Chapter 31

Manuel, who had been humoring Jenna until now, replied in an exhausted tone.

“Oh come on, Jenna. Let’s not make baseless smears against each other for everyone’s sake.”

It seemed everyone was well aware of what Declan had pulled yesterday.

Naturally, if a friend returned with blood streaming down his forehead, everyone would have asked why. With both a witness and a victim around, Declan must have begrudgingly confessed to the fact that he had tried to force himself upon the woman.

Still, she had expected Declan to be holed up in his quarters, not vanished entirely. Where on earth could he have gone? Could he have collapsed somewhere from a cerebral hemorrhage because his head was struck with a stone?

Feeling a sudden jolt of alertness, she sat up. Every muscle in her body, having been put through the wringer the day before, screamed out in protest, but she forced herself to endure it.

However, the lingering soreness between her thighs was far deeper than expected, drawing an involuntary gasp from her lips.

“Ugh…”

She had taken that massive thing all the way to her absolute depths, so aftereffects were only to be expected. When she tensed her lower half, it burned and stung as if chafed raw by something rough.

Yet her heart felt strangely light. There was no regret to be found.

What was the reason for this? She had completely lost herself, falling head over heels for Hayden as if there were no tomorrow…

Only after pondering for a long time did she realize it was because of the story he had shared. The mating of horses. The woman who made him forget the trauma of horse mating. Isu recalled his voice, which had seemed to harbor a bizarre craving.

“Yet you make me feel something different from the dirty mating of those horses. Jet-black, thick curly hair, black eyes, dimples, and clear, pristine pink skin shine so vividly that they devour all my stray thoughts.”

Perhaps he had just been sweet-talking her so he could sleep with her. Yet Hayden had been infinitely more polite and gentle—beyond comparison to Declan, who had tried to force himself on her blindly. He hadn’t forced her; he had made her move of her own free will. The feeling was qualitatively different from certain men who treated women and animals merely as tools for sexual gratification.

That was why she wanted to know more about him. Springing to her feet, Isu pushed open the door of the quarters.

“Jenna, I don’t know why you’re suspecting Hayden, but Hayden was busy with me all night long—well, busy soothing me.”

Speaking calmly, she stepped outside the quarters. The gazes of the people eating under the tent instantly converged on Isu.

Hayden was sitting on a box by the door like a guard, watching Isu.

Isu greeted him with her eyes, picked up the water bottle beside the door, and rinsed out her mouth with seawater. At that moment, Hayden added from behind her.

“Yeah, I soothed her very earnestly.”

The moment she heard the word “earnestly,” yesterday’s events flashed right before her eyes. Hayden, swaying his hips with fluid grace between a woman’s thighs. The more she pictured his lower half, the more her cheeks burned beyond her control.

Aside from the two of them, no one else realized there was a double meaning to the word “earnestly.” That was true for Manuel as well.

“Isu! Are you feeling alright? Are you really completely unhurt?”

Manuel looked at Isu with concern. Rinsing her mouth with the salty water one last time, Isu replied,

“Yeah, I slept soundly, so I’m much better.”

Manuel spotted the red mark on the back of Isu’s neck. A hickey. Believing Declan was the one who had left it, his molars clenched instantly.

“Did he leave a hickey on your neck, too? Declan, that crazy bastard, just you wait until he gets back.”

Isu stroked the nape of the neck that Manuel had been glaring at. If there were lip marks left on her neck, they belonged to Hayden, not Declan.

Meaninglessly shaking the water bottle, Isu cautiously gauged Manuel’s reaction.

At that moment, Hayden, sitting on the box by the door, noticed Isu’s bare feet and asked quietly,

“Did you come rushing out in your bare feet just so you could speak up on my behalf?”

Only after hearing those words did she realize the grass under her bare feet felt damp. Since his words were spot on, she couldn’t even deny it. Isu mumbled a vague excuse.

“I’ve gotten used to going barefoot since a certain point. And partly because I rushed out, worried you might be hit with false accusations…”

Flaunting his tall, striking stature, Hayden stood up, casting a shadow over Isu’s pristine face.

“I am deeply honored.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, he brought the water bottle—the very one she had just put to her lips—to his own mouth and rinsed out his insides. Finding the water far too salty, the sight of him wiping the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and narrowing his brow looked so much like a work of art it left her breathless.

Meeting her dazed, dark eyes, Hayden flashed his dimples.

“I’ve packed your meal inside the house.”

Just as she was about to say thank you, he abruptly crouched down and swept his arms around the back of her thighs, lifting her straight up.

“Ngh…”

“You need to go inside before bugs bite your feet.”

Before she could even reply, he hoisted Isu’s belly over his shoulder, washed her feet off with water, and carried her inside. Dangling from his neck and scrambling, Isu spoke the moment her hips touched the floor.

“You know very well I’m not a little kid. There’s no need for you to carry me around like this.”

A languid smile played across the corners of Hayden’s lips.

“Right, I know.”

“……”

“Especially last night, when I almost went crazy.”

Teasing her with a sigh as if he’d been truly troubled by it, he chuckled. Though playing along with him felt good in its own way, there was a point she wanted to clear up.

“If people find out that you sleep with and treat a woman like a child, they might think it’s weird. They could misunderstand and think you’re a pedophile.”

Proving his point, he used a shirt to wipe Isu’s feet as he answered,

“How kind of you to worry about my image. But the thing is, I don’t really care about other people’s gazes.”

“Even so…”

“If you hate me carrying you around in my arms, don’t get dirt on your feet.”

Unable to tolerate his pent-up germaphobe tendencies any longer, he narrowed his brow at the muddy water staining the shirt. Isu decided this was her chance to take a shower, wash her clothes, and hang them out to dry.

“I want to take a shower. Can you come with me?”

As always, he readily agreed.

Arriving at the cave shower room with him, Isu finished her shower relatively quickly.

She dedicated the remaining time to laundry. Washing her upper and lower undergarments, his suit trousers, and his shirt completely drained her of energy.

To make matters worse, wearing her clothes without any underwear underneath felt sticky and uncomfortable, but she took comfort in the bright, sunny weather. It was the absolute best weather for drying laundry. Once she hung everything up in a suitable spot and took a nap, she’d be able to slip back into underwear dried crisp by the sunlight.

On the way back to the quarters with him.

Unlike the morning, Hayden was unusually taciturn. Glancing cautiously at him, Isu noticed his bruised knee and suddenly realized why.

“Your knee…”

A fresh wound had been layered right over the scab that had been there just yesterday. Imagining the stinging pain made her own knees ache in sympathy, but he simply asked back as if it were nothing.

“My knee?”

“Somehow, the wound on your knee looks deeper than it did yesterday. When did you get hurt again? It’ll be a huge problem if it gets infected.”

Asking him, a sudden wave of panic washed over her. In this remote wilderness where even a single aspirin was non-existent, even a minor illness could prove fatal… Stroking her lips anxiously, she continued.

“I need to head out to the beach. A first-aid kit or something might have washed ashore.”

For some reason, he replied as lazily as if he were wandering through a dream.

“I’m just a little tired. I’ve already had preventative shots like for tetanus, so I’ll be fine after taking a nap and waking up.”

Even as she heard his unwavering reply, she couldn’t stop worrying. Are you sure you got the shot? You’re not just lying to reassure me, right? Just as she was about to ask in a panic far greater than the person actually concerned, he narrowed the gap between their arms and said,

“Let’s take a nap together and then go somewhere with a nice view.”

“Somewhere with a nice view?”

“A cliff where rainbows appear often. I saw it in the guidebook Nate picked up.”

Because they were walking close together, his pinky finger brushed softly against Isu’s wrist.

The spot that actually felt ticklish was deep inside her chest. The breeze was cool, but her body grew hot, causing her to exhale a warm breath.

“A cliff where rainbows appear often…”

He replied in a low voice, “It must be pretty.”

Isu nodded.

Though she didn’t have any memories of marveling at a rainbow in awe, she figured it would definitely be beautiful. A rainbow you could only see when the sun was shining on one side of the sky and rain was falling on the other. If she saw that rainbow, she’d probably be as happy as if she had run into an unexpected, welcome friend.

“There’s no such thing as an ugly rainbow in this world.”

Without much interest in the rainbow, Hayden replied, “No, not the rainbow—you.”

He smiled, as if to say what he wanted was you, admiring the rainbow. An innocent, pure white smile. As she stared quietly at that smile, for some reason, a corner of her heart throbbed with a dull ache.

“Since you weren’t answering your phone, I thought you might be meeting some new man. Just how much did you miss me to come all this way without even calling.”

“……”

“Making my heart race.”

She didn’t know why auditory hallucinations she had heard a few days ago were repeating inside her ears.

One thing was certain: if he felt happy watching a woman admire a rainbow, she wanted to feel happy seeing that sight herself. Nodding slightly, Isu replied,

“I really hope one appears. A rainbow…”

Gazing up at the clear sky, she walked all the way back to the house. Isu stayed by Hayden’s side until he fell asleep before stepping outside.

Because the breeze was cool, she was able to put on her fully dried underwear. Her trousers and shirt weren’t dry yet, but they still looked like they’d finish drying within the day.

Standing in the yard, Isu breathed in the clean air and stretched. Unlike her, who was reveling in the comfort, Hayden—whose condition was unusually poor today—was likely tossing and turning at this very moment, his forehead damp with cold sweat.

Something was clearly wrong with his knee. Because of that, she wanted to gift him plenty of rest and a nutritious meal. For instance, roe deer meat, or perhaps a fish dish…

She couldn’t bring herself to kill a roe deer, so she decided to catch some fish and make fish soup. Besides, the salt made by evaporating seawater to use as cooking ingredients was almost ready, anyway.

The only problem was how to catch fish without any proper gear, since they were hard to catch even with fishing tools.

Wasn’t there some good tool she could use? As she rummaged through the construction supplies in the front yard of the quarters, Manuel approached and asked,

“Isu, what are you doing?”

Crouching down, Isu glanced back over her shoulder and answered, “I want to catch some fish, but I don’t know what to use.”

Manuel looked around as if searching for Hayden, then asked, “Where’s Hayden?”

“He’s taking a nap.”

She didn’t feel the need to broadcast the fact that Hayden’s condition was bad. After all, Declan might catch wind of it and come over to pick a needless fight.

Isu simply asked about Declan’s whereabouts instead. “Has Declan come back?”