Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 97: Epilogue

The day she handed Alice over to Duke, SoYoon felt a fever coming on as the sun started to go down. As usual, she ignored it.

The next day, she opened her eyes late in the afternoon. She realized her body felt heavier than normal. Her vision started to tunnel and she became dizzy. She closed her eyes again.

She heard the monotonous ring of her smartphone. She listened to it numbly as she pulled the blanket over her head.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed. Sensing someone’s presence, SoYoon opened her eyes. Something hazy like a fog was heading towards her.

“I can’t believe that…” SoYoon thought.

Something hard touched her forehead. The cool temperature felt good and she reached out to hug it.

“Sleep…! Fever… Medicine…”

It moved for a little bit before going still. SoYoon rubbed her cheeks against the cool surface. As she did, a tickling wind blew against her hair. A long and strong something embraced her body.

“Sleep well,” the smooth voice whispered. SoYoon let her whole body be embraced by the nice and cool place as she fell into a deep sleep.

***

After a long sleep, SoYoon woke up and drowsily blinked her eyes. The first of her senses to wake up was her smell. What she smelled was the delicious aroma of food.

“Are you awake?” Mad Hatter asked her brightly as he stepped out of the kitchen. In his hand, he was holding a small pot.

“Yochanan? Why…” She had intended to ask how he was here, but hearing her raspy voice, she closed her mouth. Mad Hatter put down the pot and placed his hand over her forehead.

“You’re still a bit hot.”

SoYoon looked up at him blankly. She was still suffering from a high fever. Tears welled up in her eyes and her cheeks were red. Mad Hatter sighed.

“You have a cold. I know you haven’t eaten, but have you at least taken some medicine?”

***

SoYoon didn’t answer and reclined again. As she did, she heard Mad Hatter sigh loudly.

“You have the sense to know you are sick, don’t you? Oh, you’re here.”

SoYoon turned her head, sensing a presence there. March was standing stiffly in front of the door. He nervously looked around, then slowly handed Mad Hatter the small packet of medicine.

“Here.”

Mad Hatter handed March the payment for the medicine and put the packet in his pocket. March glanced over worriedly at SoYoon who obviously looked very sick. His silent worry made her smile. At that moment, Mad Hatter blocked her view of him.

“Your work here is finished. You may leave instead of bothering a sick person.” His tone was icy cold. March flinched and ran away with an awkward laugh.

SoYoon looked up at Mad Hatter. He answered her look with a trace of regret. “You are a patient. You need to rest. I’ve made you something you can eat, so eat this first. Then you can take your medicine.”

Mad Hatter picked up the pot he had put down and brought it to the bed. He opened the lid to reveal some warm oatmeal. Steam rose from it and SoYoon was reminded of the porridge her mother had made for her. She picked up the spoon. Mad Hatter’s cooking skills were getting progressively better. The oatmeal was quite delicious.

***

In a dark alleyway at Outhouse, a man wearing a hat over thick brown hair was walking carefully to avoid making noise. He stopped for a moment to check his surroundings, then moved toward the inside of the alleyway.

The man walked for a long time until he arrived at an old house. Without making a sound, he opened the door and stepped inside. He locked the door behind him and took off his hat. His glazed gray eyes showed through his stiff hair.

The man, Cheshire, took the bag of food he had gotten with difficulty and sat on the dusty bed. He put his hand inside the bag and pulled out a small piece of bread and put it in his mouth. He didn’t mind that the crumbs were falling on his clothes and the bed.

With a barren face, he finished off two pieces of bread and tossed the bag to the side of the bed and laid down. He blinked a couple of times until his eyes slowly started to close. The dirty ceiling full of soot, rat urine, and old blood stains slowly disappeared from his vision as his eyelids drooped. Like his vision, his consciousness soon fell into a deep sleep.

A couple of hours later, Cheshire opened his eyes and put his hand in his back pocket. He took out his cellphone and opened it. The screen showed the time as 9:38. As a trade for handing over SoYoon, the head of the research facility had promised to fabricate a new identity for him. However, four days had already passed without any contact.

His dyed brown hair and his shabby clothes would have made it so that even his parents wouldn’t recognize him. “Will I have to live the rest of my life in this state?”

Cheshire pushed down the dark thoughts that rose up from the bottom of his stomach. It had been a while since this feeling had started to bother him. He rubbed his forehead for no particular reason. He felt cold sweat at his fingertips. He cursed under his breath. All of a sudden, a voice that should not have existed in this space answered him.

“Oh no. Is your plan not working out as you expected?”

It was a baritone voice that his ears knew all too well. Cheshire pulled out his knife and stepped back into the corner. Then, the person who had been hiding showed his presence. After seeing the bright ginger hair, the feeling that Cheshire had buried just moments ago came rising back up.

People called this feeling fear.

Cheshire clenched his jaw and ran at Heart. In the darkness, the silver knife flashed. Heart hit the knife away with his ax and kicked Cheshire hard in the stomach. The moment Cheshire crashed into the wall, he followed after him and swung his leg. His shiny dress shoes sharply kicked Cheshire’s side.

“Ah! Cough, cough…”

Heart looked down at Cheshire groaning and coughing, then swung down with his ax. He aimed at Cheshire’s left leg. With the sound of bone breaking, Cheshire screamed.

Looking nonchalantly at the leg he’d just chopped off, Heart laughed contentedly. Cheshire glared back at him with reddened eyes. Heart kicked the stump of his leg that was bleeding heavily and said to him, “If you were planning to mess with my girl, you should have prepared for something like this.”

My girl. The smell of blood filled the room as the warning voice echoed through it joyfully. It sounded extremely pleased with itself.

By torturing Alice, he had found out that Cheshire’s actual intention had been to get SoYoon kidnapped. After finding out about this, Heart moved fast. Not only did he badger Baby, but he also got all informants in Outhouse to find out where Cheshire was hiding.

Heart left the one-legged Cheshire to his men and returned to Wonderland. The first place he stopped by was SoYoon’s house.

The moment he opened the glass door, the heat hit him. Heart headed quietly over to SoYoon who was lying on the bed. Unlike her usual self, her cheeks and lips were burning red. Heart’s hand gravitated towards them, but someone slapped the back of his hand.

“Don’t you dare touch SoYoon with those hands when you haven’t even washed.”

Mad Hatter put down the small basin he was holding. Inside the basin, cold water was swishing around. He dunked a towel into it and squeezed the excess water out then put it over SoYoon’s forehead. As he did, her tensed-up face relaxed.

Heart returned after washing his hands and glared at him with a vicious expression. A few moments later, he could hear clanking noises coming from the kitchen. He sat at the edge of the bed and observed SoYoon’s face. Even with the cold towel, her cheeks still remained red. His hands reached over again but he stopped.

『Wonderland』

According to SoYoon, Heart’s character was meant to fall in love with Alice. When he’d first heard this, Heart snorted. He was not one to think about the reason for the existence of this world. Even if some higher power had created this world and determined that his fate was to be Alice’s partner… he frowned in disgust at the thought… it didn’t mean that he had to follow it.

However, there was one thing that bothered him.

Through his peripheral vision, he saw SoYoon’s eyelids tremble. The white lashes fluttered with it and Heart stared at it, enraptured. Soon, hazy eyes opened to reveal her brown eyes glazed over with fever. He hid his expression and smiled.

“How do you feel…”

His mistake was that his hand was already extended out towards her. Having been distracted by SoYoon, he had left his hand in midair and she was now looking at it. She blinked and slowly moved her own hands. Her hot fingers touched the ends of his then quietly slipped deeper into them.

Heart was staring at the intertwined fingers and holding his breath. When she caught him smiling, he hid his face. He didn’t want it known that his heart was burning hot from the invasion of her warmth.

He was amazed by how her holding his hand with impeccable timing could make him disregard the fact that she thought of him as a character in a book. Even as he thought this, he realized how ridiculous it was.

A little later, Mad Hatter came out of the kitchen with a tray of food and started scolding him with a frown. “What are you smiling for in front of a sick person? Getting on my nerves. Move. I have to feed SoYoon.”

If it had been any other day, he would have retorted back, but he was lost in his happiness. Mad Hatter’s words sounded like the nagging of a mother-in-law. If Mad Hatter had heard this thought out loud, he would probably have exploded in his face.

He leaned over SoYoon and gave her a peck on the cheek. Then a honey-soaked voice woke her up.