Noah had a thin face and hugging in public was embarrassing enough; he really couldn’t handle anything more! And on top of it all, with every minute that passed, the harder it became for him to distinguish the act from reality. He didn’t like this, he didn’t like it at all! Even if it was all an act, his feelings weren’t an act! Everything happening felt real to him, so once the act was over, how would he be able to just pretend like nothing had happened?!
Being kissed so gently like this, only a block of wood wouldn’t feel their heartstrings quivering!
Levi, whose eyes never left his baby’s face, noticed Noah’s momentary flash of regret and, like a seasoned general, seized this opening to strike. Looking very remorseful, he dropped another gentle kiss on Noah’s supple cheek, “I’m sorry, baby, don’t be angry. Next time I kiss, I’ll make sure others can’t see.”
Noah’s eyes widened, and he attempted to turn his head away to avoid further kisses, “Still acting? Who are you acting for, huh?!” then he complained under his breath, “And still intend to kiss in the future, huh? Hmph, what acting?! Aren’t you just using that as an excuse to tease me?!”
Levi’s eyes couldn’t help but curve. Even when angry, his little darling was still too adorable. Snorting left and right, yet he just looked like a huffing and puffing cuddly kitty, not threatening at all!
Levi couldn’t resist dropping another kiss on top of that wrinkled little nose. “Mn, not acting. Who made your face so soft and kissable?”
Baby Noah felt indignant, and his nostrils flared, “You are too much! It’s bullying! Bullying!!”
A low chuckle rumbled out of Levi’s chest, “If I am bullying you, then why don’t you bully me back, hmm?”
Angry kitty Noah shot this rogue a look of disdain, “And stoop down to your level? Hmph!”
“You are right; it’s me who is bad,” Levi tenderly cooed, “You shouldn’t lower yourself to my level. In fact, it isn’t even worth it for you to waste your anger on a bad bully like me. Mn? Don’t be angry, alright?”
Levi wasn’t even bothering to disguise his intentions, his attempts of coaxing so shameless and blatant that Noah couldn’t help but feel amused. An involuntary puff of laughter escaped him, and then, realizing he was supposed to still be angry, he attempted to cover it up as a puff of anger. Thus, Noah huffed and puffed a few more times for good measure, lest Levi thought he would let him off this easily.
Levi, cradling his precious darling in his arms, was extraordinarily patient, ready to wait however long it took for his baby to feel like he had sufficiently expressed his outrage. He even stroked his darling’s back soothingly, as if to say, ‘I was wrong. I’m sorry. Don’t be mad.’
His indulgence made it really hard for Noah to retain his anger. After only a few huffs and puffs, he lost interest and had to move onto the next phase, “This lovey-dovey act of yours is too much…”
Levi nudged the side of Noah’s face with his nose, “I admit there might be a few kinks I still need to work on, but I think that one who needs this practice the most is you.”
Noah’s prepared tirade was thus interrupted, and he stared at the other, dumbfounded.
Levi elaborated, “I’ve kissed and hugged so much, so how come I didn’t get any hugs and kisses in return yet? Doesn’t that make me look like I’m showering affection on an uninterested party?”
Noah choked on his own outrage but couldn’t refute. What the other said was indeed reasonable, ah! A one-man show was too pitiful!
And now that he thought about it, it would seem that he had indeed not acted out his role in this lovey-dovey play so far…
Noah’s roaring blaze trembled and withered down into a flickering candlelight. It–it–it’s not like he didn’t want to do his part; it’s just that Levi’s acting always left him too embarrassed to think straight! How would he have the mental capacity to think about how to best reciprocate?! All his brain cells were already wasted on trying to cool his head down, so it didn’t start smoking!
The problem was clearly…! Noah’s dying embers flared back up, and he snorted, “It’s because this level of intimacy is too much! What are you trying to do here?! Express your affection or take liberties with me?!”
“Of course, it is both,” Levi shamelessly deadpanned, “How would it be realistic if a smitten man didn't want to take liberties with his precious darling? If you ask me, a purely platonic love isn’t romantic love at all! If you were truly in love with someone, how would you not want to touch them?”
Levi’s righteous declaration left Noah speechless once again. He had no words to refute the other, yet there was also this nagging feeling inside – feeling like there was something not quite right in what the other said, but Noah just couldn’t pinpoint where the problem laid exactly.
Noah’s mental cogs rotated and rotated but made no progress in figuring out the issue. The only thing that they did manage to figure out was what had happened earlier.
Looking back at the transpired events, Noah quickly realized why Levi had suddenly pounced on him – he had felt Noah’s bad mood and was trying to cheer him up! It was just that this asocial man-child didn’t know how to do that, so he went with a tactic that usually worked on children – coddling them.
He was like a mother whose child had come back home crying! She’d hug him to her chest and kiss his cheek, cooing, “Don’t be afraid, it’s alright.”
Levi, whose clearly non-platonic love was once again misinterpreted as brotherly affection, “…” ‘Ah, come on! (ノಥ益ಥ)ノ ┻━┻ Do I look like a mother to you?! And before you answer that, take a look at the mirror! Do you look like a five-year-old??’
Looking at what happened from that perspective, Noah’s anger completely receded, leaving behind only sweetness. The heart within his chest felt hot, and those places Levi’s lips had touched earlier now tingled.
This soon-to-be-husband of his might be a shameless rogue who liked to tease him, but he… had really soft lips… ‘Also,’ Noah’s own lips unconsciously curved up, ‘He is really adorkable…’ (/≧ω\)
Noah let out a heavy sigh while peeking at Levi from underneath his long eyelashes. ‘Fine, since you did it with good intentions and you know your wrongs, I’ll let you off this time...’
Blackie, “…” (눈_눈) ‘So… you are done being mad just like this? I don’t know why, but I am suddenly having this curious sense of déjà vu…’
Noah, ‘…I’ll let you off, but you better not kiss me in public again!’
Blackie, “…” ‘Host … You do realize that by wording it in such a way, even you yourself tacitly approve of him kissing you in private?’ (–_ლ)
As for… as for what Levi had said earlier… ai, he did have a point… Noah really did need to work on reciprocating, otherwise, how would their interaction look in other’s eyes? One is “lovingly pampering” the other, while the other is just turning a blind eye to it! It really wasn’t right!
Blackie, ‘…Wait, what? ಠ_ಠ That’s your definition of “turning a blind eye”?? Turning pink all over and stuttering out your every third word?? Have you seen anyone else “turn a blind eye” like this?!’
Noah’s shyness and sense of reason once again battled inside of him. He knew he should, but he felt like he might die out of embarrassment if he did. He told himself to just pretend for a couple of days, but would saying “it’s all an act” help him feel less shy? Of course not! A hug was a hug! There was no such thing as a fake hug! Either it was a hug, or it wasn’t!
Readers after chapter 169: “You tell it to him Noah! He is too much! Serves him right!” ψ(`∇´)ψ Readers after chapter 170: “You let him off? Just like that?! щ(゚Д゚щ)…Why am I not surprised?” (눈_눈)
Noah just couldn’t enter into this mental state of make-believe. Regardless of the intention behind it, it was still a hug! How could he view it as something other than what it was? But this inability to pretend was his own psychological issue… He shouldn’t make Levi suffer due to it. The right thing to do would be to grit his teeth and pull through these remaining couple of days. Noah let out a long and heavy sigh, but his arms that had been crossed defensively in front of him loosened. He skittishly eyed Levi’s torso, thinking about how to best go about returning the hug. ‘Noah, you can do it!’ He encouraged himself, ‘How come you didn’t feel shy hugging Levi a few days earlier? Why are you suddenly making such a big deal out of it?’ Before he could even finish that thought, Noah answered his own question, ‘How could it be the same?! A few days earlier, I was hugging my good and straight brother-in-law! And now I’m hugging my own not-e
“And?” Noah tilted his brown head. “Since it’s still in development, we don’t have a large database of people to compare it against just yet…” Noah’s nose wrinkled, “So nothing?” “On the contrary,” Fynn’s mouth curled up, “Since we didn’t have a database, I pulled up some footage of the last city council meeting for testing purposes. Who would have thought we’d actually manage to get a match.” Fynn’s smile disappeared, replaced by a frown, “Too bad that the technology is still experimental, and its results aren’t yet considered reliable enough to be used in court.” Noah leaned forward towards the light screen, his little butt nearly slipping off the sofa, “Heh, for testing purposes, you say? Weren’t you trying to check whether this person is councilor Desmond?” Fynn’s frown was once again replaced by a guilty-as-charged look, and he scratched his head sheepishly, “He is one of the shareholders of Druxa, and the main advocate for the monitoring
“… The owner of the other unknown number is not on our footage.” Fynn scratched his head helplessly, “But as you can see, the only way into the lab is through this hallway, and the only way into the hallway is through these doors that are under surveillance. Thus, everyone entering the hallway should be captured on camera. And yet, here we are…” Fynn sighed before continuing, “At first, we thought that the footage had been tampered with, but there are no missing periods of time nor any other signs it had been messed with. Besides for the Ghost, the times reported by the footage and the access logs match up for everyone else.” Fynn shook his head, “Under the assumption that it wasn’t an issue with the footage, we went back and turned the entire place upside down again. But we still did not manage to find another way into the lab. We even considered the possibility of this person being invisible, but there was no footage of the doors opening by themselves. And
“Exactly!” Noah kept nodding his fluffy head encouragingly, “You said that none of the people you questioned had anything to do with terrorists, right? However, you only questioned those that were on the list of people allowed entry into our lab, correct?” The weariness on Fynn’s face was replaced with agitation, “The Ghost is among the people that we didn’t question! He is one of the personnel from the other 4 labs!” Then he slumped back into his chair, “Ah! We worked through the entire night and barely managed to finish questioning all these people, yet now we have to track down and question more than 4 times the amount of others who had access to the other labs!” Noah felt that being a law enforcement officer was very pitiful, thus he mercifully extended a helping hand, “You might not need to do that. We can use the access logs to narrow down the potential suspects. Anyone who, according to the footage, entered the corridor that day AFTER Ghost’s entry was recorde
Noah immediately put that thought into practice. He stopped thinking and focused on just breathing. Luckily, the scent tickling his nose was inherently rather soothing. Mmm, he recognized this pleasant cologne. And this warm and wide chest. And the comfortable embrace that was like a big satin blanket, so cozy he didn’t want to move… It all made him feel very secure. Like everything was alright. Like he was exactly where he was supposed to be. Doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing. This foreign yet familiar warmth trickled into Noah’s heart, driving away the chill. And the careful caresses patted down all of his metaphorically raised fur. And thus, the turmoil within Noah settled back down as quickly as it had previously risen up. Seeing his unresponsive darling’s ears finally heat up after a long and nerve-racking delay, Levi let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Phew! If his baby had the presence of mind to feel shy, it me
Fynn understood the rationale, but it still didn’t feel right, “But why did the two have to meet up, anyway? If it was just a discussion, it could have been done remotely. Did the councilor come to pick up drugs and see the research results first hand? But since councilor Desmond had access to the lab, couldn’t he have just gone in and taken the drugs himself? Why the need to meet up?” This time, Noah was the one to speak up, “Would a paranoid person, such as Asan, trust the other to quietly take a few drug samples and see himself out? He had to be there to supervise the other and make sure he didn’t do anything he shouldn’t.” Fynn paused a moment to consider Noah’s words, then he spoke up again, “But if the councilor had access rights to the lab, couldn’t he have dropped in at any time, all by himself?” “What makes you think he had permanent access rights? Asan could have granted his number clearance each time they were supposed to meet and revoked them afte
After the matter of tuxedos was resolved, the natural progression of things led the two grooms to the topic of rings. Both wedding AND engagement rings! When Levi realized that he was getting married to his baby, yet not only had he not officially proposed, but his baby’s lovely hands didn’t even have his ring on, he felt so sour inside that his face scrunched up like a squeezed sponge. This needed to be corrected! Right now! (ꐦ °Д°) But how could he correct it when he didn’t even have the rings yet?! (ノಥ益ಥ)ノ ┻━┻ What was he supposed to do? Reuse the rings from the previous engagement? Of course he couldn’t do that!!! Even if there was no issue with the ring size and the feminine design, how could he let his precious wear things that were not just picked by someone else but even worn by someone else before?! Even if he used his feet to think, he still wouldn’t manage to come up with such a stupid idea! But, ah, the realization that those slen
This warning immediately roused Levi from his lethargic state, “Why be careful? Wouldn’t such a reality be a good thing? For a married couple to be happily in love, isn't that how it should be?” Noah fell silent for a moment, then his pink mouth opened to reveal what lay hidden in the depths of his heart, “That's only if it's mutual. If it's one-sided, it would just be sad.” Levi deeply stared into the little one’s two shiny orbs, “That’s only if it forever remains one-sided.” Then the bottomless abyss within the pool of blue was replaced with a shimmer of mischief, “But why would it be… ah! Don’t tell me you intend to seduce me and then dump me?!” Levi’s face warped into exaggerated shock and grief, “Ah, ah, you can’t play with hearts like this! You must take responsibility for me!” Noah’s melancholy was instantly broken, and his glorious bright red blush made its triumphant return. “Who–who–who is playing with hearts?! What ‘seduce and dump’?! And what ‘tak