‘Ah, I’m thirsty.’
Yurina, who had fallen asleep after taking the medicine, was now unable to open her eyes due to the burning pain in her throat.
“Betsy, I water…”
Then she remembered that she escorted Betsy out of the room before going to bed. There would be no one in the room besides Betsy.
She tried to get up to take water, but collapsed back onto the bed. Even after taking the medicine, her cold got worse, and if she moved only a little, all the muscles in her body ached.
‘I’ll just go back to sleep.’
Betsy had left the water bottle on the side table right next to her, but she seemed to have a hard time picking it up.
After thinking for a bit, Yurina raised her hand and fumbled to the side. Every time she took a breath, it seemed to her that her throat was about to burst into pieces, and she felt that she couldn’t survive without water.
And then, when Yurina closed her eyes tightly and tried to stand up:
“Are you thirsty? Would you like some water?”
A low soft voice was heard from the side.
It was Reynard’s voice.
‘Why is he here?’
Raynard was shaking every time she coughed and moaned as if it was he who sick, so Yurina had to kick him out of the room. It was obvious that he hadn’t been around before going to bed, and she didn’t know when he came at all.
But her throat hurt and she wasn’t in the mood to talk about this and that. As Yurina nodded, Raynard gently lifted her up and brought a glass of water to her mouth.
“Let’s take one more pill and go to sleep. You couldn’t take your evening medicine because you were sleeping.”
Raynard gave her some round pills and brought her a glass of water again. Yurina frowned as she felt a terrible bitterness on her tongue, and then quickly swallowed the medicine with water.
Raynard immediately shoved something into her mouth. It was sweet caramel. Yurina didn’t bite, but kneaded it with her tongue and swallowed it. The bitter taste left on the tip of the tongue was gone, leaving a sweet caramel taste in the mouth.
‘It seems like I’ve become a child.’
But it wasn’t bad either.
Yurina lay down on the bed again and looked around. On the table was a basin of water and a wet towel, probably to wipe off the cold sweat, and Reynard’s shirt sleeves were rolled up to the elbow.
“Ray.”
“Yes, do you want more?”
“No. But why are you here?”
“Of course, because I’m worried about you.” He replied in a tone as to why she was asking such a question.
He then placed his palm on Yurina’s forehead. His hands, with which he must have scooped cold water again and again, were now like ice.
However, the sudden cold was more of a relief than a discomfort.
“You still have a fever.”
“Your hands are cold.”
“I know. Even with that, you’ve got a fever.”
“Nothing to worry about. Today I will feel better after a good night’s sleep.”
“I hope so.”
This time, the back of Raynard’s hand touched Yurina’s cheek.
“It’s so cold. Good.”
Yurina involuntarily muttered, and Raynard chuckled.
“Is it Good? I’ll give you more.”
He wiped his cold water-soaked hands with a towel and then grabbed Yurina’s cheeks again. His cold hand slid up the back of his head and went to his collarbone. Anything to cool the fever.
He probably didn’t have any other sneaky thoughts besides cooling off Yurina, but the position of his hands wasn’t very good.
Yurina crossed her arms, covered the area around her chest, and expressed her displeasure.
“What the hell are you doing here at this hour? Betsy and the others aren’t even here. What are you doing here while I sleep?”
Her voice was playful, but also half sincere. Of course, she knew that he wasn’t going to do anything, but how was it necessary to worry about her to sneak in the middle of the night?
Raynard looked at Yurina’s hand covering her chest and touched her cheek again. When he was just an innocent child, he would have gone mad with shame for something like that. Now he wasn’t at all worried and accepted it calmly.
“I don’t do anything like that with sleeping people. I didn’t know if you were awake.”
Yurina narrowed her eyes even more.
“If I didn’t sleep, what would you do?”
“Well, how about this?”
He leaned down and kissed Yurina on the lips. His breath on his lips was warmer than her cheeks, burning with heat.
He parted his lips for a moment, studied Yurina’s expression, and kissed her longer this time.
His lips lightly pressed against Yurina’s bottom lip, then released, his tongue touching her dry lips and moistening them. However, the heat left her mind blank and her brain seemed to be melting.
Yurina took a deep heavy breath and pushed his shoulders.
Raynard pulled away for a moment, but then he pressed his forehead against Yurina’s. Their noses touched as if they were kissing, and their lips remained in a position where they could collide at any moment.
Every time he exhaled slowly, hot breath continued to tickle Yurina’s lips.
“Smells like caramel.”
“You gave me caramel for this?”
“Of course not. But it smells very good.”
“Don’t I always smell good?”
“Right. It’s very good because it’s you.”
Raynard pressed his nose against Yurina’s cheek and took a deep breath.
“I have a cold.”
Yurina pushed his shoulder again, but he didn’t back down.
“Don’t move. How weak do you think I’m to catch a cold like that?”
“What if you get infected?”
He gently caressed Yurina’s cheek and whispered:
“I would prefer it. Aiden said that if you give someone else a cold, you will feel better. So Aiden said that when his younger siblings caught a cold, he purposely went over to them and kissed and slept with them.”
It was an absurd story.
Neither Reynard nor Yurina were old enough to believe such nonsense, and neither was the character to believe such a thing in the first place.
However, Raynard’s eyes were sincere now. And instead of believing in it, there was a desire to believe in this nonsense. So instead of laughing, Yurina asked him not to talk nonsense.
“And did it have any effect?”
“Aiden said yes. When Aiden caught a cold, the younger siblings miraculously got better, but the younger siblings said that when Aiden caught a cold, he would catch it and didn’t even come nearby.”
“What such a touching concern they have there.”
When Yurina smiled lightly, Reynard, who had laughed along, pressed his lips again.
“If I can do it like Aiden, I want to be sick instead of you.”