Fair Trade

As soon as she arrived at the villa in Romano’s car, the first thing Sei did was to take off her cumbersome clothes and head for the pool.

It was deeper than her height.

A pool custom-made for Giulio Parenti.

Biting her lip, she took a deep breath and plunged into the water. As if he was keeping an eye on her the entire time, Giulio came running out in surprise.

Sei simply moved her limbs with a single desire to live unlike yesterday when she was floundering, losing to her fear and swimming clumsily.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed away the thoughts about yesterday, reached the end of the colossal pool and hugged the handrail.

Far away, seeing Giulio holding a towel with a dazed expression, she felt much better.

Sei smiled and waved.

It’s not hard. All you have to do is relax your body and push the water away. And from now on… you will never drown. I won’t let that happen to you again.

Her gaze naturally turned towards the new gang member standing behind Guilio. He, too, seemed to be thinking about jumping in right away, but rather than do that, he just turned around with a dejected smile while loosening his tie.

Sei remembered the man’s face and kicked her legs to swim back to the starting point. Then Guilio held out the towel when he saw her coming out of the water.

The sun had just set. Sei, who squeezed the water out of her hair, buried herself into Guilio’s open towel.

“Even though you’re picking it up quickly, your swimming skills are still lacking.”

The gradually dropping temperature gave her chills. After wrapping a towel around her body, Sei turned around without saying a word and Guilio quietly followed after her.

“I handed the card to the dealer. What about the deposit?”

“You will get it in 24 hours. I’ll first check the item and then put it in.”

“Just asking out of curiosity… Was it a drug deal?”

Sei, who entered the house barefoot, took his silence as a yes. She was furious that all she had been so far was a drug broker.

“How did your little sightseeing go?”

He was changing the subject.

“I couldn’t even look around properly because Romano kept urging me to go back. I’m going back there tomorrow. There was a place that only sold vintage jewelry.”

She went into her room’s attached shower booth and turned on the hot water.

Sei couldn’t believe she could swim now. It was such a big deal that she was sure Chloe would faint if she learned about it.

With an exuberant expression on her face, she took off the towel and her underwear and threw it out of the booth. Guilio stood close to the booth and leaned against the opaque glass wall.

“The hacker you mentioned. He’s apparently in California.”

“Really? What are you going to do now? Are you going to kill him?”

“You tell me. What do you want me to do?”

“Why do you need my opinion? I just want the money that has been withdrawn from the account to normalize as soon as possible. I feel wronged and I’m sick and tired of it. But why did the hacker mess with your account? What if… What if someone’s behind this?”

Sei intentionally threw a lot at him. The possibilities of betrayal and schemings. And someone working against him secretly.

After making foam with the loofah, she took a shower as leisurely as possible and then came out. Guilio was still standing there. It was the first time she had seen him so distressed.

No, she was just unfamiliar with his current disposition of asking for other’s opinions. It was strange that a man who usually got his job done by doing whatever pleases him was now asking for the opinions of others.

“I’ll have to catch him.”

Sei, who had just applied cream on her face, turned her head towards Guilio in the mirror.

The drops of water trickled down her white and slender shoulders to the curves below.

“Who are you talking about?”

Guilio came up behind her at her nonchalant question. He stroked her smooth skin with his fingertips and was about to press his lips against her skin. But for a moment, his body stopped, seeing the bruise on her neck. The man took a long breath and took a step back.

Thinking that he was going to kiss her, Sei’s hand, which was about to stop him, just ended up hanging in the air.

“Kais Miller. His home is in California, but he used his passport last night. He has boarded a flight to Nice.”

Giulio stretched out his arms and grabbed the edge of the dresser. Then he naturally put his chin on Sei’s shoulder.

“I won’t doubt you anymore, but I have to warn you. There is no perfect coincidence in this world. We both live in a well-put-together screenplay. So Sei… don’t make a mistake.”

His warning made her heart race.

Giulio clenched her shoulder and left the room. It was only after the door closed that Sei rubbed her face with both hands.

The fear of water was easily overcome, but the fear of people was rather further aggravated. Giulio Parrenti warned her as a brutal mafia leader, not as her employer.

After getting dressed in casual clothes, she put the dinner roll Lorenzo had baked in her mouth and climbed onto the bed. She then pulled out a notebook she had written in Korean. It was like a diary in which she recorded all the important things that were going on around her.

No matter how popular the Hallyu Wave* was, still most people had trouble understanding the Korean language.

*T/N: Hallyu Wave or Korean Wave refers to the global popularity of South Korea’s cultural economy exporting pop culture, entertainment, music, TV dramas, and movies.

This was the perfect language to write down secrets.