Groping in the dark, Yilu, still drowsy, crawled toward Lyr. She felt that it was a warmer spot.
Like everyone else, while asleep, the body instinctively moves toward a relatively warmer place, seeking a sense of security.
Lyr’s neck was slightly stiff from sleeping in a bad position. He held his body rigid and looked down as Yilu’s head slowly moved toward his cheek, finally stopping by his neck.
Her light breathing brushed against his neck like a feather tickling him.
“What should I do about this? No matter how you look at it, this is really bad.”
Lyr was pinned beneath her. He groped with his arm for a while before finally gripping Yilu’s shoulders, trying to prevent her from getting any closer.
‘Lyr himself couldn’t tell whether this was rewarding him or punishing him.’
As consciousness slowly returned, the familiar scent that Yilu liked kept coming to her, making her smile unconsciously.
When she groggily opened her eyes, Yilu’s vision was filled with Lyr’s neck.
She looked up and met Lyr’s eyes.
Lyr smiled awkwardly. “Good morning?”
Yilu was stunned for a long moment, then finally remembered something and noticed the tight position she and Lyr were in.
In a panic, she immediately tried to struggle free.
But the moment she put force into her body, the wound on her foot and her overall weakness made her collapse again, falling face-first toward Lyr.
Fortunately, Lyr’s hands caught her, but it still left them face to face.
Their breaths mingled on each other’s faces, dispelling the overnight chill from their cheeks.
Being so close, Yilu’s eyes widened, seeing only Lyr’s face.
A faint blush appeared on her cheeks, unconsciously spreading to her ears.
This was different from the last time; she had never been this intimate with a boy before.
Lyr exerted a little force to help her sit up, then got up himself.
He looked at Yilu, who was strangely dazed, and said, “You seem to be in pretty good shape today.”
They say that sleep after extreme exhaustion is usually the most comfortable.
All the body’s functions go into deep rest and quickly recover to their best state the next day. Right now, Yilu seemed to be exactly that.
Yilu didn’t answer. Her eyes were vacant but fixed on Lyr.
The chaos from last night made her now-calm mind unconsciously start organizing what had happened.
Distorted, eerie images, and Lyr’s appearance—she seemed to have slept in his arms all night. No wonder she kept smelling that scent.
At some point, Yilu looked down at her own hands, unable to believe she had done that.
“What’s wrong? Is there somewhere else that hurts?”
Before she could snap out of her thoughts, Lyr reached out, brushed aside the messy hair on her forehead, and pressed his palm against her forehead to check her temperature.
“It’s normal, too.”
That confused him. She looked fine, hadn’t caught a cold from last night, so why was she so spaced out?
If Yilu had been her usual fierce self, Lyr would have thought that was normal. Now she was so quiet—it really didn’t seem like the usual Yilu.
Yilu lowered her hand and looked at Lyr’s neck.
Lyr couldn’t see it himself, but she could clearly see two distinct handprint marks there.
Yilu hesitated before speaking. “I’m… I’m sor…”
Lyr saw her movement clearly but didn’t want her to finish. He withdrew his hand and patted her head. “It’s okay. As long as you’re fine.”
‘Sorry? I should be the one saying sorry.’
‘Her being like that was most likely related to me.’
‘I’m safe and sound now, but Yilu went through that ordeal. I should be the one saying that.’
Realizing this, Yilu instinctively touched the spot where Lyr had just patted her. Her heart felt strange.
Last night, he had comforted her like that.
She had always thought that only crying, whiny people needed comfort. She handled everything herself, didn’t need help, and certainly didn’t need this kind of gesture. But now she didn’t feel any disgust. In fact, after his hand left, she felt oddly disappointed.
Lyr stood up. After a night of tossing and turning, his body was stiff, moving like an old man.
After a simple stretch, Lyr reached out to Yilu. “Can you stand up?”
After a pause, Yilu replied, “Yeah.”
This time, without any hesitation, Yilu took his hand and let him pull her up.
Even though she was now compliant, her body still resisted her actions.
As soon as she stood, the wound on her foot from the glass shards caused Yilu sharp pain, and she staggered a few steps.
Just as she was about to fall, Lyr’s arm pulled her toward him, and she ended up in his embrace.
Yilu’s cheek pressed against Lyr’s chest. The familiar feeling made her unconsciously recall how she had leaned against him last night. The burning sensation that had faded from her ears returned.
She froze, not bound by anything, yet she didn’t dare move.
Lyr didn’t notice her expression. He looked down at her foot, which was uncertain on the ground due to the wound. “I thought you’d changed, but you’re still the same as always.”
Without giving Yilu a chance to react, Lyr wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her up.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Yilu was startled, her legs flailing up and down.
“If you walk like this, the wound might get infected, and you’ll be stuck in bed for a long time.”
“Then don’t do this!”
Her pale face made the blush on Yilu’s cheeks even more vivid. This time even Lyr saw it clearly.
“This is too…”
Embarrassing. So embarrassing.
Yilu couldn’t find the right word to describe it.
She had only heard about this way of carrying someone when the other girls gossiped. Back then, she thought it was too deliberate and would never happen in real life. Now that it was happening to her, she truly understood how embarrassing it was.
“Then what do you want me to do?” Lyr looked at the shards all over the floor. He didn’t think Yilu could walk out like this.
“I don’t want this anyway. What if someone sees…”
If someone really saw her like this, a lot of people would probably laugh at her.
That never-give-up Miss Yilu, one day acting like a delicate little girl.
But a thread of thought made this feeling contradictory, as if another voice was telling her not to say those words of refusal.