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II: Sometimes a Scam Is Worth a Shot

Chapter 16

Dragging her exhausted body through the dark night was so familiar to Milana that it stirred no particular feeling. So she used to enjoy the solitude of the walk back to school from work. The quiet, lonely romance of it.

That was until a few weeks ago, anyway. When you have too much on your mind, silence becomes uncomfortable. Milana shook her head, feeling a certain worry take on a clearer shape in the darkness. The same worry that had been tormenting her since the day of the body swap. She wanted to stop thinking about it. Wanted her head to stop right here.

‘Milana.’

Footsteps used to sound behind her, perfectly matched to her short stride. Thinking back, it had always been that way. There was no way a small woman and a tall, lean swordsman could walk at the same speed without someone making an effort. Their steps always fell into flawless harmony.

She would enjoy that light rhythm, then turn around with feigned surprise, as if just noticing. And there he’d be. A large body standing like a wall. A body so ideally trained it looked like a weapon in itself. It always gave her an absolute sense of safety and comfort. Her eyes would trace up the firm stomach and chest, up the line of his neck, to those pretty smiling lips and that comfortable face that somehow felt a bit like her own. She knew now it was the disguise glasses. But back then, she’d even felt a kind of kinship with him.

…Kinship. What a joke, thinking about it now.

Milana laughed, sad and self-mocking. In her head, Bova’s lips moved in elegant lines. Pale apricot lips, pretty enough to make her think they were lovelier than most women’s. They parted and called out loud.

“Milana!”

Huh?

The voice was too clear to be her imagination. Her mind snapped alert. Blinking blankly, she looked up. There he was. The beautiful body and lips that could have stepped right out of her thoughts. And the jewel-like violet eyes she couldn’t even meet, her insides trembling even after spending the whole day tangled together.

“Before you go into the library. Talk to me.”

Milana only then realized where she was. Lost in thought, she hadn’t even noticed she’d arrived in front of the library.

“What is it… Lord Vladimir…?”

Lord Vladimir?

That settled it. The man was now certain. Milana, his one-sided love, was determined to drive him insane. Her lips had finally spoken the name he’d been dying to hear. But right now, it hit him with the same force as a curse screamed in his face. His skull throbbed.

“…You’re doing this on purpose.”

And with that, the anxiety he’d been holding down began to spiral out of control.

Do you regret the time we spent together?

Are you cutting ties completely with the creepy stalker mafia bastard who plastered his wall with your photos?

“What do you mean…”

Stop talking to me like that!

He wanted to shout it. He wanted to so badly. But he held it in and bit his lip.

“I have something to say.”

He barely got the words out, still wrestling with himself. What was he supposed to say?

He had so much to say and nothing at all. Too many sentences and words flooded through him at once, spilling over the shallow basin of his heart.

This was the most cursed thing about first love. It took all the most intense feelings and mixed them into a lump of mud that clogged up his lungs and stopped any words from coming out right. His lips, far more used to spitting out reason over emotion, threats and orders over affection, couldn’t form a single decent sentence to express what he felt. So he just stared at the woman in front of him, his gaze sharp enough to stab.

Under the dim streetlamp, her chocolate-brown eyes glistened. She was on the verge of tears, probably from fear of him. It ached in his chest. But at the same time, she looked so lovely he wanted to devour her whole. He remembered those same eyes, that same small face worn with exhaustion, twisted and wrecked with the pleasure his body had given her. Even now, at this critical moment, his broken mind kept replaying that pretty, obscene sight on an endless loop.

Maybe that was why. The nonsense that burst out of him, with no explanation at all.

“My body hurts so much…”

“What?”

“The spell didn’t work right!”

What? What is he talking about?

Milana flinched and looked up at the sudden shout, like a thunderclap. The words were so unexpected that her jaw dropped, the exhaustion pressing down on her momentarily forgotten.