Fair Trade

The sound of water hitting the floor could be heard beyond the opaque glass partition. Subsequently, a sweet scent of body wash and a woman’s swear words came floating out from the partition. Upon listening to it, the swear words sounded scathing and annoyed. They were also in Korean.

Yuri Petrov picked up the dress Sei brought, threw it into the laundry bin, and took out another dress from the closet.

I only have 40 minutes left. Dammit! How do I wear this? I have to go to the casino soon or I’ll be late.

Would it be fine if I don’t wear it?

While Sei was thinking this, Yuri hung the dress he chose in the powder room and headed to the area on the other side where his valuables were stored.

He stood in front of the transparent rotating safe. When he unlocked the safe after entering the password, the door opened with a deflating sound. His eyes narrowed as he carefully examined it. It was obvious that the woman had attempted to steal his watch. Even though she apparently put it back, there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed the subtle change in the alignment.

But the amazing thing was that the woman even carefully took that into account. Even though she was intoxicated with drugs, she put the watch back in the exact same spot that she had found it.

Is that possible? Does she have that good of a memory?

“What do you think? Does she seem useful?” Holding an apple, Kirill suddenly approached him and asked.

Yuri crossed his arms and fell into thought for a moment. She was the first person who forced this safe to open, so he couldn’t help but see her as a useful person. Wasn’t it a system that he had developed himself and distributed to the top floors of all his cruises and hotels?

Opening this means that she had found a loophole in his system. After checking the surveillance camera, he found that it took the woman only 42 seconds to open the safe.

Looking at the data he got so far, the woman seemed good at disguising herself and was a character with all kinds of miscellaneous abilities. On top of that, she was quite smart and also had a superior appearance.

This kind of person would be quite the headache if turned into an enemy.

A furrow appeared on the forehead of the slightly upset Yuri.

“Could Pablo Bellini likely be Valentin Orlov?”

“If that’s the case, then it must be Giulio Parenti behind the scenes.”

“But then why is her position ambiguous? Instead of dealing with him directly, why is he putting Jang Sei in the middle?”

“Maybe he needed an excuse to stick with the woman for a long time? You saw them at the casino. She’s Giulio Parenti’s woman. I can tell you that for sure.”

Bullshit!

“So, Yuri…”

“Get out.”

At Yuri’s cold tone, Kirill turned his head towards the bathroom. There, Sei, who had just finished taking a shower, was tying the knot of her gown.

Kirill, who nodded with an interesting look on his face, tapped Yuri’s shoulder. “But I must admit she’s pretty, and she’s just 27. Also since she’s Asian, she looks younger than her actual age.”

“Shut your trap. You’ve been going off the topic for a while, Kirill Kuzmin,” Yuri replied as if it was absurd.

However, Kirill continued teasingly, “Of course, Yuri, you also look quite young. At first glance, you both might appear to be of the same age…  But compared to that woman, you’re a middle-aged…

Feeling annoyed, Yuri sent a punch straight to Kirill’s face, making him stumble and grab his nose as he collapsed.

“What the hell, Yuri?!”

“I told you to shut up.”

“If you have something against me, then go to the centre! Dammit!”

After seeing the blood, Kirill eventually closed his mouth and left the dressing room. Kirill grunted as he looked for a towel and the profanities leaving from his lips echoed loudly in the room.

Yuri clenched his fist and closed the safe’s door. While he did that, Sei walked over to the other side of the mirror, holding two dresses.

“What happened? No way, Mr. Petrov, did you put this in there?”

She showed him the dress that she had taken out from the laundry bin.

“The dress seems to be of Parenti’s taste.”

When he turned towards the direction of the sweet scent, he was startled to see the woman standing with water drops from the shower still clinging to her skin. With a calm expression on his face, he went into the bedroom connected to the dressing room and buried himself in the soft armchair. As he leaned back, head slightly askew, his view was filled with the sight of the anxious and fidgeting woman.

He felt strange. Were Asians usually like that?

The woman carried with her a strange charm that her photos had no way of capturing.

Holding out the dress he chose, Sei asked, “… So, is this what you prefer, Mr. Petrov?”

“No. What I prefer is you naked without that gown.”

When he responded with a smirk, the woman said, biting her lips, looking like she was on the verge of tears, “Ha, really… I’m going as Giulio’s partner. Not yours Mr. Petrov.”

“I told you. That dress isn’t really to my taste. Also, people might see the wounds on your wrist. So, the dress I chose for you would be perfect.”

Only then did the woman flinch and unfold his dress. After agonizing over the two dresses, she eventually chose one and entered the powder room.

Yuri focused on the sounds coming from the room: the sound of the wind blowing from the hairdryer, the sound of a clothes hanger moving, the sound of a gown falling, and even the sound of high-quality fabrics rubbing against skin.

Sitting with his legs crossed and tapping his temple, he then made his way to the powder room where the woman had entered.