I Love You, Monster: The Blindfolded Wife x The Masked Husband

"D-do you like me?"

Upon those words leaving Hinari’s mouth, she couldn’t help but hold her breath. Her eyes focused on his lips waiting for words to come out. Her heart was like a drum beating so loud in her ears that everything else faded from existence.

1 banana... 2 bananas... 3 bananas... 4 bananas... 5 bananas...

Hinari counted the seconds silently in her head and when the number reached ten, her tensed shoulders dropped. She even began to sweat because of her extreme nervousness but at the same time, she was somewhat disappointed that the sleeping beauty didn’t respond. Sigh... stop acting crazy Hinari, there’s no way a sleeping person could answer every question you ask, you know?!

Heaving a long deep sigh, Hinari bit her lip and she again gazed at the beautiful sleeping beauty. She raised her hand and she caressed his hair carefully. And as she caressed his hair, somehow, Hinari can’t help but giggle. This is the first time she could take advantage of this sleeping beauty and the feeling was really blissful. Wow, i didn’t know that petting this man feels this good... if only he would allow me to pet him like this when he’s awake... Sigh... i bet he’ll just flick my forehead if i do this to him while awake, right? Damn... his hair is so soft... this beauty really is too much... he’s driving me mad...! T^T

"Don’t mind me and rest well, beauty." She whispered to him, giving up her silly attempt to take advantage of a certain defenseless and innocent sleeping princess.

She again surveyed his beautiful face and she felt like there were prickles in her heart as she looked at the dark circles under his eyes. For some reason, Hinari felt like she wanted to just embrace him tight. She didn’t know why she felt like this but maybe this is because she wasn’t just used seeing Zaki looking weak and defenseless?

"Looks like my beauty really is tired this time around. I better behave and let him rest." She then softly said to herself and she carefully leaned her head on Zaki’s, which was lying on her shoulder.

Hinari slowly closed her eyes and it seemed like she too finally felt the fatigue of roaming around the entire day. Adding the anxiety and fear from recent events, her body felt like it was drained of its energy. In no time, her body went a little limp and she seemed to finally fall asleep.

At that moment, finally hearing her slow breathing, Zaki’s long lashes fluttered and in the next second, his eyes slowly opened. There was a glint of an indescribable emotion showing in his eyes and he seemed like he had been awake for a while now.

Without moving, he blinked and he slowly clenched his fists so tight like he wanted to crush his own bones as he uttered her name in his mind.

Hinari...

...

Meanwhile, at the Chen residence, a certain old man in a butler’s uniform arrived at the back doorstep. He turned the knob, only to find it locked. Hmm, I wonder why this is locked at this time of the day. Mr. Gou usually keeps this door open. He tried turning it again to no avail. Is there nobody at home?

Well, wasn’t he just the boy scout because he was prepared for every possibility? He actually brought with him a set of spare keys to the house, being the resourceful grandpa that he was and he easily unlocked the door using them.

"Hehehe," he laughed gleefully as he thought about how cunningly sneaky he was.

He entered the house to find that nobody was around, not a single maid nor Mr Gou. Where did everybody go?

He left the amusement park early so he could sneak in here to see if the rumors about Davi being back were true. But to his dismay, there was no one around to even just ask to confirm if this was true or not. Sighing at his bad luck, he turned to leave again when he heard several cars stop in front of the house. Are they back?!

Curious as a cat, he tiptoed his way over to the window to peek outside to see who it was that just turned up.

One by one, each member of the Chen family alighted from the cars. Sei, Little Shin, Davi, Mr and Mrs Chen, Hinari and Zaki who looked like they had just woken up from a nap. He quickly let the curtains fall back again to cover him and he quickly looked around to find somewhere to hide. He couldn’t be seen to be inside the house otherwise his grandson would find out that he had a set of keys for the place. He looked around the room but there was nowhere he could hide behind or fit into or under where it wouldn’t be obvious. He slightly panicked and he took hurried steps towards the back door where he entered from. Just as he was about to open the door, he heard tiny footsteps running towards the kitchen and then the words "Great grandpa? Where are you going?"

Caught red handed by his great grandson, he could only scratch the back of his neck. "Ah, I was just going out to, ah... water the gardens!"

His great grandson looked at him funny, like he had somehow gone crazy in his old age.

"Great grandpa, it’s already dark. You better not go outside anymore." The little guy said and the old man could only force a laugh.

"Haha, that’s right, that’s right. Sigh... I’m really getting old now."

Not long after, Davi’s voice could be heard, calling out for Little Shin. "Little Shin, where did you go?" Davi entered the kitchen and saw little Shin talking to a certain butler-looking Grandpa.

Somehow, Davi seemed to feel something familiar about this old man. Have they met before?

While Davi was thinking about where she had seen this old man before, Mr. Mikazuki’s eyes glittered upon seeing her and he immediately walked towards her.

"Oh my dear grand daughter in law. It’s really been a long time." The old man said as he walked towards her and Davi simply blinked.

"Excuse me but... have we met before?" she politely asked and the old man seemed to have been struck by a wooden block which just randomly fell from the sky.

While the old man seemed to be stunned by her words, Davi finally remembered where she had seen this old man before. I-isn’t he the former king of country J? He was still young in the photos she saw but she couldn’t be mistaken right?

"Yo-you’re Mr. Mikazuki Youjirou? Th-the last king of country J?!" Davi exclaimed and instead of being happy, the old man was again devastated. Well, it seemed like his granddaughter completely forgot about him.

At that moment, Yuuki, the old man’s loyal right hand, appeared suddenly and walked to the old man and whispered in his ears.

"Sir, did you forget that you disguised your face back then? It’s only obvious that she would not remember you because she has never seen you before. The face that she knew back then was the face you used when you were disguised as butler Kazuki and not your real face." Yuuki whispered and the old man finally remembered that fact, causing him to scratch the back of his neck. Sigh... it’s really hard being old...

Mr. Mikazuki then looked at Davi with a serious yet gentle look. It had not been announced yet to the public what the relationship between Sei to the former royals of country J was, so it seemed like she still didn’t know that he was Sei’s grandfather.

Just as the old man was about to introduce himself, Sei suddenly appeared.

Sei had actually been watching them for a while now so he saw what happened. He failed to introduce his parents to her formally so he would do it right this time with his grandfather.

Sei then held Davi’s hand as he stood beside her and he spoke.

"Davi, this is my grandfather. He is my late mom, Fei’s, father." He said and Davi’s eyes widened. H-huh? This former king is my husband’s grandfather by blood? So that means, Sei was the rumored mysterious prince who never appeared until now? M-my husband is actually a real prince?