(Jane"s PoV)"Jane!"
My eyes snapped open at the voice who was calling my name. Two worried faces came into my vision. I blinked my eyes at them.
"Are you okay?" Tom asked.
It was a bit strange for me to see them both so close up from below. I almost couldn"t hear what he was asking me about.
"Jane?" Sanji called me again, returning my senses quickly.
"Ah, yes?"
"Are you okay?" He repeated Tom"s question.
"Yes, of course, I"m okay." I pushed myself up to sitting position, successfully made them move a bit away from me.
"Um, where am I?" I looked at the familiar but not so familiar scenery in front of my tent.
There was a bonfire nearby. I could also hear the sound of stream of water. There was also smell of wet woods and rotten leaves. It seemed like I was still in the forest, near the river.
"We"re still in the forest, near the river bank." Sanji answered. "Do you want to eat something? We have just finished cooking something."
It was a wake-up call for my hungry stomach. After being unconscious, no, asleep for hours and at the mention of food, it immediately made a grumbling sound. It was so loud that I couldn"t help but blush in shame. Never mind. I should not overly concern about my image in front of these two.
"Come on." Tom helped me up while Sanji made way for me to get out from the tent.
They brought me near the bonfire. The heat from the fire travelled to my skin and warmed it slightly. I sat on a mat spread on the ground. In a second, Tom had handed me a bowl of hot noodles and Sanji draped my shoulders with my blanket.
To be honest, it felt good being served like a princess by the two of them. However, at the same time, I felt guilty. They had treated me so well and I could only pick one of them at the end? Couldn"t I just have them both? I was being greedy, I know, but I couldn"t help it.
When boys started to treat you good and admitted that they had feelings for you, you couldn"t help it but want them all, right?
Okay, let"s just forget about it for now.
"Be careful, it"s still hot." Tom reminded me when I stirred my food slowly.
I could only nod while looking at the fire absent-mindedly. I didn"t realize when they both had sat down on my right and left and started to put some food in my bowl. When I snapped back to my senses, my originally half-full bowl became full with some crackers, soft-boiled egg, and some shredded chicken meat.
"How can I finish this?" I exclaimed in surprise.
Sanji and Tom laughed seeing my expression. "You"re so deep in your own world that you didn"t realize it when we put some other things in your food. " Tom mischievously said between his laugh.
"I planned to add some pepper into it, actually, but you return too quickly." Sanji chuckled.
I glared at the both of them. I didn"t know they had this mischievous side in them. I found it harder to believe that the both of them would work together to prank me.
"Next time, don"t wander your mind everywhere, especially during eating. You will never know what we put inside your food. It will be edible, yes, but maybe you won"t like it." Tom stirred his food and took a big slurp of it.
"Focus during eating, or enjoy your eating is one of the way to show your grat.i.tude for the food." Sanji added and he, too, took a big slurp of his noodle.
I was speechless when I heard them lecturing me about eating manner. "Fine." I grumbled under my breath and started to really enjoy the food.
The warm soup entered my mouth to my stomach, creating a happy contented feeling in me. The nightmare that was haunting me for some time was shoved behind my mind. As expected, nothing could beat good food. If I could have some ice cream after this, it would be perfect.
Ah, suddenly I had a craving for ice cream.
"I want to eat ice cream." I mumbled to myself.
"It"s pretty late already if we turn back to buy you ice cream. I"ll buy you as much as you want after we finish our business here." Tom said.
I was a bit startled when I heard him responded to my mumble. I wanted to ask him how he could hear that, but considering the almost non-existent distance between us, I swallowed the question back in.
Both Sanji and Tom were practically sticking themselves on my sides.
I chuckled before I went back to eat my food. It wouldn"t take long before my bowl was empty and I sighed in bliss.
That was satisfying.
Since I had just eaten, I couldn"t go back to sleep right away. Therefore, I chose to sit still on the mat, holding a cup of warm water in my hand, while looking at the night sky.
It was a bit cloudy. There were no stars in the sky and the moon sometimes would disappear behind a thick cloud. Would it rain?
Hm, wait? I had just realized that it was pretty late, but why didn"t I see any ghost around?
"I ordered some of the men to guard the perimeter. Ghost or anything can"t enter without our permission." It was as if Tom knew what I was thinking about.
Well, seeing ghost was one of the things people would experience during camping or hiking. Even though I saw them practically every day, I still wanted to see what kind of ghost this place had.
Not shadow. I had had enough of shadow for now. What I wanted to see was ghost.
I remembered one of my friends told me a story of when she was joining a scholars.h.i.+p program and they were having an outdoor meeting in a forest, too. She said they were called one by one, only to see a red Kuntilanak sitting at the top of the biggest tree in the forest. She said, it was the most terrifying experience she had ever had since the Kuntilanak caught her staring at her, so the both of them was practically staring at each other.
I remembered I s.h.i.+vered when I heard her story. I thought that it must be horrifying. Never had I imagined I would experience it myself and even fainted. Thankfully the one I saw was not red Kuntilanak, but just a common Kuntilanak.
Now that I thought about it, I wanted to see a red Kuntilanak. Was there any in this forest?
As soon as I thought about it, I saw something flying across the river.