Lucent hesitated over what he should say.
Since losing his father at seven and taking charge of the family, life had been a continuous series of hardships.
Even though he had lived fiercely without ever looking elsewhere, life had flowed opposite to his father’s words.
‘The fact that I am the son of the gangster Marcus can never be erased.’
He was a father he loved, yet he was also an obstacle that tripped him up at every turn, making it very difficult to overcome.
Even so, he had never once resented him.
Because to him, he had been a father more perfect than anyone.
He had buried that truth in his heart and endured until now.
Of course, he had not known that Aeplin would discover his harsh past in this way.
Though being born lowly was not his fault, he had always trembled with shame and suffered from an inferiority complex.
Yet Aeplin had opened his emotional waste bin.
Because he had not been prepared, he should rightly have been angry and rejected her, but instead he was glad.
It was as if someone had appeared to empty a completely full waste bin.
‘Have I gained someone I can be comfortable with?’
A person to whom he wanted to show everything, even his weak and wretched self.
Until now, he had never had such a being.
Because he had always been seized by the compulsion that he had to be strong, and had to pretend to be composed to avoid being disregarded.
Now it seemed he could show Aeplin his bare face.
Perhaps even this was nothing more than an illusion created by memories latent in his inner self, not reality.
But Aeplin poured down on his frozen heart like spring rain, over and over.
Even if this wondrous experience were entirely an illusion, the good feeling that it was because of her had not changed.
‘Should I ask if she saw everything?’
He wanted to say something to her, but no sound came from his mouth.
Was it a trick of the gods?
Though Aeplin desperately waited before his eyes for an answer, in the end he could not say a single word.
Soon Aeplin’s form began to blur gradually.
He wanted to shout for her not to leave him behind, but not one thing about his own body went as he wished.
He had to call her……!
Strong anxiety lacerated Lucent painfully.
He had endured a harsh life alone, and now, if Aeplin left him, what would become of him?
He was as precarious as a sandcastle about to crumble.
Soon, driven to desperation, Lucent called her name with all his strength.
“Aeplin!”
In that moment, Lucent flung his eyes open, and strong sunlight stung his vision.
Soon the human form that had been wavering without focus slowly came into clarity.
“Are you awake?”
Aeplin’s voice, swaying in the sea breeze.
Aeplin, wearing the flowered swimming cap, was looking at Lucent with swollen eyes.
‘Did she cry a lot.’
The storm that had seemed as if it would carve the island apart had passed, and there was the sound of waves breaking thinly and seagulls crying in the distance.
He wore a bewildered expression and tried to grasp the current situation.
He had swum to the island with Aeplin, picked and eaten wild apples together, then grown dazed and lost consciousness.
After wandering in a terribly painful dream, he called her name and woke—and there was Aeplin before him.
So it had been a dream after all.
There was no other way to explain it.
But an even more astonishing thing remained.
“Thank goodness. Lucent.”
Aeplin called him pitifully and embraced him.
“……?!”
When Aeplin embraced him, Lucent was as moved as if they were lovers meeting after a long parting.
Until just before coming to the villa, even meeting eyes and touching a single finger had been awkward, yet now she was as familiar and dear as someone he had known for a long time.
The fierce beating of his heart reached him more strongly than the storm that had swallowed the island.
The unfamiliar and difficult feeling vanished without a trace, and a strong longing, a sense of relief, and a joy that wrapped around that feeling shook him dizzily.
Still, one thing he remembered clearly.
He had had a wondrous experience, whether a dream or an auditory hallucination, and he had met her there as well.
The emotions of that time were so vivid that it felt unfair to dismiss it as merely a dream.
It was not only that.
When he finally returned to reality, far from fading, the afterglow of emotion swelled like a giant snowball until it was beyond control.
“I was worried you might not wake up.”
“Is that so…….”
Aeplin was always a gentle and courteous woman.
So there was no need for such concern to be greatly surprising, yet to Lucent it was a strong stimulus.
Aeplin felt as though she had briefly visited another world.
She did not know how startled she had been to see Lucent collapsed when she barely came to her senses.
She had always thought of him as a strong man, but the Lucent she had seen in the dream was no different from herself.
He was merely a human being who felt pain as the weak before the world’s absurdity and was frustrated countless times.
Her gaze turned toward the fruit tree in question standing some distance away.
‘Was it trying to tell me?’
To call it divine arrangement was too grand.
How should she put it—it was a wondrous experience difficult to explain scientifically.
Wondrous things happen often in the world.
Lucent was relieved at Aeplin’s safe appearance.
‘Thank goodness. That Aeplin was not hurt.’
Then he was suddenly greatly surprised at himself for so desperately worrying about someone.
The woman named Aeplin felt as natural to him as if she had always been a part of his body.
A fleeting doubt passed through him, but Lucent did not hold onto it for long.
Perhaps it was a temporary emotion felt in a situation where they were stranded on an island and had no choice but to rely on each other.
By the time the sunset dyed the sky red, the voices of people murmuring came from far off.
“Leon has come to rescue us.”
* * *
When they returned to the villa after being rescued from the island, the first person to come running out was Laurel.
She wept for a while upon seeing Aeplin safe, but soon she was relieved and regained her usual cheerfulness.
The servants moved busily for the returned master and mistress, but Lucent and Aeplin maintained a composed attitude.
Only, they held each other’s hands and did not let go.
They savored the warmth and intimacy pooled at their fingertips.
But it was strange……. The villa looked different.
Perhaps because they had overcome a death crisis on the island, it felt especially welcoming and cozy.
Then Lucent turned to Aeplin and spoke in a tender tone.
“Do not be anxious any longer. We are safe.”
“I know.”
That the moment he woke, she had already been relieved.
After entering the villa, the two briefly parted to be attended to by the servants.
They washed away the salt and sand they had been buried in, and soothed their hungry stomachs with warm soup.
When Lucent finished his meal, the servant naturally guided him to his bedroom.
“No, not here.”
Lucent stopped his steps and changed direction.
Meanwhile, Aeplin remained silent even as she bathed, ate, and put on her nightclothes.
“My lady, are you not feeling well?”
Laurel asked Aeplin with a puzzled face.
“You returned safely, after all.”
Aeplin nodded without a word.
In truth, the painful image of Lucent she had seen in the dream kept circling in her mind.
No, it weighed on her.
A businessman with neither blood nor tears.
A vicious man who quantified anything—objects or people alike—and considered anything that did not turn a profit useless.
Aeplin, too, had no choice but to hold strong prejudice against him.
But he had endured the storm that struck the island again and again as he grew to adulthood, while she was nothing more than a flower raised in a greenhouse.
‘I, too, was looking at Lucent through colored lenses.’
Just then, with a knock, the bedroom door opened.
The moment Aeplin reflexively lifted her head, unexpectedly, Lucent was standing at the door.
“You came?”
Startled, Aeplin pushed aside Laurel, who was brushing her hair, and rose from her seat.
He walked toward Aeplin with a gentle smile.
‘What is this, why are they suddenly like this?’
Laurel smiled awkwardly and backed out of the room.
Until not long ago, they had been awkward and cautious when they met, but now the two felt as though they had suddenly grown intimate.
It was a tender atmosphere, like people who had dated for years before marrying.
‘Was it very hard on the island?’
But who cared?
It was far better than a couple growing distant.
