The security officer’s expression crumpled.

“What is this! These magic readings! You definitely used a magic tool!”

The loud alarm from the magic tool detector drew everyone’s attention their way.

“I regularly use a fountain pen made with magical engineering.”

Though Blake answered like an excuse, the security officer treated him like a criminal.

“You should have mentioned that beforehand. Since you didn’t, we’ll escort you to the security office for now.”

Just when Blake’s face was turning pale, Debbie pulled a handkerchief from his bathrobe pocket.

“Could it be because of this?”

The handkerchief Debbie unfolded contained small purple fragments.

“You dropped the magic tool detector when going upstairs earlier, right? Some fragments fell off, so I picked them up to return them to you even though they’re small. That’s probably why the alarm is going off?”

Debbie brought the handkerchief fragments close to the magic tool detector. The detector sounded its loud alarm again.

“My sweet honey was going to give this to you, but you left in such a hurry. I guess you didn’t notice then.”

Debbie looked back and forth between Blake and the security officer.

“Right, honey?”

Debbie wrapped both arms around Blake’s waist.

“I know magic crystal stones are expensive even in tiny powder form, but handling them so carelessly like this…”

At Debbie’s words, Blake responded with delight.

“That’s right. Even diluted liquid solutions are expensive.”

“We saw you drop that precious magic tool detector on the floor, didn’t we?”

“Right. You handled it so carelessly that fragments scattered.”

The security officer started to protest but then closed his mouth. Then he snatched the handkerchief from Debbie’s hand.

With a displeased expression, he went to someone else and irritably pointed the magic tool detector while barking orders.

“Come on! Report any magic tools you’re carrying beforehand and get examined! Quickly! Can’t you see we’re busy?”

Phew.

Watching him, Debbie unwrapped her arms from his neck and let out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly Blake embraced Debbie from behind. His chin touched the top of her head.

From how his shoulders rose and fell dramatically, he too seemed to have been very startled before feeling relieved.

Since she had only ever seen his composed side, Debbie couldn’t imagine him looking flustered and chuckled softly. He gently rubbed his chin against her head.

“Sweet honey…”

He whispered quietly.

“I like it. Call me that once more.”

Debbie’s face grew hot.

“That was just for the emergency…”

“Call me sweet honey again.”

He spoke slowly against her ear.

This is crazy. Even in an emergency, calling someone honey.

Debbie, who had carelessly used a word she’d seen during magazine deadlines, shrank her neck with goosebumps. She had never once called anyone that in her entire life.

But it was a common endearment in magazine articles. An endearment she had never imagined she would use.

“Come on. Say honey like you did before.”

“I… I don’t want to!”

Debbie felt embarrassed and struggled to escape his embrace. The more she did, the more he tightened his arms and held her closer.

He was like a fox catching a defenseless chick by the scruff of its neck.

“What should I do with something so cute?”

He chuckled behind her neck.

“Cute! How rude to say such things!”

Debbie grew serious at being called cute, but he didn’t care.

“Hah. This is driving me crazy. Stop squirming.”

He brought his lips to the top of her head.

“The more you wiggle, the more stimulating it gets.”

Debbie’s struggling movements stiffened.

“We… we need to get out of here. We don’t have time for this.”

“I’m regretting why I said I’d show you my gentlemanly side. Should I stop holding back and just kiss your lips?”

Somehow the mention of kissing her lips at this moment sounded suggestive. Perhaps it was because his bare chest was pressed against her back.

“Get my clothes from the car trunk.”

Saying this, Blake deeply sucked on the back of Debbie’s neck like stamping a seal. It was hot like being burned.

“Ahng!”

Before she knew it, Debbie made a strange nasal sound and sprang out of his embrace.

“Foul! That’s foul!”

She should have insisted that all kisses harbored impure intentions. Debbie rubbed the back of her neck and ran toward where his car was parked.

* * *

“To think the Editor-in-Chief was Mr. Fret…!”

Photographer Black was still muttering, unable to recover from the shock.

“After the scandal with reporter AB, there was no one to replace him, so I had Fret do it.”

Blake glanced at Black in the backseat while driving.

“Then there was no need to disguise yourself.”

“Fret’s educational background isn’t particularly impressive, so if I had just appointed him directly, would the other reporters have readily followed his lead?”

Blake gave Black a reasonable excuse while hiding that he himself had played Gray’s role most of the time.

“Well… that’s true.”

“I did it for my own convenience, but will you keep this secret? It would be troublesome if other reporters started clamoring to be editor-in-chief now.”

Blake spoke nonchalantly.

“Yes, I will.”

Photographer Black nodded. Fret, sitting right next to him, was acting indifferent with his chin propped up and his arm hanging out the window, looking like he couldn’t be bothered to speak.

Debbie, sitting in the passenger seat, hung her head with a tired expression.

‘This is so embarrassing I could die.’

After the hotel m＊rder incident, everyone was pushed out of the hotel.

Perhaps because it was the death of a famous opera singer, even more security officers were deployed, and every room was thoroughly searched under the pretext of investigation.

Even after that, all guests had to go to the security office to write statements before being released.

Eric was particularly desperate to pin something on Blake and Fret, but they were eventually released.

Blake seemed to have nerves of steel, maintaining his composed expression even after all this happened. Like someone confident he would eventually be released.

But Debbie couldn’t forget how flustered he had been when caught by the magic tool detector.

Acting so composed now after being so shaken… In a way, he was a true winner.

Debbie’s gaze focused on the bag placed on her lap.

Though Debbie had retrieved her bag from the information desk at Blake’s request, Blake still hadn’t said a word about the bag.

When he had suddenly embraced her and left the auction venue, she had left her bag at her seat, and it naturally became lost property kept at the information desk.

But more curious than this bag was what would happen next.

To think Blake was the white-gloved phantom thief.

How should she treat her boss now?

She even remembered how she had acted coldly toward him, thinking Editor-in-Chief Gray liked her and wanting to keep her distance, and she was still stamping her feet in frustration.

She wanted to erase her stupid past self from the world.

‘Why did you do that to me!’

‘How could you pretend to be three completely different people?’

No, that’s not right. The time she spent alone worrying about how to handle these complex relationship threads, not knowing they were the same person and thinking they were different people, felt so foolish it was maddening.

‘Aaah! I’m so embarrassed I could faint!’

Debbie imagined turning to dust and disappearing from the world.

“Fret, you worked hard, so go in and rest well.”

After Blake dropped off Black and Fret in turn, when he was alone with Debbie, he lifted her chin with one hand.

“Look at me.”

Debbie couldn’t meet his gaze and turned her head away. She didn’t even want to sit in the passenger seat.

She had only sat in the passenger seat because Fret and Black had gotten in the back seat first. Blake’s hand turned her head.

“Why are you avoiding my eyes?”

Even though he had turned her head to face him directly, Debbie’s eyes quickly darted to the side.

Watching Debbie desperately try to avoid his gaze, Blake chuckled softly.

“When did you call me sweet honey?”

“No, that was just to save you, boss!”

Debbie exploded in frustration.

“But you make eye contact well at times like this.”

At Blake’s words, Debbie realized her mistake and avoided his gaze again. He chuckled.

“Ah. This is driving me crazy. This is why I can’t hate you.”

He parked the car on a quiet roadside and smiled while looking at Debbie.

“Since I’m confessing everything, let me admit without hiding anything – the freelance reporter AB you respected was also me.”

Gasp!

Debbie’s face turned deathly pale.

“That’s a lie!”

Debbie screamed. She screamed so loudly that if Blake hadn’t already parked the car, he might have momentarily let go of the steering wheel.

“Whoa… calm down. Is that something to get so angry about? You met the respected senior reporter you were so eager to meet.”

At that moment, tears began falling from Debbie’s lowered head. Blake was flustered by her tears.

“What’s wrong?”

“Was it fun? Deceiving me?”

Debbie’s face crumpled completely. Her face, genuinely flushed red, was filled with anger and misery.

“Did you enjoy watching my foolish appearance, unable to grasp a single proper truth while that person was right in front of me, making mistakes!”

“Oh no…”

Blake realized he had wounded her pride and bit his tongue. He hadn’t expected her to feel this miserable.

Since she had said she respected him so much, he thought she might view him more favorably, but everything he did only made Debbie confused and angry.

“I wasn’t trying to tease you.”

Blake tried to salvage the situation belatedly, but it was useless. Debbie just kept her head down, biting her lips tightly and shedding tears.

“Hah…”

Blake ruffled his hair and smoothed it back, letting her cry. It wasn’t something that could be soothed anyway.

When her tears had subsided a little, he spoke.

“If I may make an excuse…”

“I don’t want to hear it!”

Debbie covered her ears. But that didn’t block out all sound.

“Do you know why my pen name was AB?”

Debbie pretended not to listen. However, Blake continued speaking as calmly as possible.

“Why can’t I do anything? I was frustrated, wondering if anyone would care no matter what I did. I was lying in the grass crying alone in severe despair when a girl approached me and said this.”

It was a moment Debbie remembered too.

“The me being scolded right now isn’t me, but a child called ‘A’.”

He repeated exactly what she had said, so precisely that Debbie wondered if she had really said that.

“Troublemaker A gets scolded today, but good child B isn’t involved so he pretends not to know and waits. After A finishes getting scolded, he should take troublemaker A with joke-telling child C to play in the stream.”

That day’s events, which she had only vaguely remembered, came vividly back to life before Blake’s precise memory. Including the face of the boy with tear-wet pink eyes.

“Those words from that day, saying I couldn’t be condemned for just one mistake, have kept me alive until now.”

Blake said.

“That’s why my pen name is AB – so I wouldn’t forget that day.”

Debbie’s eyes widened.

“When you came to my publishing house, I thought it was destiny.”

At Blake’s calm words, Debbie lowered her hands that had been covering her ears.