With my hands raised up, I looked at the guy who now lay on the canvas in an awkward pose. My chest heaved up and down.

Rubbing the place under my nose, I felt coarse dampness. My blood already started coagulating.

Soon the female valet came in along with other staff. She took me back to the changing room, where I was able to take a shower and wash all the blood away.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I didn't see much damage. Hematomas I had were mostly on my body. As I was looking at my own reflection when a female valet brought in a medic. With my agreement, he slathered me with an ointment and looked for any kind of internal injury.

Sometime later, after making sure I was alright, I changed my clothes and went back to Mara's balcony.

"Congrats." She was sitting in her chair, looking at her phone.

I stopped in my tracks, "That's all?"

"And what else should I tell you?" She started typing something. "Oh, the card with the money is here. The password is the same as the previous one." She disinterestedly moved her head in the direction of a table with the beverages and snacks. A black plastic card lay there.

"Have they told how much it was?" I felt that her sudden behavior change happened for a reason.

"It's probably around twenty or thirty thousand." She sighed and put her phone down, her expression showing displeasure.

I carefully took the card and put it into the inner pocket of my jacket. "Won't you look at the end of this event?"

"I don't know." She stretched in the chair and stood up. I walked close to her as she leaned over the railing and looked down. There was another pair of fighters going at it. "It's just that I feel all of this is a bit stale." she pouted slightly. "You know, at first it was fun, then it quickly became dull. I felt that with you, perhaps my passion will come back."

"Heh, feeling apathy because you already have it all?" I felt she was similar to me, to previous me, in this aspect.

"Yeah, I think this is it. How do you know?" She gave me a side-eye.

I couldn't answer her honestly and say that's how I was in my previous life. After all, I owned hardly anything now, and it was clearly not enough to sink into the depth of apathy.

I shrugged at her question, "Your sudden mood swings are part of this as well, am I wrong?"

"Sudden?" She turned and leaned on the railing. Her eyes squinted at me as one of her eyebrows rose up.

"You know, I don't have enough experience talking with women."

"Heh, you don’t?" She smirked.

"I know you are thinking about Joanne and Elle, but they don't count." I leaned onto the railing as well. With my arms crossed. "It's hard to properly explain who they are to me. You can say that the difference is that they were the ones who initiated our friendship."

"Hoh, am I not the same?"

"At first, yes," My eyes moved downwards and stayed on her legs, "Not so much anymore. I do want to get closer to you."

"Oh, you do?"

"Yeah, I can't do things the same way I did before. But the problem is, I don't know how to actually behave around you." I rubbed my chin, my gaze was still on her long legs, but I was looking through them. "I never pursued a friendship with girls. I don't know how to act so that I won't be misunderstood."

"Go on." I heard the sound of Mara licking her lips.

"I'm interested in you… Not as a woman, as a person. You know, I thought a lot about the thing you said... Remember when we talked about life goals?"

She pursed her lips as she pondered.

"You said people without life goals are hollow. Now that I think about it, it's you, right? You describe yourself, right?"

"Hah?"

"You have it all. There is no reason for you to work. You have money, you excel in taekwondo, you have friends, good supporting parents. And as you built this small hurdle for yourself to conquer, this huge mountain you need to cross... It became a pebble, a stepping stone. So you needed to find another goal, something more arduous."

She smirked.

"What? Am I wrong?" I wanted to rub my nose, but it was coated with medication.

"No, or should I say, I don't know?" She gave me a forced smile that didn't look like a smile at all.

"You are illogical, I can't comprehend your actions. As I told you before your mood swings way too much. And I honestly think you are too dangerous, almost, almost like you are a caricature." I lifted my head and looked at her eyes. "Do you understand what I mean? This is the only way I can think of your actions."

There were no traces of a smile. Her frivolous face now looked serious.

"I can't say I understand you," She shook her head slightly, "What I can say is that under the shell of your usual laziness, egoism and indecisiveness lay a very smart person. You somehow manage to destroy my expectations of your time and time again… in one way or another."

"Heh, I do so to myself as well. Doing the things I never thought I would do before. But when a person is in a pinch, his true colors will show."

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Hmm, I'm not sure I agree with this."

"Whether you agree or not isn't necessary. Sigh, so what will you do with all of this?"

"This?" She looked around.

"Yeah, you don't enjoy this anymore? Will you stop coming here in the end?"

"But I can't leave you alone." She tapped her chin.

"I can easily go through this by myself."

"Hah. Look at you. You barely won your fight, got punched so many times, and already hold your chin up like you defeated the champ. Who will give you such big payments for a single fight? How will you get back?"

I interrupted her as I lifted my finger up in the air, "Actually! I have someone to get me from here."

With this, we decided to end our stay here. There were still a couple of fights going on, but we chose not to watch them. Walking from the balcony, Mara kept drilling a hole in me as we walked out of the building. She obviously couldn't stay in the streets for so long with her outfit, so she almost immediately jumped into the car.

"Are you sure you don't need a lift?"

"I'm sure."

She was making a weird expression right now. Almost as if she didn't expect this.

"Bye then!"

"I will call you later." closing the door Mara's car started almost immediately.

"Now, let's talk with the one giving me a ride." I took my phone out.

Approximately an hour later, a white-colored car came. It wasn't snowing, but I managed to freeze a bit standing in the street.

"Do you even know how late it is?" Violetta hissed at me.

"It's midnight? So what? You've stayed overtime with me previously." I sat at the front and buckled up. Doing this, I sized her up.

Her face was a bit less rosy than usual, and her lips were visibly paler. Her hair gathered into two low ponytails. She wore simple blue jeans and winter sneakers. Jeans hugged her thicc thighs tightly, allowing me to savor them as usual. A simple grey sweater on top and a fleece jacket with a hood. However, even through her baggy clothes, her curves showed.

"Pfft."

"Anyway, let's go and eat something, I'm starving," I threw my bag onto the back seat when I remembered, "Oh, I'm paying. I don't care if you take us to an expensive place, just do it faster."

"Do you think any decent place would work at such a time?" She looked at the back-view mirror as she slowly drove the car away.

"Right." I totally forgot about the time.

"Hmph, very generous of you."

I knew that she would continue to grumble no matter what, so I simply stopped talking. On our way, we found a fast-food chain restaurant that worked 24\7. Buying something to eat and drink, I gobbled up the food.

Lately, I noticed that after fighting, I wanted to eat. Unlike me, Violetta didn't order any food, she only asked for a small drink, and right now, she leaned onto the steering wheel. With her drink standing in the cup holder and her face hidden between her arms, she was actually looking at me.

At first, I thought she simply looked through me or stopped at me involuntarily, but now I knew she was looking at me. Her eyes were unmoving.

"Is there something on my face?" As I was wiping my mouth, I couldn't stop myself from asking her this question.

"Nothing." Her reply was curt and simple. Taking her drink, she turned sideways and slowly sipped on it.

"You busy tomorrow?"

"Hum?" She was absent-minded.

"Hey?" I snapped my fingers a couple times. "I said, do you have anything tomorrow except your job?"

"No?" She turned around to look at me. Her expression was completely clueless as to why I asked her this.

"Then choose the hotel you like or want to visit with your husband. We will stay there for two nights and one day."

"Huuuh?"

I interrupted her. "I don't care what you have to say. We already resolved this, didn't we?"

She nibbled on her lip.

"Go ahead and hate me all you want, just drive to the hotel. I don't know, we can go to the place where you nursed me but I doubt the woman that lives there will be happy with this."

"Fine! You dickhead." She answered snappily and went on with driving.

We drove through the night city, and almost all the buildings were closed off for the day. As we were driving through, Violetta was grumbling and insulting me all the time. Though she couldn't do it openly, she was intentionally whispering in a voice I could hear. Rarely when we met something except for cheap motels or convenience stores that still worked. Going here and there, I ultimately got tired of all this and chose a rather dubious hotel to stay the night.

It was a love hotel.

Despite this fact, it looked proper. It had decorations of decent quality, and the signboard wasn't gaudy. Instead, it looked stylish and in tone with the front of the building.

"Hah, and in the end…"

"Would you please shut up!?" I snapped at Violetta as she was getting out of her car. I grabbed her wrist and effortlessly yanked her up. "Fucking throwing in an insult every time. Just shut up if you don't have anything to say, okay? Act as if I asked you something meaningful! Shut. Your. Trap." She looked at me with her eyes round. "If you understand everything, nod once.

She slowly nodded.

"Nice, now go to the counter with me."

From all the various rooms this hotel provided, we chose the most simple one. Without any additional, kinky stuff. Walking upwards, we didn't talk. Entering the room with an electronic key card, we walked in with the same cold, and tense atmosphere surrounding us.

The first thing that I saw was a minibar, and I quickly made my way over there. Looking around, I saw small shot-size bottles. Seizing one of them that was filled with vodka, I downed it in one gulp.

" Aargh! FUCK! I was in a great mood, but you ruined it. Why the fuck are you doing it like this?" I threw my bag down onto the floor. "I've already said this, you did bad things, I did bad things. That's it. Cut." I rubbed my head. "Is it because of your family? I'm not the only one with whom you are cheating. You slept your way up, right?" Her shoulders trembled, but she still maintained her silence.

I walked closer and looked at her from above. "That's what I'm talking about! Why the hell are you silent now? What? What is making you unable to speak?"

"Gah, what am I even thinking about? You keep insulting me, yet you comply with everything I say. Do you have some sort of mental disorder?" I rubbed my face in exasperation. "You truly intend to simply stay silent like this? Or is this your way of disrespecting me? Huh? Those old guys are holding onto your leash tightly." My hand slowly circled around her neck. "Yet in my hand, you are always trying to run away. Not respecting the order, right?" My hand squeezed tighter, but she still didn't react. "And the only reason you even come back to me every time is that you like it, the way I walk you out." I carefully rubbed her neck, so as to not leave any mark. After I released her neck and dropped onto the large bed that stood in the middle of this room.

"Nothing but silence as an answer," I closed my eyes for a second, "Go ahead and take a shower there.

"I don't need it." I heard her soft whisper.

"Then take your clothes off," I stood up and threw everything I had on me except for my underwear. Looking at her, as she stood across the bed, she slowly took her clothes off, neatly folding them in the process.

Finally, she was left in simple underwear with no laces. It was a plain white bra that hid her abundant chest properly. While her bottom was covered by high-cut, white panties.

When her hands moved backward to take her bra off, I cut her off. "Don't." She stopped awkwardly and then looked at me.

"Lie down." Standing for a brief time as she didn't know what to do, she chose to follow this order and went onto the bed.

I followed through and lied down. With our bodies touching slightly, I felt that ointment on my body was long ago dried up and absorbed. I hugged her with one hand and covered us with a blanket with another one.

Now both of us were covered, and I moved to hug her closer. Burrowing my face into her bosom, I hugged her waist tightly.

"You…What are you doing?" I felt how much her body stiffened in my embrace as she asked me.

"I want to sleep like that."

Silence ensured for some time. As I moved slightly in bed until I finally found an optimal position, I was holding her in my embrace all the time.

"You…"

"I'm in no mood to talk."

"…"

"Shut up and let me sleep." Hearing her rhythmic breathing, I moved in a half-dream, trying to find an even better position.

And as more time passed, both of us fell asleep.