Maybe an office staff member had come in to relay a message. While Carbon was thinking it through, the person inside moved with a soft rustle. Then, pop, the sound of a cork being pulled, and a faint floral scent drifted through the air.

‘That’s strange too.’

The massage oil he usually used was unscented. Why the sudden change, and to something floral of all things.

Still, the smell wasn’t unpleasant, so he didn’t raise an objection.

Carbon breathed slowly. The floral scent floating in the air worked its way into his nose. It was familiar somehow. He had smelled it often. The question was where.

‘……Hyde?’

His sidekick’s face surfaced in his mind.

Right, the scent that came from her was exactly this. The sweet smell that hit you when you got close. A familiar scent he had occasionally wondered about but never thought to ask. The sense of wrongness deepened. Carbon frowned, caught between knowing and not knowing.

Then the masseuse gripped his forearm. The slick touch against his skin was softer than usual. Knuckles with a little roughness to them, but mostly soft, small hands……

‘Small?’

To repeat himself, his masseuse was a sturdy man in his forties, with hands that were one knuckle smaller than Carbon’s but still on the larger side by any measure.

In other words. This was absolutely not his masseuse, Billy.

Carbon had been on guard against the unknown intruder, and the moment the person made contact with his body, he moved. He sat up and closed his hand firmly around the wrist touching his forearm, and a thin yelp rang out.

“Ah!”

As he rose, the cloth over his eyes fell away, and Carbon found himself looking at a familiar face that had no business being here.

“……Hyde?”

“Yes, your Hyde.”

The surprise lasted only a moment. Hyde smiled brightly and waved her oil-slicked, gleaming hand at him. The bewilderment was Carbon’s alone to carry.

“……Why are you here.”

“To give you a massage, obviously.”

“So why you and not Billy―.”

“Supporting the hero is a sidekick’s duty. Managing Carbon’s condition is part of my job. I sent Billy away.”

“What?”

“I learned directly from Billy and got the certification, so don’t worry and leave it to me.”

Without waiting for Carbon to say anything more, she placed her hand back on his forearm.

When Hyde’s small hand made contact, the forearm thicker than her thigh flinched. She could feel the muscle shifting and twitching beneath her small palm.

Hyde studied Carbon’s body with curious eyes. With Carbon lying there in nothing but short shorts for the massage, she had a very clear view.

The broad shoulders connected to his thick neck, the muscle wrapped around his solid chest, the divided lines of his abs, the long calves with muscle packed hard beneath the split of his thighs.

A body so perfect it would be criticized as excessive even as a sculpture. Wow, Hyde let out an involuntary sound of admiration.

Startled by the sudden contact, Carbon was then struck speechless by the absurdity of what followed. Why on earth was Hyde here staring at his bare body with those bright, fascinated eyes……

Watching her look him up and down with those sparkling eyes, his mind went blank.

But he pulled himself together and spoke sharply.

“Hyde! Out, right now!”

He pushed himself upright and stretched a hand toward the door. Carbon with that stern expression had a way of making even innocent people shrink.

But Hyde had watched Carbon long enough to know he wasn’t truly angry.

He was flustered.

Hyde knew how to handle him. In a situation like this, pushing forward worked better than backing down obediently. Of course, she couldn’t be stubborn without reason or match his irritation. Better to do it like this.

“Carbon, don’t you trust me?”

“……Where did that come from.”

“Well, I said I’d give you a massage and you keep refusing. Surely you’re not embarrassed…… so it must mean you don’t trust my skills.”

Hyde tilted her head with a genuinely curious expression, and Carbon’s thick dark brows twitched. He thought for a moment, then said,

“……I’m not sure, but if Billy let you in, he must have judged your skills adequate. So yes, I can trust that.”

“Then―!”

“But that’s a separate matter.”

Carbon’s tone had softened from before.

“How so?”

Hyde blinked and asked again.

“If you trust my skills, then why……”

Carbon couldn’t answer right away, only looking uncomfortable. Hyde asked in a voice that was almost on the verge of tears.

“I worked hard to learn massage because I wanted to be useful to you…… did I do something wrong? Am I being a nuisance?”

Carbon couldn’t help flinching when Hyde’s moist light-brown eyes fixed on him with that look.

Carbon had a weakness for children. And to him, Hyde had always been a child who needed protecting. Which meant he could not refuse Hyde’s earnest pleas.

“……Make it quick.”

Carbon said it with a sigh. Reluctant or not, permission was permission.

Hyde had known it would go this way. She shifted her expression quickly and smiled, pressing her oil-gleaming hand back to Carbon’s forearm.

Hyde consciously breathed in and out, keeping the breath that kept wanting to catch under control. Through the oil-slicked skin under her palms, she could feel how firm and elastic a well-maintained body was. The warmth transferred to her and she felt herself growing hot. To hide her trembling hands, Hyde made herself knead with deliberate boldness.

“Haah.”

Carbon let out a satisfied, contented sigh.

‘……Good.’

Carbon groaned inwardly. If her skills had been lacking he could have used that as an excuse to send her out, but Hyde was every bit as good as she had claimed.

“……Impressive.”

His praise made Hyde feel a swell of pride, but then she remembered her purpose and her expression hardened. This was no time to be pleased. Tending to Carbon’s muscles was part of the job, but she had absolutely no intention of letting this end so wholesomely.

Hyde shifted to a position above Carbon’s head and began pressing along his collarbone and neck, and her touch grew more deliberate. She could see his throat move clearly as he swallowed. Hyde pushed her hands up from the center of his collarbone along the line of his neck to just beneath his jaw, and from that angle, with the cloth no longer covering his eyes, she took in Carbon’s face.

His thick, full hair, usually swept back, had fallen forward naturally. Loose strands drifted across his brows now and then, and the sight of him so unguarded and at ease, something Hyde had almost never seen, made something warm and soft bloom in her chest. He must always look like this at home. She found herself wanting to know his private, hidden side.

The deep-set hollows beneath his brow bones were hidden by the cloth, but Hyde knew exactly how beautiful the eyes beneath those dense lashes were, with their unusual color.

People tended to think he had sharp, severe eyes because of his dark brows and the hard cut of his lids, but his vivid olive irises, when you looked into them quietly, felt like a window into the gentleness inside him, and it made her feel good. And the emotions that lived in those eyes were almost always warm and tender, so being on the receiving end of his gaze made the desire to keep it all to herself grow stronger.

His nose rose straight and high, perfect in shape without a single curve out of place. His lips were well-colored, a nice thickness, a pretty shape, and his angular jaw deepened the wild appeal of his features.

Just looking at that strong, mature face without doing anything else was enough to make her breath catch. The feeling swelling up inside her had lodged itself right in the pit of her chest.

Gazing quietly at his face, Hyde suddenly thought about how much she wanted to touch the firm jaw where stubble had come in by evening.

But if she touched his face, Carbon would stop her without hesitation, so the hand that had been hovering in indecision never reached his jawline and moved downward instead.

Swallowing the disappointment, Hyde let her gaze drift lower along Carbon’s body. Should she move further down? But judging by his reactions so far, it was still too early. She decided to work on something else first.

Finishing with the neck and shoulders, Hyde shifted position again and placed her hands on the broad, firm chest muscle. She could feel the strong beat of his heart beneath the wide expanse.