A few more hours eventually passed and the sun rose from behind the thick trees, shining its bright light on them.
"Mmm..." Sophie moaned slightly as she parted her eyes open. The bright light made her frown before she quickly blinked. "Talon..." Feeling the car still moving, she murmured the first thought that came to her mind.
"Oh, you're finally awake. Good morning, sleepy head." Talon said as he looked at her through the rear-view mirror.
"Good morning, *Yawn*... What time is it?"
"5:52 AM... It's still early if you want to sleep more. It should be another 20 minutes before we can reach the city." He said.
"No, I've had enough sleep. I'm sorry for dozing off when you had to drive through the entire night." She apologized with a bitter tone.
"It's fine, you were tired."
"What about you? You should sleep." Peeking at him from the side, she inspected his face with her eyes.
"I can go a few days without sleep no problem."
"That doesn't mean that you should do that." Sophie pouted angrily.
"Don't worry about him, we were awake the entire night together. He is fine." Hyun-Jae interjected coldly.
"What?!" Sophie's eyes widened as she turned to Hyun-Jae. "You two... were awake... alone?"
"Yes. It was a pleasant and quiet night, I must say."
"..." Seeing the subtle smirk on Hyun-Jae's face, Sophie's face changed for a second as she slowly pulled away. "Hmm, is that so?"
Hyun-Jae gave her a disdainful side look the entire time as if she was loathing her. That enraged Sophie even more. But, with her acting abilities, she was able to hide that somehow from Talon.
'She's trying to challenge me... Dammit, I let my guard down and she took that opportunity to have all the time in the world with him... Alone... Ugh! Fuck! I don't like that at all!!' Clenching her fists to quench her anger, she tried to change the topic.
"Did those things follow us here, I wonder."
"We didn't get attacked throughout the entire night. I made sure to talk to every vehicle and they are all good."
'Still, Acryphad told me that Shadow Crawlers live in groups... Yet, that one attacked us on its own. That is odd.' He thought to himself.
"Mmmm..." At that moment, Acrypha moaned slightly as she opened her eyes. "That was a good meditation session."
'Speaking of Acrypha.'
The beautiful woman had been silent the entire night as she meditated on Talon's lap. After a few hours of her being this close to him, he was able to somehow handle this intimate situation better and he could even put it to the back of his head at some point.
"Good morning~" Looking back at him, she said.
Since they were in a completely uncharted area, he made sure that they only moved one kilometer away from the camp at most. They also had to stay in contact with each other at all times.
After that, he assigned the strongest students to each group to be the leaders. That way, he could be rest assured that no one would be in danger.
"You're going to search the area north. I think I saw a supermarket there or a small shop, I don't know for certain. Is everything clear?"
"Yes, sir!"
With that, the last group left the camp quickly.
"Hey, Talon..." At that moment, Hyun-Jae spoke to him quietly.
"What?" Noticing the weird expression on her face, Talon asked.
"It's about... Our previous... conversation." She said with a subtle hesitance.
"Oh, right. I was going to ask. Are you sure you still want to tell me?"
Inhaling a long breath, she nodded her head. "But, we need to leave the camp for a while."
"Oh, where?"
The girl turned around and walked a few steps before she looked over her shoulder. "I want to show you something."
Raising an eyebrow, Talon turned to one of the students who were left at the camp to guard it. "Hey, you, tell Sophie that I'm going to leave for an hour or so. If anything happens, she should contact me and I will be back in no time."
"Yes!"
With that, Talon moved after Hyun-Jae. "Where are we going, really?"
"You wanted to know about what happened in my childhood, right?"
"Yeah..."
"I'm going to show you."
Even as she spoke, Hyun-Jae was having a hard time calming down. The time had finally come, to reveal what she had been hiding from everyone. Whatever happened from this point on, she was certain that it might make or break her relationship with Talon.
'I need to face it. If I want to move on... If I want to free myself... I have to face it head-on.' She thought to herself as she exhaled the long breath she had been holding the entire time.
Talon noticed the conflict raging in her head, so, as his only option, he rested his hand on her shoulder. "No matter what happens, we're going to be friends. Ok?"
Seeing the assuring gaze of her dear companion, she finally felt her mind settle down a little. "Ok..."
With that, the duo headed deeper into the city on their own.
A//N: Don't forget to support the book if you enjoyed reading ??