Fair Trade

Stefan knitted his brow when he saw Sei in a black raincoat. Sei could already tell what he was going to say. She took a step forward and snatched the words from his mouth.

“I look like Jack the Killer, right? I know.”

He snuffed his cigarette and tapped her bike seat, smiling at her laid-back demeanor.

“Why on earth are you riding this? Are you dead set on dying?”

“I’m not riding it because I want to die. I’m riding this because I need to get somewhere quickly. But what is it? Why are you here?”

“Why do you think so? A crazy man who’s nuts about you ordered me to follow you around and protect you.”

Stefan, dressed in a black suit and carrying a black umbrella, was an oddly agile man with actions and attitudes similar to Yuri’s. Sei deduced that Stefan, who admired Yuri, was merely imitating him.

He must really adore Yuri.

She sighed heavily as she remembered Stefan acting like an adolescent boy in front of Yuri.

“I’ll talk to that crazy guy, so why don’t you just go? I despise being followed.”

“No. You almost died last time. Did you forget that already?”

“Did you know I’ve almost been killed once or twice in the past?”

“Anyway, no, I can’t. Yuri will kill me. And I’m more afraid of Yuri than you.”

Yeah, that’s a given.

Sei picked up her helmet. It rained so much that the drain in front of the lobby was already overflowing with rainwater. Meanwhile, Chloe’s message arrived on her smartwatch.

After receiving Chloe’s message that she had already arrived at her new place and was going grocery shopping, Sei turned to Stefan, who was standing like a stone next to her.

He looked like a white Jindo dog wagging its big tail. Even though he was unmistakably Russian, why did he resemble the white Jindo dog that she became close with when she was young?

Despite the fact that he had an owner, he followed her around. He was so adorable that when she stroked his hair, he would be transfixed for approximately three seconds before barking and jumping back. And then he’d follow her again.

At that time, whenever she saw the white Jindo dog, she always asked him, “Did you eat?”

She would ask him if he ate his three meals and after she did so, he’d follow her around.

“I haven’t had a meal because of you,” Stefan said.

“Then do you want to go eat something? I don’t know if it’ll suit your taste.”

“Until Yuri comes, I have to be by your side all the time except when you sleep. Eating alone is no fun. Even if it doesn’t taste good, I’ll eat it, so let’s go to the restaurant.”

God, he was like an elementary school student.

“It’s not a restaurant, it’s a house. Follow me.”

Sei put on her helmet and got on the bike and started the engine. Then, with a shocked look on his face, he grabbed her arm and shouted something. However, she couldn’t hear him as his voice was drowned out by the rumbling of the loud engine.

“What?”

“Get off!”

“Why?!”

“You can’t ride it!”

Sei gaped at him, dumbfounded. Stefan, who then reached out and turned off the engine, pointed his finger to a car parked in front of them.

“Get on that.”

“Aren’t you being too rude?”

“You should ask me nicely. Are you even listening?”

In any case, he didn’t seem like he was going to budge anytime soon.

She got off the bike, pressing down on her desire to give him a whack. Then she took the key he took and walked over to the valet counter. Stefan waited for her conversation with the staff to end. Sei, who smiled and gave a tip to the employee, quickly returned with a grim face.

“Let’s go.”

Pulling on her raincoat, she climbed into the passenger seat that Stefan opened and called Mark. When she told Mark to come to the hotel and take away the bike, he screamed and hung up the phone.

“Don’t keep getting involved with men. It’s bothersome,” Stefan, who was in the driver’s seat, started the engine and said. She took off her raincoat and threw it into the back seat and shrugged her shoulders.

“What’s there to be bothered about? Just try to touch the people around me. I’ll bite the shit out of you.”

“Ha, are you a dog?”

Sei roughly put her backpack on the floor. A heavy SUV passed in front of the lobby cutting through the water that had risen over the drain. She memorized the few faces that her eyes met in a brief moment.

“Do you know the address even though I haven’t told you yet?”

He very naturally drove toward Chelsea. Stephen, who tapped his temples at Sei’s obnoxious tone, smiled with a proud face.

“There’s a reason why I speak four languages. I passed the Mensa test at 15 and even got a badge.”

“Mensa? That’s a group that doesn’t fit in with the mafia…?”

“Why doesn’t it fit us? In addition, I even got a kiss on the back of the hand from the Pope.”

Sei shook her head at his incredible words.

Oh, my God. I thought he was a lamb with not that many strengths!

Her favorite piano piece by Bill Evans was playing on the car radio. Unexpectedly, he had good taste in music. Sei turned up the volume a little and burrowed herself further in her seat.

“Then why did you become a member of the mafia? Kirill is a lawyer. Then why did you…?”

“Why did you become a thief?”

“… for money.”

“Me, too.”

He continued by raising one eyebrow lightly, “There’s no one in the world who doesn’t like to make money. Black money or free money. Money is just money.”

She tapped the window frame along to the beat of the song.

They lived in a world that could not be divided into good and evil or black and white. There was no absolute evil or no absolute good. Everyone had angels and demons in their hearts, and people were judged based on what side of themselves they could more easily ignore.

Then what side am I turning a blind eye to now? Was the feeling I felt when I saw Chloe and Yuri sitting face to face early in the morning, worry for Chloe? Or was it jealousy?

The languid piano melody made her feel drowsy. Sei closed her eyes for a moment, gently stepping on the straps of her backpack with her toes.

“Drive properly. So that I don’t get motion sickness.”

*  *  *