Dinner With The Devil

. . .

There inside that room, Jin felt his cheeks getting flushed. Underneath all his disguise, Zeirenne was able to reach his true persona. He smiled while patting her head.

"Don't worry, I won't get recognized, silly," he pulled both her hands, making her face him, "You couldn't even recognize me. There's no way they can beat you to it."

Behind a googly glasses, his eyes surveyed Zeirenne's face as it folded into a tight grimace. Gently, he raised both her hands up to kiss them one after the other, "It's alright."

Zeirenne pulled her hands away, crossing them together, "You were that persistent in putting me under anesthesia earlier," she said while squinting her eyes on him, all suspicious towards his actions, "Perhaps.... did you plan on drugging me to sleep before forcibly taking me out of this mansion out of my will?"

"Tsk. What do you mean out of will? You're making it sound like you wanna stay here."

Jin flicked her forehead and she grunted with an, "Ouch!"

"I want to put you under anesthesia because I can't bear to see you in any more pain than you already are," Jin leaned himself forward, tucking some loose hair strands behind her ears. He held her gaze with all the sincerity in the world. Under his contacts, Zeirenne felt like staring right into his ocean blue eyes, rendering her speechless, "If I see you in pain, there's no way I can possibly hold myself back anymore. So please, trust me. I promise I won't get in the way of your plans. Just let me fix you. That's all I need to be in peace."

Zeirenne found herself nodding subconsciously--and time went poof! Even before she could realize what was happening, Jin finished stitching her wounds in a matter of minutes.

As if on cue, one of the men who was guarding outside barged inside the room. His feet stopped right in front of them. He checked her wounds to find it thoroughly bandaged before diverting his gaze on Jin, "I see you've finished everything. You can leave now."

Zeirenne and Jin both held each other's gazes and she was the first one to look away. Eventually, he stood up and organized his medical kit before being lead out of her room.

She watched him walking away with dread. There was an unsettling feeling churning inside her stomach. She wanted him out of that place as soon as possible, but something inside her wanted him close--not realizing how much his presence brought her comfort up until now. Even before she could start wishing he was right by her side, the man guarding her spoke, "Come with me."

Without any argument, she jumped out of the bed to follow her 'bodyguard'. After trudging the same paths she'd taken earlier, just a slight detour and she found herself inside a fancy dining hall.

There was a long table on display with all the furniture as grand as ever. There were golden candle holders lit in front of Miura Takumi who was in the middle of slicing his steak the moment she walked in.

"Have a seat," with his golden knife, he pointed the chair opposite from his, "Be my guest."

Willy pulled the seat for Zeirenne and she bobbed a half curtsy before questioning herself. As if her head was above the clouds, the grandiose setting made her act accordingly and she almost started laughing from the realization.

She sat on her seat and surveyed the whole table. There were lots of dishes served. After praying, she started her feast--raising some eyebrows from the way she ate with apparent gusto.

"Bold of you to eat everything without even questioning your safety," Miura Takumi uttered with a smirk. Every other person inside the room predicted she'd start coughing her food out. But his sinister warning didn't seem to faze her a bit, she just continued eating.

"My life is indeed in the palm of your hands," she said before sipping water from her golden goblet, "If this is poisoned, then I'll die. If I don't eat, I'll starve myself to death. The latter doesn't seem to fit my taste so yeah. Besides, if you're nice enough to kill me in an instance, then I'd be more than thankful. Although I know that's impossible."

Miura Takumi's vile laughter echoed around the dining hall, "It's good that you know where we're heading," he said with a smirk and she nodded lazily, "Yes, yes. All of this for my death. I know that already."

"It's not just your death. Don't think you can outsmart me. I know what you did."

For the first time this evening, she stopped eating--bringing her gaze up to look at him, "What did I do? Please tell me."

"You reserved a table inside that restaurant but arrived an hour late. If you followed the right time, my viewing session wouldn't have been interrupted. The fact that it got cut off at such an uncanny timing sounds suspicious to me. It's either you have this unbelievable luck or you managed to calculate all those things inside your head."

It was Zeirenne's turn to fill the whole room with her laughter, "Ahahahahaha. You're overestimating me, Mr. Miura. There's no way I can possibly formulate such a plan. Besides, I'm not good in math so you can drop the thought of me doing all those calculations. Everything was a just coincidence," she shrugged her shoulders, "I didn't even know you could get this mad over my carelessness. I already said I was sorry I bumped into you, didn't I? How can I possibly predict you were up to something?"

"If you found out I planted bombs all over your condominium unit then that would be possible"

Zeirenne covered her mouth to prevent the meat she was chewing from sticking out. "Oh my, you set up bombs in my complex too? This is the first time I'm hearing this," she said with the look of surprise plastered on her face.

Miura Takumi's gaze hardened. "In that short amount of time, I believe someone would be capable of formulating such a plan. And if you're someone that capable, then that's more reason for me to keep my eyes on you."

. . .