Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 59

After a short while, the road split. SoYoon headed to the right in the direction of her house. Heart, who should have gone left, turned right also and followed her. She stopped and turned to him.

“This isn’t the way you should be going.”

“I want to wash off this dirty feeling as soon as possible. It’s much closer to your house than mine from here.”

“It’s only a five-minute difference.”

“So? Are you saying you won’t let me borrow your shower? Even when I got all this blood dumped on me for you?”

SoYoon snorted.

“Of course you did.”

Heart answered smoothly, “You might not believe me, but I did not come here to hand out punishment. This...yes, this is lame revenge.”

He wrapped his finger around her white hair laced with drying blood. His movement seemed to follow the ends of her thin, threadlike hair to the nerves on her head.

She removed his fingers from her hair. Heart’s eyes smiled as he looked at her. His naturally red eyes looked explosive. She turned away and said, “Only if you don’t mind cold water.”

“I know that’s not true. Lying is bad, Whitey.”

“...What information did you two exchange about me, anyway?” she snapped sharply and started to walk faster. His footsteps followed behind her.

Once they arrived, she had intended to shove Heart into the bathroom but realized there was nothing for him to wear. He probably already knew this and went on to look around her house.

She headed to the door and told him, “I’ll go bring your clothes, so wash...”

She was unable to finish her sentence because Heart hugged her from behind.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to your house to bring you your clothes.”

“Don’t you think it would be more efficient to ask my minions to do that?”

His fingers slowly fiddled with her clothes then slid underneath them. She gasped.

“And you seem to be strangely on edge.”

“Get your hands off...”

“It’s because of me, isn’t it?”

It was not a question. Sure of himself, he lifted SoYoon and headed to the bathroom.

“Heart!”

She yelled, but Heart paid no attention.

In the bathroom, Heart put SoYoon down on the floor, tore off her blood-stained clothes, and threw them in a corner. He then tossed his blood-spattered suit on top of it. She turned her head away from the increasing amount of skin showing, but he turned on the shower lever and laughed out loud. His voice rang out clearly through the sound of running water.

“You’re not trying to act all innocent now, are you, Whitey? Or are you embarrassed?” Heart whispered in her ear.

The stubble above his smooth lips tickled her. SoYoon tried to ignore the electricity that was shooting slowly up her back. Heart, knowing how she felt, however, rubbed her ears with his wet hands.

“You’ve got blood here.”

“...You didn’t go there the same time as I did on purpose, did you?”

“Whitey, even your denseness is cute.”

She had been wondering that the whole way home, but he dismissed it so easily. He swept her white hair back. Through her uncovered vision, she saw Heart clearly. His water-soaked red hair was swept back to show his beautiful profile, which was looking down at her now.

“You’re so beautiful, my Whitey.”

His low voice echoed against the bathroom tiles. Her legs were drained of all strength at the sound, but she tried with all her might to resist.

Now his fingers passed her shoulder, chest, arm, and down to her stomach. She anxiously grabbed at his hand. As she did, he caught her waist with his other hand and pulled her in close.

He leaned his body inward and kissed her biting lips. Heart licked her bottom lip and sucked gently on her top lip. Eventually, her lips relaxed to let in his tongue, which she greedily took in. She clenched her trembling hands and pushed him away.

“No,” SoYoon whispered.

Even as she pushed him away, he licked her lips and laughed. Even in her dizzy state, she could feel the anger in his laugh.

“No? Why? Because of that girl? I don’t know what you are thinking in that head of yours, but I find it extremely unpleasant to think that you would want to toss me away to anyone like that.”

“...It’s not just anyone.”

“Oh, right. It’s not just anyone. It’s your precious Alice Liddell.”

At that moment, many scenes flashed before her eyes: all the times she had seen Heart’s benign smile directed toward Alice. They were scenes that she needed to maintain her hope. Realizing that everything might come crashing down, she opened her mouth.

“I’m not the one who thinks Alice is precious...!”

Heart smiled widely. Only then did he realize what she was talking about. She closed her mouth quickly as Heart spoke.

“That girl gets in my way, too.”

SoYoon opened her mouth to get an explanation of the hidden meaning behind those words. But what interrupted her at that moment was not air but hot skin. It felt so sweet that she forgot everything she had wanted to say and clung to it.

His hot hands slid down her cheeks, then her ear, then slowly downward. His hands had already passed her neck and were at her chest. He drew circles around her with his fingers, and SoYoon moaned with her eyes closed.

He kissed her neck, and he massaged her wet body roughly at times, then softly. His finger was inside her, the falling water droplets fell from above. There was nothing that wasn’t hot. His temperature rose and boiled next to her. And dizzy with exhilaration, she stared at his red pupils.

Would he be as hot as she was? She reached out her hand toward Heart’s face. As her hands touched his cheek, he smiled like a child. His breath touched her wrist. He was as hot as she was. Like mist, a smile swept across her face just for a moment.

Their bodies connected, and SoYoon’s body suddenly was lifted into the air. Now eye level with each other, she read his intentions in his eyes and kissed him. Copying him, she clumsily moved her tongue, and he moaned. When their lips parted, he took in a deep breath and said, “You must have had an excellent teacher.”

Heart smiled and pushed her back gently into the wall. The cold tiles felt good on her burning body, but due to his lips locking against hers, the tiles soon became hot also.

She suddenly felt a presence beyond the wall. She froze upon feeling the presence that caused Heart to pound on the tile and growl.

“Get lost.”

Almost simultaneously, the hottest thing came inside her all at once. The sudden sensation caused SoYoon to gasp. As she did, the presence beyond the wall got farther away.

“Who was it...?”

The fact that her feet did not touch the ground made her climax even greater. Watching her, Heart kissed her and said, “Hold on to me.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. Heart kissed her shoulders and continued.

“Hold on just like that.”

SoYoon clung to him, pretending not to understand.

***

As SoYoon was getting dressed, Heart called his men and ordered them to bring him his clothes. After hanging up, he looked around at the surroundings he had not paid attention to previously. From the furniture to the yellowed vertical blinds, it was exactly as the old White Rabbit had left it.

The only big change was the induction oven that Mad Hatter had given her. He had also installed the new boiler.

In the four years she had been here, she had not bought anything other than groceries, clothes, and disposable items. As SoYoon came out of the dressing room, Heart asked her, “Do you want to leave this place?”

SoYoon knew that “this place” meant Wonderland. She didn’t mean to keep the fact that she was from a different dimension a secret, but she also didn’t go around telling anyone about it. The only one who knew was Mad Hatter.

She kept her mouth shut, figuring it was a complicated thing to answer either way. Heart asked again.

“Do you not like this place?”

She answered him with a question.

“What did you mean by what you said before?”

“What did I say? Oh, that the person who taught you to kiss was exceptional...”

“That Alice was in the way.”

Heart’s eyes narrowed at the mention of Alice’s name. In her brown eyes, there were a mix of complicated emotions.

“Whitey.”

He called her in a gentle voice.

Even though he had nothing on other than the towel around his waist, he seemed unfazed. When she didn’t move, he sighed lightly and walked toward her. Heart put his hands around her face and looked into her eyes.

“I enjoy watching you get jealous, but I don’t like you thinking that I belong to that girl. What evidence are you basing that on?”

There was evidence. A long time ago, she had read a romance fantasy book called “Wonderland.” On the other hand, excluding this piece of information, the only thing that was proof of his feelings for her was how he treated Alice. But if this was only an action to get her attention...

SoYoon stopped her mind from straying in that direction. Heart spoke as if he had read her mind.

“That girl will get in not only your way but in mine also. This is what you wanted to ask?”

How much did Heart know? SoYoon clenched her sweaty palms. Heart took her hand and placed it over his. Although the action was gentle, the words he said were not.

“You knew Alice would come to this place. Didn’t you? You patrolling the slums and cracking down on crime in the neutral zone is all because of that girl. What information could you have possibly come across that you would prepare for this four years ahead of time. What do you know that makes you believe that I belong to that girl?”

Heart unclenched SoYoon’s fist and made her close it over his. If water gets in one’s ear, it becomes hard to hear but if words take hold, one doesn’t want to hear anything else. “Hold on to me.” The voice that had echoed off the tiles rang louder in her head. She thought, If I was to take this hand, then...

Someone knocked at the door. SoYoon jumped in surprise and knocked Heart’s hand away from her. He walked to the door, turning with a sense of disappointment.

A little longer, and he felt that he could have completely taken her in. He saw a familiar face from between the slightly opened door. He took care to remember that face.

The interrupting party was one of Heart’s men, and someone SoYoon had met. He handed her the shopping bag as he stared at the slicked-back wet hair, swollen red lips, and red lip marks.

“Please do me the favor.”

The man, who had never used honorifics to her before, bowed and went on his way. From behind her, she could hear Heart laughing.

“Oh, I guess I can let him off this time.”

Not understanding what he was talking about, SoYoon stood in place as he strutted over to her. He took the shopping bag from her and threw it carelessly to the side. He lifted her up and placed her on top of the bed.

“Heart!”

“You’re the most truthful when you aren’t thinking about anything. So don’t try to pretend now,” he added, laughing like a villain. It had only been a mere 30 minutes since she had put on clothes, but Heart took them off her and kissed her body.

He had good intuition. How good? Thanks to his intuition, he had saved his neck several times. He pressed his lips against SoYoon’s neck and mumbled.

“You won’t be leaving this place.”