Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 33

“I will let you leave tonight. But next time, both you and Alice...”

“That phrase is said by third-class victims as they run away in defeat.”

SoYoon cut Cheshire off. She glared at Cheshire and pointed her sword at him.

“Aren’t you leaving?”

Her underlying meaning was that if he didn’t leave right away, a second war would break out. The only person who didn’t realize this was Alice. Cheshire exited first, and his men followed behind him.

SoYoon put away her sword and wiped the blood from her head and face. After checking how she looked in a wall-hung mirror, she approached Alice. Alice had her hands tightly over her ears and was trembling.

“Alice.”

SoYoon put her hand on her back and called her. Alice jumped in surprise. Only after realizing it was SoYoon did her fearful face start to run with tears.

“I—I—”

“It’s all right. They ran away.”

SoYoon calmed her down and helped her out of the room while Alice dried her eyes. Inside the building, fear had paralyzed Alice, but the moment they got in the car, she let down her guard and nodded off to sleep. SoYoon glanced over at her and became lost in thought.

In the original story, Twins saved Alice. After they had killed all of Cheshire’s men, they went to pick a fight directly with Cheshire. Having lost all his men and injured himself, he didn’t show up in front of Alice for a long time.

The present Cheshire, however, lost only a few of his men and wasn’t badly hurt. Other than that, it looked as if SoYoon had accidentally taken Twins’ place in the narrative, probably because she, instead of Alice, had picked up Twins when they were wounded.

Then why wasn’t Alice able to escape from her kidnappers originally? Did she forget something from the story? She sighed quietly and decided to focus on the results. The most important thing was that Alice was safe. There was one thing left to resolve.

When she had almost arrived at Wonderland, she received a message from Heart, asking her to stop by his house. She had anticipated Heart would find out what happened through Baby, but she didn’t think he would call her this quickly. He may have pretended otherwise, but he must have an interest in Alice.

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She replied to Heart. The safest place in Wonderland was not the neutral zone or Central; it was Heart’s house. There was no better place.

A few moments later, Heart gave her his permission. Having checked his answer, SoYoon woke up Alice.

“Alice, we’ve arrived. Wake up.”

The two of them got out of the car a few miles away from the entrance of Wonderland. Alice, finding out that Heart was looking for her, walked happily to his house. They arrived there before the sun came up. The moment they entered and Alice saw Heart, the tears that seemed to have stopped poured again.

“Welcome. You’ve had a rough day.”

“Heart...”

Heart embraced the crying Alice. His auburn eyes with their long eyelashes, however, were looking at SoYoon. He saw her blood-splattered clothes and smiled. SoYoon, flustered at his stare, rolled her eyes at him. Only then did he return his attention to Alice.

“You must be tired. Go in and rest. From now on, what do you think about staying here?”

“Really? Uh, I don’t want to be a bother...”

“Bother? How could you even think that? Did you think our relationship is that shallow? Hm?”

Heart spoke to her lovingly. Alice blushed and answered.

“I’ll do as you say, Heart. Thank you.”

Alice’s room was the last room on the third floor. You could see all of Wonderland from its wide balcony. When the man who escorted her left the room, Alice plopped onto the bed. The bed was nothing like she’d ever felt before.

The story was no longer the same as the original. Although the result was much better, she was disappointed she hadn’t made contact with Twins. She still had an opportunity, however.

She worried about a different problem. Stupid Alice Liddell!

Alice looked at the mirror. A familiar face looked back at her. Unlike in horror stories, the reflection was not an expression different from her own. Alice glared at herself.

“This is my body.”

I’m not going to lose it to the likes of you.

***

After Heart sent Alice to her room, he held out his hand toward SoYoon. As expected of a perfectionist, it was after he had sent everybody away. SoYoon approached Heart, and he removed her mask, which was ripped.

“You’re hurt,” Heart mumbled as he placed his finger over her cheek. She felt a painter’s soul as he pressed on her skin.

“It hurts.”

SoYoon complained, but Heart didn’t stop.

“Here, and your shoulder. Anywhere else?”

“No.”

“Follow me.”

The two of them went upstairs to the second floor. The office was devoid of all heat in the early spring morning. In nothing but silk pajamas and a gown, Heart embraced SoYoon as if he were trying to warm his body.

“I was shocked after hearing from Baby in the middle of the night. That you went to go save Alice by yourself.”

Heart held tighter to SoYoon’s shoulders. The clotted blood began to trickle over Heart’s fingers.

She tried to get out of his grasp by placing her hands in between his. He let her go without resisting but grabbed her hands tightly instead.

He was holding so tight that his hands were white against the red blood on his hands. SoYoon’s and Heart’s eyes met. She didn’t know what to make of the fire that was in his auburn eyes.

“But all you do is request that girl to stay here.”

Heart buried his face in her neck, and his soft red hair flowed over her neck and shoulder. The sensation made her insides tingle.

“You’re always doing what you want.”

Heart bit into her neck hard so that she started to bleed. She could feel his anger through his teeth. Heart licked at the wound he had created.

“You probably don’t even think about why I’m doing this,” Heart whispered.

She closed her eyes.

***

The fact that Alice was now living in Heart’s house spread fast across Wonderland. As the rumor spread, more rumors attached itself to it until it became known that Heart was into Alice.

Rumor had it that Heart couldn’t do anything without her, that when Cheshire kidnapped her, he personally went out to Outhouse to find her, that Alice was pregnant with his heir, etc. Amidst all the rumors, Heart was currently eating lunch with SoYoon. He asked her.

“How does it feel?”

“What?”

“The rumors. It’s quite raucous out there.”

The person who knew the rumors best was Heart. He was able to hear the stories for himself, but even the new ones were gifted to him by Baby.

Heart remembered Baby calling him this morning to tell him the latest scoop, practically gasping for breath from laughing.

“They are saying that Heart fell in love with Alice in the neutral zone, where she was the girlfriend of some boy, and that you killed him so that you could have her.”

“Baby told me about it this morning,” SoYoon said without much emotion. Heart ground his teeth. That troublesome Baby! I’m going to make you beg for mercy one day. Heart didn’t get what he had wanted and sat brooding instead.

SoYoon had wanted to meet Alice since she was at Heart’s house anyway, but her request was denied. It didn’t look as if it would be best to cross Heart, so she left, checking her smartphone. A message from Mad Hatter had arrived.

/[Buy me some cold medicine. I’ve arranged it so you can enter my house without permission.]/

SoYoon headed to Doctor’s house.

On her way, she ran into Dor.

“Rabbit! It’s been so long!”

“Yes, it has.”

Now Dor was healthy enough to walk around outside by herself. The task that SoYoon had handed over to March was to deliver Doctor’s groceries and cigarettes. He must have been on the way to fulfill this task because he had one hand with a bag of groceries from the mart at Central and the other hand holding Dor’s. SoYoon whispered to March so that Dor couldn’t hear.

“It’s probably better not to take her outside the neutral zone.”

“She keeps insisting on wanting to go outside. I’d rather take her out with me than risk her wandering about on her own.”

The three of them reached their destination. Dor was so excited, she grabbed SoYoon’s hand and skipped in front of them. SoYoon softly pulled her back while being wary of her surroundings. March continued a conversation with her from time to time until the subject of Alice came up. March asked with a strange expression on his face.

“Is Alice really in a relationship with Heart?”

“I’m not sure.”