Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 83

March heard a story out of Li’s mouth that he directly relayed to SoYoon. March didn’t understand the importance of what and to whom he was telling this story because he did not know how all this related to SoYoon. He only hoped to rid himself of his suffocating feeling and to remove the rose-colored glasses that SoYoon seemed to have on regarding Alice.

“Li was only able to see snippets, so she can’t be sure of everything, but she saw that girl kill someone in her own world and get sucked into this one. She said something about stealing—what was it? Well, I can’t remember what exactly she said, but anyway she supposedly stabbed a girl who stole her boyfriend away from her. Li found even that hard to believe. She thinks it’s more likely that she was obsessed with a man, and when he ended up with a real girlfriend, she lost her mind.”

SoYoon stood frozen as she listened to March, and a strange realization hit her.

She turned around and ran toward her house.

“Huh? White Rabbit!” March called, but she couldn’t hear.

She arrived home in under five minutes. Seeing Li asleep on the sofa, she ran over and shook her by the shoulders to wake her up. SoYoon’s fingers pressed painfully against her shoulder. Li jumped in surprise at SoYoon’s intense expression.

“Ah! What—what are you doing?”

“What’s her name?”

“What?”

“That girl. What’s her name?”

Murder due to blind love was common. SoYoon thought that maybe she was overreacting to the situation. However, her heart was pounding so hard that it was difficult to shake off her intuition. Li instantly figured out who she meant by “that girl.” Her lips trembled so much she was barely able to answer.

“I—I don’t really know. It was a weird name, so I forgot it easily. Ow, it hurts! Please, let me go!”

“Hey, she says she doesn’t know! Let her go, huh? White Rabbit!” March, who had followed SoYoon home, cried.

“Remember it. Now.”

SoYoon threatened her menacingly. Li was on the verge of passing out from pain and fear. March removed SoYoon’s hand from Li’s shoulder and asked, “Do you not remember? Not even one letter?”

“I don’t know...! Heart! That girl asked Heart to call her by that name...”

She released her before she even finished talking and ran out of the house.

“What—what is...?”

Li mumbled with painful tears in her eyes. March became nervous as he concluded that something was very wrong.

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***

“It has to be a lie. It can’t be,” SoYoon muttered to herself as she ran toward Heart’s house.

The moment she barged through the front door, Heart was notified and went downstairs to the lobby. Sensing violence in her demeanor, the men stepped between her and Heart.

“That’s fine. You may all leave.”

“But...!”

“I said to leave, “Heart commanded as he glared at his men.

The men disappeared from the room like low tide and left the two people standing in the lobby. SoYoon observed the man approaching her and tried to calm the emotions that took over her mind.

It’s not confirmed yet, she thought. I’ll have to verify if it’s true first.

Unable to swallow all of her anger, she asked in a low voice, “Where’s Alice?”

“She went out.”

Seeing the state that SoYoon was currently in, Heart sensed that what he had been dreading had finally come to pass. He lifted SoYoon like a small child, hugged her, and patted her back. Feeling the slow rhythm on her back, she was able to calm herself down a bit.

“Do you perhaps know?”

“Yes. Go ahead, my Whitey.”

“Do you perhaps know...Alice’s other name?”

Heart looked up at SoYoon’s face. Confusion, hesitation, and anger showed through her mask and hair-covered face. He knew now that the name he hadn’t given much importance to was part of an incredible secret.

“Yes. She told me it was GaHyun.”

The anger flowing out of SoYoon disappeared utterly. Realizing her devastation, Heart quickly walked up to the third floor.

Even when he had laid her down on the bed, SoYoon was staring blankly at him. Only after he closed in on her did she come back to her senses.

“Get off!”

“No.”

“This is not the time to be doing...”

Heart hugged SoYoon. When his warm body embraced her, she realized she had been trembling.

He whispered to her. “You can cry,” he said tenderly, in a manner brighter than the sunlight filtering into the bedroom. “In here, there is no one other than me who can see you. Cry immediately.”

“Are you insane?”

The one person who knew SoYoon the best in Wonderland was Heart. He knew that if he had left SoYoon alone, she would explode. Then when she had calmed down, she would regret it painfully. He had no intention of letting her do that to herself.

At some point, the mask disappeared off SoYoon, and he could see her. Heart’s lips kissed SoYoon softly all over her face. He kissed her cute nose and went up to kiss her eyes, then he said to her, “I’ll stay next to you, my love.”

An animalist feeling hit Heart as SoYoon’s arms and legs wrapped around him, and he blurted out his confession. His words shocked her, and he went further to sow the seeds into her heart.

“I love you.”

Those seeds would take root inside her heart and keep her here with him. He positioned her head so that she could no longer look away from him, but he did it in a way that she wouldn’t realize what he was doing and did so sweetly.

Hot hands touched her cheek. His fingers swept across her eyes, and he was surprised to find her crying.

“This is...”

She quickly tried to wipe her eyes, but Heart stopped her.

His arms warmly hugged her. His hands caught her continuously flowing tears, and his lips kissed hers. Her lips burned red with emotion, and they tasted bitter like life, salty from the tears and sweet like love.

In Heart’s embrace, SoYoon cried as she imagined her family’s faces drifting farther and farther away. Now, she could no longer hold on to the hope she had been carrying all this time.

She didn’t know what she was doing or muttering to herself. Heart concentrated on her every breath, and the sound of her tears falling and found that a corner of his heart was growing cold.

The place that she had always looked toward was a place he could not touch. His arms tensed without him noticing.

SoYoon cried for a long time and finally ended up falling asleep. Her eyes were red from crying. He wet a handkerchief in cold water and placed it over them. He carried his smartphone out to the terrace and closed the door. He stared through the clear glass, unable to take his eyes away from SoYoon. Then he called Mad Hatter.

Soon, he heard his short answer.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“What are you talking about?

“Whitey’s home.”

Mad Hatter sighed through the phone. Heart could hear the disappointment in his tone.

“This isn’t fair. Didn’t we agree to cooperate?”

“I could say the same thing about you. Stop blabbing about such silly things and get to the point.”

“Is there a way for Whitey to go back?”

“Other than by a miracle, no,” Mad Hatter said shortly. Heart, hearing what he had wanted, hung up and went back inside.

His shirt, drenched in her tears, felt cold to the touch when the wind hit it. After taking it off, Heart examined the ash-colored pool on the white silk sheets. Her attachments, regrets, hopes, and greed were all collected here. He was determined to burn all that away.

When Heart returned to the bed, SoYoon was curled up tightly, whimpering.

He slipped into the bed and lay close to her. Feeling his warmth, she turned toward him. She fell into his embrace, and he hugged her tightly. He smoothed out her crinkled forehead by gently rubbing it. As he did this, her breathing became peaceful.

And so she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

***

SoYoon woke up from her sleep before even an hour had passed. The moment she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Heart’s sleeping face.

“...”

She stared blankly at him, and then without her knowledge, her hand was reaching out to him. His cheeks were smooth and warm and made her feel good.

As she touched his face without much thought, he opened his eyes. SoYoon avoided his look. At that, Heart pulled SoYoon into a hug and smiled.

“Did you sleep well?”

Heart stuck out his tongue and lightly licked her swollen eyes. She closed her eyes and pushed him away. She got out of bed.

She put on her mask and wore her sword over her back, then headed to the door. Heart spoke quietly as she walked away.

“I love you. You know that, don’t you?”

SoYoon was turning the doorknob when she froze.

“...All right.”

Her voice sounded as if she was squeezing it out of her.

“Because I love you too.”

Slam! The slightly open door closed.

She ran instinctively over to him, and Heart blinked at the girl under his arms, staring at her back. He was unable to tell if what he had just heard was true.

“What did you just say right now...?”

His tone sounded as if he was halfway in a different place. SoYoon lowered her eyes to hide the miserable yet sweet emotion she felt.

“Whitey.”

Him calling her was like an awakening. But still, SoYoon didn’t turn to face him. So instead, Heart kissed her revealed neck.

“Come back safe.”

SoYoon opened the door again and turned back for a moment. Heart’s eyes burned with a passion that looked as if he wanted to eat her up. She quickly closed the door.