Dopamine Addiction - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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11.
Fabio turned his head first, and Hui-ju’s eyes followed a moment after.
Her gaze met Liam’s, whose eyes had narrowed to slits. She felt a twinge of guilt, though she’d done nothing wrong.
“That’s not what I meant……”
“I won’t let her set foot in the room, and if I find out she’s been flirting with a lunatic like you out here, do you think I’ll be angry or not?”
“……”
“Why? Should I cut his throat too?”
Liam laughed as if he’d heard the most amusing joke in the world. Yet both he and Hui-ju knew perfectly well it was no joke at all.
“Hmm?”
Hui-ju caught herself glancing at his fingers. Just hours ago, she’d watched with her own eyes how those delicate hands could become cold and merciless.
“Are you traveling together?”
Fabio was the only one in the room who’d failed to read the tension.
“Indeed. A woman as beautiful as you wouldn’t travel alone, surely.”
Hui-ju glared at him with resentment. In contrast, Liam’s smile deepened.
The moment Liam took a step toward Fabio, Hui-ju suddenly seized his arm.
A cold stare fell upon her.
“……”
Hui-ju had never wished for any extraordinary fortune. Lottery First Prize or a stock surge—were those really such shameless desires?
She’d hoped for a calm life. An ordinary one, like everyone else’s. Moderately happy, moderately difficult, moderately satisfied.
And if she was lucky enough to win Lottery First Prize and live a life of leisure, that would be ideal. Wasn’t that a modest wish?
But she’d gotten the first button wrong from the start. She’d never been ordinary from birth, and the label of adoptee had followed her all her life.
After years of effort, she’d finally managed to climb onto the track of an ordinary existence—only for a dying biological father to appear.
And now some madman had crossed both the Indian Ocean and the Pacific to chase her down. She was veering further and further off course.
Yet despite it all, she couldn’t bear to watch an innocent bystander lose his life to this lunatic. Hui-ju tightened her grip on Liam’s arm.
“Let’s go to the room.”
At her words, Liam’s eyes widened slightly. Fabio let out a sigh of regret. The man was clearly oblivious.
Liam licked his lips. A suspicious murmur emerged from between his teeth.
“Room?”
“I have something to show you.”
“Something to show me.”
He suddenly pulled one corner of his mouth taut. His gaze swept over her with naked deliberation.
Hui-ju frowned deeply and released his arm.
“Never mind. If you’re not interested, I’ll go alone.”
“Not interested? There are few people as interested in you as I am.”
The pity was that the person interested in her was a lunatic. Liam, who’d moved close to her side, spoke in a low, gravelly voice. “So what exactly do you want to show me?”
“When I saw my father earlier, someone handed me something in secret. A nurse came in before I could check what it was, and I’ve been curious ever since.”
“Hmm.”
Liam’s expression flickered with disappointment at her unexpected answer. Then he asked in a meaningful tone.
“Do you think that’s why they attacked you?”
“That’s the current theory.”
Hui-ju pressed the elevator button as she continued. The doors of the elevator on that floor slid open right on cue.
“The Team Leader called. An agent went to my father’s house, but there was no body.”
Liam stepped into the elevator and glanced back at her. Hui-ju nodded as she pressed the button for her floor.
“And no unconscious man either.”
“A colleague must have come and taken him.”
“A colleague?”
“Think back. Was there a vehicle parked in front of that house?”
Hui-ju shook her head at Liam’s question. She’d looked around several times in case there were witnesses. She’d seen no car.
Hui-ju quietly murmured as the meaning of his words dawned on her.
“So someone dropped them off at the house. A Third Party?”
“Third Party or Fourth Party, one thing’s certain—he had an accomplice. If a car had been parked in front of an empty house, it would’ve drawn attention. So he was careful. And that man probably drove away with the body.”
“Why?”
Hui-ju exited the elevator and unlocked her hotel room with the Card Key. She paused, hand on the door handle.
She glanced sideways at Liam. His eyes met hers, and he smiled with the innocence of a child. As if he harbored no dark intentions whatsoever.
Yet to Hui-ju, he looked exactly like a cat loitering outside a fish market. She exhaled shortly and pushed the door wide open.
“Come in.”
Before she’d even finished speaking, Liam had already crossed the threshold.
Hui-ju shook her head and walked into the room. She opened the closet and began searching through the outer clothes hanging on the rack.
“Where did I put it…”
She patted down the pockets, but nothing came out. She reached into the back pocket of a pair of pants hanging nearby. Something hard met her fingertips.
Hui-ju pulled it out. Liam, who’d drifted closer, leaned over her shoulder and peered down. In an expressionless voice, he murmured.
“A key.”
“…Yes.”
Yes, it was a key. Hui-ju stared at the object lying bare in her palm. What could be so important that they were tearing the place apart looking for it?
“It’s not my father’s house key. I have that one in my bag.”
“What lock does it open?”
The possibilities were endless. A house, a car, a drawer, even a safe. But right now, she had no answer to give.
“Tomorrow I need to ask my father a lot of things……”
As Hui-ju raised her head absently, her words caught in her throat. Liam’s face was far too close.
Each time his long eyelashes lowered, a deep shadow fell across his cheekbone.
Liam’s pupils drifted slowly. He stared at her with an intensity that seemed both bored and utterly fascinated.
He lifted one hand—carefully, as a predator might try to soothe a prey animal.
Finally, he grasped her chin.
“……”
The air around them grew taut. A precarious tension hung between them, as if they stood on a knife’s edge.
Liam didn’t tear his eyes from her, and Hui-ju didn’t look away.
Again. Her throat had gone dry, and she found herself frowning. Given the faint heat she felt, maybe she was coming down with something.
“Is this the kind of interest you meant?”
Hui-ju masked her inner confusion behind a defiant gaze, looking up at him.
Her voice sounded to her like a wrung-out cloth. She hoped he hadn’t noticed, though she doubted he had.
Liam tilted his head slightly. The movement brought his face even closer. Her reflection flickered in his slate-gray eyes.
“I suppose.”
His voice emerged languid and thick, dragging across her skin like a rasp. It was a sound that sent shivers down her spine.
“I’m about to find out.”
With those words, Liam leaned in slowly. Hui-ju wasn’t naive enough not to know what he wanted.
Yet she found herself unable to move, trapped like a butterfly in a web.
A kiss with a man she barely knew. Alarm bells screamed in her head, but she couldn’t push him away.
Instead, she slowly closed her eyes. Something soft covered her lips. Was it warm? Or dry, perhaps?
“!”
That was all the thought she got. In one swift motion, he plunged to the depths of her mouth. His tongue wrapped around hers, hot and insistent.
His hand, now at her waist, pulled her close. Their bodies pressed together until there was no space left between them.
She could feel the firm muscle beneath his shirt, solid and unmistakable. Her mind reeled.
The world blurred. Her knees gave way. Still he held her tighter, their bodies sealed as if by a single sheet of paper.
Ragged breathing and wet sounds filled the room. The moment she became aware of it, heat flooded her cheeks.
Then Liam took a step back. Hui-ju stumbled after him, guided by his movement, her feet uncertain.
“!”
She stumbled backward onto the bed, and her mind roared back to attention with a fresh alarm.
Hui-ju knew she should stop. But he was skilled, and refusal felt impossible when faced with such sensuality.
It’s the fever. It’s all because of the fever.
She reached up with trembling hands, looking for an excuse. Just as she was about to wrap her arms around his neck—
Ding-dong.
“……”
The doorbell rang from the entrance.
The sound was like a spell pulling her back to reality. The haze that had clouded her mind lifted in an instant, clarity flooding back.
Liam frowned faintly and turned his head first. Irritation flickered in his eyes as he stared at the door.
He seemed to be deliberating. In that moment, the sharp doorbell rang again, cutting through the room.
“Room service.”
With her mind finally restored to reason, Hui-ju pushed his shoulder. To her surprise, the man who’d seemed so solid gave way without resistance.
She smoothed her appearance quickly and walked toward the door.
“They must have the wrong room.”
But then—
“!”
Liam caught her arm. Hui-ju gasped, and he clamped his hand over her mouth.
“Shh.”
The dissolution that had marked his face a moment before hardened into stone. He moved Hui-ju to a blind spot, then slipped silently toward the door.
Liam pressed his eye to the peephole. On the other side, a staff member stood pulling a Trolley.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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