novel
| ← Ch.080 | Ch.082 → |
Just because she was safe didn't mean that all the problems had been resolved. After Twins left, SoYoon headed to March's house. The moment she opened the door, the sight that met her was an angry March standing in front of Dor and Li.
SoYoon figured out what was happening at first glance. Having lived alone with his sister from a young age, March had never gotten mad at anyone and had never reprimanded Dor. SoYoon looked at Dor and Li and pointed to the sofa.
"Go kneel over there."
The two girls looked at her anxiously, then scuttled over and kneeled. SoYoon spoke again.
"Raise both your arms."
Having experienced being punished by her parents before, Li immediately put up her arms, and Dor followed.
"This is punishment. Stay like that for thirty minutes."
After telling them this, she went to sit on the sofa opposite them. March sat next to her and asked, "That counts as punishment?"
"Yes."
Not even three minutes had passed when the two girls' arms started to shake. After ten minutes, they had lost the feeling in their legs. March had been furious before SoYoon had arrived, but now he was taking turns looking at each girl with anxiety. The girls' faces were red, and their eyes filled with tears.
SoYoon, seeing their arms falling, commanded coldly, "Raise your arms properly."
"Rabbit..."
"I'm sorry."
SoYoon ignored them. After five more minutes, she looked at the two girls. Tears streamed down their faces.
"Put down your arms and sit properly."
They were just able to move their numb legs to get into a sitting position. SoYoon signaled to March. March, catching his cue, reprimanded them.
SoYoon tuned them out and started to recount what happened. SoYoon couldn't figure out which part of this situation followed the original plot and which part did not. The Li figure was still a mystery, even though she had been the one to save her. Did White Rabbit meet that girl in the original story? If that was the case, did she not make it into the story narrative because he had handed her over to Duke? She removed her gaze from Li.
SoYoon remembered the reason she had come into Wonderland four years before. Truthfully, she wasn't confident that she could become accustomed to the ways of Earth anymore. Plus, her personality had changed so much. She was sure that if something happened, she would resort to violence before trying to talk it out. But, still... ,
It didn't matter if it was just one more time; she wanted to see her family.
But right now, she couldn't pick either side.
***
The next afternoon, after March had left to fulfill a request, a visitor came to meet Li. When Li opened the door and found the face of the girl with the long blond hair in front of her, she frowned. The visitor, Alice, didn't care one bit about Li's expression and stepped into the house.
Li left Dor inside her room like last time and glared at Alice. If all else failed, she could grab her by the hair again. This time, she was determined to give her a bigger bruise that she wouldn't be able to cover up with heavy makeup as she had done now.
The two girls glared at each other without saying a word. The first person to talk was Alice. She questioned Li in a sharp tone.
"Who exactly are you? What are you planning to do?"
Alice didn't exclude the possibility that Li could be from a different world. And so, she could only ask these questions without including the pivotal word.
Truthfully, she wanted to ask Li if she knew about the story "Wonderland" and to interrogate her about her knowledge of it. She also wanted to slap her across the face. Last time, Li had taken her by surprise, but that was not going to happen this time around, Alice told herself determinedly.
"Who am I? And I don't plan on doing anything. And even if I was, why should I have to tell you about it?" Li answered with her most menacing expression.
Alice couldn't remember a time after she had arrived in Wonderland when she had been treated inhospitably. Twins, Baby, Cheshire, and, most recently, March were the only ones. Filled with anger, she clenched her fists.
"I'm Alice. I'm sure you've heard the rumors about me."
She was Heart's girlfriend—to be more exact, his mistress—and the miracle girl. Those were the rumors floating around Wonderland about Alice.
Li snorted. She had heard from March that Heart seemed to like someone else. And a miracle? That power had initially belonged to Li, and she knew it wasn't as great as Alice was making it out to be.
Her parents had always warned her about the dangers of her powers and had wanted her to stay at home most of the time. And so, from a young age, she had not been allowed to go out freely or even attend school. She had to be home-schooled instead. Up until then, her healing powers had been nothing but a burden to her.
And finally when her powers were revealed to the world, they had become the cause of her parents' death by the agents who worked with her father. In the time she had been able to penetrate Alice's memory while living inside her, she had gathered this information. After learning all of this, she despised her powers.
A miracle? To her, these powers were nothing but a curse.
Upon hearing Li scoff, Alice glared at her angrily. Even though Li knew this, she went even further and looked at Alice with eyes full of hate.
"Why are you laughing?"
"It must be so nice to be living in a dream."
"What?"
"Those powers look good to you? That pathetic power that can't even heal yourself? Even when the reason you ended up in this place alone was because of those powers?"
"What are you talking about... ?"
The only people who knew that she was unable to heal herself with these powers were Heart, Peter, Jeremy, and Cheshire. Among these people, the only possible person who could have told Li about this was Cheshire. Or she had already known about it. It was then that Li started to reprimand her.
"Aren't you embarrassed that you had to lose everything with powers that didn't even belong to you?"
Alice's face turned white as she stared at Li. Li didn't realize what she had said and continued to talk, but Alice deciphered immediately the meaning of what she had just said. There was no one who knew that Alice was a substitute for the real Alice Liddell. If she had to choose, there was only one person who knew.
"Are you... Alice Liddell... ?"
Only the owner of the body knew.
At that moment, Alice felt like she was in danger. Alice also remembered March taking Li's side instead of hers. If it continued like this, she might lose everything. She charged at Li.
Crash! The two girls fell to the floor. Alice's white and lovely fingers were crushing Li's thin neck. Li was kicking at Alice with her nails digging into Alice's hand, but the strength of her grip did not loosen.
"Die, die, die, " Alice muttered like a curse.
Li, who had been thrashing, soon went limp, and her head fell to the side. Alice smiled like an angel.
"I am the lead. I am the lead to be loved. So I don't need the likes of you here."
Hearing Li's pulse and breathing, Alice knew that she was still alive. Alice went into the kitchen and found the box that she had seen only once before. Inside it was charcoal.
After many failed attempts, she finally got the firewood to light, and she brought it over to the living room. Li was still unconscious.
When Alice got close to Li, she heard a doorknob turn. Alice jumped in surprise and dropped the firewood. The sofa caught on fire. At the same time, the door hit the door sill.
Alice ran out of the house. Jeremy was waiting for Alice from a few feet away. Worried that he would overhear what was happening inside, she had commanded him to stay away from the house. She was glad she had done this.
After Alice was far away from March's house, a man appeared from the narrow space between the houses. He had light blond hair that was tousled messily and had a bandage around his left eye and cheek.
He looked up at the black smoke coming out of the house and smiled widely.
| ← Ch. 080 | Ch. 082 → |