Chapter 31
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 31
It was a thoughtless comment, but her reaction was overwhelmingly positive.
To see her so delighted by a simple compliment made me feel like some scoundrel corrupting an innocent maiden.
Her beaming face looked completely defenseless.
She’s kind of cute...
The thought surfaced as I looked at her face.
A moment later, I realized what I’d just thought and jolted, forcing myself to get a grip.
...No, she’s not!
My head throbbed. For a second, I think I lost my mind.
That woman kidnapped and imprisoned me.
I couldn’t let my guard down.
Just look at her, pretending to be so innocent. She was clearly trying to lower my defenses and make me careless.
Her face, her face is the problem...
Her convincing beauty was at it again. The thought that those elegant features, which I’d admired from the start, had softened because of me almost made me drop my guard.
My heart was pounding. My own body must have been sending me a warning.
I couldn’t let myself be bewitched. This woman was a vixen, wagging her tail to tie me to this place.
Just then, she, who had been nodding her head with a blissful expression, snuggled into my arms again.
“I-I love it...!”
I could feel the heat of her chest against my cheek. Her shoulders rose and fell with each breath, tapping against my arm. The sound of her soft laughter echoed distractingly in my ear.
The way she leaned into me, rubbing her cheek against my chest, made her look like she had the whole world.
Thump. Thump.
My heart began to race even more violently. The sound of it seemed to thunder in my ears.
My thoughts grew hazy again. My hand moved on its own, reaching for the top of her head as it swayed just below my chin.
As I gently stroked her hair, I saw her face, her eyes narrowing as she focused on the sensation.
Even as my mind screamed warnings, my eyes followed the small figure in my arms.
The corners of my mouth kept twitching. I had no idea what kind of expression I was making.
A sense of panic rose in me. I felt like I had to say something.
I thought that if I could just think about something else, this pounding in my chest might subside, so I hurriedly opened my mouth.
“You like it that much?”
“Hehe... Yes...!”
“If you’re happy, Eun-ah, then I’m happy too.”
“Hnngh...!”
Once more, her face flushed as if it were about to explode. This time, she let out a sharp exhale through her nose to express her joy.
It felt like her straightforward emotions were piercing right through my chest.
My mind, dazed once again, began to examine her in detail.
Her face, looking up at me, seemed to be blooming with life.
My own reflection was captured in her moist, sparkling eyes. The pupils that held me shone so clearly that for a moment, I had the illusion that I was trapped inside them.
Suddenly, my body moved on its own. My head lowered, moving toward her.
Before I knew it, my lips had drawn near her eyes, pressing against the eyelid that held my reflection.
Chu.
As my lips touched her, I felt her delicate eyelashes tickle my skin as her eyes fluttered shut. A faint tremor passed through her.
When I pulled back and met her gaze again, I saw her eyes, flushed red, staring at me.
This time, she moved. Using her hands on my chest for support, she pushed herself up and drew closer.
The eyes that held my reflection grew nearer, and soon, our lips met, a soft sensation spreading through me.
Chu.
A brief kiss.
When our lips parted, I felt a strange sense of disappointment. As I looked at her, now a short distance away, I saw her soft lips, which had just touched mine, tremble.
“I... I like you...”
“Ah.”
A sudden confession.
It felt like something was filling me up inside. An emotion I’d never felt in my entire life, one I didn’t even know existed—a new, unfamiliar pulse—seemed to fill my body.
A strange, unfamiliar tickle that didn’t feel like my own forced my mouth open, pulled at my vocal cords, and spilled the words out.
“I... I like you, too.”
The raw sentence, tumbling out without any thought, hung in the air around us.
A short silence fell. Then, the eyes I was meeting curved into beautiful crescents. The smiling moons that had been hiding all this time shyly emerged to gaze at me.
“Hehe...”
A sound full of happiness reached my ears.
Ah.
My chest tightened, and my stomach churned. My heartbeat was deafening.
It was a strange sensation, somehow sorrowful, like my insides were burning away.
This was dangerous.
My instincts were sounding an alarm. My mind, which had been dazed all this time, jolted awake and began screaming warnings.
Only then did I realize what I had just said.
I had just told this woman—the one who imprisoned and tormented me, the one who put a collar around my neck—that I liked her.
While my thoughts were cut off and I was in a daze, an emotion had crept in like a thief, shaking me and trying to bind me to this place.
Fuck...
I clenched my teeth and forced myself to get a grip.
No. I had just gotten swept up in the mood and made a mistake. I had to calm my heart. I had to turn my thoughts to finding a way out of here.
My tightly shut lips opened once more.
“Now... now it’s my turn.”
“Yes...?”
“We were playing our question game, weren't we?”
Her crimson lips parted, letting out a small “Ah.”
“R-right...”
“It’s my turn, so I’ll ask a question now, okay?”
“Yes...!”
My head was spinning. What could I ask? What question would calm my nerves? What question could give me a clue? My thoughts raced, and finally, my mouth opened.
“Come to think of it... Eun-ah, do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“Hmm...?”
Her face tilted to the side. Dokyun put on a smile and added another sentence.
“I was just curious. I’m an only child, so I’ve always had this fantasy about having siblings.”
“Ahh...”
Her expression showed she understood. Dokyun watched her and let out a silent sigh of relief.
In my frantic search for a topic, the first thing that had come to mind was the front door’s passcode.
If the code wasn’t her birthday, the next most likely possibility was one of her parents’ birthdays.
The diary only contained fragmented information about her mother, so I couldn’t guess a date from that.
I needed more clues, and this was the first thing that came to mind.
I knew she didn’t like talking about her family, so I brought up siblings first to set the mood.
Slowly, I had to find out something about her parents, even if it wasn’t everything.
As my thoughts continued, her lips parted.
“I... I have an older sister...”
“Oh...”
“Sh-she’s cool... and a grown-up...”
Having brought it up, she continued excitedly, her face flushed.
Hearing this, Dokyun felt a wave of bewilderment.
An older sister?
Come to think of it, I had just assumed she was an only child. I’d even asked the question with the expectation that she’d say she was, so I could pivot to her parents.
Ah... I should have considered the possibility of a sibling.
This was a setback. Trying to pivot to her parents now would make my intentions too obvious.
It seemed I had to dig into this topic a little more.
“I guess your sister lives somewhere else?”
“Y-yeah... Sh-she comes to the house sometimes...”
“She does?”
Suddenly, a strange, unsettling feeling washed over Dokyun.
She’s saying that so casually.
She didn’t seem worried at all about her sister discovering my presence.
It was strange. It seemed I would have to take a bit of a risk here.
Having made up his mind, Dokyun’s lips moved again.
“Then I guess I can say hello next time she visits.”
“Yeah...”
She nodded her head. The answer was an affirmation. She was taking my question at face value.
It’s like she’s certain her sister is on her side...
There was only one thing to think.
...An accomplice...
It was an unexpected, important clue. It felt like a blurry part of the picture was coming into focus.
Right... there’s no way she could have prepared all of this by herself.
This house was too meticulously sealed off from the outside world.
The hinges on the windows, the reversed door locks. Not to mention the restraints installed on major pieces of furniture.
The defenseless side of her she sometimes showed created a sense of dissonance with the idea that she had prepared all of this herself.
His thoughts concluded, Dokyun put a smile on his face and spoke.
“Now it’s your turn to ask a question, Eun-ah.”
“Ah, o-okay...”
Eun-ah trailed off, hesitating for a moment as if in thought, before finally opening her mouth to ask.
“Wh-what foods do you dislike...?”
“Hmm...”
A question completely unrelated to the previous one.
Changing the subject so completely seemed to be her way of saying she didn’t want to talk about her family anymore.
I guess this is as far as I get for now.
I decided to be satisfied.
It was far from my original intention, but at the very least, confirming a definite accomplice was encouraging.
“I’m not good with fishy food.”
“Anything else...?”
I saw her eyes staring at me, her face tense.
How serious is she about food?
This had to be the second food-related question already.
“Hmm... Oh, and I can’t eat mint chocolate. It tastes like toothpaste, so I really don’t like it.”
“Y-you’re so based...!”
The way her eyes sparkled as she shouted about being “based” made it seem like she’d picked up the term somewhere. Was this woman part of the anti-mint-chocolate brigade, too? For the first time, I found something I liked about her.
Not that I’m going to stay locked up for her because of it.
The strange churning in my stomach had finally subsided. The important clue that had come from an unexpected place seemed to have helped.
Right, I must have just lost my mind for a second.
How else could such words have come out of my mouth? Satisfied that his mind was back to normal, Dokyun put a smile on his face.
Now it was his turn to ask.
Can’t mention family anymore.
For now, it seemed this was as far as I could go today.
“Okay, now I’ll ask a question.”
“Yes...!”
The Q&A that followed was nothing special. Likes and dislikes. Strengths and weaknesses. Trivial conversation continued, and before I knew it, a good amount of time had passed.
The game came to an end.
The woman who had been hugging me for a while was now sitting with her back against me, playing with my hand.
She stroked the back of it, flipped it over to tickle my palm, and then straightened my hand to compare it to hers before intertwining our fingers.
I felt her small, thin fingers weaving between my own.
“M-Mr. Honeybee... your hands are s-so big...!”
“Are they?”
I wouldn’t know. It’s not like I have many opportunities to compare hands with other people.
“Y-yeah... Mr. Honeybee’s hands are big... a-and so is... that...”
Whoosh—
I saw the tips of her ears turn red.
This little minx...
She was subtly sizing me up.
“Hnngh...”
Eun-ah, her fingers still laced with mine, let out a breath that felt strangely hot.
The way she was gently grinding her hips against my thigh made it seem like she was getting worked up again.
I felt a cold sweat break out on my forehead.
No. Not today. Absolutely not.
I mean, it wasn’t okay tomorrow or the day after either, but it was especially not okay today.
I couldn’t explain the exact reason, but my instincts were screaming it.
Feeling troubled, Dokyun frantically began to search for something to change the subject.
His eyes darted around the room until they landed on her hand, which was holding and shaking his.
On her hand, I saw her uneven, untidy fingernails.
That’s it!
“Eun-ah.”
“Yes...?”
“Should I trim your nails for you?”
I saw her turn her head back to look at me. Dokyun looked at her, smiled again, and spoke.
“I want to do something for you... and this is all I could think of.”
As I said this with a slightly wistful expression, her reaction was immediate.
Her eyes sparkled and her cheeks flushed. Joy, anticipation, and excitement were written all over her face.
“O-okay...!”
Thump—
“W-wait a second...”
Eun-ah scrambled to her feet, pulling away from my embrace and trotting over to a shelf in the corner of the living room.
Her backside wiggled as she rummaged through the shelf.
Watching her, Dokyun let out a huge breath, thinking he had survived yet another crisis.
“Phew—”
Seriously, I couldn’t let my guard down for a single moment.