Tonight"s task was for Baby. Baby greeted, SoYoon, who arrived a little before 6:00.
"Welcome! You came by when I was asleep last time. You should have woken me up."
"You were sleeping so peacefully, I didn"t want to interrupt."
Baby rammed into SoYoon like a boar. SoYoon hugged Baby back. The lovers playfully made fun of them as Baby kissed SoYoon all over her cheek. The giggling face was so young looking that it was hard to believe it belonged to a 30-year-old. As rumor had it, the face had not changed since 15.
Baby transformed in a different way. Baby changed genders. It was something Baby couldn"t control and could only feel the changes coming on. However, like a true resident of Wonderland, Baby was able to seduce men, women, young and old, whenever the whim presented itself. Right now, she must have been a woman as she was sporting a green dress.
"Let"s go inside. There"s something I need to hear from you."
"I came to fulfill a task."
"We have some time left, so take it slow. Okay?"
Baby smiled, raising her finger over her plump pink lips. SoYoon couldn"t help laughing at the innocence.
"That"s not going to work on me."
"C"mon, friend."
"What is it you want to hear so badly?"
"Oh, friend!"
Baby was the only friend that SoYoon had made here. They had in common hair that shone in the dark, small, thin stature, young faces, and although it was a secret, similar ages.
Baby dragged SoYoon into the room. The things that SoYoon thought were dull such as the happenings of Wonderland, the suspicious activities of the Twins, the smartphone, Heart"s advances, Mad Hatter"s patch order became wonderful topics of discussion to Baby. Baby laughed, wiping tears off her face.
"You"re an idiot. Oh, you naive fool. All my life, I"ve never…"
SoYoon stared at the laughing Baby and chewed on a french fry. The salty french fries were a favorite of Baby"s, who surprisingly hated sweets.
Baby barely controlled her laughing and dove into the fries until the plate was almost empty. When the snacks were depleted, gossip time was also over. That"s when they talked about work.
Baby called the people who tried to attack her thugs. Baby reasoned that it was a word that described their wanting to attack a beautiful and frail being.
Beauty—Baby"s second-biggest weapon. Using it, Baby was able to seduce a h.o.a.rd of lovers to create a clan. But she was frail. If you based strength on physical power alone, then yes, Baby could be considered frail. That was probably why the thugs thought it easy to attack.
"There are six total. The actual attack will start at two a.m., but at eight, one is planning to infiltrate our ranks. They plan to kill the person who delivers our groceries once a week, pretend to deliver the goods, then remain in hiding inside. Then when everyone is asleep, he will open the door and let the rest inside to kill me. If they kill me, they can split apart the clan."
SoYoon, however, never thought of Baby as frail. Baby knew every bit of information circulating within Wonderland. Baby said her nickname as Intel was a bit drastic when she only made contact with a select few, but Heart and SoYoon didn"t think so. Just recapping the story, Baby had intel on the time and number of intruders and was relaying them all to SoYoon.
"Should we keep one alive?"
"No need. I know the person and reason behind it."
"Who is it?"
"The person who calls himself Mad Dog. He was pretending to be a big-shot mobster at Outhouse, then messed with the wrong man and ended up crawling in here with the rest of his minions. They are slowly getting established now and wanted to make a point, and I ended up being the target. He"s pretty good-looking, though. What a shame."
"Were you planning to eat him up?"
"Eat him up? I just never reject anyone who loves me. Think about it. The enemy falls in love with his target, and I make the macho man grovel at my feet. It gives me the chills."
Baby"s blue eyes drained of color. She looked ready to take all her lovers to bed this instant. SoYoon flicked her forehead and spoke.
"It"s almost eight. There"s no time for that."
"I know. That"s the only reason I still have clothes on at this hour."
Baby raised her dress up slightly as she answered. The velvet lace undergarments above her thighs would make anyone fill with l.u.s.t. Because they were not alone in the room, the lovers kept shooting glances at them. SoYoon sighed and got up.
"Do whatever you want. It might be better to act normally if you"re going to let them infiltrate anyway."
"Where are you going?"
"Somewhere in the living room. Just give me something to eat."
Baby"s lovers moved before SoYoon even finished closing the door. SoYoon closed the door until the lovers were out of sight.
The night grew deep. A few minutes before 2:00, the house filled with darkness. The first-floor lobby was dead silent except for a doll in dark clothing. The doll stopped in front of the door and looked around carefully, then unlocked it. The well-oiled door opened without a sound. After checking the surroundings again, an arm crept out the door and signaled.
His task was now complete. His troops entered with relief and whispered.
"You did well."
That was the last sound he ever heard.
SoYoon marched the corpse in front of her and went outside.
"Hey, why did you come out? We"re going to go in anyway," one of the thugs asked. She threw the corpse toward him and ran.
"Ah, what…! F*ck! Undertaker!"
SoYoon pulled her sword out with her right hand and grabbed her sheath with her left. In the cool spring night, in the light of a crescent moon, the sword swung quietly.
Six men. Whether it was because they didn"t take Baby seriously or because they were from Outhouse, the men were incredibly weak. The nickname Mad Dog now seemed ridiculous—because here was where all the crazies came to play.
Soon, one man came through the door. That was when SoYoon was cutting the sixth man in half. The man frowned at the blood splattered all over the nicely manicured lawn.
"Can"t you work a bit more cleanly? Do you know how bothersome it is to clean all this up?"
"Tell that to Baby. This was all thanks to him. Where do you want to put all these corpses?"
"No wonder they call you the Undertaker. We"re going to use them tomorrow, so don"t take them. Here"s your pay."
The man shoved the corpses into a corner. He must have come out to deal with the mess. The corpses would probably be nicely packaged and delivered to Mad Dog"s front door.
SoYoon put the money in her cross bag and left Baby"s house. The inky black sky was looking down on her. She made her rounds around the slums later than usual and arrived at March and Dor"s house. She could hear them in a deep sleep, the three of them.
March, Dor, and—
That night, SoYoon opened the notebook that she had kept for the four years since she had entered Wonderland. It was the original story of Wonderland that she had copied into the notebook.
The first page had finally started.
In the time that SoYoon had been playing with Baby and Baby with the lovers, one girl had stumbled past the Wonderland sign. But having used all her strength, before setting foot into Wonderland, she had lost consciousness.
How much time has pa.s.sed? When she opened her eyes, she was no longer the girl she had been before she pa.s.sed out. The person inside was someone else.
It was a cold spring night. She opened her eyes and slowly raised her body to find that she had been lying on the ground.
She dusted off the parts that had made contact with the ground and found a long golden thread. She reached for the slightly curly piece to find that it was a blond hair. She pulled at it and yelled as she realized it was attached to her head. That was when she realized that the hair was hers.
After coming back to her senses, she realized she was wearing clothes she"d never seen before, and the shape of her hands and the color of her skin were different. She searched inside a bag she found lying nearby. Among some clothes and food was a small mirror. With shaking hands, she checked her reflection.
She saw a head of golden hair that shone brightly in the darkness, pale blue eyes, cream-colored skin, and an innocent face.
Even for someone who had been called pretty all her life, she had to admit the girl in the mirror was beautiful. She swept her hands across her body. Even this girl"s body was perfect.
How could this have happened? How could I be in someone else"s body? Am I dreaming?