Chapter 2: The Lee Family’s Pet (2)

　　“Hurt? Where?”

　　“Hey, was it my fault? Did I hurt him?”

　　The flash in her purple eyes promised violence if he didn’t answer quickly. He hastily raised his hands and wiggled his fingers as if playing a piano.

　　“His finger?”

　　“That’s right. He cut it peeling fruit.”

　　“He peeled fruit himself?”

　　At her incredulous stare, Jeonghyeon nodded vigorously. “I’m telling you!”

　　“And what were you doing?”

　　“Huh?”

　　Dana glared at him. “What were you doing while he was peeling fruit?”

　　“Uh… watching?”

　　“You should have peeled it for him! Why did you let him get hurt?”

　　Jeonghyeon fell silent, utterly speechless.

　　Dana shot him one last glare before whipping her head away.

　　This crazy bitch. She’s completely insane for Doha Lee. After letting out a silent string of curses, Jeonghyeon spoke again once his anger had cooled. It would be his loss if he let her go like this.

　　“Hey, seriously. Did you two have a fight?”

　　“Don’t be ridiculous.”

　　“What do you mean? It’s weird. Why would Doha suddenly peel his own fruit?”

　　Tilting his head, Jeonghyeon held up three fingers. “The only people who can get to him are Mujin Park, Yeonhwa Hwang, and you. That’s about it, right?” Though compared to the first two, she’s a bit of a wild card.

　　He folded his fingers and gave a broad smile, his slightly upturned nostrils flaring. “If it were about Mujin Park, he’d be breaking everything in sight. If it were Yeonhwa Hwang, he’d be on a flight to China. But right now, he just seems subtly pissed off. So, there’s your answer. It’s because of you.”

　　“Don’t you have anything better to do than obsess over things like that?”

　　At her contemptuous look, he clamped his mouth shut. He wanted to dig for details, but it was impossible when she was snarling at him like a rabid dog.

　　“So arrogant.”

　　If she didn’t belong to the Lee family, he would have just shoved her to the ground. Dana coldly ignored him as he licked his lips again.

　　Jeonghyeon was the type who would have been a back-alley thug if he hadn’t been lucky enough to awaken as an Esper. He was all smiles and obedience around Doha, but Dana despised him. He was unworthy of being near someone so noble.

　　Before long, they arrived at the S-Wing Dormitory, where Doha lived. Unlike the wings for regular students, the security here was as tight as any government facility. Dana waited patiently while Jeonghyeon authenticated his identity with his watch. The moment they reached Doha’s door, she dismissed him.

　　“Goodbye.”

　　“Whoa, wait, I’ll come in with you—”

　　Slam!

　　Jeonghyeon swore at the firmly shut door. Dana stood still for a moment, her hand on the knob.

　　She waited until the entryway’s motion-sensor light clicked off before slowly turning around. If she let her guard down for even a second, she knew her heart would start to pound and she’d go rushing in.

　　Her movement triggered the sensor again, flooding the entryway with light and making the darkness beyond seem even deeper. She padded silently inside. Though called a dormitory, the residence for the nation’s most prized awakened beings had better facilities than most luxury apartments.

　　Dana crossed the spacious living room and pulled back the heavy curtains. Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling window, chasing the shadows away.

　　“Ugh.”

　　A man lying on the sofa groaned. The light poured over his pale, shadowed face. His skin was as white as a passing cloud.

　　His features were a study in contrasts—both gentle and sharp—with an elegantly sculpted nose that immediately drew the eye. His eyes, framed by deep-set double eyelids, furrowed, revealing brown irises.

　　A faint irritation from being woken colored his expression as he looked at her. His cool gaze narrowed, then smoothed into impassivity.

　　Dana glanced at his hand, which dangled over the edge of the sofa. A thick bandage was wrapped around his index finger like a sausage. As she hesitated, unable to approach, Doha beckoned with a single finger, as if calling a pet.

　　“Come here.”

　　Only then did she hurry to the sofa and kneel before him. “I heard you hurt your finger.”

　　Doha was silent.

　　“You should have called me if you wanted fruit.”

　　Her tone was calm, but the words trembled with an unsteady anxiety. Their eyes met, now at the same level. His held a hint of annoyance; hers, a deep-seated fear.

　　“You’re the one who said you wanted to leave.”

　　“That’s…”

　　Flustered, Dana bit her lip. Then, feigning nonchalance, she said, “That’s that. Since when have you ever cared what I thought, anyway?”

　　All the while, she tried to decipher his true intentions. He said I wanted to leave… Is he really going to let me go?

　　Doha wasn’t the type to let go of what he possessed, even if he broke it in the process. Shaking the thought away, she reached for his hand to examine the wound. He brushed her off, annoyed, but when she stubbornly took his hand again, he relented.

　　After inspecting the clumsy bandage, she sighed. “What is this? It’s upsetting.”

　　Watching her, the corner of Doha’s mouth curved up subtly. “When are you leaving?”

　　“What?”

　　“You said you were leaving.”

　　“When did I say that? I said I wanted to leave.”

　　It was a game of words. Doha snorted. “It’s all the same.”

　　Dana was speechless.

　　“What, was it just something you said in the heat of the moment?”

　　Dana’s eyes widened, the denial catching in her throat. Seeing her speechless hesitation, Doha mocked her. “It’s the first time you’ve ever said anything like that.”

　　She remained silent.

　　“So I thought about it. Whether I’d be okay without you.”

　　“Right. You have Saeron Kim now…”

　　“Ah, that’s right,” Doha readily agreed, his face unreadable. “I have Yeonhwa and Saeron Kim, so receiving guiding won’t be a problem.”

　　At his easy confirmation, Dana’s expression fell.

　　“What?” he asked.

　　She didn’t answer.

　　“Wasn’t that what you meant?”

　　Her face flushed, Dana clamped her mouth shut. Her gloomy silence was a dead giveaway. And yet, she never denied it. Doha gently rubbed her tightly sealed lips with his thumb.

　　“Did my parents say something to you again? Or was it my grandfather?”

　　His cool voice was a soft whisper. The tension in Dana’s shoulders eased slightly. When she remained silent, he moved his thumb from her lips and lightly caressed her cheek, which felt as soft as spun sugar. His touch was proprietary and unthinking, like a child with a favorite toy, and Dana meekly allowed it.

　　“It’s always the same. Whenever you act strange, it’s because of them.”

　　“…As long as I have you, that’s all I need,” she said, answering a different question entirely.

　　She leaned in and wrapped her arms around him. Doha was notoriously particular about physical contact, but Dana had always been the exception. She inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with the citrus fragrance he always wore, and rubbed her face against his hard, bony shoulder.

　　Was Doha’s guess correct? It was half-right. His family’s cruelty was nothing new. But the reason she’d told a lie she didn’t mean was both related and unrelated to them.

　　It would have been better if we could have stayed children forever…

　　Then her greed for him would have remained simple, appropriate for that age. A regretful sigh caught in her throat. But time had passed, and she had grown up. It was inevitable that the monster of her desire would grow with her. Before, just being by his side had been enough.

　　He had saved her when her parents died, when she herself was about to be killed by a demon beast. More than ten years had passed since that day.

　　She was now bound to the Lee family by an employment contract—a slave contract, in truth—but that had never mattered to her. Even without it, she would have done anything for Doha.

　　But now, a crack was forming in a life that had once been fulfilled by giving alone.

　　You have to love me.

　　Until now, she had only thought of loving him. She couldn’t imagine being loved in return. It would be more accurate to say she hadn’t dared to wish for it.

　　She was a contaminant, an untouchable. Being at the bottom of the social ladder meant you didn’t get to have what others did. Even knowing that, it was hard for Dana to simply give up.

　　Where had this presumptuous desire to be loved even come from? She smiled bitterly.

　　Suddenly, her lonely expression softened. Doha was hugging her back. His arms, firm and masculine in contrast to his pale skin, wrapped around her like a snake.

　　Doha Lee’s dog. The Lee family had enrolled the contaminant in Ideia just to take care of him. But what people didn’t know—what no one knew—was that the girl treated as a mere servant was, in fact, an unregistered Guide.