Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 22

It was hard for anything to take her by surprise, but now that she thought about it, this ridiculous rumor might have been her own doing. SoYoon slowly removed her hand.

Mad Hatter asked, “Is it not?”

“I’ve never felt that I liked girls before in my life.”

“People are saying that you threatened to kill Duke if he ever tried something on her again. They say you were pretty passionate about it.”

“Heart and March have an interest in Alice.”

Mad Hatter bent over and stared directly into her eyes. His green eyes seemed to penetrate her mind. Suddenly, he smiled. He pushed her bangs over her eyes.

“Well, I’ll just wait and see. Didn’t you say you had an appointment? You may go so you aren’t late.”

Mad Hatter did not turn around to see SoYoon leave. Instead, he watched her from his window and then looked down at his fingers.

“I was going to ask her to heal me, but I completely forgot.”

***

While SoYoon headed to Heart’s house, she thought about Mad Hatter. Mad Hatter had always nagged her, but he’d never interrogated her like this before.

Heart was one thing, but now Mad Hatter too. There was a word for this. She was searching her brain when she arrived at Heart’s house.

She stopped her thinking and went up to the office. There, she met the second man that was a part of the rumors.

“There’s a fun rumor going around.”

Heart asked her with his explosive auburn eyes. He tried to laugh it off lightly, but she wasn’t fooled. Right now, Heart was not in a good mood.

“Someone important to me. If you try anything with Alice again, then I might be the one to make a move.”

“It was true,” was what she wanted to answer, but he looked on the brink of exploding, so SoYoon decided to remain silent.

Heart sighed and sat next to her. He swept her hair and pinned it back, removed her mask, and stared into her face. His auburn eyes were slowly turning black.

“You must have really thought that.”

He embraced her and flopped onto the sofa. His grasp on her was pretty strong.

“There is no answer for you.”

He mumbled then stopped to bury his face in her hair. Then he suddenly pulled away and asked angrily.

“Why do you smell like Mad Hatter?”

Today must be one of those days. SoYoon was mentally stressed.

“Because I stopped by there.”

“This is not a smell from just stopping by. What did you do there?”

“What I do here. Mad Hatter hugged me while he slept.”

“That bug-brained little lab rat!”

Heart’s voice was violent. It sounded like he would run over to Mad Hatter’s and rip him to shreds. SoYoon pulled him in and held him.

It was a relief that he was over the rumor, but she really didn’t want to be in the middle of a fight with the two powerhouses of Wonderland. And if one of the powerhouses was Mad Hatter, then there was a chance that Wonderland would cease to exist. Heart, who was now buried in her embrace, growled.

“Let me go. I’m disgusted.”

Heart pushed her away, but there wasn’t anyone in Wonderland that could beat her in strength. He cursed all sorts of indecencies then pointed to the bathroom.

“Wash up, now.”

“If you will stay here without causing trouble.”

“Are you afraid I will kill him? Don’t worry. His existence is pivotal in Wonderland. I won’t do anything rash.”

“Promise me you won’t go outside right now.”

Heart never lied. But he was good at twisting his words to fool others. He ground his teeth and promised her. It proved that he had indeed been planning to go to Mad Hatter’s while she was washing.

SoYoon stood thinking in the shower. When will this hobby of his end?

She knew that she was Heart’s toy. She had been willing to put up with it because he had let her live in Wonderland so comfortably, but she wasn’t happy with how he had wanted to control her. Then she was suddenly hit by the thought of how clingy he would be if he actually did fall in love. She felt bad for Alice.