CH 18

A woman who wouldn’t lose her innocence even when she wore a lewd uniform that exposed her breasts and thighs…

Selling a forced smile to men no different from the prostitutes on stage, though with no intention of seducing the men… No, she didn’t know how to seduce or anything like that. A peasant fresh from the countryside who didn’t even smell of perfume, let alone makeup.

…Like Sally Bristol.

Even the eyes that were tired of the pleasure that displayed in front of her resembled Sally’s eyes looking at him.

Leon approached the woman who was standing against the wall. The woman who noticed his presence looked up at him with her deep blue eyes wide open.

“Wha, what do you need?”

He couldn’t figure out why she was stuttering. Was she depressed, or did she read the impure look from him…?

He then picked up a box of candy from the tray, put it in the pocket of his officer’s uniform, and held out a bill. When the woman tried to give him the change, Leon asked, shaking his head.

“Is this your first time?”

“Yes?”

The woman widened her eyes again.

“Why…are you asking… such a thing?”

Seeing her acting like a frightened rat, it seemed like she had misunderstood what he meant by her first time.

“Is this your first time doing this?”

The woman’s face turned red as if she had misunderstood. The woman lowered her gaze and smiled sheepishly.

“How did you know?”

“Obvious.”

Closing her arms and glancing down, the woman glanced at him, acting like a frightened rat again.

“Do…you need anything more?”

That was what the maid often says.

This might work…

“Do you have a lover?”

The woman raised her eyes and laid them down. She gazed into his eyes and answered in a low voice, like a rat’s squeak.

“…Yes.”

At that moment, the smile that appeared on Leon’s straight face was more twisted than ever.

Faith and love couldn’t be firmly established in the swamp of poverty. Because it easily collapsed even in the breeze of a few pennies.

For less than half of what he had given the maid a few days ago, the woman betrayed her fiancé and followed him to the hotel. Leon opened the door and the woman crouched, clutching the hem of her short skirt.

“Are, are you really going to do it with me?”

When she asked with a flushed face, Leon just smirked.

‘Stupid woman… What makes you so excited? It’s not going to happen what you expect.’

A young, wealthy, handsome man spent one night with her, a poor and unassuming woman, and fell in love… Well, it seemed like she was mistaken that something like a plot in a third-rate romance novel would happen to her.

“Go in.”

When he gave the order, the woman flinched and went inside. She followed straight in, and an insidious aura began to emanate from Leon, who slammed the door roughly.

The woman realized her plight a little as she stood in front of the bed, and she was at a loss for what to do. Leon did not go to the woman but leaned against the wall opposite the bed.

“Take it off.”

He ordered, pulling loosely the tie knot that was holding his neck.

“I don’t have time.”

The woman, frozen in place, took off her old trench coat only after he tapped his wristwatch. Leon’s eyes as he watched the woman undo the ribbons and buttons of the cabaret uniform were the same as when he looked at the naked dancers on the stage.

“Take it all off. Oh, leave the stockings behind.”

Even though she climbed onto the bed with her bra and bloomers all removed and only cheap rayon stockings on, the man did not come.

The woman spying on him with her hands wrapped around her naked body didn’t know what to expect. Meanwhile, in the mind of that young officer who looked like a movie star, another woman was taking her clothes off…

Was it because it didn’t smell like blood?

Leon stared at the woman who was sitting on the bed, her skin exposed like a piece of meat, before reaching out to the small table.

“Gasp!”

As the sharp tip of the wine opener mercilessly dug into his thumb, the woman made a harsh sound. Leon, who started bleeding from his thumb, never twisted his eyebrows. He made his way to the bed, licking his tongue out of the blood that was about to run down his palm and wrist.

The woman retreated to the corner of the bed, her deep blue eyes shaking.

Gripping the woman’s chin as she was trying to run away from him, he squashed his thumb against her pale, quivering lips. The woman’s lips were all red with his blood.

‘…This might work.’

His taste may not be the maid… Only the smell of blood and the contempt in a woman’s eyes could excite him.

‘Yeah, despise me like that. So far, you’re doing very well.’

Leon, who gave a confident smile to the woman who glanced at him like he was a monster, bowed his head. The bloody smell on her lips moved closer at once.

The smell of blood.

And, a woman who despised him.

This would work.

It had to work.

“Oh… uh…”

It had to work…

He stopped unknowingly just before their lips touched. Frozen for quite some time in the pose he was about to kiss, the woman called him in a trembling voice. Eventually, Leon pushed her chin and stood up.

“Get out, now.”

º º º

She was thinking of borrowing only Winston’s shower booth. However, when she came to her senses, Sally was already getting hot water in the bathtub.

That wasn’t enough, she lathered up a lot of fresh lemon-scented soap and took out a candle from the corner of the bathroom closet that Winston had never touched and left it lit. It was a pretty extravagant night for a poor maid and for the spy who was always desperate for money.

But, Sally was also human, so there were times when she was thirsty for this luxury.

‘A glass of champagne is perfect.’

She could go to the parlor and secretly bring a drink, but not when she had already taken off her clothes and was soaking in the bathtub…? Next time she ‘borrowed’ the bathroom, she must not forget it.

There was no bathtub in her ‘home.’ In fact, it was not a house, although a room attached to a boarding house.

Originally, a family of four lived in a fairly large house. Nonetheless, after her father passed away, she received glares from those around her that it was big enough for the three of them to live. Then, when her mother died and her brother left, Sally had to give her childhood home to the other family and move to the boarding house.

Even though she was saddened, the house was the property of the community.

“The leadership should set an example.”

…The words that Jimmy always chanted like a spell were a little comforting.

“You can use our bathtub anytime. We’re like family.”

Jimmy’s house had a bathtub with hot water. It was quite the offer, but she had never used it before because his smile showed his witty intentions.

‘Before the first night of marriage, it is not too early.’

Sally dipped her body down to her chin and let out a pleasant moan. She felt as if her muscles had been loosened from the hard work.

‘…Let’s enjoy a little more and go out.’

As she closed her eyes in the dim bathroom and entered the hot water, she soon felt sleepy. Without realizing it, Sally dozed off and shoved her nose into the foam. Astonished, she lifted her head and blew the bubbles, and small soap bubbles floated up and down.

‘Now, I think I should wash my body before the water cools down.’

She paused as she inadvertently tried to pick up the sponge from the golden tray hung at the end of the bathtub — that was what Winston rubbed on his body.

“Uwak!”

Without realizing it, she imagined that sponge rubbing the cigar. Sally shrieked and dunked her head into the foam.

…Please, let the bubble wash away all the dirty memories from her head.

“Foo…”

Only when she couldn’t hold her breath did she lift her head out of the water. She took a deep breath as she wiped the water and foam flowing down her face with her hand, and she stiffened the moment she opened her closed eyes.

“Who have we here? Miss Sally Bristol… more stuck up than Grand Lady Aldrich and more expensive than Kitty Hayes, in my bathtub, naked.”

Winston was smiling, leaning at the door across from the bathtub. His hands unbuttoned the officer’s jacket one by one.

‘Damn it. No way… When did he come in?’

She didn’t wonder ‘how.’ It was because Winston had the master key of the annex. In other words, it meant that there was no locked door in this annex.

“Is it my birthday today? Or, did Christmas come eight months earlier?”

He took off his jacket and took two steps towards her.

“I’m so sorry, Captain.”

Saying so, she quickly wrapped one arm around her chest and leaned her body at the feet of the bathtub. Just as she was about to pick up her clothes from the towel rack, Winston hung his jacket over it and covered her clothes.

Sally raised her eyes and looked up at him. As he approached her nose, the filthy smile on his face became clearer.

“Captain, what are you doing now?”

Knowing it was a stupid question, she couldn’t help but ask. Winston quickly untied his black tie and threw it into the laundry basket, unbuttoning his shirt, and answered indifferently.

“Going into my bathtub.”

“Can you go out for a moment before that?”

“This is my bathroom, shouldn’t you go out?”

“Yes, I will go. Captain, if you could give me my clothes…”

For some reason, Winston meekly put his hand under his jacket and pulled out Sally’s clothes.

“Thank y…”

Her hand, reaching out to receive her clothes, stopped in mid-air.