"My father won"t leave you or your sister alone! He"ll use to get to you!"Rika shouted at Bin, who wanted to get away from her only to be followed to the other room. He suddenly turned around to face her and said back:
"As long as he treasures his life, he won"t do anything."
As she listened to him, Rika frowned, unable to understand the meaning behind his words.
"Why do you think so?"
"Mind your own business, will you."
He was about to leave for the second time only for her to grab his arm in an attempt to stop him. Unfortunately, Bin grasped her arm and pulled up the long sleeves while pressing his thumbs on the permanent scars.
"Enough about me! Let"s talk about this instead."
Rika tried to escape his grasp but she wasn"t strong enough to do so. In the end, she just glared at him, her expression complex. Anger and guilt. He looked at her than at the noticeable and well-hidden scars, which even her friends don"t know of.
"The reason your friends left me here is is precisely not to add another line to these scars. Stop worrying about me and take care of your-"
Before he could finish, a loud and crisp sound of a slap echoed inside the room. A red mark appeared on Bin"s face as he unconsciously let go of her hand.
"Worry? Don"t delude yourself! I"m worried about Jasmine. She"s your master and is the one who"ll bear your consequences. Hah! To begin with, I never asked for anyone"s help!"
After angrily saying her piece, she stormed out of the room, leaving a surprised and confused Bin behind. For a long time, he stood there, dazed, and regained his senses after the tingling pain of the slap had disappeared.
…
Not even half an hour after he was slapped, Rika appeared in front of Bin again, however, the previous anger shown on her face had subdued down. She seemed a bit fidgety as she presented a bag of ice for Bin while speaking with a hesitant tone:
"I, I"m sorry for slapping you. I didn"t mean it."
Usually, she"s a calm and reserved person but Bin"s words. .h.i.t her hard so she momentarily lost control of her emotions. Seeing no reaction from the youngster, Rika"s softly put the small bag of ice on his still-red cheek and added: "I just… I"m still in shock. I never thought I"ll escape that prison."
Bin took the bag of ice from her hand and calmly said: "It"s fine. Happens to the best of us."
After a short and a bit awkward silence, Rika opened her mouth again: "Thank you for staying here… and saving me."
"No problem."
***
Though their reconciliation wasn"t perfect, it still eased the tense mood between them and made things less awkward. Bin constantly remained next to Rika, who sat in the living and watched the TV, though her mind seemed elsewhere. At noon, Melissa sent someone to deliver a bunch of food, to which Bin devoured half of it before he felt full. As someone who lived most of his life eating only enough food to not starve, these kinds of delicacies are something he wouldn"t intentionally let pa.s.s. However, it wasn"t the same for Rika, who wasn"t in the mood to eat.
Only after he ushered her several times did she take small bites of rice and some salad. They weren"t close friends so there weren"t really many things to talk about and it"s not like it was Bin"s job to make the quiet girl talk. Furthermore, it"s better for her to spend her free time thinking, especially about her life and yesterday"s events.
While Bin was focused on an interesting action movie playing on the TV, he felt Rika"s gaze focus on him for longer than usual. He turned his head toward her and said:
"What"s wrong?"
Fl.u.s.tered, she shook her head, indicating it was nothing but after several seconds, in which she managed to muster a bit of courage to voice out her thoughts, she asked:
"Are you okay?"
Hearing such a strange question, Bin creased his brows and tilted his head.
"Me? I"m perfectly fine."
"R-really?"
"Yes, really. Why are you asking me?"
"…"
She looked at him meaningfully, remembered the night she spent in his apartment if it can be called so. He seemed very sick, he even injected himself with something. This has been on the back of her mind, plus, it made her wonder if he"s putting this healthy act on purpose not to worry others or if it"s really nothing. Now that she asked him, she couldn"t back down so she spurted:
"That night you… you were sick."
"That night?" Bin was, at first, perplexed, before remembering the day she slept in his home.
"She must"ve seen me! But how much did she see?"
He leaned closer and crossed her arms while asking her: "What did you see?"
Rika didn"t try to hide the truth from him, she avoided his intense gaze and spoke with a very low tone: "You used a s, syringe."
"So she has seen everything."
"And?"
"That"s all."
He closed his eyes for a few moments before opening them again and seriously saying: "Forget about that and I will forget about your scars. As I said that before, don"t worry about me and I will do the same for you. It"s meaningless to involve ourselves in each other"s personal business."
Rika gave him a weird look which he couldn"t comprehend.
"Isn"t a bit late to say that after you saved me twice?" She mumbled to herself, her voice so weak that it was barely audible.
"What?"
"Nothing."