Chapter 974 – #209_Dancing With The Black Swan (5)
#968
1.
It was an early summer night, with more leaves than usual fluttering in the wind.
Even though it was the middle of the night, the humid air clung to the edges of her sleeves.
It was similar to the weather when she was trapped in the fish tank with Siwoo, struggling to survive.
Early summer was truly a season of fever for Deneb.
“Okay, that’s enough for today.”
At the same time that Albireo was probably banging his head against the bedroom wall,
Deneb organized the documents she had been working on all day.
Although the world had developed fax machines and computer-based document processing, witches still preferred approvals through handwritten documents.
If you asked why, they would usually argue some elaborate spiritual theory, but to Deneb, it was just old-fashioned inertia.
Something comfortable and familiar. Something that naturally drew the hand and the heart.
In this way, inertia existed in human behavior.
Unfortunately, romantic feelings were the same.
Deneb looked out the window with a lonely gaze.
Thanks to the consideration of her beloved daughters, Odile and Odette, they had shared a forbidden night together.
She, who had been secretly suffering from late-blooming love, was able to express her sincere feelings to Siwoo for the first time, and after that, Deneb herself stepped back.
She had expressed her feelings, so she stopped making a fool of herself to avoid being an embarrassing teacher to Odile and Odette.
She thought she had definitely tied things up.
“It’s strange these days…”
However, even though she was swamped with work and Siwoo was busy, she barely saw his face these days, yet her heart fluttered more than the branches outside the window.
The reason was that Albireo’s agitation was also causing ripples in Deneb’s heart, but Deneb, unaware of this, could only think that her boss’s unhealed illness had relapsed.
Then, a familiar shadow suddenly appeared beyond the window.
Without a second thought, Deneb threw a shawl as thin as a dragonfly’s wing over her nightgown.
Before she knew it, she was running out into the garden without a plan.
Siwoo was sitting on a garden bench, bathed in moonlight, with a cigarette in one hand and a thin book in the other.
As she got closer to him, Deneb’s steps slowed down little by little.
“…Ah.”
His carelessly tousled hair and the glossy white shirt that only someone with exceptional looks could pull off.
Even the tough muscles that couldn’t be hidden.
What was even more impressive was his aura.
Where had the Shin Siwoo who used to evoke a maternal instinct to take care of him gone?
She wanted to be taken care of instead.
She wanted to be spoiled by him and rely on him.
But she knew he would never do that.
That was why she was even more restless.
As she had mentioned very often, her age and his were two halves of one.
Just like Albireo, Deneb was ultimately attracted to bad boys.
Siwoo’s current appearance pierced right through the center of Deneb’s weakened heart.
His friend, Madam, had said she would take him away for a mental makeover, and she had thought, how much could he really change?
But in less than a month, he had transformed this much.
“Albireo… I mean, it was Deneb, wasn’t it? Were you taking a walk?”
Siwoo closed his book with a thud as soon as he saw Deneb and stood up from his seat.
It was Deneb who had boldly declared the normalization of their relationship in the first place.
There was no way she could say that she had run all the way from afar because she had spotted him.
“The night air is cool. I was just taking a look around.”
Deneb desperately tried to resist the urge to glance at him.
“It’s a book of poems. ‘A Season in Hell’ by Arthur Rimbaud?”
“Albireo-nim assigned it as homework. He told me to fill in the gaps in my knowledge so that I wouldn’t fall behind in conversations about culture.”
“Your sister must have picked the book for you, right?”
“How did you know?”
“My sister is particularly fond of French poetry. So, what are your thoughts?”
“Honestly… I don’t really understand this kind of thing.”
Siwoo, who had outwardly changed into a very prickly person, shrugged his shoulders at Deneb, as if making a joke.
Of course, even that had a strange charm and confidence that was different from before the consultant.
Still, the fact that he was gentle only to Deneb made her feel like she had become his ‘special person,’ and her heels involuntarily lifted.
Wasn’t the reason why bad boys were attractive because they were incredibly kind ‘to me’?
“Still, tell me what you think.”
“Hmm, he’s a symbolist poet, a rebel who mocked not only social conventions but also the establishment. He introduced vocabulary, concepts, and objective senses suitable for positivism to reach a transcendental world, and… he also expressed sensualized images in language by fusing reality and objectivity with symbols and the unconscious.
He also created an opportunity to recognize the abstract and metaphysical world of the unconscious as an objective and concrete entity called clinical practice, and it seems that he had a huge impact on modern poetry.”
“Siwoo, you didn’t actually understand it, did you?”
“No, not at all. I just memorized it. But do witches really talk about these kinds of topics?”
“Not often, but sometimes.”
“Ha.”
“Still, you said it quite well.”
Deneb covered her mouth and laughed like a naive girl at Siwoo’s sigh of exhaustion.
Just talking to him made her feel so at ease.
But at this point, a poem by Arthur Rimbaud…
It was as cruel as a twist of fate.
Rimbaud was also someone who was hurt by a forbidden love and ultimately broke up and died young.
-Tap
Then, a hand was placed on Deneb’s head.
Deneb looked up at Siwoo with wide, startled eyes.
What was the meaning of this skinship?
Could it be?
Deneb felt her neck turn red and pulled her body back.
“S-Siwoo… we decided not to do this anymore…”
“Ah, I’m sorry. Of course. But you looked so depressed. I’m aware of the hypnosis, but sometimes I can’t control it.”
“Ah… right, that must be it.”
“Do you have any worries? If it’s okay with you, I can give you some advice.”
Siwoo politely withdrew his hand and apologized, then lowered his waist slightly to meet her gaze and asked.
He shot a worried look at Deneb, who had shrunk her shoulders like a frightened squirrel.
“I was just feeling the afterglow of the poem. I don’t think I can read any more.”
Even the cheesy jokes that normal Siwoo would never have said.
Even though she knew it was a joke, Deneb couldn’t smile back.
His flirting and seduction, as natural as breathing, were injecting a lethal dose of excitement into Deneb’s heart.
“Forget about the consultation. Just sit next to me.”
“Of course.”
Siwoo unfolded a handkerchief and laid it on the spot where Deneb would sit.
On the pond below the bench, leaves that had fallen due to the wind floated leisurely.
Deneb broke the silence that had lasted for a while and spoke first.
“Will you read me a poem?”
“Now? It’s not difficult, but…”
“Please.”
Siwoo cleared his throat and opened the book of poems again.
“If my memory is correct, my life was a feast where everyone opened their hearts and all kinds of liquor flowed.
One evening, I sat Beauty on my knees. Come to think of it, it was foolish. So I cursed at her.
I armed myself firmly against justice. I ran away. Oh witches, oh misfortune, oh hatred, I entrust my treasure to you.”
You might think, what kind of poem is this, but ‘A Season in Hell’ is originally a difficult prose poem.
Then, a hand slipped into Siwoo’s empty hand, interlocking fingers.
It was Deneb’s hand, of course.
“Deneb-nim.”
Siwoo calmly stopped reading, but he looked confused.
Indeed, she knew that this behavior was pathetic.
She had said, ‘Our relationship is over,’ and now she was flirting.
“I’m paying you back. You put your hand on my head without permission, didn’t you? And also, I was worried that you might have been hurt. That you might misunderstand that I hated it. But that’s absolutely not the case.”
She was a little curious. She was a little scared.
She wondered what kind of reaction he would show her now.
So she acted, and then belatedly added an excuse.
“You’re going to be seducing a lot of witches in the future. If you’re not planning to increase the number of your girlfriends, you should laugh off this much flirting. Don’t you think so? Casanova?”
“I guess so.”
Even as he answered, Siwoo surrounded himself with a strange magic.
He didn’t say anything in particular, but it was magic to prevent any paparazzi or prying eyes.
It was an application of the half-baked singing magic that he had copied from Deneb.
If that was the case, then this bench was like a small tent that had closed its doors in Han River Park.
Unless the public officials were determined to open it, it was a private space for just the two of them.
Deneb let go of the hand she was holding.
Instead, she wrapped her arms around Siwoo’s neck.
It seemed like a really strange day today.
It seemed like a day when she was doing things she wouldn’t normally do.
It seemed like a day when she was even forgetting the rules she had set for herself in the past.
Once was difficult, but twice or three times was not difficult.
“Deneb-nim, if you do this…”
“Just for today.”
Their lips met, overlapping due to Deneb’s half-forced stubbornness.
Siwoo did not actively stop Deneb.
This was also related to the hypnosis setting.
There were two hypnosis items for the perfect method acting.
Act as if you could seduce anyone with confidence.
But don’t make any progress and be a wall of iron.
In fact, since the purpose itself was to assist with acting, there were no strict rules like brainwashing.
Since the rules were ambiguous, there were also loopholes, so the iron wall did not work for ‘people with whom he had already had a relationship.’
“Chup…”
Deneb boldly pushed her thin tongue in first, attempting an active and sticky kiss.
Their romantic kiss continued quietly and for quite a long time.
Deneb’s surprise kiss had unknowingly had a great impact on Albireo…
“Seriously, why is this happening…”
Albireo, who had been banging his head against the bedroom wall until a little while ago, curled up with a ticklish and strange feeling.
“…Oh?”
Ruelle, who was trying to float the warship model that Siwoo had given her on the pond after applying special alchemy, witnessed the scene.
That’s right.
Ruelle, unbelievably, was a 23rd-rank witch.
She was a super amazing witch who could see through Siwoo’s smokescreen.
