Bailonz Street 13

Side Story. London, 21st Century

Chapter 179. Meeting Again (1)

“Listen well, Liam.”

“Mmhmm, Jane.”

A ticklish voice came from above my head.

It was a familiar face. He hadn’t changed at all from the Liam Moore I remembered. Liam was still warm, gentle, and lovely. …If only he would stop taking on cases.

Yes, cases. If it weren’t for those, we could have enjoyed a peaceful and quiet daily life.

I spoke in a measured voice.

“We’re ordinary civilians.”

Liam Moore blinked his pretty eyes. His face was brazen, as if asking what’s wrong with that. His gray eyes sparkled with enthusiasm for the case and affection for me.

When Liam made this expression, it sometimes made my blood boil. It was exactly the face of someone who had ‘decided to cause trouble.’

I suddenly became curious. As time had passed, Liam Moore must have aged too, so why did he seem even more immature?

I opened my mouth to try persuading Liam patiently.

“So what should we do?”

“We just need to not get caught?”

What is he saying?

When I couldn’t hide my momentary bewilderment and revealed my emotions completely to Liam, he giggled and wrapped his arms around my waist.

What shameless behavior, trying to brush off this serious issue with a cute act! I gaped in shock, but Liam Moore showed no sign of reconsidering his answer. With a ‘what’s the problem?’ expression, he spoke again.

“It’s fine if we don’t get caught.”

“We will get caught.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.”

What are you saying. It’s not fine at all…

The problem is that I’m very weak to Liam Moore’s cuteness. Both then and now, whenever he gave that soft eye-smile, I would helplessly fall for it. Even when I wondered if I should be this light-hearted, seeing Liam Moore stubbornly trying to smooth things over with cuteness made me think it was okay first. Right, if he’s acting like this too.

I quietly closed my mouth and looked down at Liam. Examining his features one by one had become my recent hobby.

During the hundred years he crossed alone, Liam Moore had become slightly more mature than I remembered. His eyes had deepened and his double eyelids became more pronounced. His thin skin was so pale you could see blue veins through it, and the movement of his long eyelashes cast gentle shadows that created a melancholic atmosphere. His lean cheeks and more defined jaw caught my eye.

Now Liam looked about thirty-five rather than twenty-nine. Considering the aging rate of Westerners, it wasn’t that surprising, but…

“Madam?”

Madam. Though I’d heard this title countless times since our reunion, it still made me feel ticklish every time. I quietly yielded my waist to him, letting Liam nuzzle his face against my solar plexus.

Liam’s black hair was disheveled. Like a big cat. Though he wasn’t purring, his behavior was no different from a domesticated cat that had let its guard down.

When I stroked his short hair, Liam slowly closed and opened his eyes. I admonished him.

“The problem isn’t about not getting caught, it’s that we shouldn’t do it in the first place.”

In the 19th century, there was no CCTV and crowds of people, so you could barge in saying “I’m police” without much problem, but that’s impossible in the 21st century. First of all, our combination stood out. A black-haired man and woman who aren’t detectives snooping around rural villages investigating strange cases – we’d surely end up in handcuffs before long. I would… probably face deportation.

To my concerns, Liam gave this nonchalant answer:

“We can set aside our conscience a bit for solving cases, Jane. We’ve always done that.”

We haven’t… always done that. I moved around quite moderately. Liam was the problem. He’s someone who never had a conscience to begin with. Liam Moore and conscience? Even passing Plurititas would laugh at that.

“Listen here, mister. That conscience is the most important thing, you know?”

Finally unable to stand his brazen words, I poked Liam’s side, making him twist around laughing. He curled up and whimpered as if ticklish. I lamented.

“Where has this one’s age gone?”

“Who knows, madam. Perhaps I’ve aged in soul.”

Indeed, Liam’s appearance seemed like only a few years had passed since I left. It was hard to believe we’d met again after crossing more than a hundred years. Whatever he’d done, this man seemed vigorous while only aging inside. As if he alone had dodged the flow of time.

He was thirty in 1871. About a hundred and fifty years had passed since then, so now he’s… Gasp.

“…Two hundred years old.”

I muttered, swallowing empty air. Liam immediately froze.

A deathly silence flowed between us for a while. Suddenly Liam jumped up. Because of this, I fell from Liam’s lap onto the sofa. Ugh.

“It’s not that much! The first digit is still different! I’m strictly just a hundred…!”

“Oh my, look at this man? Anyway, if you round it up, it’s about that much, right?”

“No, madam. Who rounds up their age!”

“Your wife does. What. Got a problem?”

“Prob…”

At my youthful expression, Liam grabbed his head and collapsed. His pretty head naturally landed on my lap. It was surely a calculated move. How can he be so shameless.

In the 1870s, I could tease Liam because he was younger than Jane, but now it’s honestly difficult. Hasn’t he developed too many aspects I don’t know about? Though he’s definitely the Liam I know, it feels like I’m dealing with an adult, and I can’t quite grasp how to treat him. This was the disconnection I often felt after Liam had aged about a hundred years.

It’s hard for me to catch up to his years. Clearly before, he was just cute, sometimes being tearful and occasionally showing foolish and careless sides. But now… he’s become skilled like someone who’s completely shed their youth and become an adult, and grown sly too. Who are you, where did you hide the crybaby detective I knew? Sometimes I wanted to ask that.

Of course, even if his face matured a bit or white hairs mixed in one by one, no matter how old he got, Liam would still be the Liam I knew. Just as he recognized me at a glance even though I was no longer Jane Osmond. Though we would live on loving each other unchangingly…

No, this is… this isn’t right, is it?

“Can’t we use some normal methods?”

So saying you’ll enter a house while the owner is clearly present was definitely a problem.

And at three in the morning, no less.

“Did you wake me up for this? At this hour?”

I demanded. At times like this, I wanted to kick him out of bed. Right, fine. It’s about time you got used to floor living too. Just like how I got used to Liam’s horror whenever my Korean instincts led me to the floor below the perfectly good sofa.

“Get down. Get off. I’m a foreigner. Not British. If I commit crimes here, I’ll get deported back to my country, you know?”

It seemed Liam hadn’t thought of that part. He crumpled his handsome face and fell into thought for a moment. Then, clapping his hands, he opened his mouth to say:

“We can disguise ourselves!”

Let’s not even discuss it.

I sighed and pushed Liam out of the bed. As he was pushed off, Liam made a cute “Mmm?” sound. Ah, it’s no use. I won’t be swayed even if you open your eyes cutely. I followed by pulling the blanket up over my head. It was a kind of barrier. Liam Moore and I needed appropriate distance. More precisely, he needed to be a bit away from me. Somehow when he’s next to me, Liam Moore tends to act like his intelligence has dropped a bit…

The problem was that even I thought ‘Oh? That sounds plausible?’ at the mention of disguises. I’ve been infected. I’m infected.

I closed my eyes, lightly ignoring my two-hundred-year-old husband’s plaintive calls.

* * *

It seems we need some time to explain how this situation came about.

Let’s go back to the beginning. What time we spent after our miraculous reunion on the bridge.

Liam firmly held both my cheeks and carefully examined my face for a while. His thumbs traced slow circles, rubbing from my eyelids to my nose bridge, cheeks, and lips. It must be unfamiliar? That is, ‘me’ who isn’t Jane.

“Your face.”

He quietly spoke.

It was definitely different from before. Back then, no matter what Liam said, it sounded like it was dubbed in Korean, but now it clearly sounds like English. Though it’s just that my mind can understand English as quickly as a native language now.

I muttered.

“It’s a bit strange, right? I mean. I’m neither British nor green-eyed.”

“It’s the same.”

But at his casual words, I could only open my eyes wide.