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| ← Ch.055 | Ch.057 → |
The next morning, SoYoon was looking for some clothes when she found a man-to-man sweater that was ripped in half. She thought it strange that this piece of clothing had come off so easily. Either way, the sleeves were a mess and crusted with so much dried blood that it was probably better to throw it away. Instead, she wore a thick hoodie tee with a zip-up jumper and cargo pants that Heart brought her.
Her boyish attire made it unlikely for anyone to imagine what had happened last night. Heart swept away the hair that had stuck to the back of her neck. As he did, he saw clearly on her neck the imprint of his lips.
He kissed the area lightly, and SoYoon flinched. He laughed quietly and inhaled deeply. Even the scent of the same body cleanser smelled different depending on the person. If his scent was that of a rainy midday inside a forest, hers was a rainy morning at its mouth. If he pulled her in deeper, would they become the same?
He rubbed his nose on her bare skin as SoYoon whined, uninterested.
"I'm hungry."
With those words, the heated moment fizzled out.
A few moments later, a phenomenal breakfast of eggs benedict and sides lay before SoYoon, who had not eaten all day.
She cut the egg slathered in the pale yellow sauce with her knife and a waterfall of yolk flowed over it. She put the poached egg, spinach, bacon, and the flat English muffin together and savored the combination of its saltiness with the tart hollandaise sauce. She had been extremely hungry and ate four eggs benedict, a large cheese omelet, a shrimp cocktail salad, and a strawberry smoothie.
For dessert, she had a waffle on which Heart placed a hearty scoop of vanilla ice cream. As she ate, he prepared coffee. If anyone had seen Heart listening to the requests of another person like this, they would have thought they were delusional. The two of them thought nothing of it, however.
SoYoon put the mug to her mouth and watched Heart. There was an aura of gentleness about him today. She felt like she was swimming in a warm bath of pudding but tried to rid herself of the feeling and distracted herself with a different subject.
"What about Cheshire?"
Heart lifted his head. He didn't try to hide the gleam of rage in his auburn eyes. She pretended to be unaware of it and fiddled with her mug then continued.
"I'll deal with it..."
"He broke the code."
White Rabbit was not the only one who had to follow the protocol for requests. The client should never lie about their requests. This was one of the few nods at maintaining decency in Wonderland. As Wonderland's warlord, Heart had a responsibility to punish those who broke the law of the land.
"Let me handle this, Heart."
Heart put his mug on the table and crossed his legs. He put his chin over his hands and observed SoYoon in a gaze that looked almost bored, but he didn't fool her. As Wonderland's Heart, he told her, "I think that's exceeding authority, Whitey."
"Don't exaggerate. How is me seeking revenge exceeding authority?"
SoYoon did not break contact with Heart's violence-filled eyes. He stared back at her under the pinned bangs and sighed.
"My Whitey sure doesn't listen."
"Thank you."
There was still something Cheshire was meant to do. He needed to obsess over Alice, kidnap her, and push her to the edge of death. SoYoon's obsession with maintaining the plot of the original story made her suddenly feel a range of complicated emotions. Yes, she only had to proceed like the original story...
"I'm going to go."
She got up after finishing her coffee. Heart got up and approached her. He leaned over and lightly kissed her on her lips and looked at her.
"Stay safe. You're probably not a hundred percent, so don't overwork yourself."
His blushing eyes and soft voice dripped of seduction. Feeling she might unknowingly get dragged back into bed, she hurriedly left the bedroom.
The moment SoYoon left Heart's house, she messaged Mad Hatter and Baby. She explained what happened to Mad Hatter and how she should go about remedying it. She asked Baby for intel about Cheshire. Then she headed home. On her way back, she got a reply from Baby. It asked her to wait a day.
Nearing her house, she found a familiar face waiting in front of it. It was Twins, Tweedle Dee. He was muttering to himself and kicking the glass door. Then, bored, he started to pick at the old black color sheet stuck on the door. Having walked closer, she could hear what he was mumbling.
"Blondie, why does she live in a place like this? Sh*t. I can't even see inside."
"What does it matter to you where I live?"
He had been so concentrating on removing the sheet that he hadn't realized how close SoYoon had come. Only after hearing her voice did he realize who she was, and he jumped in surprise, removing his hand.
"Oh, uh. You're here."
He laughed awkwardly. There were pieces of black under his fingernails. He clenched his fists to hide them and walked toward SoYoon.
"What are you doing?" she asked, not trying to hide her exasperation with him. Enraged by her tone, he turned away from her with an annoyed expression. She could see his lips stick out in a pout.
"Why are you picking at that?"
"F*ck, because you weren't coming home... ! Where were you all day! Huh? Every time I come, your house is always empty..."
"Requests."
It meant there was nothing she needed to explain to him. Lost for words, Dee moved his mouth silently and scratched his head. She stared at his messed-up silklike hair and asked, "Why'd you come?"
"... Do you like that girl? Alice or whatever?"
"She likes me." Those were three well-chosen words intended to make Twins feel uncomfortable. Not knowing why that was offensive to them, they fretted over it and went to see SoYoon. Even the peculiar feeling they felt last time didn't bother them.
For them, it was good timing. SoYoon responded truthfully without much emotion upon hearing the one name she didn't necessarily want to hear at the moment.
"Not particularly."
"Huh? Really? Then do you hate her?"
"Not particularly."
At her curt response, Dee's eyes grew wide, and he started to complain about her answer to his second question.
"Sh*t, what kind of answer is that... ?"
Thinking that this conversation was useless, she headed to her door. The wind blew the scent of vetiver into the air, and Dee got up close to her and sniffed.
"Blondie, you smell a bit... Something smells fishy."
Unlike her usual soap scent, this smell didn't arouse his hunger one bit. He frowned. He felt as if someone had swallowed the meal he had been hoping to have. SoYoon didn't care one bit about how he felt, however, and turned around to go inside her house. Dee reached out his hand as he watched the shaking door.
Because it was old, the door was dirty, and the dried color sheet on the glass blocked his view of the inside. Dee knew what was on the other side of that door. Even so, he felt strangely nervous as he placed his hand over the door.
The door, of course, was cold. He pushed it slightly as it opened smoothly and saw SoYoon inside. She took off her mask and sword and turned her head to face him.
Dee brazenly walked in and plopped onto the sofa. He tried to ignore the bed he had once rolled off.
"Don't you have any manners? Aren't you even going to offer a guest a drink? Huh?"
SoYoon snorted. Manners! That wasn't a word worthy to come out of Tweedle Dee's mouth. He had decided to be brazen today, however, so he tapped the table with his toe and complained.
"What kind of hospitality is this for a guest?"
SoYoon placed a cup of tap water in front of him. Dee wasn't thirsty, so he just glanced at it.
"Is that why you came to see me? Because of Alice?"
"Huh? What, yes... that's right."
"Then you don't have to worry. We have no relationship."
Dee blinked, and his face slightly reddened. He swept back his hair and turned his head to hide it, but sensing the white-haired head staring at him, he yelled.
"Who—who said I care about that?"
"Okay."
"F*ck, did that girl say something weird? I should have just taken a bite out of her then."
SoYoon asked, "What?" to his rambling.
"What do you mean, what?"
He realized what he had just said and shut his mouth. For all this time, Twins had never revealed their secret. The reason was simple: it was bothersome to explain.
Presently, the person in front of them was SoYoon. Even if she was Wonderland's Undertaker and had seen all sorts of things, they didn't want her to know their secret.
No, does she already know? They remembered all the times they had tried to rape her. Dee put his sweaty hands over his pants.
"I didn't do anything."
Excuses shot out of his mouth. To be exact, he had stopped himself from doing something, but either way, the result was the same. He repeated it, this time more confidently.
"I didn't do anything! F*ck, Dum took that girl all over the place and was super nice to her! How could you..."
"All right."
"Yeah, all... what?"
"All right. Good job."
Good job. That's what her lips had said. Dee and Dum's head drew a blank at these simple words.
"Yeah! Blondie, you know what's up! We do everything well!"
Dee flapped his lips, not knowing what he was saying. She laughed, thinking he looked like an immature boy who was trying to show off about things he couldn't handle. At that moment, Dee, who blabbed on about nothing in particular, shut his mouth.
Her lightly closed lips curved up in a slight smile. Her mouth, which usually only spoke curtly and without emotion, smiled at him for the first time. It made him want her even more.
He wanted to see her eyes, which had first caused their infatuation with her. He extended his arms past the table. His thick fingers reached for her full bangs.
The fading sunlight filtered through the vertical blinds and poured down over her white hair. It reminded them of silver. It was easy to break with just a bit of strength, and when time passed, it would turn black; however, its worth never changed.
SoYoon blocked his hand. When her slightly colder fingers touched theirs, they heard a heavy sound.
"Are you crazy?"
Muttering under their breath, Twins stared at her finger. The thin, rough hands, full of cuts, reminded them of their past. But if felt like their heart and lungs were being squeezed tightly by them.
They breathed in deeply, feeling suffocated. As if their blood had lost its mind, their face, neck, and even ears flooded with heat and burned. That was not the only thing that had lost its mind.
I must have gone crazy, they thought. That heartless girl looks so incredibly pretty right now.
| ← Ch. 055 | Ch. 057 → |