How Can Two People From Different Sides Ever Fall in Love? - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

◎ Taste it, your grapefruit juice ◎

Hollis’s unusual behavior triggered Raven’s alertness.

Without the obstruction of glasses, his slightly squinted eyes appeared even sharper, like two daggers cutting through iron, stabbing straight toward the man driving.

Hollis nearly performed a “Swaying Dragon Tail” maneuver with the car.

“Mr. Councilor, confession leads to leniency, resistance leads to severity.” Raven took advantage of Hollis’s momentary panic to catch him off guard. “Speak—did you steal and spray my perfume again!”

“There is no ‘again’; it’s the first time,” Hollis couldn’t help but protest.

Raven crossed his arms, his expression full of deep meaning.

There was no need to catch the thief with the loot; the thief had already made a full confession.

After returning from his morning run, Hollis had made up his mind to go find Raven.

After showering and shaving, he looked at himself in the mirror from all angles—straightening this, tugging that—but the more he looked, the less satisfied he became.

Worried that he couldn’t afford to waste more time, he forced himself away from the mirror. At the moment he turned, his peripheral vision caught the various small bottles in the deep brown acrylic box.

This was the box where Raven kept his perfumes. By lifting the top lid, one could freely choose the desired scent.

Thus, Hollis extended his “devil’s claws.” Like an emperor reviewing his troops, his hand wandered a circle before finally pulling out the sample vial of about ten milliliters placed at the very edge.

And the maximum volume of Raven’s perfumes was only that large.

Raven always possessed a good deal of self-awareness; knowing he had germaphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and was lazy, he didn’t stockpile things in his living environment. Since he couldn’t stand the sight of clutter but didn’t like tidying up, he simply solved the problem at its root once and for all.

Aware that he loved the new and loathed the old, he never bought full-sized perfumes; ten milliliters was the limit, and no matter how much he liked a scent, he wouldn’t buy more.

He was a person who was very restrained in both material desires and emotions—even in anger. This being the second time catching Hollis “stealing” his perfume, he still handled it with a light touch.

He even expressed concern about the online reviews: “I saw reviews online saying the longevity is very short, which isn’t a lie. I just didn’t expect that while it can’t be smelled on the body, it’s ‘now you see it, now you don’t’ in a confined space like a car—faintly, one can still catch a bit of it.”

The grip with which Hollis held the steering wheel loosened. Simultaneously, a sense of loss welled up in his heart.

That’s it?

In fact, the moment the grapefruit scent sprayed out, Hollis felt a bit of regret.

Originally, according to Raven’s habit, the most frequently used perfumes were placed on the outside.

The scent Hollis had recently smelled on him was the cold, herbal fragrance that drifted past his nose while they were embraced in the restroom during the cross-party consultation meeting.

The moment the slightly bitter, fresh fruity-floral scent emerged, it instantly pulled back Hollis’s wandering thoughts.

He had reviewed his troops and picked out an assassin.

Usually when he went out, except for work, he almost just threw on clothes and left. Whether he tidied his brownish-black curls or not, no trace of effort could be seen in the end.

Having made the decision this morning, he tried on clothes one by one, from casual to formal, stopping just short of picking a tie and tying a knot to match the outfit.

Before leaving, he had, by some freakish impulse, even sprayed perfume.

In the past, he had made off with Raven’s nearly finished perfume samples but never thought of spraying them, nor did he think of doing anything with them; they simply lay in his pocket until the time Raven discovered them.

He couldn’t say for sure if it was because he hadn’t received a lesson that his “thief’s heart” hadn’t died, leading him to set his sights on the perfume again.

Regretting it immediately after spraying, he was fortunate that the fruity scent gradually faded in the wind upon heading out. By the time he reached his destination, the scent had basically dissipated, and he had silently breathed a sigh of relief.

Now exposed by Raven, his heart tightened, yet until nothing happened, he inexplicably felt a bit out of sorts.

God knows how he walked through such a distorted mental journey.

Hollis suppressed his chaotic thoughts. Driving out of the small villa’s lane and merging into the main road, he asked for Raven’s destination with a complex mood: “Where are you going to get the documents? Do you need navigation?”

Raven was uncharacteristically silent for a moment, then said nonchalantly: “No need to go. Just go back; he’ll send me the electronic version in a bit.”

Hollis was surprised for an instant but said nothing more.

He turned on the blinker and cut into a shortcut.

Whoosh—

A message arrived on the phone. Raven looked down to unlock the screen. On Voye’s chat interface, the other party had sent a document.

Scrolling up through the chat history, Raven’s words were not false; Voye indeed called, and the matter of getting documents was real. However, in the information age, unless it was a secret requiring personal presence, who else would deliver information face-to-face?

Times have changed; media is now an extension of the human body.

Raven replied with a “Received,” clicked on the document, and his fingertip unconsciously swiped down. His pupils were unfocused; a series of words floated before his eyes without forming a complete sentence.

Ever since seeing Hollis upon waking up this morning, Raven had been in a state of very complex emotions.

Calling it “surprise” wasn’t accurate, and “irritation” was too much. In short, his heart was a mixture of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty a jumble of five flavors, like “ascending the west tower alone in silence” during the day.

According to the common sense Raven followed, when Hollis proposed to visit Li Lan, he should have accompanied him. Refusing “pity food” was merely an excuse; he just felt this behavior was indescribably strange.

Having sent Hollis away, he wasn’t at ease with him and Li Lan staying together alone. As for what exactly he was uneasy about, he had no clue.

While waiting for the breakfast delivery, Raven first received Voye’s call. Once the call ended, he immediately had an idea and used it as a reason to call Hollis away.

Throughout the entire process, Raven didn’t tell a single lie; it was merely a “Spring and Autumn” style of writing—it all depended on how one interpreted his meaning.

In fact, they still had time to eat lunch before leaving, but since it was neither important nor urgent, the contrast highlighted the importance of work.

Neither Hollis nor Li Lan suspected anything, allowing Raven to leave.

Only with “ghosts in the heart” do thoughts wander a thousand times. The annoying thing was, Raven didn’t know exactly what kind of ghost was in his heart.

Silent all the way back to the apartment, Hollis was in the room packing his final luggage. Raven stole a quick glance and turned into the bathroom opposite.

The mirror reflected his current expression: pale, indifferent, like a wax statue devoid of human flavor.

Raven stared at the image in the mirror, and the image stared back. Then he listlessly lowered his eyelids, his gaze patrolling around the washbasin.

He scanned the area nonchalantly, found nothing missing, and intended to leave when the deep brown storage box entered his peripheral vision.

The similar color inevitably made him think of Hollis’s curls, just like those sapphire cufflinks.

Raven stopped, lifted the lid, and looked down at the situation inside the box.

In the art student’s marker storage box he had carefully selected, within the rows of identical-sized compartments, his perfume samples were neatly arranged like well-trained soldiers.

Inspecting like a general, he noticed the one at the outermost layer was placed incorrectly—it happened to be the new one he had bought.

Raven pulled it out.

Hollis had sprayed a bit in the morning; currently, the volume appeared unscathed. Raven could only catch a slight trace of the scent in the air; he didn’t yet know what it felt like sprayed on the body.

Thinking and doing at the same time, at the moment his thumb pressed down, he stopped. He turned out of the bathroom and walked behind Hollis.

At this time, Hollis was squatting on the bedroom floor, an open suitcase in front of him. Having packed too casually last night, he now had to redo the work, checking one by one for any omissions.

Raven went in and out of the bathroom in just a few minutes. Halfway through Hollis’s check, he heard the footsteps behind him. Thinking Raven wanted to come in, he just turned his face slightly when a coolness hit the back of his neck. Immediately, it felt as if someone had peeled a grapefruit; a fresh yet slightly bitter scent invaded his nasal cavity.

He instinctively covered his neck, looking up at Raven with eyes full of confusion.

“So this is the effect when sprayed.” Raven shook the sample in his hand, a sly curve appearing at the corners of his mouth. “I originally planned to use this for Art Week. I’ll thank the Mr. Councilor first for helping to test the fragrance; you’ve let me personally experience how short the longevity is. Whether to use it or not is truly a question now.”

In the air, the scent was indeed fading; “disappearing in five steps” was a fitting description.

Light and Shadow Art Week was almost entirely outdoors. Whether to spray for an instant or for a duration was something to be carefully considered.

Hollis was still half-squatting.

He could often keenly detect when Raven’s mood was off, yet he couldn’t grasp the true meaning behind it. For instance, right now, he could feel the sincerity in Raven’s thanks, but listening to it, he felt there was a trace of insincerity hidden within.

Truth and falsehood mixed together—how much of each? It was comparable to the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

Hollis was left only with animal instinct. Relying on this instinct, he continued to look up at Raven, forcing his blue eyes wide. Beneath his serious face, there was a faint trace of hesitation and eagerness.

Raven truly fell for this; his gaze softened.

Taking advantage of the momentum, Hollis reached out with the hand stained with perfume, gripped Raven’s pant leg, and tugged gently: “I won’t do it next time.”

Raven made no indication, as if saying it depended on his performance.

Hollis thought for a bit and began to perform: “I’ll compensate you with a bottle full size.”

Raven’s mouth twitched, and his softened gaze turned sharp again. This half-civilized humanoid creature could only speak human words, nothing more.

The humanoid creature, once speaking human words, couldn’t stop: “I’ll take over all your future perfumes.”

Raven gave up communicating with him and lifted his leg to leave, but his pant leg became a “hostage” in Hollis’s hand. Raven was forced to give up leaving.

He tried to pull his leg away but couldn’t. Helplessly, he chose to communicate: “Let go.”

Hollis’s broad palm was as steady as Mount Tai: “You haven’t answered me on what you want to do.”

“I don’t want to do anything, just let go of me.”

Hollis remained motionless. Under Raven’s “ant-trying-to-shake-a-tree” struggle, he suddenly opened his palm. A moment later, starting from a half-squat, he lunged forward, repeating his old trick of hoisting Raven up on his shoulder.

Raven completely gave up on the idea of struggling, waiting for Hollis to throw him onto the bed.

To his surprise, Hollis didn’t throw him this time; he placed him on the bed gently. Raven felt that everything could be negotiated again.

“We’re leaving tomorrow; don’t mess around.”

Hollis said “okay” to not messing around, but in the blink of an eye, he had shrunk to the foot of the bed, unbuckling Raven’s belt with one hand.

Raven had no choice but to argue his case, his speaking speed increasing out of fear that being a second slow would mean failing to catch up with Hollis’s hand speed: “Have some mercy. We’re leaving tomorrow. This can’t be done, it can’t be done!”

Doing it would be a disaster; the contract was already set in stone don’t go prying the nails out one by one!

Hollis repeated the same words “I won’t” yet the movements of his hands didn’t stop.

The weather hadn’t completely warmed up yet. Once his legs were exposed to the air, a chill hit immediately, making Raven’s legs tremble.

However, more terrifying than the cold air was the heat Hollis brought as he leaned in.

Alternating between cold and hot, Raven was like a frog in lukewarm water; his refusal sounded less than sincere.

Once he was completely “cooked,” a rustling sound came from his ear. Raven reacted for a moment, realizing Hollis had climbed up.

His limbs were limp, and his heart felt as if soaked in a hot spring, powerless to care about the mundane affairs of the world.

Indulgence comes at a price, and soon, his price was realized.

Warm breath sprayed against his jaw, followed immediately by moist, hot lips. As their lips met, a soft tongue pried open his teeth.

Raven instinctively swallowed the liquid following the tongue. The strange taste made him frown.

As the air in his chest grew thin, Hollis pulled back, his arms bracing beside Raven’s face. Physiological tears welled in the corners of his eyes, and his sapphire pupils were crystal clear, like two lakes holding sunlight.

When he spoke, it was as if throwing a stone into the lakes, sending ripples through Raven’s heart.

“Taste it, your grapefruit juice.”

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