Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 46

Using a pipette, Mad Hatter placed drops of chemicals he needed for the experiment. When he heard a knock on the front door, he raised his head. The sudden movement caused him to lose control over his strength and caused a stream of the chemical to squirt out. He mumbled, sighing.

“This is what they call conditioning.”

SoYoon didn’t even knock anymore, but for the four years she had, he had become conditioned to react to the sound at his door this way. He got up and opened the window.

Alice stood at the front door and waited for it to open. Nervous, she felt her palms sweat.

She heard a window opening above her. She raised her eyes and saw the deep blue eyes looking down. Alice stared at him, forgetting even to breathe. The man, Mad Hatter, was extremely beautiful.

“Who are you?”

Alice had been staring in awe and only came to her senses when she heard his cold reaction. Luckily, her mouth hadn’t been hanging open in admiration. Alice tilted her head shyly and smiled. She blushed naturally.

“I’m sorry for intruding. I’m Alice Liddell. There is something I would like to request from you. Would it be all right if I come in?”

Mad Hatter rested his head on his arms and looked down at her. The sun’s transparent kiss was shining over his perfect forehead and cheeks. As he blinked, his lashes cast a shadow over his face that quickly disappeared. His lips looked carved in red clay, and as they slowly started to move, Alice swallowed hard.

“Come in.”

At Mad Hatter’s permission, the door opened on its own. Alice and Jeremy stepped inside. As she sat on the sofa in the living room, she glanced over at Mad Hatter. His facial profile was as lovely as a Renaissance artist’s rendition of the perfect man.

There was no way that Mad Hatter would be unable to feel her unwavering attention. He was wearing a flamboyant flower-patterned turban—Alice, who was wholly distracted by his face, did not register the ridiculous thing upon his head. Mad Hatter watched her with his head tilted.

That is the girl White Rabbit is so affectionate toward. He resisted his urge to turn on the device hidden under the sofa that would rip Alice to shreds.

“What is your request?”

When he pushed down his urges, his migraine returned. He pressed hard on his temples. Alice’s eyes brightened.

“Oh, are you hurting? If it’s okay, may I take a look?”

In the original story, Mad Hatter, whose appearance was like a lone blooming flower on a desolate cliff, was an easy target of seduction. To have that opportunity, however, she had to heal his head first. Alice extended her hands toward his head.

Before her hands could touch him, however, Mad Hatter grabbed a book that had been lying on the ground and blocked her from coming closer. Alice, seeing his disgusted expression, remembered from the book that Mad Hatter did not like others within his physical space.

“I’m sorry. I just thought you were in a lot of pain...”

“I asked what your request was.”

As if in defense, he looked up at her with cold eyes. He already knew the extent of Alice’s powers and had heard about it through rumors.

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He snorted. He knew that Alice had purposely let the secret of her powers spread to bait him. Knowing that, if only for his pride, he did not want to let her get what she wanted. Who would that be good for anyway?

Alice, not knowing how to remediate the situation, decided that she had acted too hastily.

“I was hoping you could make me a smartphone.”

“The price is 5 million carol. It will take one week to finish it. How would you like to pay me?”

Alice looked up at Jeremy. As she did, he pulled out from inside his suit pocket a thick envelope. He pulled out five of the million-carol currency and placed it in front of Mad Hatter. Mad Hatter played with the crisp new currency and mumbled.

“I wonder how far that insanely violent thug is willing to go?”

He was making fun of Heart, who was stuck in a rumor that he had lost his mind playing lover with this girl. Alice grabbed Jeremy’s arm to stop him from doing something rash.

She bit her lip and said bitterly, “Mad Hatter.”

Her lips became red and moist from biting them. She inhaled deeply as if angry, and each time she did, her voluptuous chest heaved.

“Heart is a good and respectable person who took me in and protected me when I had nowhere else to go. I can’t believe you would believe those rumors...really...”

Mad Hatter looked into her tear-filled eyes. She got lost in his dark-blue eyes, which were like the twilight sky. She was unable to take her eyes away from him, nor was he able to take his eyes off hers.

“I see.”

Mad Hatter was the first to break eye contact. His long lashes cast a shadow over his eyes, and his lips curled. As he did, Alice received the full blast of his aura. She had been so taken aback by his face’s beauty that even as she returned to Heart’s house, she could not figure out the meaning of that smile.

***

A week had passed since SoYoon realized that the corpse had come back to life.

She brought over March and showed her to him. Sleeping on the dust-covered floor, she looked like a girl from a fairy tale. March complained the whole way over, exclaiming how a dead person could come back to life, but upon seeing the girl, he shut his mouth. Silence filled the space.

The person who broke the library-like silence was March. He kneeled next to the girl and mumbled as he touched her cheek.

“It feels different from Dor.”

“Because Dor had been asleep. This girl was a corpse.”

“You weren’t just mistaken?”

Even as he said this, he knew that SoYoon would never make such a mistake. He swept the girl’s black hair away from her forehead. The girl’s hair was smooth and fine, like silk thread. March asked as if in a dream.

“Do I just have to take her to the house?”

“Yes. And if you can take care of her, as you did Dor, that would be better.”

At her words, March, like the boy he was, blushed. He mumbled something about, “Bathing her might be an issue...,” and SoYoon laughed.

“I never said to go to that extent.”

“I know!”

March yelled, his face burning red. Then realizing how loud he’d been, he looked down at the girl. She was still sound asleep.

“If that was going to bring her to her senses, she would already be awake by now.”

SoYoon propped the girl up and leaned her against her back. But March came flailing forward and grabbed the girl’s arms.

“I—I’ll carry her.”

“You think you can?”

“That’s how you think of me? I’m a man too!”

Carrying the girl on his back, he confidently headed to his house. But he soon regretted his decision when he felt the girl’s curves on his back and heard the sound of her thin breathing in his ear. SoYoon spoke, seeing his neck and ears turning scarlet.

“If it’s too much trouble, I’ll take over.”

“Ah, please! I said, no!”

Such pride for such a little squirt, SoYoon thought as she looked up at March. It didn’t matter how tall March had grown, to her, he was still a child. When their eyes met, March frowned.

“I don’t like the way you are looking at me.”

“Just walk. Dor is waiting.”

Dor, who had been at home alone, welcomed SoYoon with an ecstatic hug. March placed the girl on the sofa. Watching her lying there made him feel strange.

“Who is that?” Dor asked in a clear voice.

“Someone who has nowhere to go. Can you stay with her awhile?” SoYoon said sweetly.

“Like Alice?” Dor asked.

Both their voices were loud, but March didn’t hear a word. He poked cautiously at the girl’s catlike eyes. His insides started to squirm.

“Is she awake?” SoYoon asked.

“Brother!”

“Huh? What? Why?”

March screamed in surprise. Dor, who had been clinging to the back of the sofa, frowned.

“You scared me. Why are you getting so surprised?”

“Huh? What? Why? What happened?”

“Rabbit called you, and you didn’t answer.”

“Yeah, that’s why I asked what it’s for. Why did you call me?”

March turned his reddening face away. Luckily, SoYoon didn’t think much about his actions.

“If you don’t want Alice to misunderstand, I can explain the situation to her.”

The moment Alice’s name was mentioned, Dor’s nose crinkled. SoYoon tapped lightly on Dor’s nose. Dor playfully tried to bite her finger in response. SoYoon wagged her finger to and fro to avoid getting bit. As Dor jumped up and down, her pigtails bounced like the wings of a butterfly.

“What misunderstanding?”

“You like Alice.”

The statement came in a tone like a person stating the sun rose from the east. As a consequence, March got as far as “Yes, I do like...” and then shook his head.

“What?”

“Brother, do you like Alice? Yesterday, you told me...”

“Of course not! Why do you keep saying such nonsense?”

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Who’s embarrassed!”

March glanced at the sofa, where the girl was still deeply asleep. He sighed in relief.

“March?”

“Huh? No...I don’t know why you keep trying to tie me with Alice, but I think she’s a bit...”

March was in an awkward position, and he chewed his lip. Suddenly, Dor rubbed her face into SoYoon’s chest and complained.

“I hate Alice.”

“Hey, Dor!”

“But Alice hated me first.”

March tried to stop Dor knowing that SoYoon cared for Alice a lot, but Dor’s mental state was of a seven-year-old. Children are truthful about their feelings. SoYoon tapped the child’s pouting lips.

“That’s okay, Dor. You can tell me truthfully.”

Still, Dor didn’t open her mouth. March scratched his head upon seeing Dor so upset.

“Uh...Uh, hey. Dor.”

“I hate you. Just because you’re in front of Rabbit, you lie.”

“That’s...ugh, really. So what she means is...”

March remembered the first night that Alice stayed here. She had looked at him in a familiar way. She looked at him as if he was inferior.

He looked at SoYoon. She was the person who brought him here.

“She’s from Outhouse. So she’s...not? She’s hard to become friends with.”

March scratched his head and avoided Dor’s gaze. When SoYoon went back home, he had a hard time trying to soothe Dor.