Vicious Darling

[14]

Chris slowly opened his eyes.

Somehow, there seemed to be a cool winter scent at the tip of his nose.

As he groggily got up, he discovered Yuri sitting by the window. With his hair half-wet as if he had already showered, Yuri was looking outside.

As Chris rose, he could tell that the aftermath had already been taken care of.

‘I’ve troubled him again.’

The night where he had been wrung out until he was in tatters was completely forgotten.

Despite rolling around wantonly, his body felt light as if nothing had happened.

Chris approached Yuri at the window. Almost simultaneously, a towel pulled by telekinesis was placed in his hand.

“You should dry your hair completely.”

Yuri silently accepted the towel and draped it around his neck.

“Do you like the snow?”

“…No.”

The man who answered in a slow tone passed by Chris.

After confirming that Yuri had gone to the dressing room, Chris entered the bathroom.

“Hmm…”

Hot water poured over his head. It felt as if fatigue that couldn’t be relieved by sleep alone was being washed away.

Suddenly wanting to soak in the bathtub, Chris chuckled.

‘This used to be a luxury.’

There was a time when he lived in a house where only cold water came out, cold enough to turn the skin red.

It was closer to crawling into an empty house than ‘living’ there.

Humans needed more than just a bed to lie on and a roof over their head. From that time, Yuri had been looking for things he could do.

Chris, who had half lost his mind after going berserk, was no different from a beast, with his daily routine consisting entirely of waiting for his master at home.

Memories from before meeting Yuri were all hazy.

From a very young age, Chris had been in a place like a laboratory.

Vague memories of waking up in an all-white isolation room and being experimented on by Rosenhauser’s subordinates surfaced occasionally, but he couldn’t remember the purpose of those experiments or the conversations the researchers had.

It was the result of going berserk.

If he hadn’t met Yuri then, Chris would have died without surviving for long.

It was Yuri who filled the emptiness in Chris. He re-tamed the beast who knew nothing but his Guide back into a human.

Standing in front of the mirror, Chris reached out and wiped the foggy surface. The face that met him where his hand passed felt strangely unfamiliar.

It felt like this outfit called Chris Danil didn’t fit him.

Maybe it was because of the memory of becoming Chris Northlight while losing his memories just a few months ago.

Chris still hadn’t completely shaken off the remnants of that time.

As he was staring at his blue eyes in the mirror, Chris hesitated.

There was a knock from outside.

Wearing only a hastily thrown-on robe, he stepped out of the bathroom and opened the door.

On the other side stood a man with a grinning face.

“Oh, seems like it was quite passionate from the morning.”

Yellow eyes curved mischievously.

“Long time no see.”

It was Chase Dalton, the S-class Esper of Baekya.

“It hasn’t been that long.”

Chris replied calmly.

“Well, it’s been quite a while since we met with you in your right mind.”

Chase shrugged.

“I was impressed seeing you whimpering for your master even when you lost your memory.”

Unlike his sister Gwen Dalton, Chase was a man who gave off a rather frivolous impression.

Although he was one of Yuri’s close associates, Chris was rather distant with Chase. This was because Chase Dalton possessed a level of cruelty that could be counted on one hand among the members of Baekya organization that Yuri led.

He only treated him as a colleague, acknowledging that someone like him was necessary to run an organization like Baekya.

If Yuri hadn’t rescued Chase’s sister Gwen from the black market, Chase probably wouldn’t have joined Baekya.

He wasn’t the type to stick around in one place for long, and more people tended to cause conflicts.

‘…It’s fortunate that Gwen is kind.’

Gwen Dalton, who led the guiding team within Baekya, was a person with both common sense and manners. Gwen had been sold off for being a Guide but escaped from evil clutches thanks to Yuri.

Gwen didn’t join Baekya simply to repay the favor. She shared Yuri’s views on the treatment of Guides.

She was well aware that her brother was a madman. So whenever something happened because of Chase, everyone would run to Gwen.

“Why are you here?”

“Well, what was it again? We got a contact from Barrel Society.”

“Ah.”

“I’ll relay it to the boss.”

“You’re not reporting directly?”

Chase winked.

“I’m not so ill-mannered as to disturb the cozy morning of the master and his faithful dog.”

“…Stop talking nonsense.”

Chris, who was silent for a moment out of sheer disbelief, cut him off.

“How stiff.”

Chase chided him as if hurt and giggled.

Chris spoke in a cold tone.

“If you’re going to spout nonsense to Yuri… sir from the morning, go back.”

“I was trying to be kind, this is hurtful.”

The man who caressed his chest as if in pain was grinning.

Chris let out a sigh.

“Why are you being kind? You’re a person who doesn’t care about anyone but your sister to begin with.”

“I like you.”

“I really don’t know why.”

“You’re not interested in Gwen.”

Chase shrugged.

Chris clicked his tongue.

To be honest, Chris was more wary of Gwen than Chase. It was for a reason so ridiculous it was embarrassing to even mention.

He tried not to show it, but it seems Chase’s eyes, which monitored Gwen’s every move, had noticed.

“Anyway, welcome back. Just keep ignoring Gwen like you’ve been doing, and try to get along well with the boss.”

Chase waved his hand.

Chris slammed the door shut in his face. Frowning at the unpleasant laughter coming from the other side, Chris turned around.

He saw Yuri walking out of the dressing room.

The man, perfectly dressed in a three-piece suit, looked like a model who had just stepped out of a photo shoot.

Chris looked at Yuri’s neatly arranged hair with a hint of regret.

It was hard to imagine him being touched by someone else’s hands, but sometimes that fact was disappointing.

Perhaps because he had been staring silently for too long, one of Yuri’s eyebrows raised slightly.

Chris spoke in a calm tone.

“Chase brought a message. He said there was contact from Barrel Society.”

It wasn’t so difficult to hide his true feelings now.

It was thanks to the memories that returned when he reverted back to Chris Danil.

Honestly, he was the same person whether he was Chris Danil or Chris Northlight.

He had a boring and frustrating personality, and loved someone far too special for his dull life.

He never had much talent for deception. Instead, whether as Danil or Northlight, Chris was a person skilled at enduring and hiding his emotions.

It was because he had been hiding his sneezes all his life.

“That’s good.”

Yuri’s lips moved.

“If we had dawdled any longer, I would have had to go kick their behinds.”

Although the tone was quite sharp, Chris knew this was Yuri’s way of expressing satisfaction.

“I can go alone.”

“Well.”

Yuri looked at Chris carefully and replied.

“In that state?”

Silently taking off his jacket, Yuri rolled up his shirt sleeves and wiggled his fingers. It seemed like he was telling Chris to come closer, so when he hesitantly approached, Yuri sat him down in a chair.

“The towel?”

Only at this question did Chris realize what Yuri was trying to do, and he waved his hands with a startled look.

“I can do it myself.”

“You told me not to walk around with wet hair, yet here you are dripping all over.”

It didn’t seem like he was simply nitpicking.

Right now, Yuri was clearly displeased.

Unable to guess the reason, Chris blinked blankly.

“Towel.”

Yuri demanded again.

As if entranced, Chris used his ability to bring a towel from the bathroom.

Although one might marvel at Chris’s control, pulling out an object that couldn’t even be seen, Yuri’s face remained impassive.

He skillfully took the towel and removed the moisture from Chris’s hair.

It wasn’t an affectionate touch, but it was delicate.

After Yuri had dried his hair completely, Chris stood up. At Yuri’s nod, he entered the dressing room where clothes were already prepared.

Chris unknowingly froze at the doorway of the dressing room.

All the clothes he owned were chosen by Yuri anyway. Most were custom-made, so Chris usually just picked whatever was at hand and wore it.

But having them prepared in advance like this was unfamiliar.

‘…Why?’

To be honest, Chris didn’t know much about formal wear.

Beyond things like one button or two buttons, herringbone or double jacket, they all looked the same to him.

But it was a kind of irresistible force that made the clothes Yuri had chosen for today feel very special.

With slightly trembling hands, Chris started to put on the clothes and realized he had forgotten to button the cuffs.

An ordinary person would have had to take it off and button it again, but he solved this minor annoyance with telekinesis.

When he looked in the mirror after putting on the suspenders and jacket, he didn’t look much different from usual.

But Chris stared intently at himself inside, as if trying to memorize what he was wearing and how.

The face he had met while wiping the steam from the bathroom mirror had seemed unfamiliar, but now he didn’t feel that way at all.

‘I’m such an easy person to read.’

Feeling a presence behind him, Chris turned around.

“I’m sorry. I’ll come out right away.”

He thought Yuri had come looking for him because he had spent more time in the dressing room than expected.

However, there was no irritation in Yuri’s purple eyes as he looked at him.

After carefully examining his well-dressed dog, Yuri’s lips moved.

“Not bad.”

And yet he doesn’t say it’s good.

Somehow thinking this was very like Yuri, Chris’s lips loosened.

At that moment, Yuri’s breath came close, sticking to his skin. Chris unknowingly held his breath.

He grasped Chris’s loosely tied tie and pulled it.

Under the slightly lowered eyelashes, purple eyes flickered.

It felt like stealing a glance at the shimmering water through the leaves of trees stretched out along a riverbank.

The eyes that had been rolling suddenly faced forward.

Chris’s heart beat at an indescribably fast pace, caught secretly peeking.