Don't you know? Don't you know? That it's wrong to take what is given you

Upon making their declarations to one another about their intentions of seduction, and awkward beat hung in the air between Vivian and Nick. Nick, quite frankly, didn’t know how to continue the conversation after that point.

Vivian had a few ideas, even though she was treading in unfamiliar waters.

Making the guy fall in love with me? That was quite a bold declaration I just made! Sure I’ve got the looks of a cover girl and I’ve modeled for magazines, but Nick ain’t the sort to be drawn in by a lady’s beauty, sadly. Especially given the company he keeps. And it’s not like I’m the sort to just push him down either, getting all physical isn’t my style.

But that didn’t mean she was out of cards to play. A sly smile crept up her lips and she leaned forward, looking closely into Nick’s eyes.

“I think I changed my mind,” she murmured. “No private plane rides for you. Not yet, anyway. I’ve got something special planned, now!”

“O-oh, really?” Nick put on a confident face and stood his ground. “Something special, huh? Like what?” He asked. Whatever Vivian was planning, it would be big. He could tell just by the look in her eyes. The rich girl wasn’t the sort of person to do things in half-measures.

“Well, that’s the thing,” Vivian said, leaning back and resting her elbows on the railing of the veranda. “If I ask permission, it won’t be a surprise, now will it?”

She clicked her tongue and shook her head. “And that would be so tragic…”

Nick remained undaunted. “So you’re gonna play like that, huh? Well… I’m fine with surprises. Go on, I’d love to see what you’ve got planned to win me over.”

A strange spark of competition flared between the two of them. While dealing with the women in his harem had never been easy, especially recently, this was the first time Nick really found himself in a competition over who could get the other to fall first. Not even Dawn had conflicts like this, not that he could remember, anyway.

The rules, though unspoken, were clear to both of them. Vivian wanted to capture Nick’s heart while keeping her own nice and guarded. And Nick, in turn, wanted to reach out to Vivian and get to know the real her so he could fall in love with her genuinely.

In other words, Nick was the one who needed to be on the attack. He needed to break down Vivian’s walls. But it was delicate work.

It’s like navigating a labyrinth, he thought as he studied the inscrutable smile painted across Vivian’s glowing face. I mean yeah, I can just smash through the walls and get out, but that won’t help me. If I’m careless, I’ll just hurt her. I need to make a connection to her without causing any heartache or pain to either of us.

And that was easier said than done.

“You sure?” Vivian narrowed her eyes, trying to judge Nick’s answer. She still wasn’t fully convinced. It was what made her a tricky opponent in this game. Nick’s win condition was getting through to her. And to do that, he had to be careful. But since Vivian knew he was trying to get her to fall in love with him, she had several methods of attack she could undertake without subverting her own goals.

Nick wants to feel that way about me. I just have to help him get there. She reached up and brushed her fingers against his cheek.

“Close your eyes,” she whispered to him, leaning in close. Nick considered for a moment the possibility that she was going to kiss him, but dismissed it. That would be too predictable of a move for the current situation.

So he closed his eyes, and let Vivian do whatever it was she planned to do to him. He could feel reality shifting around him, and wondered what surprises he would arrive at.

“Open!” Vivian sang. She had slipped behind him during the shifting of Dream Alley, and now her lips were right up against his ear. While she wasn’t touching him at all, he could feel the almost ghostly presence of her body looming behind his, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

Whatever attempt at seduction she was making, she was really putting her whole heart into it.

Nick opened his eyes, and did a double-take.

He was standing in front of a gigantic manta ray.

…Well, not a real one. But a massive sculpture loomed overhead, forming the upper arch of a large stone tunnel, the entrance of which was decorated with seaweed, coral, and other sea life. It took a minute to register just what he was looking at, but when he put the pieces together and saw all the people filing into and out of the tunnel, he realized it must have been an amusement park of some sort that Vivian had brought him to.

“Welcome to the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, in Hengqin, China,” Vivian introduced him, stepping forward and presenting herself in front of the entrance with a dazzling smile. “I thought this would be the perfect place to get our date started!”

“You took me… to China?” Nick asked in surprise.

“I took you to the largest aquarium in the world,” Vivian informed him. “…At the moment, anyway. There’s an even larger theme park opening in Abu Dhabi back on earth, but due to the distortion of the timeline thanks to Harem Hotel, we can’t exactly travel to that one. At the same time, there are plans for a second theme part here in Hengqin called the Chimelong Spaceship plans to open in September as well. But right now, this is as good as it’s going to get!”

She took a step forward, holding her hands behind her back and leaning in coquettishly. “I thought it might be fun to spend the day here,” she said sweetly. “On our last date, you gave me all the time in the world to spend with my horses. So I thought it would only be fair if today we got to spend a little more time with the animals you love.”

Nick couldn’t believe it. Vivian was really pulling out all the stops with this one. Although he couldn’t remember ever discussing the topic with her, she must have found out about his love of marine life. And so the first volley in their game of seduction was taking him to the biggest water park she could find, all for his sake.

It was a touching gesture, and Nick would be lying if he said he didn’t appreciate it. But…

“Vivian, you didn’t have to do this for me,” he said, shaking his head. “Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate this, but-”

“Don’t say that.” Vivian reached out and took his hands into hers. “I wanted to come here. It’s my way of saying thank you for being open to learning about something I cherish, Nick. I’ve never done this whole relationship thing before, but that’s how it works, right? People who care about each other, they do things for one another.”

Yeah, that was true. But after everything Nick had learned about relationships from the ones he was in, this gesture…

“Are you really interested in learning more about sea life?” He asked seriously, tightening his grip on Vivian’s hands. “…Or are you just pretending for my sake?”

It hurt to ask that. It hurt that every time Vivian did something nice for him, he had to question whether or not there was an ulterior motive behind it. No relationship should involve that much doubt and suspicion, and Nick could tell by her expression that the question had stung.

But her lack of a response stung just as hard.

“…Why does it matter?” Vivian asked quietly, unable to bring herself to lie. “Can’t it just be the case that I want to do something because I know you’ll like it?”

“If that was all it was, then I’d be happy,” Nick said gently. “But it’s not. I appreciate that you want me to have a good time, but I’m a little more selfish than that. I want us both to have a good time today, Vivian. And if this is only going to be fun for me, I don’t want to go inside.”

Vivian gave Nick a look loaded with frustration. “Rejecting a woman’s kindness is a cruel thing to do, you know,” she said snippily, narrowing her eyes.

Nick couldn’t give much more of a response than an apologetic smile. “Vivian, how would you have felt on our last date, if I had agreed to go horseback riding to make you happy but I obviously wasn’t having a good time? If you could tell that I was just forcing myself to go through the motions because I knew it was important to you?”

Vivian winced. She lowered her hands to the sides and looked down. “…Yeah, you’re right,” she admitted, picturing that scene for herself. “I can have fun with horses without even thinking about it, but if you weren’t enjoying yourself… I think I would have been crushed.”

“That’s an essential compromise when it comes to finding out if we’re compatible or not,” Nick said, turning and looking at the entrance to the ocean park. It really was grand and impressive, and he had to give Vivian props for coming up with this one. “We don’t need to share the same interests, and we shouldn’t push ourselves to do something just to make the other person happy. Finding something we both like would be great, but… the important thing is bringing happiness to each other even without having any hobbies or interests in common.”

Nick felt like he had a better grasp of the two sides to Vivian Carrington after she brought him here. One Vivian was a free-spirited girl who always did whatever she wanted, the kind of person who naturally drew people in and opened them up to new ideas and new possibilities without even trying. That was the Vivian who had taken him horseback riding.

But this Vivian was the other side. The part of her **** to please people, to an almost manic degree. The Vivian who was trying to get him to fall in love with her by any means necessary, even if it meant putting up with something that she didn’t like.

That side of her rarely arose. Most of the time, she was incapable of being bound by those feelings. So for her to be like this right now…

“…Let’s go inside,” Nick decided, surprising the heiress.

“Huh? You… are you serious?” Vivian looked at him incredulously. “But all that stuff you just said…?”

“Forget about it,” Nick said, shaking his head. He held out his hand to her. “I think I owe you an apology for overthinking things.”

Even if Vivian wasn’t smiling right now, he could picture her vivacious smile as clear as day.

I almost made a huge mistake. There might be two Vivians, and one of them is the one who would do anything to get people to like her. But the Vivian I’ve gotten to know isn’t so weak to let that side of her trample all over her other self.

“You’re going to give it an honest try, right?” Nick asked her as he turned to look at the entrance to the giant ocean park.

“Of… of course I am!” Vivian said adamantly. “Just because I don’t care about this kind of thing, that doesn’t mean I’d waste my time if I wasn’t willing to learn!”

That’s right, that’s what I nearly forgot. Vivian is the kind of woman who sleeps through class, who escapes from her room with a tied bedsheet. She’s not the sort of person who puts up with things she doesn’t like, even for someone else. If she brought me here, it’s because this is something she’s willing to embrace.

Vivian was a complicated woman. But right now, she had a simple goal that even Nick could see through, and that was to make Nick fall in love with her.

She isn’t a doormat.

“I’ve never cared much about sea life,” Vivian admitted as they walked through the giant manta ray arch and into the long entrance tunnel. “But you gave my horses a chance, so I’m going to give this place a chance in return.”

She tightened her grip on Nick’s hand, turned, and jammed her finger into his chest. “But you should have known! I’m not the kind of girl who does things I don’t want to do!”

“Yeah, I already apologized for that… but again, I’m sorry,” Nick said. He had a sinking feeling he’d be apologizing for quite some time over this little blunder.

“You should be!” She continued to gripe, even while wearing a big smile on her face. “The amount of things I won’t do is incredibly short! Like book reports, wearing clashing clothes, my taxes, all that stuff.”

“Wait, huh?” Nick snapped his head around. “What was that?”

“Clashing clothes? You have no idea,” Vivian scoffed, rolling her eyes. “So many people don’t understand the basic tenets of fashion! They have this idea of what looks good in their minds, but when they actually assemble the outfit together, it’s all blegh!”

She stuck out her tongue and made a face that coaxed a laugh out of Nick.

“I’m glad you’re you, Vivian,” he said, shaking his head.

“Uh… what am I supposed to say to that?” Vivian gave him a weird look and snorted. “You expect me to be somebody else…?”

Nick shook his head. “I was worried because things were so weird after that conversation earlier. I thought… well, you heard what I thought. That you were forcing yourself to do something you didn’t want to. But you’re right, I really should have known better. You’re more open-minded than that.”

“That’s right, I am,” Vivian giggled, leaning in a little closer and pressing into Nick’s side. “Just because I’m going all-out in winning you over, that doesn’t mean I’m about to compromise my own ideals, Nick. That’s the entire point!”

Vivian was determined to give Nick the best time she could, to make him fall head over heels for her. And the best way to do that? Being herself.

It had carried her this far in life, after all.

“And I’ve got exceptional taste as well,” she continued, pointing up at the large mural of jellyfish painted on the tunnel ceiling. “Trust me, if you love fish and marine wildlife, this place is the place to go!”

“Really?” Nick was happy to hear that. “…I really am an idiot. If you’ve already been here before, of course that would mean you liked it enough to enjoy yourself. You know, since you’re coming back and everything.”

“Hmm?” Vivian looked at him, and a perplexed expression crossed her face. “But I’ve never been here before. I told you, remember? Stuff like aquariums and ocean exhibits, those were never really my thing.”

Fair enough, Nick couldn’t exactly picture Vivian as the kind of woman who would go walking around a water park like this. …Well, frankly, he could, because Vivian would try just about anything once. But it didn’t surprise him to learn that she’d never been here before.

But it raised a valid question.

“…So how are we here, then?” He asked.

“What do you mean? Because I wanted to take you here, silly,” Vivian laughed.

Nick shook his head. “No, I mean, that’s not how Dream Alley works. It’s not magic.”

“Isn’t it, though? I mean-”

“Okay, well, yes, it’s magic,” Nick hastily corrected himself, his face heating up. “You know what I mean! It’s like… Dream Alley pulls stuff from your memory, or your imagination, it doesn’t just transport you to somewhere you’ve never been before.”

Vivian looked around. Now that he mentioned it, this place did seem a little more simplistic than she’d expected.

“Well… I mainly came up with the idea based on pictures I remembered from the internet,” Vivian clarified. “I heard about this place because I was looking for investment opportunities, and the Chimelong Company seemed like a good place to park some of my money. They primarily work in tourism industries, you know, like hotels and restaurants and amusement parks. So when I found out they were doing work on a series of aquariums on Hengqin Island, I thought it would be smart to do some research into their resorts, to expand my portfolio. Since they’re opening another park in September.”

Vivian’s explanation made a lot of sense.

Except…

“…So you’ve never been here yourself.”

“Nope.”

Nick’s sigh broke the awkward silence. “Then… I don’t think Dream Alley is going to work. You can’t just pull attractions out of thin air unless you’ve already seen them. You’d just be making stuff up.”

Vivian blinked. “…So that’s how it works? Huh… I guess I just assumed, since it captured so many details about my family’s estate perfectly.”

“Well yeah, because you know that place so well,” Nick pointed out.

The heiress cackled. “I guess you’re right. So then that means… this whole trip was completely pointless! I have no idea what’s even past the entrance!”

Vivian was completely unfazed by the utter failure of her actions. She doubled over with laughter, leaning against the side of the tunnel for support.

“Well, so much for that brilliant plan! I guess that’s what I get, for not being prepared, huh?” She murmured in amusement.

Nick winced. He kept up his smile so she wouldn’t be bothered, and a part of him was relieved that Vivian was taking things so well.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “I appreciate the effort, though.”

Vivian straightened up and shook her head. “I think you’ve apologized enough for today,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “This was my mix-up! But it’s fine. When we get back to earth, I’ll take you to the real one. How about that? And not just this place. Like I said, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi is opening soon, we can go there. And Chimelong Spaceship in September, too…”

She stepped forward with her hands clasped behind her back, and gazed up at the beautiful mural. “There are so many places I could show you, Nick. …If you wanted to, I mean.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Nick said gently. “I told you, I don’t need all the fancy stuff. I had the most fun with you when we were just spending time together without putting on airs.”

“Oh, I know,” Vivian said. She nodded, and turned back to face him with a wistful look in her eyes. “Still… I don’t know. I just feel like… with you, all that stuff, it would be a lot of fun, don’t you think? Even more than if I just went by myself.”

For a moment, Nick saw the depth of Vivian’s heart reflected in those eyes of hers. It was wide and warm and welcoming, but at the same time it stretched open like a yawning void.

“I think so, too,” he agreed, approaching her. “I think that would be a lot of fun.”

The kind of thing he wanted to share with her, if she were willing. Maybe… maybe he was finally getting a peek at the real Vivian behind the mask.