Noah recently had some positive feeling towards Haley. There were some unreasonable and uncomfortable feelings and some unpleasantness that still existed, but that was only because of his sense of déjà vu, not because of Haley.
The new Haley was quite acceptable, without any flaws. He kept receiving reports from Phil that Haley was living a very regulated life, which made it hard to believe that he even was the same person as before.
Every morning, Haley wakes up early and takes a walk nearby; goes into a decent looking café, buys a gossip magazine or a newspaper and reads them diligently, as if he were studying. After going around for two hours like that, he takes two hours of barista lessons in the morning, eats lunch at a decent place and then goes back to his house to get acting lessons from a teacher he’d hired. He spends his whole afternoon studying and practicing acting. Then he eats dinner and either goes back to take a walk or works out at the fitness center in his house. After that, he watches a movie or studies more and goes to sleep early.
He didn’t go to any club or gathering and there was no sign of him drinking or doing drugs.
There was also a report about previous Haley’s life:
He woke up around four or five in the afternoon, ate fast food that his manager had bought or just starved and drank a can of beer. After that, he blankly watched TV, and if he started to wake up, he washed up and went inside his dressing room, where he would spend one to several hours picking clothes. After he wore the clothes he’d picked and had decorated himself, the time would already have passed 9 PM. Around that time, he would whip out his cocaine and lightly snort it before going out of the house.
There were times when he went out after getting calls, but usually he just went out without anything on his mind. After coming out of the house like that, he went to bars or clubs to play and drink, and sometimes he hooked up with a man and went to his house or a hotel. And again the next day, he would wake up around four or five in the afternoon, throw up the alcohol that he drank last night and start yet another day.
Sometimes he met his friends and a woman, presumably his cousin, but he didn’t have anyone useful. It was more like, ‘trash gathers some more trash’.
Noah spent a long time in front of the previous report that made him hateful and annoyed, but then there was the recent one–
The recent report on Haley and the previous one. He put the report about Mason in between those two after a long thought.
Noah had missed the commonality of the date and approximate time that Mason went missing with the date that Haley woke up after being pronounced dead for an hour or two. It had been in front of his eyes, but he didn’t connect them.
Leaving behind common sense, it was still impossible. The thought didn’t even make sense.
But he couldn’t completely overlook it.
The Haley that Mason knew; Haley and Mason. The only thing in common between those two had been that date and time and nothing else.
Ignoring his busy schedule, Noah stared at those reports for very long, up until Phil worried about his next schedule; then he left those on the table as they were and headed to the Wilshire Grand Hotel. The meeting had originally been at another place, but he’d changed the location. Even after knowing that the director will make a “Why are you here?” expression, Noah still went to the party.
He couldn’t understand himself, why he was doing it, but Noah realized something after he saw Haley looking at him with an indifferent expression.
He wanted to meet him, the one who had the same stare as Mason.
Noah slowly regarded Haley, from top to bottom. If you are a human, with eyes and the ability to think, you can immediately tell how different Haley and Mason were, in detail. Their heights, face, size, clothes and even the shoes were different. Just like Haley and Mason’s reports, there was nothing in common between Mason that Noah remembered and Haley.
But still, Noah thought about Mason while looking at him. He thought his calm expression with a smile, whenever he got slightly panicked, was very similar.
He had worn that very same expression, the day they parted ten years ago.
Noah thought he was going crazy and decided to leave the banquet hall. He still had some time left before the next schedule, but felt like if he stared at Haley any longer, he might seriously scream something crazy like Haley is actually Mason,
He went to the party because he wanted to see him, but turned back because he was afraid his feelings would grow deep. Noah chuckled the whole time during his meeting with the client, thinking it was funny how he acted as if he had fallen in love.
Definitely, the emotions he felt towards Haley were not negative. In the elevator and afterwards, when they met the muggers on the street, Haley was nosy, but he did save Noah. Just like Mason.
Noah faintly thought, ‘maybe.’ Maybe-….
And when he came out of the business room and walked to the elevator to meet Phil, who said he would wait for him downstairs, Haley appeared again with a strong scent of cheap champagne and snatched him. He was caught by Haley’s desperate expression and before he could resist him, they were already standing inside a hotel room.
Noah breathed heavily and stared at Haley, who was firmly holding the doorknob, with a loss for words.
Earlier he had smiled like Mason, holding a glass of red punch as if he didn’t drink alcohol, but not even two hours later, he was sporting a strong smell of alcohol that even gave Noah a headache.
Even before he came running into the hotel room, Mason’s clothes were messy, his neck smelled of sweat, and his cheeks were flushed. Noah bit his lips, looking at Haley who was giving off a full on erotic vibe.
He thought this kind of man ‘might be’ Mason. Noah knew he had been thinking nonsense, but it was possible for him to think like that because Haley had changed a lot recently.
The man who turned around to meet Noah’s cold stare was ‘that’ Haley. The very man who had once appeared in front of him with a strong smell of alcohol and acted like, ‘I only have thoughts about having sex.’
“……”
Mason received Noah’s cold stare and awkwardly smiled. Mason, who was the master of acting nonchalant whenever he got panicked, couldn’t help but panic at that moment.
“I want to hear an explanation about this.”
His stare was very cold and also his voice. Mason moved his lips, but didn’t know what to say.
“Um…. If I say, ‘I thought somebody was trying to harm you and that’s why I brought you in here….,’ you won’t believe me, right?”
Hearing what Mason said, the cold eyes of Noah’s eyes got even colder.
“Somebody tried to harm me. –Who?”
Noah asked like he would at least listen, and Mason smiled awkwardly. It’ll be good if he could honestly say it was ‘Aaron and Ashley,’ but he couldn’t. He couldn’t explain who Aaron and Ashely were to Noah.
Mason shut his mouth and smiled perplexedly, and Noah carefully scanned him with his cold eyes. It was like trying to figure out ‘if this son of a bitch did drugs or drank alcohol.’
‘Why isn’t there a perfect excuse for this moment. Indeed, there is no way there is an excuse to convince him for abruptly dragging a person into a hotel room. If there was such a thing, no one will get arrested for raping.’
Mason rolled his eyes and slur the word “That is…,” and Noah squinted his eyes.
Mason definitely knew how must look to Noah. It hadn’t been long since he became trash to ‘better trash than I thought.’ Just a few months ago, the man who said he didn’t like him, not only kept meddling with his business, but also suddenly went out of his way and pushed him in a hotel room and couldn’t even give a proper excuse.
Mason hesitated, and Noah smiled coldly.
“If you don’t have anything to say, I’ll think whatever I want to.”
Noah said frigidly and after looking at him with hostility walked past Mason standing in front of the door and tried to open it.
“Wait, please wait, Mr. Raycarlton.”
Mason desperately pulled him away from the door and held him. Aaron and Ashely might still be outside. He didn’t hear any footsteps walking away.
Noah frostily stared at him as if saying, ‘why are you holding me’, and Mason sighed. It was not good to sigh at that point, but he couldn’t help himself.
“You’re right. I think I’m horny.”
Mason replied in a complicated tone, and Noah looked at him like, 'Is this son of a bitch joking?'
“I know I made a mistake, but just stay with me. Ten minutes-, no, five minutes is good enough-….”
Mason carefully paid attention to the sounds outside the door. He definitely heard something move. They were still outside– Aaron and Ashely.
Mason looked up at Noah, who they were waiting for and Noah hailed him slowly in a tone that was very unpleasant.
“Haley. No, Mr. Lusk.”
Because he felt a little closer to him, Noah had called him Haley, but now he fixed his mistake and smiled. Mason was startled by that bright smile.
“The smell of your cheap champagne is disgusting.”
“Did you do drugs? You definitely did, didn’t you?” –He asked coldly and frowned. His expression showed how unpleasant he felt as it is.
“Right now, I am feeling very unpleasant at how I deluded myself, and your very existence is making me sick.”
Noah’s tone showed that he was seriously sick of him. Mason moved his lips. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what. He clearly saw disappointment and grievance in those smiling eyes, but he didn’t know why he wore that expression.
What is he expecting from me, no, Haley?
Noah scornfully looked at Mason’s unbuttoned shirt and pushed him in front of the door and held the doorknob again.
Actually Mason wanted to let him go. He didn’t like Noah’s hatred, and his inexplicable grievance bothered him.
But he couldn’t. He clearly knew who was standing outside, so how can he let him go?
Mason held his arms and bit his teeth. He turned around holding off his annoyance. Mason’s eye made contact with those beautiful green ones and he swallowed, wetting his dry throat. He wasn’t crying, but the reason why he felt like he was crying was because he had a weakness for this man.
He wasn’t sure telling him this would work, but there was no other choice.
“Five minutes, no, if you stay with me for ten minutes, I’ll tell you about Mason. So, Mr. Raycarlton….”
He couldn’t finish saying, ‘don’t go out for the moment,’ because Noah had kicked him right away in the stomach. Mason rolled away into the room, and Noah held his forehead like his temperature was rising and let out a huge breath.
“Ugh-“
Looking at Mason, rolling away with a moan, Noah laughed and put his fingers on the tie knot in order to loosen it.
“Ahhh. Fuck, seriously-…”
He murmured low and took off the jacket he was wearing, dropped it on the floor and walked over to him. Mason covered his stomach and startled, he looked up at Noah, who proceeded to grab his hair, made him stand up and threw him on the bed that was on the side of the room bearing a clean sheet.
The mattress dipped as Mason collapsed on it. He tried to get up right away, but Noah was faster. With his strong arms he pushed the back of Mason’s head on the bed and called him.
“Mr. Lusk.”
His low voice sounded very dangerous. Mason swallowed his dried throat, even though he couldn’t move an inch, as Noah’s voice slowly inched closer to his neck. His hot breath touched the back of his neck, and soon he heard his cold voice say–
“Really…. You can’t hold your rut that much?”
“Ray, ugh-,”
Noah’s hand shoved past Mason’s armpit and grabbed the slightly ajar shirt collar. Right away he ripped open the shirt.
The buttons fell out, and the stitch of the clothes got ripped too, and the shirt was torn open in a mess. Noah’s lips were very close, almost touching Mason’s neck as he whispered, “Okay.”
“Let’s see the fucking that you are so good at.”
