Chapter 2. Love, Jail, Prison (2)

Translator: River

Lately I have become accustomed to his tone of voice. I don’t know when, but this man in front of me has been pushing me harder and harder, demanding more and more.

When I look into those eyes, blue as the northern sea in the bright light, I remember that they looked different to me in the season I met him, but I don’t remember when it changed. All I know for sure is that it wasn’t the first time we kissed, nor the first time he got under the covers with me, nor the first time the night was silent after lights out. Shushu swallowed dryly and turned her head, her eyes glowing white as the moon in the dark.

“…You can do it.”

No words of refusal came out. She could feel the tremor on the tip of her tongue despite her sarcastic tone, so it was impossible for her cunning opponent not to notice.

“Close your eyes.”

A light chuckle was heard, followed by a muffled voice. Shushu was about to do as he was told, but instead of closing his eyes, he asked a question.

“…Why do you always have to close your eyes?”

At Shushu’s words, the other stared at her for a moment, eyes narrowed. The gray-blue eyes, like shards of broken glass or ice crystals, contained an intensity that threatened to overwhelm the pale subject. When Shushu lowered his gaze without further question, a slow reply came to him.

“Because if you don’t, you’ll get burned. Ha.”

Another bullshit story. Shushu gave him a disgruntled look, but closed her eyes without arguing. If she didn’t close her eyes, this tedious battle would never end, and the figure in front of her wouldn’t care if her time off ran out and she was punished by the guards. And she knew it. She was the only one benefiting from this relationship of being each other’s ‘wife’.

Prisoner and prisoner wife. Prisoner and prisoner. Orange prison uniforms and name tags pinned to their chests.

Minicat, with her platinum hair like quartz, is Cabbage’s prison wife, and Cabbage is Minicat’s prison wife.

The privilege of being the wife of Minicat, a feared prisoner, gave Shushu the time and place to enjoy a leisurely lunch and care for her tomato seedlings. After becoming his wife, the kissing was quick, but the work under the sheets was slower.

But Shushu had never resisted either. Sometimes Shushu had a suspicious dream, though he knew it was about the same woman, albeit with a different body through the long hair.

She dreamed that Minicat was in the form of a man. In the dream, Minicat tells Shushu that she is still his wife, and they do even darker things than they did in the quilt.

But when she wakes up, Minicat is still a woman and a prisoner, and so is Shushu, so Shushu is alone, sad, confused and ashamed.

He has to eat his food or he will be burned.

Feeling the prick, which was suspiciously cold despite being in her mouth, Shushu remembered the naughty Minicat words. Which one of them would get burned?

It must be her, Shushu thought. Minicat is like endless winter, so it’s more appropriate that my summer-born side is the one to burn. Thinking such nonsense, Shushu expelled the breath that was slowly getting stuck in her throat. in her chest.

***

I have read novels that begin with an innocent person who is falsely accused and sent to prison.

When he wakes up, he finds that he is a criminal and the people around him do not believe in his innocence. The protagonist is usually an ordinary person or a vigilante detective who strives to prove his innocence, even after being imprisoned, and ends up unraveling a huge conspiracy and getting out of prison. It was a fairly common repertoire. And then there was the added bonus of conquering love.

But little did Shushu know that he was about to realize, in the way he least wanted to know, how disastrous it would be if it became his job, and how hopeless it would be for the protagonists to persevere in the face of such dizzying circumstances to clear their names.

Literally, Shushu is right now in the same situation they were in.

***