New World with Four Husbands-Chapter 185: Dinner with Jonathan

"I decided that I will be going to the lunch your friend invited me to, Coco." Jonathan informed the woman walking beside him.

Coco blinked owlishly and turned her head towards him, eyes wide in surprise with her lips parted.

"Really?" She asked and reached out to touch his arm, "Are you sure? You don’t have to force yourself to get along with Renaldo and Jacques if you’re not—"

Jonathan could only smile in reassurance as he stopped Coco’s worried rambling. "It’s completely fine with me. I realized that I may have overreacted to your friend’s kindness and got nervous."

"Jonathan." Coco frowned and tightened her hold on his arm slightly, "There’s no such thing as overreacting."

"But I was overreacting." Jonathan insisted.

"No, you were uncomfortable, and I understand that. So, don’t invalidate what you were feeling when you met them earlier, okay? It’s normal to feel nervous on the first meeting." Coco grumbled out, firm with her words.

Jonathan simply smiled and nodded his head. "I understand. You’re such a kind and caring friend, Coco. I’m glad you asked me to be your friend."

Coco rolled her eyes, but there was a small smile on her lips. "And I’m glad to have another cute mediator as my friend."

The scarred mediator felt embarrassed almost immediately after being complimented by his beautiful friend— his cheeks burned, a flood of heat rushing to his face, and he felt flustered, unable to form a coherent response.

Coco perked up when she noticed how Jonathan’s cheeks got dusted with color.

She frowned. "You do know that you’re cute, right? Why would you be this red by being called cute? You should know that you’re a very attractive mediator, Jonathan. Not just cute, you’re very lovely, too."

Jonathan’s mind went blank, the sudden wave of compliments sending his thoughts into disarray.

He felt his heart rate speed up, his brain struggling to keep up with the unexpected attention Coco showed him, especially with the blatant question she sent his way.

I’m attractive? Jonathan thought as he shuffled awkwardly on his feet, his eyes darting to the side as he tried to avoid eye contact with his friend who seemed to be staring at him blankly.

With this face? Jonathan added to his previous thought, his mind recalling the incidents on how he got them.

However, before he could dwell on those memories for too long, he was pulled out of it when he felt the grip on his arm tightened and got himself shaken by the woman beside him.

"— athan, come on! Tell me that you see yourself as cute!" Coco exclaimed, a serious expression on her face.

Jonathan felt even more embarrassed because of what Coco was telling him to say, his cheeks turning redder and his heart fluttering in his chest.

The people who have been walking past them had thrown them looks and stared at them.

He was used to receiving attention because of the scars on his face, but he wasn’t used to receiving compliments and completely had no idea how to handle it, his mind racing with a thousand things to say and nothing coming out at all.

He had never been so flustered in his life, especially not when the source of the looks was the words coming out of Coco’s mouth and not his face.

"I.. I get.. I get it, okay?" Jonathan stammered out and kept his gaze away from Coco as he came up with a momentary distraction on the spot, "Can we go? I’m.. I’m getting hungry, I have not eaten lunch just yet and I’m famished.."

"You haven’t?" Coco gasped out and her eyes went as wide as saucers, "Why didn’t you tell me? The sun is still up! Come on! Let me order you something to fill your stomach!"

Coco was quick to turn around and started to drag him to the direction they were originally walking to.

Jonathan felt his shoulders relaxing when he realized that Coco’s attention is not on him anymore and was focused more on getting to their destination.

He felt happy and grateful to have a friend like Coco who did not hesitate to compliment him even though he doesn’t look that good— he felt loved and seen, especially when she was adamant on making him believe that he is cute.

A small and thankful smile crept to his lips as he watched Coco make a couple expressions, dragging him further out of the rundown area of the village.

He may know that he doesn’t look like an average beautiful and cute mediator, but he now knows that he has someone who will call him those words without hesitation and would make him feel better about himself.

He just knows that he did not make the wrong decision to accept Coco’s absurd request to be his friend.

"We’re almost there, Jonathan! Hang on a little longer!" Coco spoke up and caught Jonathan’s attention, making him blink rapidly as he got dragged to a building.

"It’s okay, Coco." Jonathan said and tried to assure her, "I can still wait until dinner—"

"No!" Coco exclaimed and pushed the door open, dragging him inside of the Red Horse Inn’s lobby where a few people were standing in her way.

Those people loitering around turned their heads to look at the person who slammed the door open and scrambled to get out of her way at the same time as she walked through to get to the pub.

They were too shocked to gossip among themselves to see Coco with Jonathan.

As soon as Coco walked through the pub’s entryway, she saw Joachim by the pub’s counter who immediately saw her walk inside the room.

However, the smile on his face vanished when he saw someone else with her.

"Hello, Mr. Tani." Coco greeted him without missing a beat, "Do you hand out menus here? Do you mind if I borrow one?"

Coco noticed how Joachim was looking at Jonathan. "I’m here to have dinner with a friend."