༺ Cohabitation Without Attraction (1) ༻
1.
It has long been believed that every human heart contains an emptiness, a void that never truly goes away.
However, this void is neither vast nor an endless abyss.
The crevice would typically be small, the kind that one might unintentionally stumble upon and mutter, ‘Oh, it was here all along.’
During monts of contemplation, the void, which is typically hidden deep within the heart and filled with painful mories, would abruptly reappear.
It’s an existence that was undeniable and would keep coming back, despite one’s best efforts to deny it.
Despite her attempts to forget the ever-present loneliness in her heart by using the Perfu of Fatigue, the feeling lingered and surfaced, even during a relaxing bath and after she had thrown herself onto the bed.
Even though she didn’t feel hungry, she would rember it whenever she put a sweet dessert in her mouth.
That thought would occupy her mind even as she smoked a cigarette or struggled with an unsolved magic formula.
Despite all her efforts to bury it deep and ignore it, it sneaked up persistently like a haunting reminder saying, “Don’t forget ”.
Alia Marigold too had such a void in her heart.
That void had always been filled by her ntor, who was graceful, dignified, elegant, and sophisticated.
Every ti Alia’s condition worsened, her teacher would give her dicine, and she would feel her teacher’s gentle touch as she brushed her forehead.
Her teacher was always the first to arrive before anyone else after she had hurt her leg from falling from a tree,
She would sit next to Alia, keeping an eye on her whilst holding a glass of warm milk whenever she tossed and turned from her nightmares,
She would tell her old tales while braiding a scarf for her while sitting by the fireplace,
And when Alia was struggling with her studies and was about to give up, her teacher would gently remind her, “Alia, you are a special child.”
Teacher.
Teacher.
Her beloved teacher.
Alia rembered the day.
She had never imagined that the day would co when she would have to bid her teacher farewell.
And her teacher, too, said nothing about this.
“Teacher! Why, why didn’t you say anything…! I….I thought…that if I beca a witch, I could be with you forever…”
“With every greeting cos a ti to bid farewell. Oh dear, is this phrase too cliche to leave behind as my last words?”
Alia’s teacher never inford her that they’d only be together until Alia inherited the brand. The reality of the situation was that passing down a witch’s brand would an the death of the preceding witch.
Alia was well aware of the reason behind her teacher’s decision.
As a child, she was a lazy student who was indifferent and lacked the motivation to study..
Moreover, she loved her teacher too much.
If Alia had known this truth, she would never have inherited the brand.
She would never have stepped up to inherit her teacher’s research or to be recognized by her if she knew that she’d lose the opportunity to spend more ti together with her teacher.
Which would have resulted in Alia passing away at a young age due to the illness that had plagued her since birth.
That was the reason her teacher hadn’t told her about the consequences of passing down the mark.
In her case, Alia’s teacher wouldn’t have wanted her beloved apprentice to die either.
“You’re being a coward… I can’t admit it! There’s no such thing as this…being a coward…don’t go…don’t go…!’
“Alia, my beloved apprentice, my daughter, my mirror. I am truly happy to be able to pass on the na of Marigold to you.”
“I don’t need a na like that! Why won’t you pay attention to what I have to say?”
“You’re such a kind-hearted child.”
“No! No…! I don’t want this brand. Take it back. Without my teacher… I’m nothing…..!”
Regardless of how much Alia cried, clutched her head, scread, hung her head, and prayed.
The cruel hands of ti that inched her teacher’s departure did not stop.
‘Live like a witch, like a nobleman. And…’
Her teacher was gone.
That was the day Alia inherited the brand.
Alia Marigold took the bla for her teacher’s passing before a final testant could be made.
She was burdened with feelings of guilt, betrayal, resentnt, anger, love, and longingness.
A wide variety of emotions that couldn’t be expressed in a single word.
Alia tightly repressed her emotions and buried them deep within the emptiness of her heart.
Despite understanding that one day these thoughts would resurface, she kept them locked away.
The relentless pain of loss, like a scorching ember within, steadily ate away at the bottom of her heart.
After the end of the solemn funeral,
Alia cried until she passed out, repeating the cycle of waking and crying over and over again.
She no longer had any tears to shed.
She had co to realize that unfairness is a harsh reality from which one cannot escape, no matter how hard one tries to deny it.
From then on, Alia’s eyes were filled with determination.
A resolve that she had conjured reluctantly.
One that she had never wished for, yet was unable to cast aside.
“If that’s what my teacher wanted…’
A Witch’s Pride
She would put forth her best efforts to unlock her potential and reach the heights of the witch’s hierarchy just like the Witch of Creation.
“…I’ll walk down that path.”‘
The mories of her teacher felt overwhelmingly warm and yet hurt her heart ever so painfully as well.
The unexpected mories burnt like a branding iron, heating her chest and bringing tears of longingness to her eyes.
As such, the void in her heart was only for her beloved teacher.
For a very long ti, that is, until the day a daring and hateful man appeared before Alia’s eyes.
2.
Siwoo took out a cigarette.
This was naturally taken from the pack that Alia had purchased on her way back from Border Town.
The pack held a total of twenty sticks of cigarettes!
Back in the day, Siwoo would not have smoked one of those tasteless cigarettes even if soone had given it to him. In fact, he was so particular that he even had preferences for whether his als were hot or cold.
Despite that, Siwoo was currently in a situation where he had to make the right choice and eat it even if it ant eating rice laced with cyanide.
By smoking only one cigarette a day, and on rare occasions two, a person can avoid becoming a slave to nicotine addiction for a full two weeks.
Siwoo didn’t want to be a slave to nicotine because one life as a slave was already difficult enough for him.
Sitting on the windowsill, Siwoo lit the candle on top of the crackling fireplace.
A person wearing a super hot suit could be seen reflected on the window glass.
He didn’t know the correct price of the suit because Alia tried to negotiate with the perfu, but it was obvious at a glance that the materials and the design were expensive.
“This guy is very handso.”
After dressing up nicely and neatly combing his hair for the first ti in a while, he looked in the mirror and started to get a little narcissistic.
Perhaps Alia had fallen in love with him after seeing his new look.
It was a montary delusion.
Siwoo realized the truth when he t his gaze in the window glass.
Based on Alia’s reaction after he changed into his new suit, it didn’t seem like the kind of thing that would happen.
Siwoo smiled wryly and flicked the cigarette, removing the ash from its tip.
Alia had changed slightly over the last few days.
In the past, she used to be just a beautiful but destructive force that brought disaster, but these days it seed like she was acting a little strange.
In fact, after their trip to Bordertown together, he had begun to notice significant changes in her.
He was confused about whether she had grown tired of tornting him up to this point.
Or if she simply felt grateful for Siwoo when he shielded her from falling roof debris.
Did she really start taking care of him because he was her exclusive slave?
Surely she must have noticed that he had been protecting her till the very end at the inn.
“Oh, co on,”
Siwoo couldn’t help but shiver as he felt a chill run down his spine.
That wasn’t the last of his assumptions.
No matter how much he pondered, he would’ve never been able to live in peace like this if it were discovered that he had sucked on Alia’s breasts.
Sophia seed to have properly kept her mouth shut.
Anyway, she had bought him underwear, desserts, cigarettes, and even the stylish suit he was currently wearing.
Siwoo did feel like it was a bit strange.
He had felt sothing like this before.
It was like the ti when the bully who had been tornting him for two years, suddenly apologized to him for his actions, albeit insincerely, after he had been released from the military.
While Siwoo said “thank you” for the bully’s apology, it was ambiguous and did not necessarily imply that he would refuse to forgive him if asked to do so imdiately. After all, Siwoo was not the type of person to hold grudges.
In the first place, he was not a person who would be harsh on others.
Siwoo’s past experience of being tornted by Alia made it difficult for him to establish a clear emotional stance towards her and understand the distance between them.
Even though he felt happy to receive sothing from her, he felt a sense of unease. It was difficult for him to fully accept them because they reminded him of the suffering he had experienced as a result of her past actions.
“I don’t know anymore.”
Siwoo had already planned to leave.
You never know. Even the most difficult situations improve over ti.
Of all the shitty days in Gehenna, the only mory he could recall was the day when he had a fight with Alia.
Everything would eventually pass because it was already in the past.
Instead of creating discord with Alia for no reason, Siwoo wanted to appease her in moderation and attempt to make their relationship as convenient as possible so he could leave this place as soon as he could.
It was relatively simple to refresh his mind, perhaps due to the fact that Alia was less violent than she had been.
“Ugh, even if half of her newly acquired personality had followed, it would have been enough.”
Then Siwoo would have walked around with his tail wagging like Takasho.
It was then that he realized just how important one’s appearance truly was.
Possibly because of Alia’s stunning beauty, Siwoo didn’t despise her despite her tornting him. Siwoo most likely would have really hated her had she been a little less beautiful than she was right now.
However, there was nothing he could do.
The DNA present in her body was also said to be one of the reasons why Alia was beautiful.
Siwoo casually placed the cigarette with the filter onto the ashtray (which appeared to be very fancy and expensive) before closing the window.
That was when a sudden crash echoed as the door was slamd open.
Siwoo sighed and realized that this was the beginning of his life as an exclusive slave.
Since moving to this new location, the No Privacy Zone had been activated for him.
The situation had progressed to the point where he had to be on guard even when he was in the bathroom.
Siwoo slightly adjusted his suit before leaving for the living room.
The only positive aspect was that the living room and bedroom in the accommodation were separated, allowing Siwoo to detect Alia’s intrusion early on.
“Ms. Associate Professor…”
He was about to ask what was going on but wasn’t able to continue.
It was because Alia had abruptly interrupted his sentence.
“Alia.”
“Yes?”
“My na is Alia Marigold.”
“Yes, I’m Shin Siwoo.”
Even though he knew her na, he couldn’t understand what she was trying to say by telling him that.
Alia’s eyebrows rose montarily as Siwoo stared blankly at her in confusion.
This was only a fraction, indicating 25% of her surprise, that Siwoo would sotis see in Alia’s reaction when he acted impulsively without thinking twice.
Siwoo wondered what he did wrong this ti.
“Shin Siwoo.”
“Yes….?”
There were always two ways to know when Alia called Siwoo.
She either called him ‘Janitor Shin Siwoo’ or simply ‘Janitor’.
Except for tis when she was extrely angry, Alia mostly called Siwoo the latter.
He pondered why Alia would call him by his full na.
The PTSD that had been building up inside Siwoo for five years had started to manifest itself, showing its ugly head and contorting his mind.
He unconsciously shrugged his shoulders.
Was it because he had smoked in the room?
“Yes, it’s Shin Siwoo. Not a janitor.”
Alia looked intently at his face while nodding as if she had co to a realization on her own.
Siwoo found her intense gaze botherso.
“Yes, that’s right. I’m no longer the janitor of the academy, but Ms. Associate Professor’s exclusive possession.”
In an attempt to suppress his embarrassnt, Siwoo bit down on his tongue.
Alia’s delicate, thin eyebrows appeared to be troubled for so reason.
This typically ant that her frustration ter was at 50% capacity.
“Call by my na. Siwoo.”
“Umm, don’t you want to call you by your title of Ms. Associate Professor?
“Yes. I told you. My na is not Associate Professor.”
He had no idea what kind of surprise this was.
But since he was now Alia’s exclusive slave, he had no choice but to comply with and carry out her orders.
“Understood. Ms. Alia.”
“Siwoo.”
Alia’s face held a look of satisfaction.
At first glance, she appeared emotionless, but when he took a closer look at her face, her nostrils were slightly flared, making it look hella cute.
A thought appeared in his mind as he wondered if Alia’s nose hairs were blonde as well.
“Well done,”
Snapping out of his stupor caused by the sudden ambush from Alia, Siwoo discovered that Alia was holding a plate in her hand.
A cherry cake was laid on the plate. It was one which he had eaten before and was extrely delicious
The na of it, in fact, slipped his mind.
She left the plate on a table with a confident and composed posture.
“Eat.”
“Yes? Thank you. Ms. Alia, don’t you want to eat?”
He asked, seeing as there was a piece of cake and a fork on the plate. But Alia shook her head.
“I don’t need it. After eating, please go to the kitchen on the first floor and wash the dishes.”
“Alright, thank you for the al.”
Alia disappeared in a flash, just as she did when she appeared.
It seed like she had co all the way to Siwoo’s room just to deliver the cake.
First and foremost, he hadn’t been able to eat a single al that day, and was craving sweet food, and thus ate the cake.
“Well…”
Siwoo felt like he was being treated as if he was a dog but shrugged it off as a misunderstanding.
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