Lines Crossed - Volume 1 Chapter 60 I Have A House

“What. Are you nuts?” I stared at him.

“We can’t move in together after such a short time, it’s barely a sufficient amount of time to get to know each other’s names, let alone move in together.”

Mark chuckled. “Hardly, it has been a month, and you saved my life twice. Doesn’t that qualify as getting to know one another?”

“Also, I have a house already. Or did you forget that’s how I met you… And saved your life.”

Mark raised an eyebrow, stood up, and dropped the book he had been looking at.

“Do you really?” He asked, staring at me,

“Are you sure?” His gaze was inquisitive and steady. It held me captured, demanding the truth from me, and waited for me to give it without asking another word more.

“I I do.” I stammered.

“Interesting because I remember being told by Jaemin that you are never home.”

“In fact, I remember him telling me that you are normally at your friends Hyeri’s house.”

“So do you have a house to go back too?”

“Is that really your place?” He asked.

I blinked and looked out the window, my eyes avoiding his. ‘Am I caught? Does he know I have no idea whose house I am staying at? Did he find the owner? With all his resources, he found out I don’t exist and came up with the idea that I am an immigrant. Could he have found the original owner?’

I smoothed my hands on my skirt, my fingernails scraping against the fabric. ‘It was something I had secretly been fretting about in the comic book I wrote an old man lived there. But since I got here, I had seen no sign of him. And every time I went back there I was half scared to death, I would run into him.’

‘It was why I was so low on reserves. But I couldn’t exactly tell him, I was squatting in someone else’s home. A home that was an exact copy of my own, just with stuff that was not mine.’

‘A plausible reason I am refusing to stay at my own place’

“I.”

“I..”

“I don’t like sleeping alone,” I said softly.

“What? I couldn’t hear you properly, what was that you just said?” He walked towards me, leaned in, and waited, expectantly for me to repeat it.

“I have nightmares,” I said a bit louder.

Mark’s smile dropped off his face, and he stopped advancing. He stroked his chin carefully, seemingly lost in thought for a moment.

“You have nightmares?” He affirmed.

“Mm, yes, sometimes, a world of fire, screams that envelope me, and the darkness that I can’t escape from. Surrounded by a woman’s voice softly calling my name.”

Mark’s tongue flicked out and licked his bottom lip subconsciously, I watched him, wondering what was happening up in that busy head of his.

“This is an excellent reason not to be alone then. And since you don’t like being alone, that’s even more of a reason to move in with me. I happen to have a human dream whisperer in my house. No matter what is bugging you, he can fix it and heal the aching wound inside your chest, miraculously.” He smiled.

I leaned back, watching him uncertainly.

“Why does that sound like you are selling some street side magician to scam me of all my money? If you were not Mark Wang, I would be highly suspicious.”

Mark looked unimpressed.

“Right”

“I’ll pay you extra and your weekends, unless there is an emergency, will be your own, Friday included.”

I pinched my bottom lip, trying not to seem too eager.

It was better than any of my jobs had provided over the past five years. Frankly speaking, I was a girl without a job, with no home, no money, and who had almost equally the same in my own world before I got here. It hadn’t even been an unfamiliar thing; I had spent the last five years like that, scraping by on the little I could make from my dreams and whatever part-time job I had for that week on the side.

“Did I mention the room is free, the food is free, and if you really need something any of the people in the house can drive you anywhere you need to go whenever you want. Since I assume you don’t drive.”

“Ah, yeah. I don’t drive.”

I watched him. There really was no reason to say no, other than my own misgivings that getting close to this man would only lead to my eventual outing and to my own demise.

‘Well, you can keep mooching off the newlyweds, in a hope that they won’t ask you why the heck you never leave and that their generosity and friendship won’t run out. Or you can take the pro-offered salvation this very beautiful man is offering you.’

‘Even if it could end with him finding out exactly who you are.’

‘What’s the harm if he does. It isn’t like anyone will believe you, that this is all your story you wrote, and they are all primary characters in your own creation.’

‘Besides, you may need to access his resources to research on the side how to get back home. Who else has the power and the ability to look into theoretical physics? It’s not like you can figure it all out and understand it on your own. You need to find someone you can trust who can help you. What can a nurse turned comic artist and part-time salesman accomplish with her own two feet in this world, anyway?’

‘I mean, you didn’t even draw yourself an alternate identity here.’

“Still… living with him, could be dangerous.”