1.
Six in the morning. The air was crisp and refreshing.
Siwoo, who had sohow fallen asleep despite the awkward atmosphere, woke up suddenly and sat upright.
As he took in the unfamiliar surroundings, mories of the previous night played back in his mind like a slideshow.
An awkward sleepover with Alia.
Throughout the night, they failed to exchange more than a few words and ended up lying on separate beds.
“...Huh?”
He turned his head, and he quickly noticed that Alia, who was supposed to be on the bed next to his, was missing.
All that remained was the neatly arranged bedding, as pristine as when they first checked in.
His heart skipped a beat.
‘Did she leave already? Without saying anything?’ He wondered.
“Ms. Alia?”
He called her na as he slowly got up.
At that mont, the door to the bathroom swung open.
From there, Alia stepped out, still wearing the white dress from the day before.
He didn’t know when she did it, but her neatly combed blonde hair and clear, fairy-like eyes looked just as they always did.
This proved that his fear that she had disappeared overnight was unfounded.
“Did you sleep well?”
As he discreetly relieved his anxiety with a morning greeting, Alia nodded slightly.
“Were you washing up?”
Inside the bathroom, there was another door leading to a toilet, but as a witch, Alia wouldn’t really need to go there.
Considering her hair was perfectly dry, it didn’t seem like she had been bathing either.
So, Siwoo guessed that she was just curious about what a modern bathroom looked like and had been poking around a little.
Given her actions yesterday, it wouldn’t be surprising.
“No. Co here for a mont.”
Alia gently tugged at Siwoo’s sleeve, then she guided him toward the bathroom.
As they entered, a hint of steam and the soothing scent of lavender filled the air.
The bathtub was filled with warm water, tinted a faint purple.
On the bath shelf, alongside so toiletries, sat a bottle of wine, a glass, and an unopened pack of cigarettes.
She...prepared a bath...?
“I’ve prepared a morning bath.”
“A morning bath?”
“You enjoy it, don’t you?”
Siwoo turned to look at Alia.
Her face, now slightly flushed, carried a shy but hopeful expression, as though she was anticipating so form of approval or praise.
That was when it finally clicked on Siwoo.
He could sense the connection between the unfolding events.
Alia had insisted on carrying her own bag, and she had been stubborn about making the reservation herself.
Now, she had woken up early to prepare his bathwater.
Almost as if she were trying to serve him.
Her next words confird this conjecture.
Alia, inching closer little by little, spoke in a quiet, almost timid voice.
“If you...need help with your bath... Just let know. I’ll be waiting outside.”
That was it.
While there was a hint of care and affection in her actions, it felt more like she was trying to atone for her past more than anything.
Just as she had once ordered Siwoo around with a raised chin, she now seed intent on returning everything she had done to him back in those days.
Because she felt guilty, and ashad of what she did back then.
In her own way, Alia was trying to make ands.
Before Siwoo could respond, Alia brushed past him, leaving without looking back.
“...”
Of course, it didn’t sit well with him.
He wanted to tell her that she didn’t need to burden herself like this, and that their past wasn’t entirely her fault.
More than anything, he was worried that she was shouldering a weight she didn’t have to shoulder.
Regardless, she had gone out of her way to prepare this for him.
He removed his clothes, left them carelessly on the floor, and stepped into the tub.
The water was just the right temperature, and, more than anything, the scent of Alia’s special bath salts made this plain bathtub feel like a luxurious spa, far better than the ones back at the Gemini mansion.
A glass of wine and a cigarette would be perfect right now....
“Wait, cigarette?”
Smoking inside would break the hotel’s no-smoking policy and cost them the 200,000 won deposit they had left at check-in.
“Ms. Alia!”
Siwoo called out to her urgently.
He heard a startled shuffle from the other side of the door.
“Do you need any help?”
“Just so you know, the hotel has a non-smoking policy!”
“...”
There was a brief pause.
“I know that, of course.”
Then, her response ca after a while, accompanied by the faint sound of rustling.
2.
“Ms. Alia, have you been sitting here this whole ti?”
After finishing his bath, Siwoo found Alia kneeling in front of the bathroom, looking as composed as ever.
She had stayed there like a devoted attendant the entire ti he was soaking in the tub.
“Yes.”
Alia nodded as she answered.
“...”
To others, it might have seed like a performative act, a way to ease her guilt, but Alia wasn’t soone who’d do that—she wasn’t even able to do it to begin with.
She was doing this out of genuine sincerity, thinking it was the right thing to do for Siwoo.
He still rembered how she used to tornt him when he worked as a janitor under her.
But he didn’t want to dwell on the past anymore.
If the lingering guilt from that ti was going to hinder their relationship, he’d rather leave it behind and start fresh.
“Get up. And don’t do this anymore.”
“But....”
It was clear she was still feeling uneasy.
But his sudden, firm tone, made Alia flustered.
She was wearing a worried expression, clearly not understanding why he was acting this way.
It was as if she was afraid that she had done sothing wrong.
Siwoo took her wrist gently and helped her stand.
He embraced Alia, who looked as frightened as a child who had broken a plate.
Holding her close, she leaned into him without resistance.
“I told you, it’s okay now. I don’t hate you anymore, and I understand everything.”
“But... I want to do this. Just as much as you’ve suffered, I want to be there for you too.”
Alia responded with a voice so fragile it sounded like it might break at any mont.
Hearing that, Siwoo felt a pang of frustration.
It wasn’t that he was angry with her, he was just frustrated with his own indecisiveness that made her feel insecure and hide using the excuse of keeping distance.
“Really, it’s okay, you don’t need to do this.”
“No, I’ll keep doing this.”
“Please, stop.”
“I won’t.”
Though the situation was serious, their exchange sounded almost childish.
The unresolved tension between them was a genuine issue, and Siwoo knew they wouldn’t get anywhere like this.
Maybe we should’ve had this conversation last night, over a glass of wine.
He felt the need to clarify their positions, even if it was belated.
“Alright, let’s settle this matter properly.”
“Settle...?”
“I’ll be honest. Ms. Alia, the way you’re acting is making uncomfortable. It’s not like I’ve only done only the right thing either. I can’t accept your apology if it’s in this way.”
“But I’ve done worse. I made your life miserable when you hadn’t done anything wrong. I even tried to deceive you when I asked for forgiveness...”
Deceive?
That’s not it.
“No, you didn’t deceive . You were only trying to be kind to , Ms. Alia, I knew that.”
He realized that Alia had cared for him more than anyone else, and that she regretted her past mistakes and tried to make ands by being kind to the younger Siwoo.
Her actions, which he deed to be selfish once, turned out to be genuine acts of kindness without any ulterior motives.
“I should be the one apologizing. If I had just cald down and had a proper talk with you back then, you wouldn’t have had to bear everything alone, Ms. Alia.”
“That’s not true...!”
Hearing those words, Alia abruptly pulled away from Siwoo’s embrace.
Siwoo might have said harsh things and walked away from Alia.
But he had left her a note.
A note apologizing for being too harsh and expressing his willingness to talk after cooling off.
While yes, the Witch of Whispers had tampered with the note, changing its contents, the problem stemd from the fact that Alia had delayed reading it out of fear.
“You left a note... But like an idiot, I didn’t read it and ended up struggling on my own for nothing...”
“That’s not true! Your struggle isn’t for nothing either!”
Siwoo hadn’t expected that Alia hadn’t read the note until now.
It was because he hadn’t fully understood the weight of her past or her wounds.
If he had truly wanted to talk, he had plenty of ti to do so before he returned to the Modern World for the first ti.
Instead, he only passively conveyed his intention to talk because he felt awkward seeing her face. This left Alia to wander the Modern World, burdened with misunderstandings and anxiety.
Not only that, she also had to fight life-threatening battles to fulfill her agreent with Keter, sothing that Siwoo had no clue about.
Siwoo didn’t know how long it had been since they had confronted each other while raising their voices like this.
“Regardless, you going to such extres is too much!”
“Why is it too much? I’ve been saying it’s my fault from the start!”
They poured out their thoughts without holding back, their words tumbling over each other’s.
Even Alia, usually quiet, spoke quickly with her voice raised, as if they were having a lovers’ quarrel.
Despite the argunt centering around who should be blad more, both Siwoo and Alia were serious.
Such heated exchanges continued after a while, and it was Alia who got tired first.
An undeniable truth clung to her like a heavy shackle.
“Even so... No matter what I do... I can’t erase the fact that I hurt you, Siwoo...”
“...”
“My unawareness and immaturity won’t make my mistakes vanish... It won’t undo the pain you’ve gone through...”
Tears began to fall from Alia’s cheeks as she lowered her head.
Even in a mont as intimate as this, the shadows of her past refused to let her breathe.
She thought about how she had once treated him with coldness, insulted him, and burdened him with pointless tasks. Each mory of his suffering and resentnt cut her deeply.
It was agonizing.
She feared that the more she loved him, the more her past would tornt her.
“I want to make it up to you, Siwoo. Even if it ans becoming your servant, I want to set things right...”
“Ms. Alia...”
So that’s how she felt.
This confird that the distance he felt yesterday wasn’t just sothing he made up in his head.
Though they had hugged and cried together, they hadn’t really talked about what mattered.
Until now, he had assud Alia was just as unsure about how to act around him.
But the truth was, deep down, she still hadn’t forgiven herself.
She believed she didn’t deserve to be happy, so she kept drawing lines between them.
“I hate myself.... So, so much....”
Alia sobbed, her voice breaking.
She wiped her tears roughly with her sleeve, trying to hold back the rising sobs.
Siwoo gently reached out and wiped her tears away.
Alia didn’t shy away from his touch and, after a pause, spoke in a trembling voice.
“I don’t know... I don’t know anything...at all...”
“Then, you can always ask . I’ll do my best to answer.”
Alia, who had barely managed to swallow her tears, moved her lips.
What ca out from her mouth was a very careful, heartfelt question.
“Is it...okay...for to love you, Siwoo?”
This was the main reason why she had turned away and run.
Siwoo wasn’t sure he could confidently give her the answer she wanted. At least for now.
But he knew how to ease Alia’s worries.
And he knew how to give her a clear answer.
After all, this was sothing that he had done before.
He overlapped his lips with Alia’s.
When she instinctively tried to pull away, he wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her close.
He deepened the kiss, parting her lips and tangling their tongues together.
It wasn’t a light, innocent kiss, but a passionate kiss that showcased his desire for her.
Their tongues intertwined, as if to cent their feelings.
When they finally broke apart, the atmosphere around them felt like a scene from a romance drama.
“...”
Alia’s face was flushed red, as she stood frozen in place.
The slight quiver of her lips showed how shocked she was.
Seeing her reaction, a slight embarrassnt hit Siwoo. He had kissed her in the heat of a mont, it wasn’t sothing he thought through at all.
“Did that help?”
“...”
Alia’s gaze was unfocused, her wide eyes filled with an overwhelming heat.
She grabbed Siwoo’s collar.
Her hands trembled, so was her voice.
“One more... I-I’m...not sure...”
Then she clung to Siwoo’s neck and kissed him again.
It had only been five days since they had last t.
But, this was probably the first ti they truly saw each other for who they were.
Feeling the softness and warmth of Alia’s tongue, Siwoo thought so.
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