The scent of jasmine tea wafts through the enclosed space. Allaire hums a light melody when serving, her fingers tapping delicately on the porcelain teapot. Four cups are placed on the table, though she only fills two of them. When finished, she gently pushes one to Yang Rong, who is still sitting in the same lax position. Now, however, he bears an aura of indifference, a distinct contrast to his prior playful persona.
The matching porcelain cup doesn’t fit his aesthetic at all. Colonel Yang dons a dark black shirt and an equally as dark part of trousers, the same shade as his all-noir hair. To the side of the sofa is his backpack that, when inspected closely, has the tip of a rifle jutted out near the zipper. How the man can look exceedingly dangerous without lifting a single finger is unfathomable.
Allaire, however, remains unaffected. “It’d be better for you to ask a question rather than to sit so solemnly in silence, Colonel Yang.”
The man flicks his gaze toward her. In the past ten minutes, he had already memorized every nook and cranny of the room. He could probably recount every book on the shelves, too, considering how intently he was surveying the place.
“What should I start with?”
“For someone so possessive, you certainly don’t know much about him at all,” Allaire chuckles. She rests her chin on her hand and looks at him with critical eyes. “What is a colonel doing out here? Surely you haven’t neglected your duties to stay with Noah?”
Yang Rong allows the scrutiny without a word – rather, he seems to take up the challenge all too well, locking eye contact with her. Unfazed. “And if I were simply taking temporary leave?”
“I am asking for your motive, Colonel Yang.” Allaire smiles. “He allowed you in here, but it hardly means you are any trustworthy to me. Military men of your caliber are overbearing in nature and… Noah is a very special omega hybrid, guaranteed a treasure to all your scientist friends. Have you reported his whereabouts to the Nexus?”
“No.” Yang Rong leans back against the sofa. “I haven’t.”
“Surprising,” she replies. “I believe there is protocol to report unusual findings to the government. You are implying you haven’t yet reported him or—“
“I imply I am not reporting him,” Colonel Yang says, crossing his arms. “I am on temporary leave, after all.”
“Temporary or indefinite?”
He hesitates to respond, stroking a finger against his chin. “The former.”
“Then you will have to leave him.”
“Then the latter,” he says. “I am shipwrecked and stranded in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps I’ve already been recorded dead. Besides, I’ve blundered my last mission and I may as well be demoted now.”
Allaire raises a neat brow. “You are willing to rid your status?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Hm…” Allaire tilts her head in scrutiny. “You are more sensible than I’d initially thought, Colonel Yang. However, it is still hard to believe he’d get along with a military man like you—or does he not?”
“…Uncertain,” he responds slowly. “I am on a quest to woo him.”
At that, Allaire barks out a loud laugh. She covers her mouth in hilarity and speaks in between laughter, “Colonel Yang, your attempts at wooing him aren’t very convincing.”
He quirks a brow. “Are they not? I am certain I have demonstrated very desirable traits. It is more inconceivable that he does not reciprocate to my well-calculated advances. There is not a single part about me that is unlikeable.”
Allaire’s grin grows wider. “I see it is your narcissism that catches him off guard.”
“It is not narcissism,” Yang Rong replies. “It is well-founded truth.”
“And here I thought my little Noah would bring home someone more sentient,” the young woman sighs dramatically, though the grin on her face is never fading. “Instead, the only good quality about you is your appearance. But I can give you some pointers…” Allaire leans forward and her eyes twinkle in kind. “I can tell you about his hobbies and interests?”
Suddenly, Yang Rong is all too willing to hold conversation with her. He puts the teacup down and says, “Appreciated—but it isn’t that I am unable to woo him on my own, of course.”
Allaire is too into playing matchmaker – ironic, considering how she’d interrogated him just a minute prior. The both of them make an odd pair of loudmouths – while Colonel Yang talks with an undertone of condescension, Allaire herself is unfazed in front of his naturally overpowering aura. “Did you know that Noah can play the piano? He had learned from his mother.”
“His mother,” Yang Rong repeats in interest. “Alive?”
“Long passed.” Allaire continues to the next topic seamlessly. “When he was younger, Noah had often dyed his hair… so much to the point that he started complaining about hair loss at the age of twelve.”
A low chuckle. “I see.”
“Little Noah had brown hair in his ID photos,” Allaire says with a fond smile. “He said it was because the color was inconspicuous. You see, Yang Rong, he’d always been distressed about his silver hair. Once, when Noah was in his teens, Hyun—ah, my current boyfriend—made fun of his appearance and… Well, it was entertaining to watch them duke it out in the living room. Noah can be very fierce.”
“I am aware,” the man chuckles. “But he has calmed down significantly, no? It is hard to imagine the pampered kitten being that energetic.”
“I have pampered him quite a bit,” Allaire agrees wholeheartedly. “But I haven’t been able to spoil him enough so he’d stay.”
“What do you mean?”
“Noah is…” Allaire sighs. “He finds it difficult to stay anywhere. I think, even after a decade, he still believes we will throw him out.”
Yang Rong stays silent.
Then Allaire drops the topic and goes on to talk about Noah’s favorite foods – a very selective list of sweets, excluding grapes – and more about his small peculiarities – how he’s particularly touchy when sleepy, how he’d once climbed onto Hyun’s bed when accidentally drunk, only to fall asleep in a millisecond. And then it’d be about Noah’s exactly three moles on his body – Allaire is very certain of their placements.
Mundane topics like these have the colonel listening in attentively, chuckling lowly per each unravel of Noah’s quirks.
“It is good,” Yang Rong says, “that he has been living well.”
Allaire looks to him and says with poignance, “Don’t take any more away from him, Colonel Yang.”
—
Noah redresses himself with utmost care, stretching the fabric of the loose tee over his bandaged shoulder. It had taken him half an hour to scrub down in the shower and then another half to tend to the stitches on his body. Right after he’d gotten out of the shower, he’d decided on another bath to rinse off a whole week of poor hygiene – by his standards, at least.
Being out of commission for a day, let alone a whole week is enough to drive Noah compulsively distraught – and his mind supplies that it really doesn’t help that his travel companion is the colonel, of all people, who just happens to be the most germ-ridden caveman he knows. Yang Rong looks fine, sure, and if Noah were in a better mood, he may even call the man attractive. It is unnerving, however, when Yang Rong sticks so closely to his side for reasons unknown.
Noah sighs as he pulls out several oversized shirts from the closet. The room he’s in is neatly maintained and very reflective of his personality as well – one bed, one desk and chair, and then a closet by the white walls. Very minimal in décor, though it doesn’t look quite lived in, judging from how sleek and undamaged everything is. Lifeless, almost.
The room is small, but it has a convenient bathroom connected to the back. It is also adorned with ceiling lights – currently turned off, but if they turn the generators on, he’d finally be able to see fluorescent whites instead of pure sepia.
Noah pulls out a pair of sweatpants and, with a heavy load of clothes in his hand, makes his way out the door. The structure of the corridor is very much like a hotel with adjacent doors that lead inside similarly arranged rooms (most of them unoccupied).
The first he sees is a young boy huddled two doors over, carrying a bundle of white lilies. The boy, a guest about eight years old, turns around when he hears footsteps drawing nearer.
“Good evening,” Noah greets him simply, not intending to stop. “Don’t be alarmed. I am only passing by.”
The boy tilts his head in confusion. He doesn’t comprehend. The child tries to speak, but no sound comes out. Noah understands it immediately when he sees the inside of his mouth. No teeth. Blackened gums and decayed cavities. The radiation has taken away his vocals and potentially his hearing, too. No signs of morph, though his lifespan is… a few days. A week at most.
Noah gives him a nod of acknowledgment. The child gives him a gummy, slightly demented smile, and then resumes placing a flower in front of the door. Very meticulously, one dainty, shriveled lily is placed by the crack. Homegrown, of course, because there is no flora that would survive out in the sun.
The child stands back up and heads a few doors over to do the same. Repetitively. Noah watches him a little longer before walking away, heading down a flight of stairs.
He can hear an ongoing conversation in the lounge, Allaire and Yang Rong are speaking with muted voices. Allaire takes the lead, bringing up something along the lines of “a promiscuous man like yourself is a dime in a dozen, Colonel Yang… I much prefer the handsome doctor that little Noah is acquainted with.” And then, when Noah gets closer, Allaire purposefully raises her volume for him to hear, “Dr. Shi is a writer as well, which checks him off to be vastly more intelligent than the average soldier.”
“What do you have against the military?” Yang Rong says, a little peeved. He doesn’t hear Noah approaching when in a state of agitation. “I am also not an average soldier. I have more credentials than Shi Luo and… writer? I’ve never heard about this.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” Allaire’s eyes glint playfully she stares at Noah who stands in confusion. “Dear Noah is a prime consultant to his books. In fact, they’ve come up with the, hm, propagandist content together since they were young. Cute, isn’t it?”
“What part of it is cute?” Yang Rong’s voice turns darker. “Shi Luo is a two-faced sadist. Don’t let Noah get anywhere near that Einstein reincarnate—”
Noah tosses the pile of clothes at Yang Rong, cutting him off mid-insult – or mid-compliment, depending on the audience. As Yang Rong struggles to pry the fabric off his face, Noah leans forward against the sofa, propping his arms on the backrest.
“What are you talking about?” He flicks Yang Rong on the back of the head. “I’ve brought you clothes. Stop smearing dirt on the couch and go take a shower.”
Yang Rong recovers to catch a pair of sweatpants sliding off his shoulder. He feels up the fabric, turns to Noah behind him and says with a smirk, “Your clothes? Not bad. Though these trousers will be tight by the crotch area.”
“…” Noah doesn’t want to entertain him. He does a perfunctory wave of his fingers, beckoning for Yang Rong to follow. “Come with me.”
“At your service, kitten,” Yang Rong replies easily, hoisting himself out of the couch and jumping right next to Noah in a single, fluid movement. As flaunting as always. He places an arm around Noah’s just-washed shoulders and says, “To your room?”
Noah stares too hard at the brown stains on his fingernails. “Your dirty hand is on my shoulder, Colonel Yang.”
“…” Yang Rong retracts immediately. “Rong-ge will wash them twice.”
“Mn,” he simply hums. “Thrice.”
And so, the colonel trails behind obediently without a word as Noah leads out of the lounge and into the next section of stairs. Yang Rong studies everything on the way – the floor tiles, the ceiling, the walls, the baluster of the stairs… not missing a single detail.
“—Noah,” Allaire calls out to him before he’s out of earshot. The beautiful woman gives him a light smile. “Hyun will be back tomorrow morning. Then, we can discuss a topic I’ve been holding off.”
He looks to her in mild confusion but nods anyway. “Alright.”
What will they be talking abt?🧐 I wish I could put paragraph comments 😭😭
paragraph comments would be fun 😭
I’m surprised about the number of times I had to search for the meaning of some of the words. I couldn’t understand some of the scenarios, but when I look up those certain deep words, I can easily imagine the whole scene. It’s a trying experience and fun at the same time, the best part is that I get to expand my vocabulary through you.
Thanks for the chapter!! (~￣³￣)~
aaaa ( Ĭ ^ Ĭ ) thank you for reading!! i hope the contents are digestible and not off-putting! sometimes i’m tempted to change my prose to be a little simpler 🤧
It’s perfect just the way it is 🤧
Same hahaaha
Still into this. can’tmiss anything
i recognize you from WN 💕 thank you for coming here to read and comment ( Ĭ ^ Ĭ )
☆:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:☆ thanks for the chapter!!
💕💕✨
Haha I like Allaire! Oooh gossip!
Thanks for the chapter!
💕thanks for reading~
so Hyun is also infected and that’s why they cant kiss? Noah lucked out a but by meeting the dumb alpha…
Thanks for the chapter! <3
💕❤
Can we gang up to be matchmaker Allaire?? 👉👈
Anyway I’m alive and ready to indulge in this story 💗 thank you for the update!
✨ welcome back to life!! i hope everything is good on your end ~ thank you for reading 🤧
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too tight for the 12 in—
u__u ahem sorry for the nonsensical comments I’m too dumdum rn
Leaving Noah is simply not an option for our Colonal. It seems he’s finally realizing his dense emotions that have existed for quite some time, but he’s too oblivious to notice his own feelings… sigh.
Also, Noah, I’m giving you a hug whether you like it or not. I just, oh dear. I have a feeling I’ll need an entire box of tissues when his past is revealed
All of the dying children, poor babies🥺
Look at YR, using fancy words like “inconceivable” and “reciprocate”! 😄 Noah would be so surprised to hear it! 🤣🤣🤣