Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 70

Duke—he made such a big deal about it being odorless. They decided to give another beating to Duke and pretended to not know what was going on.

“What are you talking about?”

“I figured as much. This one doesn’t smell as strongly as last time, but I’m overly sensitive to this stuff, so even if it is odorless to others, I can smell it.”

“I—I didn’t want you to run away while I was gone, so I put it in! What are you, a bloodhound...?”

SoYoon picked up the bowl of clam chowder, went to the sink, and tipped in the warm contents.

After putting down the bowl, she said to Dee, who was glaring at her, “I won’t leave, so give me my bag and cellphone and my sword.”

“How can I trust you?”

“It’s a request, so I won’t leave.”

“Like I said, why should I trust you?”

Embarrassed at his failed plot, Dee continued to complain. From the outside, it looked like he was blaming himself for his wrongdoing.

Not in a good mood due to the drugging incident, she lightly retorted, “You want to pinky swear or something?”

The problem was that Twins, who had never been outside of Wonderland, didn’t know what that meant. Dum, who had book smarts but was strangely dense about common sense, and Dee, who didn’t have either, took her to mean something else by the phrase.

“How cheap to wager a finger. You should at least bet a wrist or an arm...”

“...Forget it.”

“Ah, f*ck, what is it? You’re the one who said you were betting a finger!”

As they left the kitchen and headed back to the sofa, Dee was noisily jabbering. Eventually, she lifted her pinky and placed it in front of his face.

“What? I don’t have a special girl I like.”

SoYoon grabbed his right hand and lifted his pinky.

“What, what, what are you doing? Why are you all of a sudden holding my hand...?”

“Hook your pinky onto here. This means that I will keep the promise.”

“Promise?”

Even Dum had heard of the word only through books. Was it like a contract? Either way, it meant that she would not leave the house, so they brought their finger next to hers.

As their finger got closer, it started to tremble. They had done so much more, so what was the big deal about a finger? They hooked their finger onto hers.

As the small rough finger touched theirs, electricity shot through their finger to the rest of their body. As they ruminated over this feeling, SoYoon lightly shook her finger.

“Dee?”

“Huh? Oh, I mean...Then, you won’t leave here?”

“Yes.”

At her agreement, Twins grinned. It was a bright, innocent smile on a lovely face.

After finally getting Dee out of the house—she told him to fix the window he broke while he was there—SoYoon didn’t have much to do, so she spent the rest of her time on the sofa. Her thoughts naturally wandered to Mad Hatter. She shook her head and erased the last expression she saw on him. But the last words he said rang in her ear: “I have, for you...”

I’m going back, she thought. I’m leaving.

From this conversation, she realized that these two statements meant the same thing. There was no guarantee that she would be able to go back. But thinking of leaving this place—she covered her face. If suddenly she was torn away from this place...the thought irked her.

She wanted to see her family. That much hadn’t changed. But the faces that she thought of now were not them. Among those faces, the one person that was tethering her to this place popped into her head. She had thought she would never want to set foot inside this place again, but this man was pulling her emotions back into it.

That’s why she didn’t want to accept it. Having nowhere left to run away, she only had one choice.

“Blondie, what’s wrong with you?”

Dee returned. She lifted her head as if nothing was the matter but Dee, seeing her face, frowned.

“Why are you all depressed?”

SoYoon searched through her things without answering. The only thing he was holding was her cross bag. Dee blurted out excuses.

“There was no cellphone on the table. The sword was f*cking heavy. So I just left it there.”

“It’s a small item the size of my hand. You’ve seen it before.”

“That’s a cellphone? Well, I’ll get it next time.”

His tone made it obvious that he’d left it there on purpose. He threw the bag into SoYoon’s arms and pinned back her hair. He hadn’t put much care into it, so clumps of hair slid back down. Through them, he could see her brown eyes staring at him.

Dee reached out his hand and touched her eyes. She flinched, and her lashes touched his finger. He felt embarrassed by the silly touch and blurted out loudly.

“I’m going to sleep! Don’t wake me up!”

***

During his long nap, Twins had a very pleasant dream. They had returned to the time where they had rejoiced in the embrace of their bloodied mother. The slight warmth left on her body was dissipating, and their happy dream started to disappear with it.

A tart scent hit their nose, and the sound of breathing not their own hit their ears. It was the sound of someone asleep.

Oh, that’s right. I brought that girl here, they remembered. Still drunk on sleep, they thought of SoYoon. As they did, the image of their mother shifted to that of SoYoon. Her hair and skin were soaked in blood, the brown eyes had lost their light, and her breasts were bitten off.

“Blondie?”

Even at their call, she didn’t move.

“Undertaker?”

They reached out their hands. Their hands pitifully trembled. Once they touched her, she was immensely cold.

They gasped and woke up. They clenched their still shaky fists and looked over at the spot past the table. They saw SoYoon asleep on the sofa opposite them.

They walked slowly over and sat next to her. They hadn’t been trying to hide their presence, but maybe because they were no longer a threat, she continued to stay asleep.

The darkness made her look paler than usual, and the image coincided with the corpse from the dream. They shook their head and erased the picture from their mind. They couldn’t understand it. That had been what they had wanted all this time. Even now, their lust was taking over. This was their chance. Hurry and attack!.

But they were unable to do it. They grabbed at their still thumping heart. Who would have imagined that they, who weren’t afraid of anything, would be filled with such despair at seeing this girl as a corpse? Even they couldn’t believe it.

Yes, they couldn’t imagine it. Twins looked down at SoYoon’s hand. There was no way that they could have such feelings for this girl. They carefully lifted her hand. They were small and hard, reflecting her difficult life.

Twins wrapped their hands around hers and slowly put it in his mouth. They moved their tongue to feel the tips of her fingers and her uneven fingernails. They bared their teeth and bit her finger. With the sound of breaking skin, her finger ripped, and blood started to flow. They had always thought the taste of blood was sweet, but hers was bitter and hot. It caused them pain.

SoYoon woke up and met their eyes.

“This is your request? You brought me here to eat me?”

She took her finger out of their mouth. They shook their head, but she ignored them. She pulled out bandages from her cross bag and wrapped her finger. The wound was a small one, so she was soon able to stop the bleeding. Beside her, Twins stuttered excuses.

“No. We weren’t trying to...”

Unable to wrap their heads around the situation, Twins couldn’t tell what they were saying.

“I don’t know what you weren’t trying to do, but I won’t get eaten even if it is a request. So if you were planning to eat me, tell me now.”

If she didn’t like the request, she could kill the requestee. As she told them this, Twins stiffened.

Only after a long time did Dum speak.

“No. It really isn’t.”

The bitter taste of blood lingered on his tongue. It passed through his throat, burning his esophagus and stabbing his heart. Not knowing why this place was hurting, he grabbed SoYoon’s shoulder.

“Listen to us. We have no intention of eating you...”

“Then why did you bring me here?”

The original plan was as she expected, but Dum immediately tried to think of an excuse. However much he racked his brain, there didn’t seem to be an adequate excuse that would explain this situation. Because even they didn’t understand why they had acted this way.