You Must Fall In Love

Chapter Forty-Nine

"Honestly, Yusuke, I don't know why we got split up. What do you think?"

Christine asked the question for two reasons: firstly, to make herself feel better, and secondly, to give them something to talk about. They had been going in circles for the past fifteen minutes, walking very seriously around the seats and the escalators and the potted plants, and if she didn't say something soon she was afraid that people might notice them.

"The answer is simple," said Yusuke, not looking at her. "Jennifer is trying to maximize our efficiency. You can smell magic; I can sense demons. By scanning the same areas at the same time, we have the highest chance of finding the thief."

This made sense on the surface, but the more Christine thought about it, the more cracks showed up.

What was she meant to be looking out for? Magic smelled like any other perfume, just more vivid and real, but it really couldn't compete with the smell of hardening McDonald's cheese and airport sanitizer. She could barely make out Yusuke's chilled-pear scent from this distance, and he was just three steps away from her.

And even if she did find someone magical, what in the world was she actually supposed to do? Point at them and scream something about her missing luggage, thereby immediately marking her as one of those crazy people to be avoided at all costs?

"How do you sense demons?" she asked. "What do they feel like to you?"

Yusuke paused. The sports bag stilled at his side, rustling slightly.

"Have you ever come close to something dangerous?"

"Dangerous?"

There wasn't anything really dangerous in Singapore, or at least, she couldn't recall there being any. The most dangerous thing in Singapore was the threat of sweating to death.

"I almost got hit by a bicycle once."

"Never mind," said Yusuke. "I don't think you will understand."

"Hey," frowned Christine. "I may not know much about magic, but I don't like people talking to me like I'm five, either."

"My apologies," said Yusuke, in that brisk way he had. "It is a good thing that you don't know. Trust me on this, Miss Lam."

She wanted to press further, but he was already walking again, which was clearly some kind of signal. She decided to change the topic, because conflict wasn't exactly something she wanted to pursue, at least not with Yusuke.

"You said that you didn't have any plans for the Hart Princess. Didn't you?"

Why was she so timid when faced with Yusuke, but not with Rob?

"I said that I had no desire to marry the Hart Princess. If I did not have any plans, I would not be here, would I?"

He was saying such embarrassing things that she felt the instinctive urge to correct him, but she couldn't. Because then he would know exactly who she was, and she wasn't sure she could handle anyone else knowing who she was.

Or who she was meant to be.

Not that it mattered.

"So you don't have a choice? Why not just give up, then?"

It was the perfect escape, in her opinion. Yusuke wasn't bogged down by the weight of destiny, or all those fixed stars that Kang had mentioned. He could just leave if he didn't like it. She'd leave, if she wasn't stuck here.

But that's what you left Singapore for.

"Miss Lam," said Yusuke, "we don't always get a choice as to what we want to do in this life. If I ran away, then who would take my place?"

Christine frowned, aware that she was heading into very dangerous waters, and that her response would determine how long her secret could stay hidden.

"That doesn't make much sense. Do you really, one-hundred-percent, absolutely have to marry the Hart Princess?"

She wasn't sure what she wanted him to say, or which response would be better, but the fact that he took so long to reply made her even more nervous than she should have been. He was frowning faintly, a strange look in his eyes. Like he was far away, or rather, somewhere that she wasn't.

"No," he said, turning around and picking up his bag. "But if you put in that way, then what is necessary? Behind you."

The sickly sweet stench sidled up her nostrils and made faces in her sinuses. It was like she was head-first in a compost bin. She stumbled back, glancing back and forth to see if anyone else's expressions were collapsing, but the folks at Starbucks looked perfectly fine.

"Who are you?" she hissed.

The man in the trenchcoat smiled and kept walking. Yusuke touched her arm briskly, stepping in front of her as if to block her way, but she pushed past him and went right after the stranger.

"Hey," she said. "I can smell the magic on you, so don't pretend like you didn't hear me."

He was short, stocky, and had the proportions of a hock of ham. He smelt like ham too, ham and grease, and the only clue that gave his magic away was the impossible hint of ethanol and rubber within — a moist sandwich in a chemistry lab.

His face was round, his trenchcoat was too long for him and his brown temples were thinning, which put him squarely between thirty and fifty as far as Christine was concerned. But the thing that struck Christine the most, as soon as he turned to look at her, was how devious his eyes were.

He wasn't even looking at her like a person. His gaze was sliding over her body like wet glue, slathering itself across her collarbones, her thighs, her arms and breasts.

He was looking at her like a piece of packaged chicken.

"I don't know," he said, in a high wheedling voice. "Why don't you tell me, Princess?"