Chapter 13

Without knowing how she had fallen asleep, Gayeon had drifted off, then suddenly snapped her eyes open.

Before the unfamiliar room, what she saw first was Kiril sleeping directly in front of her.

The hand lying neatly overlapped between her face and his, their fingers still intertwined, felt unfamiliar.

The room was still dark.

She had been conscious of him the entire time, and only after he fell asleep had she finally been able to close her eyes.

Come to think of it, even on the plane she had barely eaten, and after arriving in Russia, she could not remember eating any proper food either.

Now that she felt a little more human again, hunger came rushing in.

There were probably simple snacks like crackers in the minibar set up off to one side, but she could not move for fear that Kiril would wake.

The moment she let go of his hand, it felt as though the man would wake and stare at her again.

Her lips and tongue felt dry.

The room, with the heater turned up too high, was dry.

Slowly, Gayeon slipped her hand free from the man’s grasp.

She carefully pried apart his tightly laced fingers one by one and rose from the bed as slowly as possible so the bedsheets would not make a sound.

Kiril’s sleeping face was expressionless.

He did not even look deeply asleep, to the point that she wondered if he truly was sleeping, nor was his face relaxed.

His face, so devoid of expression it looked as though he were lying in a coffin, was even chilling.

She got up and tiptoed toward the minibar in the sitting area.

A soft carpet covered the floor, but for some reason she felt she had to do that.

Click.

She opened the refrigerator and first took out some cold milk.

Then she carefully wrestled open a bag of peanuts and crackers, trying not to make any noise.

She wanted to heat the milk, but she thought the sound might wake Kiril, so she decided to drink it cold.

“I thought you’d run away.”

“Pff.”

She sprayed the milk she had been drinking straight out in front of her.

Leaning at a slant against the wall, arms folded, sleepy-eyed, Kiril had appeared soundlessly before her as he spoke.

Seeing the milk that had even come out through her nose, he approached, pulled out some tissues from nearby, and started wiping her face in a fluster.

“How filthy.”

“Cough, cough-cough.”

Gayeon kept coughing, her shoulders shaking.

He had only been briskly wiping her face, but seeing that the milk had gone down her airway and that she still could not breathe and was coughing, Kiril frowned.

“Like this?”

Thump! Thump!

It felt as though her back were splitting in half.

At the rough blows raining down, Gayeon pitched herself over the table.

“……If you…… hit…… like that…… people die.”

At those words, a strange look crossed Kiril’s face, and he adjusted his strength.

By the time it stopped pounding and became no more than a gentle stroke, Gayeon, who had truly felt she might die at this rate, finally managed to straighten her waist.

“Did you do something wrong? Were you really trying to run away?”

Why was this turning into that?

It seemed this man thought she had choked because he had startled her.

“No. You suddenly appeared without making a sound, so I sprayed it out through my nose.”

Her throat still stung and her eyes burned.

More than that, though, what hurt most was her back.

She was honestly worried it might really have split open.

Each time Kiril struck her, her breath had caught so hard that she had thought he was hitting her to kill her.

“I thought you’d run away.”

“……What happens if I do run away?”

“I’ve never kept something alive and taken it around with me like this before. It’s easier to kill than to take care of something, isn’t it?”

Gayeon nodded.

It was the same thought she had had back at the mansion.

Why had this man, for whom killing would be easier, not killed anyone?

“But my patience is shallow, so if you run again, I might decide it’s better to just kill you.”

“I couldn’t sleep because I was hungry.”

Kiril frowned between the brows, as though that had never occurred to him.

Then he slowly looked over the snacks spread out on the table.

“……Let’s order room service.”

“No. I’m just going to eat something simple and go back to sleep.”

Thinking again and again that if she wanted to survive, she must not do anything to provoke this man’s so-called shallow patience, Gayeon stopped Kiril as he reached for the receiver.

He glanced at her once, then in the end ordered room service anyway, asking for things she could eat ‘simply,’ like salad and soup.

Then, except for the milk, he swept the snacks all at once into the trash.

“If you’re hungry, say so.”

There was irritation in that remark.

It did not seem directed at her, but rather at the fact that he had failed to think that far ahead, so she nodded.

“I will.”

It was such a simple order that the bell rang in less than twenty minutes, and he went out himself and brought back the salad and soup.

After setting them on the table, he went to the minibar and poured himself some liquor in a glass.

“Neither of us has eaten, though. Aren’t you going to eat?”

Since she had practically gone hungry the whole time, the same was true for this man.

In response to Gayeon’s question, he simply lifted his glass in silence in place of an answer.

“I skip meals often, so if you’re hungry, say it when you are.”

For Kiril, eating was only something that had to be expelled in the end.

Whether through the mouth or the anus.

So there was no way he could feel attachment to or desire for food.

When he needed to, he chose things like energy bars or protein shakes, things that would not be troublesome even if he vomited them up.

Gayeon put a crunchy bite of salad into her mouth and chewed.

Kiril tossed back the strong liquor as though he were drinking water.

Then, perhaps because she had truly been hungry, he watched with unfamiliar eyes as she emptied the bowl of salad and spooned up the soup.

He had very little memory of seeing someone eat right in front of him.

Her cheeks puffed full, then her lips stayed tightly closed as they moved in small motions, and it was rather amusing.

Just then the bell rang.

Gayeon could feel Kiril’s gaze turn toward the door beyond the wall.

He stopped her with one hand as she started to rise.

The ringing would not stop.

It rang over and over again, and soon a dull pounding of fists thudding against the door could be heard.

Kiril’s subordinates were guarding the outside.

How many people could there really be who could ignore them and ring the bell like this?

“Ignore it.”

He said it as someone who already knew who it was without even needing to look.

“They seem like they have the nerve to keep at it all night.”

“If he doesn’t want his fingers cut off, he won’t do something like that.”

That sounded so much like the truth that Gayeon gave an awkward laugh.

The bell rang, fists pounded on the door, and then suddenly it all stopped.

And then the other person boldly opened the door and came in.

Holding a master key in his hand, he flung the door open, strode straight into the sitting room in one sweep.

A blond man, slim and well-built like a model, was stomping over after confirming Kiril was there, but the moment he saw Gayeon across from him, he stopped short.

“……Ms. Angelica Willis?”

At the man who asked that the instant he saw her face, she first stood up from her seat.

“How do you know me?”

“Because I’m the very one who investigated you and handed the information over to Kiril, Ms. Angelica Willis.”

Saying that, the man glared at the seated Kiril.

Without paying any attention to his gaze, Kiril simply drained the rest of his drink in one swallow.

A hand was extended in front of Gayeon.

“Anyway, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Anton Sorokin of the Russian intelligence service, CSR.”

“I’m Angelica Willis.”

Gayeon said it as she took his hand.

Watching that, Kiril grabbed her wrist and pulled the two of them apart.

Anton stared at him in confusion as he drew Gayeon toward himself with a cold face.

“Don’t touch her. I found her.”

“Wow……. Hey, I’m the one who gave you the information.”

Anton looked at Kiril with an aggrieved expression, but Kiril stood Gayeon behind him as though protecting her from an enemy.

The unpleasantness Kiril had felt when Anton clasped Gayeon’s hand made Anton seem like an enemy, no matter how long they had known each other.

“By any chance, I hope you haven’t been harmed.”

To be honest, Anton had thought Gayeon would be a corpse.

Even if Kiril had brought her here, he had expected she would not be in normal condition, but the woman before his eyes looked entirely normal.

Two eyes, two hands, two feet.

“I’m not hurt anywhere. I’m fine.”

Because the concern mixed into Anton’s words was clearly aimed at Kiril, Gayeon answered with a smile.

“Could the two of us talk alone for a moment?”

He spoke with a smile like one painted into place, and she nodded.

“I’ll go wait in the room.”

“No. Stay here.”

Kiril said it without releasing Gayeon’s arm even then.

He seated her beside himself.

Then he jerked his chin at Anton, telling him to sit across from them.