Ch2.7
His shirt was completely soaked with sweat, but it wasn’t as if I could strip him of his clothes and wipe the sweat away for him.
So, I decided to only wipe the sweat that had gathered on his face.
The basin of water and the towel that Mary had brought earlier were sitting on the table.
I stood up quietly, dipped the towel deep into the basin, and soaked it with water.
Then, holding the wet towel, I approached the bed and began to carefully wipe Eden’s face, starting from his forehead.
‘He really is handsome.’
It was absurd to have such thoughts about a sick person.
But nevertheless, Eden’s appearance was so striking that such a thought came to mind first.
Starting from his three-dimensional forehead—neither too wide nor too narrow, with an area that perfectly suited his face—to his purple pupils hidden behind long, long eyelashes that were invisible because his eyes were closed, the bridge of his nose extending straight from between his brows to the tip of his nose, and his
moderately thick and reddish lips that were now firmly closed; yet, unlike his delicate features, his boldly angled jawline made
his appearance look even more attractive.
‘Let’s pull myself together.’
Even though I was distracted by his looks, my hands were doing their job properly.
After cleaning only Eden’s face and the area around his neck below it, I sat back in the chair to watch him—or so I thought, but I eventually fell asleep, unable to overcome my drowsiness.
I must have been very tired from walking around all day.
Even though the posture was quite uncomfortable because I slept with my head buried in the bed while sitting in the chair, I fell into a deep sleep without even having a single dream.
How much time had passed?
As I woke up and my consciousness slowly returned, I immediately thought of Eden and hastily opened my eyes.
When I opened my eyes, Eden was still in my sight.
However, what was different from before I went to sleep was that Eden was somehow looking at me with a gentle gaze.
Furthermore, the strange thing was that I, not he, was lying on the bed.
“Are you awake?”
Our positions had been swapped, and Eden was sitting in the chair I had been sitting in before I fell asleep, and the words flowing from him were also so very tender.
“……Pardon?”
Perhaps because I wasn’t fully awake yet, I reflexively asked Eden back without
realizing it.
“Ah!”
But that was only for a moment; as soon as my senses returned, I let out a shallow scream and raised my upper body from the bed.
Then, because I moved my arm broadly and foolishly, my elbow ended up hitting the wall hard.
“Ugh!”
“Are you alright?”
At Eden’s movement as he stood up hurriedly from the chair, the chair fell backward with a thud.
But Eden didn’t care at all and carefully grasped my problematic arm.
That action was so unfamiliar that I stared at my arm he was holding for a moment before looking back at Eden.
“Ah, yes. I’m fine.”
I replied, barely managing to regain my composure.
However, I couldn’t control the fact that my heart was beating like crazy along with the tension caused by the sudden contact.
“Um, my arm…….”
Thinking it would be better to distance myself from Eden first, I asked him to let go of my arm.
Then, the large hand that had been firmly gripping my arm moved away.
Taking that opportunity, I stuck close to the wall of the bed and looked at Eden with wary eyes.
Perhaps he didn’t like my behavior, as his face looking at me was slightly stiffened.
“When did you wake up?”
Endeavoring to ignore Eden’s persistent gaze, I started with light conversation to become calm.
“……It hasn’t been long.”
“I see. If you were awake, you could have just woken me up instead of going through the trouble of moving me to the bed…….”
Speaking as if there was no need for that, I intentionally drew a line between us.
For a moment, silence filled the room.
As a fear that he might hear the sound of my heart, which was still beating wildly, washed over me, I opened my mouth and chattered without resting.
“You, you must not have been feeling well. To the point of fainting. Are you okay now?”
“I am fine.”
“That’s a relief. You remember what happened, right?”
“Yes. I remember.”
“Then I won’t need to explain how you ended up here.”
“I have committed a discourtesy.”
“No. Since it was a path I had already passed, it would have been a big problem if I hadn’t heard the sound. It’s truly a relief.”
I waved my hand, saying it was nothing.
“But it seems the place where you stay is nearby.”
“No. I was just…… I was just going somewhere for a moment.”
“Yes. I see.”
As I conversed with Eden like that, fortunately, the sound of my heart that had been vibrating through my whole body grew quiet.
So, I spoke up to ask the thing I was truly curious about.
“But…… were you being strangled by the necklace?”
I thought Eden would surely look flustered or uncomfortable when I brought this up, but surprisingly, his expression didn’t waver at all.
Perhaps it was as if he had expected me to ask that.
“Why do you think so?”
Nevertheless, Eden stared at me with a sharp gaze.
“You were continuously clutching your neck in pain. And I remembered what you said when I asked if the necklace was pretty. That it’s pretty but dangerous.”
He certainly said this.
That it was a pretty but dangerous necklace that held his life line.
So, I guessed that the necklace had caused the pain.
“That is correct.”
He admitted it faster than I expected.
“Then why are you wearing that necklace? Can’t you just take it off?”
“If that were possible, I would have done
so.”
Only then did I realize that my question was a very foolish one.
Indeed, where would there be a person who wears something that causes them pain because they like it?
He must be wearing it because he cannot remove it himself.
But he didn’t open his mouth to say anything more about the necklace.
It meant he didn’t want to talk any further.
Since I had that much tact, I didn’t pry into it any more.
And I also kept quiet about what I had felt earlier.
As I saw light gradually entering through the window into the space where silence sat, the day was slowly dawning.
Eden stood up from his seat.
Looking at him at the sudden movement, his expression was quite subtle compared to his light movements.
“I must be going now.”
“Ah, yes.”
“By any chance, to the orphanage— no, it’s nothing.”
I don’t know what he was trying to say, but Eden cut himself off.
“Thank you once again for saving me. I hope you have a pleasant journey until the end.”
Eden hurried toward the door.
“Go safely.”
I nodded my head slightly and saw Eden off at the door.
And I continued to stare at his back until he disappeared, and when he was no longer visible, I came back into the room.
‘We probably won’t see each other again.’
We bumped into each other quite often for it to be a coincidence.
However, when the thought suddenly occurred to me that there would be no more such coincidences in the future, a sense of regret washed over me for some reason.
But thinking that we were strangers to begin with and it wasn’t such a special connection, I was able to shake off the regret easily.
That morning, we left Yulita as scheduled, and as I expected, I couldn’t see him anymore.
And in the blink of an eye, another year passed by.
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