Leila wants to have her cake and eat it too. She wants her big, epic romance with her husband, Frederick, but she wants her long time best friends to always be there for her, too. She wants nothing to change and for everyone to be in a perpetual state of youthful happiness.

Leila starts harming others when she ignores and avoids Gerard because his confession of love means things need to change, and she wants to live in denial that nothing will ever change. She inadvertently strings him along and causes him significant anguish by her lack of answer, and by her forcing him to play act at being nothing but friends. Her obsession with keeping all of her friends together exactly the same also hurt Chloe, because Leila prioritized her own selfish desires to keep them all close over her friend's well-being and happiness, treating Chloe like a thing, not a person.

Leila's obsession with an idealized, unchanging past does significant harm on her present.

Chloe desperately wants to be loved for being an "equal". She is surrounded by amazing people: one sister is an Empress, the other a genius artist, her best friend is the "main character", and the men are likewise extraordinary. Chloe, calm, gracious, Chloe, wants at least her husband to view her as being on-par with these amazing women, and love her like she is his and their equal. She does not want to be pitied or doted on: she wants their respect, and to stand shoulder to shoulder with them all and be included as a full member of the in crowd, not as their cheerleader, secretary, or support system.

She does not allow herself to do things she enjoys, because she is afraid she will not measure up to someone else who can do that same thing better, then despises herself for it and hates them for making her feel this way.

She has become so used to hiding her wants and worries that she doesn't know how to communicate anymore, and people cannot see her honest self, and, in turn, she cannot see theirs. They don't know she has begun to resent them, or that she has begun to twist and warp, making her interpret their gestures in negative lights. She doesn't tell people when there is something broken to fix, so they never fix things, and her resentment grows that they did not notice and have not come to save her.

Gerard wants the beautiful surface with none of the messy underside: all the benefits without the costs, as he always, always, always looks in control and nothing touches his bottom line. He wants to be loved, and feel safe and secure. He wants to believe everything is perfect and comfortable and he's fixed. He doesn't want to be hurt again, and he doesn't want to deal with mess or unpleasant emotions, so he remains polite and amiable, always.

Gerard harms others when this translates to him wanting to receive all the love, without having to do the messy, ugly work. He is happy to sit back and be unconditionally adored by Chloe, and thinks being polite and pleasant back is enough. His refusal to delve into the mess of human emotions means he never faces his significant childhood traumas and therefore never resolves them, becoming constipated with his issues until his sh*t leaks onto others. His desire to never be harmed again means that, after he tried the big romantic thing once with Leila, he won't try again with Chloe, and doesn't realize how badly he hurts his wife when she compares his treatment between the two. He prioritizes maintaining his calm over all else, causing him to shut down or be dismissive and patronizing if people are not interacting in the exact way he is most comfortable with.

although it is spoiled that in a different timeline, he was neglectful to her which is 🤮 so that's a big f*cking minus,

only plot hole I found is that ML doesn't seem to Horrace in the Initial chapters but in the flashbacks, he knows him very well. If the author or translator notes this, I don't think its too late to change. Just pointed out.

He was completly in love with Leila at first, however he started to notice Chloe by the time they spent togheter - He was alrealy going to propose to her before Leila send that letter to him - He thought that Leila was direspectful by sending him that mensage (SO WHY DIDN'T HE PUT ON FLAME THAT??)

He wanted to be the best husband of all the fairy tail for her, didn't want another child with her afraid that she'd suffer from childbirth again (But he didn't say anything to her) - I know that he didn't receive the love and didn't know how to give it but??

Leila is ridicoulous, so self-centred, like all she was worrying was about herself all the time, like "how could they stopped to love her like they did before?" - I loved how the ML (after so many years) put a limit on her. Chloe's sister was an important caracther, but the main story didn't need that arc, like the feeling of betrayal, how trust each other again, was enough

Living as Chloe is a f*cking pain and suffering. Shes very genuine but naive and prone to be a martyr because thats how she is raised alongside her "perfect" sister.

Also let me tell you in advance that I acknowledge how sh*t Chloe is in dealing with stress and anger. She does not speak and keep spiralling down more and more into negativity, once she got invalidated by the one has beef with, she will ran miles away not wanting to talk about it anymore and just cry about it blamming herself and then everyone eleses.

Everyone in this story uses Chloe for their own convenience, except for Herace, (this will be a healing/comfort novel if she were to marry him instead lol).

Layla genuinely happy Chloe became her friends, but Layla uses her as she see fits, she never sacrifice anything for Chloe, she uses her, to keep Gerard around and at the same time keeps him away from her time with Derrick. She spouts so many hurtful sh*t towards Chloe that made even my stomach churns. She has ppd sure, but her actions of being greedy and wanting everything and everyone to love and stays with her always, hurts basically everyone including derrick imho.

Cathrine... Man... Idk what to say about her, she cares about Chloe but she also uses her and put her down as she sees fits. She is very demanding and hates it when Chloe do something rebellious against her will. She hates both gerard and layla because the rumour surrounding them which I think its fair. But restricting Chloe circle of friend just isnt it. She plagiarized Chloe's painting after shitting on it, and gained praises from her plagiarized painting, and even have the audacity to berates Chloe for justifiably angry about it. She never really apologizes genuinely, took her pride on a stride and run with it and still has even more of the audacity to control Chloe relationship again.

Tbh at first I quite like both Layla and Cathrine but their flaws outweigh the goods.

Gerard... Lmao... The confused, chaotic, mad obsessed, pathetic low EQ of a man. I said he is pathetic because how obsessed he was with Layla, he repeatedly stalks her, isolate her, and insisting her into marrying him, and how petty he is for hating Chloe for her eye color (which he later loves, I know). This whole arc of his past is pure torture to read

Gerard was a sad sad ssad little b*tch, who hates everything except Layla, he has shitty past, and shitty family, but he was also so edgy and annoyingly self centered, I just cant with the past him.

After being heart broken repeatedly by Layla, he find comforts in Chloe, he also uses Chloe for his own convenience to get more information about Layla, and to make his Layla stalking (a hyperbole) daily activity easier. At one time he even make Chloe drunk to make her spill something about Layla but Chloe being a good friend that she is to both of them, keep her mouth shut. I personally find this part really hillarious.

He grew to like Chloe, sure. He knew how genuine she is, the length that Chloe has done for him. And after the war, he saw Layla who doesnt even care as much as half of how Chloe did. Then... His illusion of Layla is finally broken I guess?

But here is the thing about the letter which cause all of this chaotic shit. If he replied with the feeling he was annoyed by Layla and angry with her (his own words not mine), why tf he complied with her request so timidly in the letter, like tf. Just tore that letter and burn it and tell Layla to mind her own f*cking business, because thats how he said he trully felt.

Even when Chloe talk it out with Layla, Layla acted as if, Gerard did marry Chloe because of her request which crushed Chloe completely, OF COURSE THIS THE AFTERMATH OF YOUR REPLY GERARD, OF COUUURSEEE.

I think the betrayals that Chloe felt is 100% justified. Even after Gerard apologize in the carriage when Chloe threw his response to layla (? Or was it laylas letter? It wasnt clear). He just says he is sorry because he was angry at layla... (seriously gerard?)

b*tch?! Doesnt that mean you agree that you married her out of spite

I think it is very fair for Chloe to not be able to accept this apology right away. Also her anger has festered because he dismissed her before when she wanted to talk it out.

Idk man nobody except Abel is truly on her side. Nobody ever genuinely apologize and tell Chloe they love her, and thankful for what she has done (sure Gerard feels this way but he never say it out loud). Nobody ever compensate for her benefits, it is always her, and her only who has to compensate for her loved ones, forgive and sacrifice her feelings for her loved ones.

Also the future thing? I dont hate Chloe since the dream is only prophetic (it could be a bad dream too since gerard has a lot of them when he was anxious). and we dont know how f*ck up the things that did not shown have influence her. This is like the mix of what happened to Bianca's from Marriage of Convenience and the MC from My dear Aster. And most ppl forgives them for it. So why not Chloe? she wasnt even the one who dreams it, and the current Chloe does not even thought about it.

I understand how the letter can be misunderstood esp knowing that Chloe is actually an outsider who knows the supposed futures of the main characters to some extent. I think Chloe acted appropriately for someone in her place by feeling guilt over making major changes to the story and feeling anxious to face the consequences of having done so