“It’s daybreak, Seong Yeohwi.”
“Mm……?”
Why is Dowon-ssi waking me up?
Yeohwi, who hadn’t yet fully emerged from sleep, was completely out of it. The fatigue from enduring an uncomfortable position all night combined to the point where dreams and reality were intertwined.
And no wonder, since in reality there was absolutely no reason for Dowon to come wake Yeohwi.
‘Is it a dream…… Like last time.’
That sweet dream he’d had before. Was he seeing that fantasy again today?
So before reason could even function, his arms instinctively reached out first in greeting.
Yeohwi firmly embraced the waist of Dowon standing before him and buried his face in his abdomen.
“Don’t wanna, I’m sleepy……”
A voice soaked in sleep came out on its own.
“I wanna sleep more……”
The texture of firm muscles transmitted through the highest quality fabric. A regularly beating heart. And body temperature. It was warm. As if it were real.
Yeohwi, intoxicated by the sense of relief, burrowed deeper into his embrace. He wanted to be trapped forever in this warmth.
“Are you crazy.”
But the voice that fell from above his head was too cynical to be a dream. The sensation of a cold belt buckle touching his cheek awakened his nerves.
‘Huh……?’
Yeohwi slowly, very slowly lifted his head.
As his vision became clear, he saw Dowon’s face looking down at him.
What was there was not a gentle smile like spring sunshine, but the real Dowon sneering as if dumbfounded, with one eyebrow raised obliquely.
Realization came like lightning. Realizing his mistake, Yeohwi fell away as if pushing Dowon off without even being able to scream. He barely managed to support his body, which nearly slipped off the sofa from the recoil, by grabbing the armrest.
“N-no. This was me half-asleep…… I thought it was a dream……!”
“What the hell kind of shitty dream are you going around having.”
“What do you mean shitty. It’s just a pleasant dream with Dowon-ssi in it!”
“Watch your words. If someone heard, they’d think you had a wet dream or something.”
“What? Uh, uhuh?”
“Not going to deny it?”
“Ugh…… No.”
His face burned unbearably. What on earth did he do? Arbitrarily embracing Dowon-ssi’s waist.
Dowon brushed off his disheveled shirttails with his hand and swept over Yeohwi with an indifferent gaze.
“Fortunate you didn’t drool. I almost had to throw away my shirt.”
Yeohwi hurriedly wiped his mouth. It was dry. It was clear mockery.
“……I didn’t drool.”
“Whatever, if you’re up, sit down. We need to eat and go out.”
Dowon gestured with his chin toward the dining table in the center of the living room.
There, a breakfast befitting this hotel’s class was laid out.
In the place where the sterling silver dome cover had been removed, freshly baked Zopf bread was giving off a savory butter aroma, and on crystal plates, Emmental and Gruyère cheese and smoked salmon were neatly plated. Combined with the Zurich scenery unfolding outside the window, it was an unrealistic scene like a movie set.
“Yes……”
Yeohwi hesitantly pulled out a chair and sat down. Dowon, leisurely seated across from him, picked up his coffee. His appearance tilting the cup with elegant and restrained movements matched admirably with the antique furniture. It was enough to create the illusion that he was the owner of this hotel.
Yeohwi stared at him blankly then hurriedly straightened his clothes. Dowon was so perfect like that, yet here he was sitting stupidly with a bird’s nest of hair in wrinkled pajamas. Even if he woke up early, dressed prettily, and tried hard to look good, it wouldn’t be enough.
Then, Dowon placed something on the table.
Two opera house tickets.
“Final check of today’s route.”
Dowon’s eyes instantly changed to those of a sharp businessman.
“As soon as we leave the hotel, we’ll have a tail. It’s impossible to shake them off in the street. So we’ll enter a closed room.”
“A closed room?”
His long finger tapped the tickets.
“VIP box seats reserved for today. Once the performance starts, that place is perfectly isolated from the outside. If we draw the curtain, no one can see what we’re doing inside.”
“Then…… we’re going to see a performance?”
“Pretending to see one.”
Yeohwi swallowed his dry saliva. It somehow felt like a scene from a breathtaking spy movie.
“15 minutes after the performance starts, when the lights go out and everyone is focused on the stage. We’ll slip out through the VIP-only emergency passage connected to the back of the box seat.”
“And go straight to the bank?”
“Right. We don’t have much time. If we keep the curtain drawn for too long, that will also invite suspicion. Then it’s only a matter of time before it reaches Do Jingyu’s ears.”
Dowon picked up the tickets and stood up.
“Don’t make mistakes. The moment you misstep or hesitate, it’s over.”
“You don’t need to scare me like that. I’m really confident.”
Yeohwi raised his head with determination. Then after hesitating for a moment, he faced Dowon and threw down a challenge.
“Dowon-ssi should be prepared. Once we start, we have to deceive thoroughly.”
“You’re stating the obvious.”
“No, what I mean is, we really have to make it convincing. So we look like newlyweds who really draw the curtain and do secret things.”
Yeohwi’s face slowly flushed. Dowon had probably just casually stated a business strategy, but from Yeohwi’s position, it wasn’t like that.
“I’m…… not joking. We need to maintain that level of density and tension for them to let their guard down. We need to make them think ‘those guys are in heat, they’re too busy stuck together’ and turn away for it to be convincing. Can Dowon-ssi do that?”
Yeohwi tightly gripped both fists under the table. His heart beat irregularly.
To Dowon this was merely thorough calculation and acting, but to him, it was real combat. An important opportunity that would surely not come twice.
“Dowon-ssi and I have to be like we’re dying for each other. You can really do it, right?”
He didn’t want to say these words while wearing wrinkled pajamas.
His disheveled bangs bothered him.
And Dowon, after watching Yeohwi throw down the challenge intently, kicked the dining table leg once hard with his foot wearing indoor slippers. The dishes clattered and jolted. The water glass in front of Yeohwi also shook as if it would almost overflow.
“Are you threatening me.”
Dowon’s eyes sank viciously. He slowly leaned his upper body forward.
His black eyes without luster approached close enough to devour Yeohwi.
“Should I go give you a kiss……?”
A low voice scraped his ear. Threatening yet sexy like the growl of a predator eyeing prey.
“What? Do, Dowon-ssi. Really?”
“Or should I just knead between your legs?”
Seeing Yeohwi’s flustered reaction, Dowon furrowed his brow and turned around.
“Act like the kid you are.”
It was clearly words meant to deflect the provocation, but Dowon’s expression wasn’t so relaxed. Perhaps the first button had gone wrong from coming to Switzerland under the pretext of a honeymoon. Increasingly, Seong Yeohwi was attacking while walking a tightrope.
Dowon deliberately spat out more roughly to erase this irrational situation.
“You who couldn’t even be touched on the first night. Don’t keep trying to give off a manly smell and imitate adults. If you really get devoured, you won’t be able to handle it.”
Dowon moved his steps toward the dressing room. Yeohwi blankly stared at his back.
His heart went cold. But at the same time, strangely, it was thrilling enough to make his spine tingle.
Was it because he’d lost his mind that the words about being devoured sounded like temptation rather than warning? He couldn’t distinguish right from wrong. Yeohwi cupped his heated cheeks and endlessly gazed at the door where Dowon had disappeared.
***
Zurich Opera House (Opernhaus Zürich).
The massive neo-baroque style building constructed in 1891 shone brilliantly like a jewelry box under golden lighting. At the entrance, top-quality sedans stopped in a line, and the dress hems of noble ladies and gentlemen’s tuxedos pouring out from them embroidered the night street. Here and there, the smell of expensive perfume and the sweetness of champagne wafted.
Then, a limousine stopped in front of the red carpet.
When the doorman politely opened the door, along with the cold night air, people’s gazes naturally gravitated toward it.
