Chapter 20

—Ugh, the sickening smell of a beast. What the hell was this woman doing to have it on her?

Lakis also took in the smell hovering at the tip of his nose and felt suspicious. He thought it might be the smell of livestock at first, but it was a little different from that. That said, it wasn't the smell of alley cats or dogs that were commonly seen on the street either.

If Yuri knew this, she would be surprised at his sharpness which could almost be called a dog's nose.

A while later, Yuri went to the bathroom, took a brief shower, changed her clothes and came out.

"Tell me if you need anything. Don't strain yourself to get up."

She caught Lakis trying to get up from his seat as soon as she came out again, so she told him that. And upon hearing so, Lakis stopped moving and looked up at her.

Soon, he lay down again and scribbled letters across his paper.

[I would like to change my clothes.]

Then Lakis' hand paused, as he hesitated, then it moved again.

[I felt asking you to help with this kind of thing was a little too much.]

After that, Lakis lowered his gaze slightly. His eyelashes draped down, casting a shadow over his eyes and giving off a sense of melancholy.

As she looked at the writing on the paper, Yuri figured this was expected. The wound was quite big, so it was probably inconvenient for Lakis to move around.

"No, I'll help you."

Yuri readily replied. She was being quite hospitable to him unlike before. Actually, this was because she had a secret motive. That strange sensation that was transmitted to her when she held Lakis' hand. She wanted to verify it one more time. So she thought the best chance might be now when Lakis couldn't move around as freely.

Yuri walked up to him while wondering how she could hold his hand in a way that would appear natural.

Lakis slowly sat up on the sofa, assisted by Yuri's hand.

—Hey, I'm pretty sure you can change your clothes by yourself without a problem, let alone getting up on your own?

The bug in his head jabbered on like it could see through him.

Naturally, Lakis ignored it like he didn't hear anything it said. He sat on the sofa and lifted his hand to unbutton his clothes. He frustratingly undid two or so buttons but to take his shirt off, he had to undo the remaining buttons.

And the next moment, Lakis' eyes trembled and he flinched. Because Yuri, who had drawn close to him to help him sit up, stretched out her hand towards him with absolutely no hesitation.

Actually, Lakis was only going to ask her to help him get out of his shirt and change into another, after he personally undid the buttons of his shirt.

But perhaps due to lack of explanation, Yuri, who had drawn close to him at some point, began to undo the buttons of his shirt by herself.

—Whoa, this woman's not bad, eh? She just goes in for it?

A useless interjection rang out in Lakis' head this time.

—But this might be too much stimulation for a virgin…

The bug shook with excitement and only shut up after eating all sorts of curses from Lakis.

Lakis stared at the face in front of him, unable to immediately decide whether he should let Yuri be or stop her.

Her long, seemingly soft, black hair swayed slightly before his eyes. Her slightly lowered thick lashes cast a soft shadow underneath. Pretty, white fingers wriggled across his chest, undoing his buttons one by one as they went down. Looking at face of the woman who seemed so focused on it…

He felt, how should he put it, more and more strange.

~

On the other hand, while Lakis was being torn inside about this situation, Yuri simply didn't think much about the situation. To be more precise, she was only interested in Lakis' hand. But when it came down to it, Yuri didn't need to worry about how to naturally hold Lakis' hand.

Pa!

In the end, Lakis couldn't stand the strange itchiness he felt and grabbed Yuri's hand to stop her when she drew close to the pit of his stomach as she unbuttoned.

"…!"

The moment Lakis' hand touched hers, a tingling sensation flowed down Yuri's spine once again.

Even in Lakis' head, a weird moan 'haaang…' rang out. They didn't share the same senses but in that moment, Lakis also flinched at the soft texture in his hand. After dragging Yuri's hand down, Lakis quickly pulled away. Of course, right after that, he had to swallow down the forced laugh that almost escaped his lips.

What was the big deal about their hands just touching for him to have such a foolish reaction like the bug went off about earlier? His face automatically hardened at the thought.

The next moment, Lakis' voice, which was still slightly rough, scratched Yuri's eardrums.

"The buttons…myself."

The sentence had some omissions to minimize the use of his vocal cords, but it was enough to understand what he meant. And then, Lakis began to undo the rest of his buttons like he said.

Yuri's eyes were automatically glued to the moving hands of the man in front of her. The sensation she felt when she came into contact with Lakis was obviously not an illusion. But even then, she still wanted to check it out one more time…

But unfortunately, Lakis undid all the remaining buttons on his shirt too quickly.

If she touched his hand now, wouldn't it be too obvious?

'Whatever. Let's just do it.'

She didn't have the habit of worry over something for such a long time in the first place, so she moved to take hold of Lakis' hand which was holding the shirt he had just taken off.

But as luck would have it, Lakis moved at that exact moment.

Smack!

As a result, Yuri's hand missed Lakis' hand by a hair's breadth and landed somewhere else.

"…"

"…"

The both of them stiffened at the same time.

Yuri's hand had fallen on Lakis' thigh. The leg muscles under her palm felt very firm and strong. You could already tell from his naked torso, but his body was obviously a product of long training.

But that wasn't what was important right now.

Hopefully, he wasn't misunderstanding her, right? Considering she had climbed onto his body yesterday, and adding on the events of today, didn't it just seem like she brought Lakis into her house because she was aiming(?) for his body?

No, if you were to look at the specifics, she did want to touch his hand so saying she was aiming for his body wasn't completely wrong…

But it was still a misunderstanding.

There was absolutely no way she would fabricate such an impossible-to-consider scheme to target Lakis. But with that said, even if she attributed yesterday's actions to being half-asleep, she had no idea what excuse she could make to justify touching his leg right now.

Should she say there was dust, so she was trying to brush it off? But that was too obvious of an excuse.

Above all, her hand was still very firmly on Lakis' thighs even now to say she was simply trying to brush dust off. If she were to honestly say that she was just casually aiming for his hand but missed her target…

'Ah-hah, is that so? I guess I also missed my target slightly and cut off your neck?' Didn't it feel like something like that would happen?

"Ah…my head suddenly…"

In the end, Yuri chose to fake illness.

Well, the good news was that only a short amount of time had passed in reality while she was having so many thoughts go through her mind.

She held her forehead, pretending to stagger but quietly and naturally took her hand away from Lakis' thigh. Perhaps her acting was better than she thought, because Lakis held her as she unexpectedly tilted to the side.

"I'm sorry. I think it's because my fatigue's built up lately, so I suddenly felt dizzy…"

She also hinted at the fact that the reason her current physical condition was so poor was because of Lakis. Who knew whether it was effective or not but Lakis' hand, which was holding Yuri's arm, momentarily flinched. Then his lips parted slightly.

"…Is it because of me?"

Her acting seemed to have gotten through.

But was it just her imagination? Somehow, it felt like the air around them had changed slightly from before.

Their gazes were deeply intertwined. The blue eyes facing her seemed like an endless abyss.

'What is this…? Why do I suddenly feel such an instinctive sense of danger?'

For reasons unknown, warning alarms were ringing in her head. Yuri responded to Lakis after a brief lapse.

"It's okay. Once I rest, I'll soon…"

But she couldn't finish her sentence.

Because the outstretched hand of the man in front of her touched her face.

Huaa!

At that very moment, the same sensation she felt moments ago flowed into her body once again. His hand lightly touched her forehead, trying to check for fever at first then it slid past her eyes and down to her cheek.

The feeling of a man's sturdy palm with long, beautiful fingers skimming over her skin was as vivid as ever. Above all, the moment she came into contact with him, she felt dizzy from the feeling of satisfaction that began to pour into her heart, filling it up.

Yuri unconsciously leaned in, wanting to be closer to Lakis' hand. This time again, he paused, hesitating for a bit then tried to take his hand away from Yuri. And once again, like yesterday, she was flooded with dejection and sorrow.

Why? Why are you trying to leave again? We've only just met, you don't have to go so fast.

Yuri caught his hand before it could completely part from her. And she buried her face deeper in that warm, large palm and rubbed her cheek against it as if whining for it not to go.

Lakis held his breath.

The face half-buried in his palm was soft and small. It also felt incredibly weak and fragile, like it would immediately shatter into shapeless pieces if he were to exert a little more strength. So he couldn't easily move his hand.

A certain desire was stirred inside of him, fanning an impulse within. His painfully-cold blue eyes began to sink into the dark, giving off a somewhat obscure feeling.