Chapter 9

‘Back then, Kyle had a bit of a puppy-like feel too……’

The man she had reunited with in Bukata was closer to a shepherd breed, if one had to compare him to a dog. If there was no need to compare him to a dog, then wolf would be more accurate.

Last night, Hazel had felt that Kyle in her gaze looked like a painting.

He had not been looking at her. As if it were something he did every day, he boiled water and poured liquor with practiced ease. Yesterday, as one spectator who had been given the chance to glimpse Kyle Strauss not as a businessman but as a person, Hazel had received the impression of ‘lonely,’ whether he had intended it or not.

He had lost the one and only family member he had and lived alone. He had servants, yes, but it was clear Kyle did not wish to have them in his private time. Among the people he called friends in Bukata, the number who held pure friendship was probably small enough to count on one hand.

‘He seems a little pitiful too.’

He would probably even go about marriage only after calculating profit and loss. Because that was how the rich were, how the upper class was.

Just then, her eyes met Eugene’s. As if he had been waiting only for her to look at him, Eugene’s eyes lit up and he leaned forward.

[That thing you said to me yesterday, Miss Bennett, about how your friend probably would not like this hotel.]

[Pardon? Ah, yes…….]

[Could I perhaps hear a little more about that?]

The back cushion of the luxurious armchair suddenly felt uncomfortable. It was as though she had been caught thinking about Kyle.

Hazel rose from her seat.

[It is private. I’ll be going now.]

[Miss Bennett!]

Ignoring the urgent call after her, Hazel quickly left.

From the beginning, Hazel did not like the breed known as reporters. They were the very people who had poured mocking articles over Kyle, who was plainly the victim. If it was for money, they would not hesitate to spread lies, and if it was for money, they would no doubt also be ready to lick Eliya Strauss’s feet.

‘That cursed money.’

Hazel’s father, Robert Bennett, had once told his young daughter, who said she wanted to become rich:

“Money is important, but you must not sell justice for money. If it is something you think is right, then you must do it even at financial loss, and if it is wrong, then refuse it even if they offer you a mountain of gold.”

Thinking of her father made her feel a little better. A fond smile slipped onto Hazel’s lips.

‘Stubborn Mr. Robert Bennett. That’s why you’re still poor.’

He was the kind of man who insisted that only money earned directly through labor was ‘clean.’ That unclean money should not be coveted, and had no value.

Just then, the noisy commotion abruptly stopped. People, puzzled by the sudden silence, turned their eyes toward the direction where the hush had begun.

The reason was the man standing behind the glass door of the elevator. Hazel guessed that everyone who had seen him while the dangling pulleys and ropes carried him up to the third-floor ballroom must have given him much the same look.

As if accustomed to the attention focused on him, Kyle stepped calmly into the middle of the crowd. His platinum hair, reflecting the lights, shone brightly. Unlike the mouth curved in a picture-perfect smile, his sea-green eyes were cool.

Someone standing beside Hazel whispered to their companion,

“Kyle Strauss came to the party.”

“To think the lesser Strauss came to the Strauss Hotel…….”

“Ever since he was thrown out back then, no one has said they saw him in the hotel even once…… This should be a good spectacle. Wait, didn’t the lesser Strauss go into the hotel business too? He acquired Royal Unity, didn’t he?”

“I suppose he thinks he’s ready now. He must have felt wronged.”

For a moment it even seemed as though her eyes met Kyle’s.

But without hesitation, he took his gaze off Hazel. Soon Kyle extended a hand to another young man and greeted him as though they knew each other. Hazel recognized that face too, from the newspapers.

The frozen atmosphere gradually broke. People laughed and chatted again as if nothing had happened. As he talked, Kyle drifted little by little closer to Hazel, like a buoy floating on water.

Thanks to that, Hazel was able to glance at the people around Kyle as well.

The people near him fell broadly into three groups. Those who openly showed favor toward him, those who did not bother hiding their cool distance, and those who stood far away staring with curiosity. The first were his faction, the second were people on Eliya Strauss’s side, and the third were outsiders who were neither one nor the other.

Hazel belonged to the outsiders.

They were in the same space, but their worlds were different. Even this dreamlike time she was spending in Bukata had all come from Alice’s goodwill. If Hazel had been alone, it would have required travel expenses on a scale she could never even have dreamed of.

Alice whispered,

“Aren’t you going to say hello to Kyle? You haven’t seen him since coming up here, right?”

“It’s fine. I’ve already said hello.”

Hazel was not foolish enough to confuse memories with the present. Nor did she wish for a place for herself in his present.

I am me, you are you.

For old friends meeting again after a long time, what relationship could be cleaner than that.

Smiling brightly, Hazel began talking with a young man who was offering her a drink.

There was a gaze following her. Accepting the greetings around him half-heartedly, Kyle thought,

‘She knows how to drink.’

A liveliness quite different from the tightly frozen look she had worn the night before surrounded Hazel. His friend Dennis spoke cheerfully to Kyle.

“What brings you to this party? I naturally assumed you wouldn’t come.”

Dennis was one of the rare young men brave enough, and close enough in his own way, to speak openly of the fact that Kyle hated this hotel. In other words, he was the son of Viscount Dietrich.

Kyle casually set his empty glass down on the tray of an employee passing by in uniform.

“I was lonely being alone. I came to have fun.”

“Say that in front of those ladies over there, not to me. Ah, they’re looking this way. They’ll probably come swarming over soon.”

Dennis shot back, then swept his eyes over his friend.

Bukata was full of ladies who wished they could go on even a single date with Kyle Strauss. The letters that flew in under the pretense of friendship, and the fathers of those young ladies, whom he met for business, casually saying, ‘My daughter has been very eager to see you,’ were not simply because Kyle was a promising young businessman.

Kyle Strauss’s face carried a singular atmosphere. Women swarmed like bees to the sharp features and gaze that, depending on the viewer, could even feel frightening.

His height, reaching six feet, was more than tall enough even without shoes, and the exercise he never skipped despite how busy he was showed plainly in his physique.

There was probably one more reason women admired him. The fantasy so common in romance films, of ‘a man who becomes gentle only in front of the one he loves.’

But that was, after all, only a fantasy. Even Dennis, who had met him in the military and had spent over three years occupying the place of Kyle Strauss’s closest friend in his own way, still could not connect Kyle Strauss with the word ‘gentle.’

As if proving his thought, Kyle answered dryly.

“This sort of childish romance is a waste of time. I’m not free enough to humor women.”

“You’re not an old man. People these days don’t date with just their hearts. If I hadn’t gone to the swimming pool with you, I would’ve thought you were cross-dressing and walking around.”

Wearing a fed-up expression, Dennis subtly lowered his tone.

“At least as of today, people should stop saying you like men.”

Kyle snapped,

“Cut out the insane talk.”

“You think I wouldn’t notice you’ve only been watching one person this whole time? That red dress right next to Alice, you like her, don’t you?”

Instead of denying Dennis’s words, Kyle followed with his eyes the place where Hazel had been standing. In the brief moment he had looked away, Hazel had disappeared, and only Alice was chattering excitedly.

“……”

How much had he even seen of her, for disappointment to come rushing in like this.

Kyle muttered to himself.

“She is pretty.”

There had once been a very distant age when a life faithful to instinct, to leaving behind offspring, was considered the highest value.

If that value were still valid in the modern day, he would not have come here tonight at all. Instead of standing here exchanging foolish banter with Dennis, he would be lying in a dark room holding Hazel Bennett.

But the era of surrendering practicality to instinct had ended long ago, and he was not foolish enough to be consumed by instinct and forget his purpose.

“She’s only pretty.”

That was all she was, and that was why there was no reason to get any closer. Kyle turned and walked the other way.