Chapter 61
The gaze looking down on oneself was indifferent, as if seeing an inanimate object. There was neither anger nor emotion in it. It was always like this whenever Owen faced it. That’s why Pavel provoked him even more. Did they both want to see each other’s identical faces ruined?
“Is it worth getting angry like this?”
Pavel chuckled. Asking if he was worth cutting his own fingers for a woman, Owen’s head tilted slightly at the question.
“Me getting angry?”
“I’m your brother. Born from the same womb.”
“You’ve never thought that way.”
Owen laughed, probing the flaw in Pavel’s words. Even though they looked alike like mirrors, there were clear differences. With his waist slightly bent, he still looked at Pavel’s face with determination, as if searching for a different feature.
Pavel laughed boldly with a bright face. His hand resting on the floor trembled. It was time for painkillers. He knew that shouting and getting angry wouldn’t affect Owen anyway.
“I should at least get a reward.”
Owen looked intrigued.
Normally Pavel’s voice tone was slightly higher, but when mimicking Owen, there wasn’t much difference. Yet Sarin could distinguish between them.
Owen licked the tip of his lips with his tongue. He should probably say something more to satisfy him.
“Nicholai won’t just let that girl be.”
Pavel raised his hand with a missing finger and spoke.
“That’s none of your concern. When you wanted to kill me, you should have done it with your own hands.”
“Whether you lived or died didn’t matter to me!”
Whether he died and could overlook Eden City or lived didn’t matter. As long as Nicholai was there, there was always a way out.
When Pavel said so, Owen looked at him with an expressionless face.
“It didn’t matter.”
“I just nudged you a little. I didn’t expect you to go straight to execution with your eyes rolled back.”
At the mention of nudging, Owen chuckled briefly with a blank face. Then he turned around and went back to the sofa where he had been sitting. Sitting there, he absentmindedly rummaged through the cigarettes in his pocket and eventually took out a stick of candy.
Crunch, crunch.
The sound of the candy breaking sharply, just as it is, Pavel frowned. It wasn’t mourning, and it was so inappropriate, calling it candy.
“Yeah. We both know the result of that nudge, don’t we, Pavel?”
Owen asked, his eyes gleaming. At that moment, Pavel realized that it wasn’t about the Romanovs, but something long forgotten, even from memory, that he dredged up to the surface. His face, which had been chuckling, froze terrifyingly.
“You…”
“So you should just stay quiet as if you’re dead. Why are you like this? Not only do you scatter seeds, but you’re also stupid enough to be unbearable.”
“…If I open my mouth, will you spare me?”
Pavel’s voice became unnaturally low.
There were only the two of them in the room, but it felt like he was whispering as if someone might hear. Watching blood seeping through the bandage, Owen swallowed the lump of sugar down his throat.
“Pavel.”
Owen called Pavel’s name with a somewhat affectionate tone.
“Owen, you…”
“Just stay quiet. Be lovely by Nicholai’s side. It’s just asking you to do what you do best.”
The past was an Achilles’ heel for both of them. So Owen never expected those words to come out of his mouth again. It was an unwritten rule not to bring up those buried and forgotten stories.
“Can you do that?”
Owen asked Pavel as sweetly as the remaining piece of candy in his mouth.
Pavel’s face twisted in disgust.
This guy is insane.
Intentionally mentioning Nicholai’s name, Owen provoked him. Pavel’s golden gaze wavered. Bringing up the buried past for the sake of a woman.
The determination not to die alone, or rather, the indifference to whatever happened afterward, emanated from his counterpart.
Why? Why now?
Pavel gritted his teeth. He couldn’t figure it out. He couldn’t even begin to guess what Owen was thinking, why he brought up such a forbidden topic.
“Answer.”
“…Fine.”
With a face that already knew the answer, Owen stood up from his seat. The elevator of the suite opened.
As Owen passed through the reception room and headed to his room, he realized that the dogs didn’t come out. Owen chuckled leisurely. He grabbed the handle, and as he gently pulled it down, the door opened without a sound. It was a slightly different touch than usual.
Three dogs lying on the bed with their ears perked up looked at Owen.
Sarin wasn’t on the bed.
Owen heard faint sounds of water from the bathroom, and his steps headed in that direction.
The dogs turned their heads towards the direction where Owen disappeared. Owen, walking slowly towards the dressing room in front of the bathroom, took off his suit jacket and unbuttoned the cuffs of his dress shirt. He glanced around the place, which looked different from when he left, in a way that was different from when he would leave.
He didn’t know Sarin’s taste. He didn’t want to know either.
Seeing him dressed, he didn’t really care about the taste, so this place reflected only his taste perfectly.
The presence of another in his complete space wasn’t so bad. The sweetness that hadn’t yet left his mouth made Owen’s mood even better. The last place his gaze landed on was in front of the dresser.
The gaze looking at the firmly closed dresser chilled in an instant.
And as he reached out his hand to open the drawer before taking off his shirt, he saw the passport and revolver still there.
His eyes softened.
“I should give you a reward after all.”
The maid responsible for the suite would never have taken his request lightly. He had checked it when he left this morning after leaving the sleeping Sarin, and it was the same now. Just like Sarin’s character, he was satisfied with this drawer, which was quietly closed again.
Did she hesitate?
Owen thought as he put the slightly crooked passport back where he had left it. He imagined the face of the woman who hesitated every time she opened this drawer. Perhaps she had sighed as she held the passport, unable to lie.
The sound of running water stopped, and the sound of the bathroom door opening was heard. Owen’s hand closed the dresser again. It was almost simultaneous when she stopped in front of the dressing room with the light on, barefoot, and Owen stood there.
“When did you come?”
Sarin, still in her bathrobe with damp hair, looked at Owen with surprise. It was unusual to see Owen, the owner of this place, here.
“Just a moment ago.”
“Ah…”
Her gaze indicated discomfort, as he was present when she needed to change clothes. Above all, Sarin was nervous that he might know she had opened the drawer today to see if her passport was still there.
Owen gestured for Sarin to come to him. Instead of her side of the dressing room, he indicated his own.
Sarin’s steps weren’t quite steady, but she approached Owen slowly.
“It seems like my dogs are following you more these days.”
“Maybe because you’ve been playing with them and taking them for walks.”
“Is that so?”
Owen reached out and lightly touched the wet end of Sarin’s hair. She felt oddly tense. Perhaps it was because of the conversation about the incendiary earlier in the day. Her mind couldn’t make sense of it, despite having already reached a conclusion. Even asking herself why only left her more confused.
“Well, um…”
As Sarin turned her head, the hair Owen was touching slipped away. His expression hardened. His hand quickly grasped Sarin’s chin, directing her gaze back to him. It was a firm touch, without hesitation or restraint.
“Have you thought about what you want?”
“You’ve already given me everything.”
“That’s a given.”
Sarin felt burdened growing up in a world where such things weren’t given. She was paying the price for her life, to his grandfather and to himself.
“Will you really give me anything I want?”
Sarin asked after swallowing dryly. Owen’s golden eyes didn’t miss even the habits she hadn’t noticed herself.
“Tell me.”
“Protect the child. No matter what. That’s all I want. If you want to repay me for something, do it with that.”
Unable to meet Owen’s eyes, Sarin’s gaze fell, and she caught sight of Owen’s unusually red lips today.
“Again.”
“What?”
“I’ll do that for you, so tell me something else.”
Sarin said,
” They had to keep their words once spoken.”
“There’s nothing else.”
Not wanting to show her relief, Sarin shook her head. Owen’s hand, which had been holding her chin, let go. Owen, who vaguely knew what Nicholai had said to her, thought that the words he had just uttered gave her confidence as he looked into her trembling pretty eyes.
The phrase ‘no matter what’ didn’t sound particularly important to him now.
“I don’t want to push someone who says they have nothing, but I feel like I want to do anything for you, so keep thinking about it.”
Somehow, the breath Owen exhaled at the end of his red lips felt sweet.
As if entranced, this time Sarin nodded up and down. Owen’s hand had somehow found its way to her waist. As his face approached, she reflexively closed her eyes. Avoiding the gaze looking at her was the only way.
Something warm touched her lips.
