POV: Hae Na Ri
My long hair dangle in my face and on Hajoon's neck. He reaches up and holds them aside with two fingers as though he is pulling aside a curtain.
"What are you trying to do?" Behind the glasses, his lids have grown heavy. Something shameless, suggestive and amused is swirling in the adorable geek's unblinking gaze as it drops down…
I am suddenly aware of the fact that I had taken off my bra before I laid down to sleep and then decided to go out without putting it on. Now with my coat off…
Believe me, definitely not trying to seduce you, is what I want to say to him.
"Tissue, I wanted tissues…" is what comes out. My heart is pounding hard in my chest and my cheeks burn slightly.
He doesn't even glance at the box. Instead, his eyes are fixed on–I hope my neck and nothing below that.
I shift and try to retreat to my seat. As if mocking me, an ally is sending signals "Retreat!" again and again. I know you idiot, shut up!
But my position is awkward and I am afraid I might really touch him some place worse.
Sensing my dilemma, his strong arms reach out. The same stupid ally is shouting "Charge!" as Hajoon's strong arms circle my waist and firmly help me straighten up on my seat. The warmth of his hands seep through my thin night shirt, tingling my skin.
I wonder if my hand felt the same on his leg…
His hands linger on my waist, maybe waiting to make sure I am not going to topple over him again. It's only when my foot touches the floor that he lets me go.
Someone clears their throat behind us.
I nearly jump in my seat.
"Your Majesty…" It's Captain Kang, without his mask.
Aghast, my eyes go wide. We had an audience?! I mean I had an audience?!
Somebody always there to witness your embarrassing moments, aish!
Act normal, I tell myself. It was totally a part of my sinful and nefarious plan of seducing His Majesty and having his babies and becoming the queen. Totally planned. Ha, think of me whatever you want!
I steadily move to my feet. "I need to use the restroom." We have lost the match anyway, the screen displaying 'DEFEATED' in big bold letters, so I can take a break.
From the corner of my eyes, I see Hajoon look up at me as I walk past Captain Kang.
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POV: Ryu Ha Joon
"You could have grabbed her wrist before it even reached you," Jae Hyuk makes a useless observation.
"And you could have left us alone for a little longer." Hajoon's annoyance reflects in his irate words, unable to help it. His skin is still warm where her palm had been as if it had left a burning imprint. Just a little up and the situation would have been a lot more…
He is feeling like a teenager.
Hae Nari seems to elicit that in him.
Though it's unclear and vague if it was deliberate or really an accident on her part. He had been too distracted by her hand on his body and something else to read her; Her pale collarbone with its sharp, tantalizing dips and curves. That close he had an urge to graze his teeth against its protruding curves. Maybe she would have let out the same sound as she had done that night.
"Use protection. You don't want a child in another world." Jae Hyuk says as if reading his mind, and ruins whatever warmth is circulating inside Hajoon.
He scowls.
He opens his mouth to scold him when Jae Hyuk grows serious, his expressions soft. "Hajoon'ah, don't get attached. You have to send her back, remember?"
His scowl deepens.
So he is trying to tell Hajoon to just have casual sex and nothing else. Even though he knows that's not Hajoon's cup of tea. He's not a womaniser, hooking up here and there.
"You all love to dramatise things." He turns away, grabs the mouse. He needs to change some items in his hero build. "I do think it would have been nice if she were from this world, but I am not going to collapse from heartbreak and die when she goes back." Even the idea is comical.
"But she is beautiful and distracting isn't she?"
At this, Hajoon turns back and narrows his eyes at him. "Kang Jae Hyuk, you notice her a little too much…"
He looks back indifferently. "Not more than you," He picks the controller Hajoon had dropped and hands it to him. "You brought her here, you have spent the night playing games with her. You never did that with any woman before."
The night? Hajoon glances at the windows as he takes the controller, and surely a dim blue glow of the morning light is peeking through a tiny gap between the curtains.
"Because they didn't want to," he says, frowning. He had brought his exes here, but they thought it was childish.
Jae Hyuk's expressions reveal that it has jogged his memory.
People have a certain image of him. A cold, calm and charming man's picture that he and his PR team has delicately drawn in front of the public. His Majesty, the tech founder who runs a country and a company, speaks on podiums, walks around with armed masked guards and lives in the Gold Palace. Women, too, want that polished handsome man from him.
Not all women. But the women who came into his life so far.
They aren't interested in the ordinary human that comes out after all decorative titles fall away. Nor in the hours of the nights that torture him.
The real Ryu Hajoon with bloodshot eyes and tense shoulders wandering in the palace like a ghost isn't per their expectations. It's too much. He is only a power, prestige and connection they need.
He sighs deeply and rubs the scratches on the controller, a courtesy of Nari. Her controller is on the desk.
Sometimes it feels as if she dislikes him, sometimes she nearly falls into his lap. He can't really figure her out. It could be a result of her current extraordinary circumstances.
As he said before, it would have been nice if she were from this world.
Maybe he really will die as an old bachelor.
Jae Hyuk seems to feel the change in the air. "Another nightmare?"
Hajoon nods silently and doesn't go into details. Exhaustion is now weighing down on his body. His eyes ache.
"You should try to sleep now," Jae Hyuk says. "I came to inform you that CEO Shin tried to look into Hae Nari. My sources say Lee Insu has been trying to dig into her background."