Chapter 16

“Why are you smiling?”

Hayden slowly rose to his feet.

“Because you made that face like you’re afraid I’ll say yes. It’s pretty obvious you’re getting ready to run.”

In that brief instant, his read on her had been perfectly accurate.

Avoiding his mysterious, sea-colored eyes, Lee Soo spoke.

“I don’t even know my own name or how old I am. I don’t even know what kind of danger I’m in. I have too much to worry about to peacefully spend time alone with a man.”

Maybe Graham had erased her memories as punishment for some terrible crime she’d committed.

And maybe that still wouldn’t satisfy him. Maybe he would come after her—and even her friends—in the future.

Her worry showed plainly on her face.

“If you get involved with me, you might end up in danger too, Hayden.”

A lukewarm breeze drifted in from the sea.

As sand began blowing through the air, Hayden lifted the front of his shirt to shield her face.

“Then I’ll raise my fee. Relax—I don’t mean you’ll have to pay with your body.”

Avoiding both the blowing sand and Hayden himself, Lee Soo hurried up the slope.

“Coming from someone who carries five condoms around, I don’t think I can believe that.”

Hayden smiled slowly, as if amused that she still remembered.

Then he crouched at her feet, slipped off one of her slippers, and shook the sand out.

“Condoms are essential for a single guy. If you wear one, nothing splatters onto your face when you’re doing it alone.”

He removed the other slipper and emptied the sand from it as well.

Unlike Hayden, who remained perfectly composed, Lee Soo couldn’t hide her expression at all.

The image of him from last night—comforting his grown body with his own hand while letting out low moans—kept flashing through her mind.

“A-alone… by yourself…”

His blue eyes lifted clearly to meet hers.

“You’re looking at me like I’m some filthy beast.”

Lee Soo fumbled for a reply but couldn’t find one.

Then his next question squeezed the breath from her lungs.

“And who was it that pretended to be asleep while getting me all worked up?”

He knew.

He knew she’d seen everything last night.

The blood in her body seemed to dry up in an instant.

Still, she forced herself to meet his eyes as he casually stood.

“I didn’t do anything like that.”

A dark smile crossed his face, as though he could see straight through every indecent thought she was trying to hide.

“Then I guess what I saw was just you talking in your sleep.”

Her soul felt like it had left her body screaming before crashing back into place.

“W-what exactly…”

What had he seen?

Had he heard the faint, breathy sound she’d accidentally let out while tossing in her sleep?

Her words became short and clipped from nervousness and shock.

“What did you see?”

He brushed the sand from his chest, then stopped and looked over her face.

The eyes that had been calm all day darkened.

They were like an ocean whose depths couldn’t be measured.

Just as she felt herself growing afraid—as though falling into them meant never escaping—

“I saw it very clearly.”

“…”

“The way you looked at me with those half-open eyes.”

“…”

“I think you’re at your prettiest when you’re looking at me.”

Lee Soo slowly replayed the events of the previous night.

Right after Jenna had woken him.

The blue gaze Hayden had turned toward her as though he’d been waiting.

Their eyes had only met for a brief moment.

She couldn’t believe that such a fleeting glance had been enough to physically arouse him.

He’s strange.

So strange… then why am I attracted to him?

She felt like she should stop before things went any further.

Yet she couldn’t stop looking his way.

“You’re… strange.”

Repeating that thought to herself over and over, Lee Soo returned to the shelter.

The exhaustion from her sleepless night caught up with her.

She only meant to close her eyes for a little while, but she slept soundly until evening.

Hayden spent the entire time sitting beside her.

He stayed there for nearly five hours without showing the slightest hint of boredom.

Maybe, just as Lee Soo thought, he really was a strange man.

At first she slept so deeply she looked almost dead.

But before long she began tossing and turning in her sleep.

This was the seventh time.

Hayden pulled her clothes back into place where they had started slipping aside and muttered quietly,

“Why do you keep tossing around?”

His eyes carefully studied her sleeping face, checking whether she was having a nightmare.

A moment later, he placed a hand against her forehead.

Finding no fever, he took hold of her wrist instead.

Her skin felt cold.

He removed his shirt and draped it over her.

As if she liked the warmth lingering in the fabric, Lee Soo instinctively curled into a fetal position and snuggled deeper beneath it.

Outside, voices grew louder.

The football players had returned and were preparing to build a campfire.

Every so often, Manuel came inside to collect firewood from the fireplace.

Seeing signs that Lee Soo might wake up, Hayden stepped outside and looked through the supply sack.

No one had touched the remaining food.

It was an unspoken rule that kept the peace.

His hand casually found a packet of corn soup.

It only needed hot water and a few seconds before it turned into soup.

There was probably nothing better for warming someone whose body temperature had dropped.

After setting the soup on the table, Hayden searched through the sack again and pulled out a camera lens.

He intended to use it to focus sunlight and start a fire, but with today’s overcast weather, that wasn’t going to work.

Nearby, Manuel was obsessively rubbing stones together, determined to make fire.

Standing beside him with a piece of chewing gum foil in hand, Declan clicked his tongue.

“Your muscles are gonna burst.”

“N-ngh! I… I can do it!”

“You think she’s going to notice just because you started a fire? That’s not enough to win over a girl. What is this, the Stone Age?”

Declan never actually said who “she” was.

But he glanced at Hayden for a reaction.

Watching them without much interest, Hayden walked over holding a remote control.

Manuel immediately looked at him with suspicion.

Hayden, on the other hand, calmly took a seat.

“I’ll help. Hand me the foil.”

He looked over the pile of firewood the football players had gathered.

There was nearly a whole box of thoroughly dried wood.

But they were still missing the one thing they actually needed.

Hayden nodded toward the roof of the shelter.

“Bring some straw from the roof. Make sure it’s completely dry.”

Then Hayden removed the batteries from the remote.

Feeling a sudden sense of urgency, Manuel rubbed the stones together even faster.

“Ugh! Hah!”

Dehart came back carrying an armful of dry straw from the roof and stuffed it between the firewood.

Hayden cut the strip of foil Declan had handed him into a thin piece and pressed it against the battery terminals.

To everyone’s surprise, white smoke rose from the center of the foil before it suddenly burst into flame.

The waiting Declan immediately transferred the flame to the straw. Manuel threw down the rocks he’d been rubbing together and collapsed onto the ground with a groan.

“Haah… I really should’ve gone camping more.”

As the campfire steadily grew, Dehart and Jan got carried away, singing and dancing around it.

The lively commotion woke Lee Soo, who stepped outside the shelter.

Nate sat down in front of the fire and looked around. His eyes widened when he spotted a red flower blooming beneath a massive pine tree.

“Huh? Doesn’t that look like…?”

Declan tossed another handful of straw into the fire.

“Like what?”

“You remember when I traveled to Russia a year ago?”

“Yeah.”

“On the last day, everyone at the guesthouse got all worked up and ended up having an orgy. One of the women gave me a red flower, saying it was an aphrodisiac. It looked just like this one. After she ate it, she really did start acting like a bitch in heat.”

Declan immediately perked up.

“Did you try it too?”

Nate shook his head.

“No. I was worried about failing a doping test.”

Declan clicked his tongue.

“What an idiot. You missed out on one hell of an experience.”

After studying the flower for a moment, he returned his attention to tending the fire.

Lee Soo looked toward the flower they had been talking about.

Then her gaze drifted to a yellow wildflower growing beside it.

Thanks to the warm weather, it bloomed as brightly as the sun.

Yet, strangely, the longer she looked at it, the more uneasy she felt.

In the end, she forced herself to look away.

Around eight in the evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon, they gathered around the campfire.

Even Jenna, who hadn’t been seen all day, joined them.

The crackling of burning wood was oddly comforting.

Lee Soo, who had been feeling chilled, held her hands toward the fire for warmth.

Declan folded his arms.

“It’s a little hot, but the atmosphere’s nice.”

Manuel glanced at Lee Soo before replying regretfully.

“It would’ve been perfect if we had barbecue too.”

The only thing they had was corn soup Hayden had divided into empty cans.

Though, Lee Soo seemed to be the only one genuinely tempted by it.

Dehart looked at the crate Declan was sitting on.

“Should we grill the snake?”

Declan scratched between his brows with one finger.

“Nah. I think we’ll find another use for it.”

The soup began to simmer.

Using two thick branches as makeshift tongs, Hayden carefully moved one of the cans over in front of Lee Soo.

Jenna watched the scene with obvious displeasure.

When their eyes met, Hayden asked indifferently,

“Want one too?”

Jenna pouted and shook her head.

“No. I’m good.”

Silence settled over them for a moment.

Watching the flames dance, Manuel spoke first.

“I want a beer.”

Declan wanted something entirely different.

“I want a shower with clean water… and then I want to have sex with a woman.”

Since they’d all been on the same football team for years, they’d probably talked about women and sex countless times.

Apparently, they still hadn’t gotten tired of the topic.

Brushing drifting ashes aside with one hand, Declan continued,

“Even better if it’s after getting completely drunk on French white wine, then wrecking the whole room while having sex. I did that once before. Swear to God, it felt like I’d gone to heaven.”

Jan scratched his chin.

“With your first love, Sally?”

“Yeah. That bitch.”

“The best sex I ever had was with our youth team coach.”

“Mrs. Bright?”

“That’s right. Mrs. Bright was my first love.”

Nate, who had quietly listened until now, unexpectedly showed a more sentimental side.

“Forget sex… I just want to see my first love again. We met in the science lab when we were in seventh grade. She was really beautiful. She looked like a princess straight out of a movie.”

Declan blinked in surprise.

“You still don’t keep in touch?”

“We do… but she’s married now. We broke up when I signed with the team and moved to England. I promised I’d become successful and come back for her… but I kept warming the bench instead of playing, so I had to let her go.”

No one knew how to comfort Nate.

A heavy silence settled over the group once more.