a group of children to emotionally clean it up for him.
If Park had been standing where Aveline and Evangeline stood, maybe he would have hated the child too.
’Actually, probably not,’ he admitted. ’I am a very kind person as I am ridiculously handsome.’
Still, he understood where the feeling came from.
Their resentment was old; it had grown around them while they were still children, and now they probably did not even know how to remove it without feeling as if they were betraying their mother. Being kind to Park might feel like forgiving what their father had done.
And accepting him might feel like saying the damage did not matter.
So Aveline searched for tricks behind every nice gesture, Evangeline said thank you, then immediately rebuilt her wall.
Passing honey and saving one expensive skirt from tea would not fix any of that.
People were inconvenient like that.
Park was okay with it.
He had survived cruel casting directors, unpaid bills, freezing mornings, hunger and death itself. Two suspicious older sisters were not going to become his final boss.
At worst, they were a long side quest with terrible instructions.
He would keep trying anyway: underneath all the horny rubbish, shameless jokes and completely irresponsible thoughts bouncing around his skull, Park understood how lucky he had become.
This second life had handed him nearly everything the first one refused to give him. Money. Power, a family name capable of kicking doors open before he even reached them. A stepmother who had every reason to resent him but had still allowed him to grow up beneath her roof; a real family he never had in his old life.
And three sisters.
Two of those sisters currently regarded him like a suspicious package wearing an affordable shirt, but nobody said gifts had to arrive without problems.
Park wanted everything.
The fame. The acting. The music. The money. The impossible rooms. The platinum card sitting in his pocket like a tiny god of bad financial decisions.
But he wanted the family too.
’Maybe that is greedy but fine.’
He was already planning to become one of the most famous men alive. Modesty had clearly missed the bus several Chapters ago.
Park took another bite and allowed Aveline and Evangeline to keep their distance. He would not rush them. He would simply keep appearing, keep helping, keep being there until the change stopped looking like a performance.
Emmeline had done that for his predecessor for years.
The least Park could do was finally stand beside her.
He looked around the table at all three sisters and made himself a quiet promise.
Sooner or later, these beautiful, difficult and emotionally constipated women were going to love him. Properly:
’As family and even more intimately; one step at a time.’
They were going to laugh together, fight together and become the closest people in his life, pillow talks and fights, and shared beds even if Park had to drag the entire Bennett household through character development by force.
’Preferably without dying,’ he added.
He had already done that once.
The experience was extremely overrated.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter
