Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Heart had always whispered sweetly to her with a picturesque smile planted on his face. Sugarcoated words that were full of love. But if that had all been a lie, then why would he have done that?

Alice glared strongly at Heart. But Heart just shrugged his shoulders and answered, “That’s just because SoYoon was nice to you.”

“...What, did you say?”

“If I had just let you be, then what do you think would have happened?”

If Alice hadn’t gone into Heart’s house, she would still be wandering around Wonderland doing whatever met her fancy without any fear of repercussions. And in that case, SoYoon would have had to follow her around in an attempt to protect her from harm.

“I didn’t want to see SoYoon be in danger by protecting the likes of you. That’s why I felt that I should take matters into my own hands and keep you tied down in my house.”

Heart had pretended to be a man in love even with the risk that Alice presented. It was all in an attempt to keep SoYoon away from any situation that warranted her involvement. As a consequence, he was able to cause SoYoon to become jealous, so to Heart, this was a very good deal that worked in his favor.

“I’m very grateful to you. Thanks to you, my Whitey... SoYoon gave up on her attachment to her world and has decided to stay here with us. Plus, the reason she was able to come to this world in the first place was that you killed her. As repayment, I will at least let you live.”

Heart lowered his head to look at Alice. She was covered in blood and urine but she was still very pretty. After knowing everything about her, her beauty disgusted him even more. Heart smiled maliciously and whispered sweetly to her, “Really feel how it is to want to die when you can’t.”

The way that SoYoon had suffered. Heart swallowed these last words into the back of his throat.

After being tortured night and day for 3 days straight, Mad Hatter healed Alice and she was handed over to SoYoon. She tossed Alice over her shoulder and headed to Duke’s. He saw the unconscious Alice and smiled happily.

“Are you really letting me keep her for 3 years?”

“If you have the potion I am looking for.”

The potion that SoYoon was requesting from Duke was something that would keep the mind intact but the body dead like a corpse. It was something he had created when he realized that, even with all the efforts he put into preserving a dead body, it would go bad after very little use.

From his laboratory, Duke brought over a small glass vial and put it to Alice’s mouth. The clear, colorless liquid flowed smoothly between Alice’s lips. When the bottle was almost empty, SoYoon spoke.

“And from now on, stay away from me, Dor, and Li. This is my last condition. If you break it.. that will be the end of your life.”

With this final threat to Duke, SoYoon left the house without a glance. After a few steps, she stopped walking.

“You can come out now.”

There were a few seconds of silence before the three men slowly crawled out. When she had been carrying Alice, she’d ignored them, not wanting to be bothered. But no longer burdened, she couldn’t help but give them her attention. “Why are you following me?”

SoYoon looked from one man to the next. As she did, the three men didn’t answer and tried to avoid her gaze. After a minute passed, Dee, no longer able to stand the situation, yelled out, “Aw, c’mon. Hey, if it was you, you think you wouldn’t have done the same? Think about it. You tell us that girl is the key to you going back to that Earth or jungle or whatever world that you came from and then you just leave the house carrying her away and you ask us what? Why did we follow you?”

SoYoon blinked several times, then let out a sigh. As she did, the three men flinched.

“So what you’re saying is that you were following me because you were afraid that I would go back to Earth with Alice?”

They didn’t answer her. SoYoon could read the anxiousness in their faces. She didn’t want to admit these words out loud but she told them the truth. “I can’t go. There is no way to go back.”

The only person who could naively be happy about this news was Dee. He was trying so intently to hide his happiness that his lips became skewed strangely. Heart looked at her with mixed emotions then smiled. Mad Hatter walked up to SoYoon with a face full of conflicted feelings.

If she could put her emotions on a scale, her desire to return to Earth and her desire to stay here were equal. If somehow she found a way to return to Earth, she would have to think it over again. And so, other than this truth, there was nothing more she could tell them.

She felt guilty and sorry and so changed the subject. “How did you know I left the house with Alice?”

Alice had been trapped at Heart’s house. When she had carried Alice away, neither Mad Hatter nor Twins were there. Heart was one thing, but the other two should not have known about this.

Not only Dee stiffened at her question. Mad Hatter slowly avoided her as his face stiffened also. Heart, the only one not fettered by this question, spoke up. “Well, I know the reason.”

“You better shut your mouth.” Mad Hatter glared sharply at Heart. He looked like he wanted to rip Heart’s mouth apart with his wire this instant. Heart looked at that face and smiled.

“Now, if you say something like that, I’ll have to reveal the truth. To tell you the truth, SoYoon, there is a surveillance camera installed in front of your house. He was spying on you inside your home all this time, and now that you’re leaving, he was following...”

“Shut up! You use your intel to get information on all of SoYoon’s movements and you dare to try to frame me as the bad guy! You, Heart, are the one that needs to explain. I, at least, never searched SoYoon’s house without her permission.”

“When did I ever...”

“Looks like you just remembered.”

Mad Hatter smiled with his red lips as he glanced over at SoYoon. When he saw that she was observing them, he continued confidently. “I guess you didn’t think I’d know that you switched out all of the previous White Rabbit’s masks to new ones.”

SoYoon thought back to her past. One morning, she had woken up to find that all the masks had been changed to new ones. The masks no longer smelled like chemicals, and when she got it checked by Mad Hatter, he had confirmed that it wasn’t tampered by magic, so she had just used them. So Heart had done that.

Dee placed his arm over SoYoon’s shoulder and said so that the other two could hear clearly, “Wow, both of you are messed up.”

When they heard this, Mad Hatter, who was trying to prove that it was Heart who had switched the masks, and Heart, who was trying to convince SoYoon that he would never do such a thing, both turned around and looked at Dee.

Mad Hatter snorted.”I don’t think you of all people should be saying that to us. Who was the one who placed a spy to watch SoYoon in front of her house?”

“Hmm, you’re the truly messed up one.”

“Spy! I was just worried about her!”

Dee hurriedly turned to face SoYoon. When he did, his eyes met with her brown ones which were staring at him curiously.

“No, it’s not like that! I was really worried about you!”

Even though she had been the one to ask the question, SoYoon wasn’t much offended and just nodded without much further thought. As she did, Heart responded to Dee. “You’re both so insidious. I, at least, don’t do live surveillance.”

“Getting information on her through your intel is even more insidious!”

“I was only doing it to check that SoYoon didn’t get hurt by doing those dangerous things, and making sure she isn’t ill. I didn’t spy on her to get information like you unmannered fools.”

SoYoon looked forlornly at the three men bickering with each other and sighed. She let their rising voices in one ear and out the other. The sky was very clear. She didn’t have any requests to fulfill or weight on her shoulders. It was a very peaceful afternoon.