꧁༒༻༺༒꧂꧁༒༻༺༒꧂
༺༻ Chapter 2: greed or trickery ༺༻
꧁༒༻༺༒꧂꧁༒༻༺༒꧂
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༺✦ [ police staff hotel location]✦༻
✦ Time: *Midnight*✦
The little restaurant was nothing like the fancy places he'd eaten in Russia, but the smell of spices and fresh bread made his mouth water. Zayne sat on the sofa seat, damned if he was going to sit next to her, and Priya looked at him, some amusement dancing in her eyes.
"You're Korean aren't you?" she asked suddenly.
His muscles tensed, which had been relaxed, locked up.
For years he passed as purely Russian based on his father alone, and he buried his Korean heritage, never allowing it to come to the surface.
He pursed his lips, and remained quiet Ignoring her
"Don't lie. I know Korean features." Priya said.
Zayne sighed defeatedly, "Alright. Half Russian, half Korean. Are you happy?"
Priya smiled, "Annyeong."
He nearly choked on his food, he had a hard time swallowing it, glaring at her, "...Annyeong." His pride stung. "You speak Korean?"
Priya smiled, "A little."
"Hmm." He returned to eating, but he seemed a bit more relaxed. Someone finally looked past his Russian identity.
He watched her smoothly.
Priya suddenly switch to Hindi. "Mr. Mehta, please to bring some dal."
Zayne's respectful look turned icy. "Mr. Mehta?" he said. "Your boyfriend?"
Priya rolled her eyes. "My teammate."
"Hmm." He kept his cold look, yet there was something appealing about the way she innocent-ish ways and her keenness to joke with him.
"Your family?" he said, desperate to preserve any potential friendliness.
She ignored him.
Zayne narrowed his eyes. "Why ignore? Bad family?"
Priya pretended she didn't hear him and called for more soup.
An undesired dog arrived at the entry.
Priya tore her chapati and fed it to dog.
Zayne furrowed his brows. In Russia dogs were chased away. But here looked as friend territory.
"You like dogs?" he said, his voice softer than it had been.
She smiled. "Dogs are my friends."
Zayne snickered to himself. "Friends?" He repeated, testing the word. Finally, he extended a piece of food to the dog.
The dog wagged it tail, licking up the finger.
Zayne paused, now looking at the creature that trusted him so readily.
Priya chuckled. "See? Kalu likes you."
He nodded. "Kalu… That's a good name."
Priya glanced to him. "What's your name?"
"Zayne." He stated.
"Nice name." Priya was sincere.
His stomach turned at her genuine expression. No one had ever uttered his name with such sincerity before.
"Not married?" He blurted, cursing himself instantly.
"Not at all." She stated. "Why do you ask?"
He looked her over and shrugged. "No wedding band. You're too pretty to be single."
Priya froze and turned away, pulling out a gun to clean.
Zayne's fingers itched to touch his hidden gun.
And, then Priya's phone rang.
Her face darkened. "The chief says a Russian mafia entered Delhi."
Zayne's heart accelerated.
"Russian mafia?" he said again slowly.
Priya squinted her eyes. "Why do you care?"
He grimaced the smirk that he mustered. "Just curiosity. The Russians are typically bad news."
She eyed him before giving him a hotel map.
"I have already booked a room for you."
His chest felt a little tight at her kindness.
"In India, the guest is God." She says
He held tight to the key, his fingers wrapping it tighter.
"In Russia, the guest is not God," he said under his breath. "But I like your culture."
She grinned. "Goodnight, Zayne."
And for the first time in years, he felt something other than human greed…
꧁༒༻༺༒꧂ ꧁༒༻༺༒꧂
༶•┈┈┈༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓┈┈┈•༶
༺ To be continued… ༻
꧁༒༻༺༒꧂꧂༒༻༺༒꧂
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