Chapter Text
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Orm stood in her private study, sleeves rolled up, staring out at the rain-soaked Bangkok skyline. The city glittered under the storm, alive and unbothered - unlike her.
Behind her, Ling was lounging in the leather chair like she owned it. One leg propped, her black boots muddy from the earlier fight. She was nursing a beer she didn't ask permission to open.
> "You should get your hand stitched," Orm said flatly, not turning around.
> "You should get a real security team," Ling shot back, unfazed.
Orm turned.
> "Why did you follow me?"
Ling shrugged. "Call it a wife's instinct."
That word again. Wife.
Spoken so casually by a woman who didn't believe in love, didn't believe in anything but chaos and impulse - and yet there she was, bruised knuckles and calm fire, still watching over Orm like she meant it.
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> "You don't have to protect me," Orm said, pacing toward her desk. "We both know this marriage is just paper. Transactional."
> "Right," Ling murmured. "Except paper doesn't bleed."
Orm flinched at the line.
Ling stood up, slowly. Closed the distance between them.
> "You want this arrangement to stay clean and cold, fine," Ling said. "But don't act like someone didn't just try to kill you. This thing isn't safe anymore."
Orm hesitated. For the first time, she wasn't sure if she was angry, scared, or... grateful.
> "So what are you proposing?" she asked.
Ling smiled. "That depends. What's your offer?"
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Orm pulled a document from the drawer. Simple. Official. Another contract.
> "Protect me. For one year. Keep me alive, and you'll be free."
Ling raised an eyebrow.
> "I'm already not free, sweetheart."
> "You'll get enough money to disappear," Orm replied. "New ID, clean records. A fresh start."
Ling laughed. But it didn't reach her eyes.
> "You think I'm in this for money?"
Orm hesitated.
> "No," she admitted. "But I think you're here for revenge."
Ling's playful smile cracked. Just for a second.
Orm pressed on.
> "I don't know what exactly you're hiding, or what you want from my family. But I know you're not just some street fighter with expensive taste."
Ling stepped closer until they were nearly chest to chest.
> "You want me to stay and protect you?" she said, voice low. "Say please."
Orm blinked. Her spine straightened.
> "I don't beg."
> "Exactly," Ling said, leaning in with a smirk. "That's why I'm still interested."
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They stared at each other for a long moment.
Then Ling reached for a pen, signed the new agreement without even reading it.
> "One year," she said. "I'll keep you breathing."
> "And after that?" Orm asked.
Ling leaned back.
> "We'll see if I still want to leave."
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Orm watched her walk out of the room like it was her palace now.
But she didn't know-
Ling wasn't the only one digging into secrets.
Because behind that new contract, Orm had slipped a second copy into a different folder - the one tied to her father's confidential archives.
> If Ling was hiding something... Orm would find out.
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*[ End of Chapter ]*
☆ U.A 💜