Wait, wait.
All thoughts were erased at once. But it was after the face had already come close. I felt his exhalation through my lips.
However, his lips were blocked before reaching me. I took a deep breath with my lips covered. while furrowing my brows.
“Don’t mess with me.”
I found out from the middle. No, I would have known only when I saw the eyes of the man approaching me.
“Are you crazy already?”
Chaser was out of his mind. No. Maybe it wasn’t at first. I laughed in vain. It was only natural that I noticed a change. I’ve seen him right next to him the last few years. I knew him as he knew me.
“Get away.”
I wonder if he is not a human being who lives on tricks.
“Oh, it’s real.”
Chaser closed his mouth to me and slowly opened his eyes. Then he put his hand on the back of my hand. Then he buried his lips on my wrist.
“It’s Iana. Really Iana.”
The madness revolving around the half-curved eyes, this was real. It was then that I realized that I had returned to the mansion.
No, it just started.
“Did you finally wake up?”
Chaser smiled softly at me without answering. His eyes were deep, as if exploring me. His hair was clinging to sweat. So was his collar. It looked like he had a nightmare, but I shook my head inside.
“It’s like a dream.”
I don’t know if he has become a nightmare for anyone. Chaser, who mumbled low, dropped his buried mouth.
“You are coming back yourself.”
He opened his mouth and put my finger on his lips.
“Is this your will to stay by my side?”
A small murmur continued even though there was no answer. At the same time, there was a tingling sensation with a delicate pain. It was an odd stimulus.
“Yes? Iana.”
When I tried to pull my hand away, Chaser let me go with ease. As if he was not going to force it. Holding my breath, I grabbed the hand that was hidden behind me. What should I say? No, what should I say first?
I soon admitted.
The fact that I lost my composure for a moment because Chaser showed an unexpected side. I needed time to slowly adjust my reasoning. I closed my eyes.
The scent is thick. I’m afraid that no one will say that these roses are not worthy of their name. Each of them boasted a bitter and deep scent.
Among them, if I had to pick a scent that seduced people the most, it was the man in front of me. There, until now, with an unfamiliar appearance, he embarrasses me.
Which one should I start with, a fastball or a curve? Contemplating, I exhaled a little.
“Did you not sleep?”
What flowed out of me was a routine question. A common question, as if we had talked until yesterday. Chaser’s expression was the same as a smile.
“I have a lot of questions. Besides that, I think there are many things you want to ask me. Brother.”
But I noticed that his eyes trembled slightly. Chaser looked down and answered my questions one by one.
“Yes. I couldn’t sleep. How about you?”
“I slept well.”
My answer was casual. Chaser asked again.
“Are you going to answer my questions?”
“Do you want to hear it?”
I lifted my head. How are you going to do it? It was an action full of meaning. He will understand my meaning without difficulty. Even though he understood one thing, what he showed was another unexpected behavior.
“No, rather to hear the answer…… I want you to put me to sleep, Iana.”
Chaser bowed to me.
I was startled when his face came closer to mine. What kind of trick is this again? I raised my foot with the intention of kicking him, and his face brushed past mine.
“I’m sleepy…….”
A terrifyingly drowsy voice pierced my ears. With an enchanting, low-pitched resonant sound.
“Let me sleep. Yes?”
He murmured as he rested his head on my shoulder.
“Just once…….”
It was also a voice that was terribly tired.
Instead of looking at his crown, I glanced around the room. Nothing has changed since I was away. My lips opened slowly. Indifferent, yet stern words flowed from me.
“Why? If you don’t have a Blue Rose by your side, you won’t be able to sleep?”
“It’s similar.”
“Oh, insomnia?”
Chaser had said this when he appeared in Hernim Castle. I couldn’t sleep. Put me to sleep……. Chaser smirked as he rested his head on my shoulder.
“Yes. But I am doing this because you are not here.”
Chaser’s shoulders trembled. Although I didn’t see him smiling, I could guess that he was smiling as he always did with the gentle sound of the wind.
Chaser grabbed my hand that was hidden behind me. It was an unusually delicate touch. In fact, thinking about it, his hand wasn’t sloppy or ferocious for a man.
He was the man who always held me softly as if it were about to break. His actions and words were just different. I smiled a little. It wasn’t a funny smile. It was a false laugh.
“What is different?”
Chaser shuddered and clasped my shoulder. He slowly raised his head. For a moment, it seemed as if a surprised expression passed by.
But he soon returned to his original face and smiled.
“I guess Grand Duke Hernim didn’t tell you about these things.”
A shrill voice drooped.
“As for the side effects of roses.”
Well. I think I heard something like that from Francia. I laughed.
“They told me honestly there.”
“…….”
“I also heard that the Black Roses have been hiding the Blue Roses all along.”
I raised my head.
“Really?”
“As you can see.”
Chaser replied with a smile.
“What did Grand Duke Hernim say?”
“Well, I heard a lot, but I may have forgotten. At least he didn’t hide anything from me.”
Chaser narrowed his eyes as he smiled.
“…… What have I been hiding?”
“You didn’t say anything, did you?”
“I’m sorry if you think like that, Iana.”
Chaser lowered his head and whispered softly in my ear. I rolled my head tight. Because I have not forgotten the purpose of me coming here. Eventually, I looked around the corner of the room and shook my head. Very casually.
“I want to sit down.”
It was close to ignoring his words neatly. Chaser raised his eyebrows at this. However, the smile did not fade.
“Let’s sit down.”
Chaser didn’t answer. I looked at him once.
“What are you doing? You asked me to put you to sleep.”
I got out of his hand and walked first. As I sat down, Chaser slowly walked over to me.
I tapped the seat next to me.
“Aren’t you going to lie down?”
“…… Are you really going to do it?”
“When did I say empty words?”
He and I were acting as if there was no gap. But we would have known each other. This tension that seeps into the everyday atmosphere. Chaser grabbed the back of the sofa and tilted his torso. A long shadow falls on me. Instead of sitting down, with a momentum that seems to attack me. Instead of being scared, I pulled his clothes on. He humbly surrendered his body.
“Are you trying to sing a lullaby?”
Chaser’s attitude was close to knowing that whatever I do is close to a trap, but he falls for it on purpose. Because the person who normally would have asked or questioned me didn’t say a word. Rather, he said these words and quietly laid himself down on the sofa.
I frowned.
“Did I tell you to cut off my leg?”
He laughed shamelessly.
“Isn’t that what you said?”
Tension passed in the silence for a moment. I glanced at him in a resigned tone and placed my hand over his eyes.
“Yes. Well. Sleep.”
My relationship with him was always when he reached out his hand, so this was the first time.
However, neither he nor I made it obvious. In particular, I stared at him calmly. Whether he was really tired or pretending to be tricked, I felt his eyelashes tickle my palms. Soon I knew that his eyes had been closed.
“Why are you being this nice?”
He raised his lips, half revealing his face.
“Is there anything you want from me?”
“Well.”
“Is there anything you want, Iana?”
He was a smart man. So, he must have already noticed the strangeness of the situation. I was curious as to why this man was talking about the point directly.
“Won’t you ask?”
Human silence has several meanings. Things that are hard to say and things you don’t want to say, and things you have so much to say that you can’t bring them out. There may be many more.
Which one was Chaser’s sweet lips at?
What is this guy like when I tried to escape here, when I tried to hide Pudding. Didn’t he ask me questions like interrogating?
“You must have a lot of questions.”
“…… that’s right. Just as you have questions for me, I also have questions for you.”
Chaser said, still blindfolded.
“But I am waiting.”
I lowered my gaze. Because he came out like this, I calmed down my purpose for a moment, and brought out my sincerity.
“You don’t have to do anything for me.”
He flinched.
“No, you don’t have to do that to me anymore.”
Chaser’s hand grabbed my hand that covered his eyes.
“Iana.”
However, I did not stop talking.
“Now, I don’t want to say that what you did to me was bad.”
I just realized it was weird.
“It’s just that I don’t want anything from you.”
I thought he would recognize the meaning of the changed title. After a moment of silence, Chaser opened his mouth.
“…… Did you hate me?”
Chaser asked with the same soft voice that called me the day I was released. But I knew. That this is a voice disguised as composure. I also knew that it was the voice right before the wall collapsed.
“I have no idea.”
Still, I didn’t stop talking.
“I asked if you hate me?”
My hand was still covering Chaser’s face.
“Exactly, I have no expectations of you.”
Perhaps, after this time, the opportunity to talk like this will no longer come.
I don’t know. We didn’t talk like this when we were in Domulit’s mansion. There was a time when I didn’t really have any thoughts, but nevertheless, I just got over the strangeness that sometimes arises.
Maybe me and this man have been living face to face, deceiving each other and ourselves. The mood was different from a few seconds ago. The tension in the air, as if pulling a thread, pricked my cheek. I was not under pressure.
Chaser removed my hand from his face.
“From now on, even if I grant you what you want?”
“Is that meaningful?”
I spoke quietly.
“No matter what I want, you will do what you want, right?”
I didn’t avoid his eyes.
“Like you put shackles on me.”
Chaser acted as he pleased while I was in Domulit.
“Like the day you imprisoned me.”
Of course, I did not forget the days he saved my life.
It’s just that.
“Ha…… . haha.”
Chaser jumped up from his seat. Then he stared at me with a confused look.
“Hahaha……. Iana. Is this my turn to regret?”
At that moment, my vision flipped. When I came to my senses, I could feel the soft sofa behind my back. When I looked up, Chaser was looking down at me.
With a face I have never seen before.
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