Chapter 46

“I think it’d be better to head to the hospital room.”

Finding it hot, he took off his jacket and draped it over his arm. Inside the chest pocket of the vest, which was tailored to fit his broad upper body, were black, red, and green ballpoint pens.

Normally, wouldn’t people use a blue ballpoint pen instead of a green one?

The moment she thought that, for some reason, a bouquet of pale pink roses flashed before her eyes. Feeling a distant sensation, as if looking into a dream she had dreamed long ago, Isu stood in front of the elevator and asked.

“Did you come from the airport?”

“No, I took a helicopter and landed on the roof.”

She scanned Hayden’s attire, dressed up like the heir to a prestigious family. He really looked like a different person. An awkward smile hovered around her lips.

“You look like a different person.”

Revealing a dimple on one cheek, he asked back.

“Should I walk around in just my underwear like on the island?”

Isu laughed out loud at his joke.

“That would be a disaster.”

The elevator arrived on the first floor. As Isu stepped in first, he followed her inside and pressed the eighth floor.

The door slid shut. Hearing the whirring mechanical sound, Isu broke the silence.

“I didn’t expect I’d be able to meet you this early. I thought you were still in London.”

Hayden looked down at Isu with his deeply shaded face.

“I told Ms. Grace not to notify you until I arrived, in case you’d be nervous waiting.”

When they were living on the island, she had thought of him as an extremely instinctive person. Perhaps clothes made the man, because dressed in neat garments, he looked as striking as an intellectual gentleman.

Isu said softly.

“Thank you. For treating me specially, for rushing over in one stride from London, and for nursing me.”

He slowly swept her face with his blue eyes. Soon, with a gaze so persistently hot it felt burning, he took in her eyes, nose, and lips, and replied in a low voice.

“I should be thanking you.”

“……”

“For waking up.”

At that moment, his voice, as if she had heard it somewhere before, echoed in her ears.

“Eila, I’m so scared right now. Please wake up.”

It felt as though he had said that while she was unconscious, or perhaps she had heard it somewhere else. Her head wasn’t functioning normally. Shaking her head, she stepped out of the elevator upon arriving at the eighth floor and asked.

“How were we rescued?”

Guiding her toward the hospital room, he replied.

“There were survivors on another island, too. On the day the rescue team found those people, we set a fire in the forest to make our presence known.”

Nodding upon hearing his answer, Isu cautiously opened her mouth.

“Actually, I had all sorts of worries. That island—it’s Graham’s island, right?”

“That’s right. But nothing happened during the fortnight.”

“Then how on earth was I able to get out? No, more than that, you… I thought you were wandering around the forest… I was worried you might have gotten hurt worse than me.”

Stopping in front of the hospital room and opening the door, he replied.

“Right after setting the fire in the forest, I went to the building where I first found you. I figured that once we were rescued, the people involved would show up and destroy the materials.”

Stepping into the hospital room, Isu widened her eyes.

“There were materials?”

“Unfortunately, no. I tried to at least find the CCTV memory chip we looked at together back then, but it was impossible.”

Hearing his answer, she let her shoulders droop heavily.

“The fact that I’m in this hospital… does Graham know?”

She asked nonchalantly, but in truth, just uttering the name Graham made her breathless. Graham felt larger than the close-by Hayden, and it felt as though Graham was closer than her own shadow.

“What on earth was my relationship with Graham? I don’t know the details, but it feels like I committed a grave sin against that man, or found out a secret I shouldn’t have known. Otherwise, there’s no reason for that man to have ruined my memories.”

There was no way of knowing by what method Graham had erased a woman’s memories, or with what intention he had trapped the woman on that island.

Since he would have killed her long ago if he wanted her dead, she could only surmise that he had kept her alive to inflict suffering worse than death.

If someone else were to step in and ruin that plan, how cruelly would Graham react?

Her face, once full of nothing but questions, was soon swallowed by fear. Seeing that face, Hayden stopped unravelling his tie, stood in front of her, and pulled her back to reality.

“It’s a meaningless worry.”

“……”

“Because Graham can’t hurt you.”

With a gaze more persistent and vicious than anyone else’s, he told her that the only thing she needed to care about was the man right in front of her eyes.

Eyes colorful enough to draw everyone’s attention. She hoped these eyes would reach an Asian woman whose life was threatened for all eternity, but that would probably just be greed.

There was no predicting when Graham might show up. Trembling her lips, Isu was afraid he might even ruin an innocent Hayden.

“Graham is a terrifying human being, enough to mess up a person’s mind. You aren’t safe, either. You could fall into trouble because of me.”

However, finishing the task of loosening his tie with languid movements, taking off his vest, and hanging them neatly on a coat rack, he replied.

“Graham is just a weak and unstable human being. I’ve received his promise not to torment you anymore.”

“……”

“He said to be happy.”

Hearing those words, Isu froze like an ice doll.

“What…?”

Hayden unbuttoned the very top button of his shirt, cupped her head in his hand, and squeezed it lightly as he asked.

“I’m saying you won’t be running into Graham anymore, so why are you freezing up like this, huh?”

Having heard something she never expected, it was only natural for her to be shocked. She wouldn’t be running into Graham anymore…? She simply couldn’t believe those words.

“Hayden… Did you… meet Graham?”

Even if Hayden and Graham were upper-class folks from the same region, to do it this fast…? The moment she asked, turning pale as she thought of Graham like a demon in the dark, Hayden replied.

“I met him.”

Isu wiped the cold sweat off her hands onto her hospital gown and sat on the edge of the bed.

Her head was in chaos. There was no way to tell if he was just saying that to comfort a woman in poor health, or if he had genuinely met Graham.

“Did you really meet Graham?”

Growing anxious, she tightly gripped the innocent blanket. Then, Hayden replied as he stepped closer.

“Yeah, I met him.”

The face of him looking back at her was as peaceful as if announcing the end of misfortune. It really seemed like he had gotten a promise from Graham that the man would never show up again, but subconsciously feeling Graham’s coldness and cruelty, she couldn’t bring herself to feel relieved.

“You shouldn’t believe the words of a madman. It might just be a trick to make you lower your guard.”

“……”

“How on earth did you end up meeting Graham, anyway?”

A gaze that looked with pity upon the trembling woman swept across her face. However, what was contained in those eyes wasn’t mere pity. A fervor whose depth couldn’t be measured—no, emotions much older and stickier than that. Without any will to hide those eyes, he gently caressed her cheek and replied.

“An opportunity came up.”

His touch, which had at first felt detached enough to pull away at any second, immediately harbored carnal desire. It was because he had recalled the memory of the day he embraced her soft skin with his entire body.

“So soft. I’m glad I wiped you down without missing a single day.”

Only upon hearing his low whisper did Isu realize she was in a world different from him. Soon, placing her hand on the back of his hand that cupped her cheek, she asked.

“Graham, what does he—what does he look like? Does he look a lot like you? Would I recognize him if we crossed paths on the street? Where did you meet him? And… why did he do those things to me?”

Hayden’s watery blue pupils shone darkly against the backlight.

“He said he did it because he loved you.”

“……”

“He said he loved you.”

Love…? Love? Me? Are we talking about the same person right now?

She asked him with her eyes over and over again. Even though he read that gaze, he leaned his upper body forward without the slightest intention of answering.

The surroundings grew dark. A soap fragrance that penetrated deep around her neck. The moment she savored the sweet scent, his lips claimed the nape of her neck.

“Ngh…”

Bitten on the neck by the intense heat, she slumped backward against the mattress as if collapsing. Her feet, which had been touching the floor, floated up into the air as he moved between her legs and overwhelmed her body with his upper torso.

“Let’s stop talking about that trash. You won’t be seeing him anymore.”

His ash-brown hair tilted forward and became disheveled. The pupils revealed through the strands of hair leisurely swept across her entire body.

Isu breathed in a flustered rhythm. Her head was full of questions about Graham, but seeing his muscular body squeezed tightly into a white shirt kept catching her eye, scrambling her thoughts.

“Hayden, what Graham said… you shouldn’t just believe those words at face value.”

Even as she warned him, she was looking at the collarbone exposed between his shirt gaps. Noticing that, as if craving attention, he unbuttoned one more shirt button, pressed his lips to her wrist, and said.

“I got on the elevator, and some woman started talking to me.”

“Was that woman also someone sent by Graham?”

“No, she told me to grab a cup of coffee if I had time, and then shoved her hand right into my crotch and felt me up. If I had followed that woman, I’d probably be getting harassed right about now.”

“……”

“With an attractive lover like this made for you, do you have time to worry about Graham?”

Graham, elevator, woman, crotch, ugh, ugh-ugh. With disparate pieces of information packed into a single head, she had no idea what to deal with first. Shaking her head, Isu looked at the corners of his eyes, which looked even more profound due to his thick eyelashes, and asked.

“Did a real, actual stranger feel you up? Then you should get the evidence and go to the police…”

His lips as he answered wore a languid smile.

“No matter how much she groped, my down there wouldn’t get hard, so she got red ears and got off.”

If another man had said the same thing, she wouldn’t have believed it. But this man, from whose appearance exuded an aura of germaphobia, really seemed like he would be extremely picky not just about objects, but about people too. If so, a body clad in a hospital gown would appeal to him even less…

The moment she thought that, he unbuttoned her hospital gown, slowly licked her shoulder, and asked in a low voice.

“By the way, do you know what happened to the place that didn’t budge at all for another woman’s touch?”

He pulled her wrist and brought it to his lower body.

Fumbling at the flat front fly, Isu flushed red in the ears. She could feel a hot, thick root caught against the underwear’s securing band, stretching toward his groin.

“Ha-Hayden…”

Rubbing his cheek against her breasts, which couldn’t even wear underwear, he said.

“It’s a sight to behold.”