Insouciant | Mark Lee

4~ I Have My Eyes On You

~Min Aera

I was shaken up by the incident that took place.

After he left, I went straight to my bedroom and took a warm bath. The warm water eased every nerve in my body.  Getting dressed up, I plopped down on my bed and curled up inside my duvet. Few minutes later a soft sob left my mouth and a warm drop of tear rolled down my cheek. I was scared, confused, anxious, at a point I was not even sure what I felt. I just wanted someone to hug me and tell me that everything will be alright.  That night, I cried myself to sleep.

Next morning, I felt as if someone drained out my energy. My eyes were red and puffed to the point where someone might think I'm stoned. My throat felt sore and my body was aching. Carefully I got myself up from the bed and walked towards the bathroom. As I entered the bathroom, I saw my reflection in the mirror.

My hair was a mess, my face was swollen, dark circles covered my eyes and my body was burning. I checked my temperature, 101'F. I'll have to get out of the house to get some medicines as I ran out of them. I groaned at the thought of stepping out of the house but I will have to.

~THIRD PERSON POV

Aera stepped out of her house and started walking to the nearest pharmacy. She managed to drag herself to the to the pharmacy successfully. Entering the pharmacy, she got herself a fever reducer and some pain killer's. Her head was feeling dizzy and vision was blurring out a bit. She got out of the pharmacy and started walking towards home. A pair of eyes were following her and looking at her every move, it was Mark. He looked at the girl and thought what exactly happened to her.

Aera felt like someone was following her. Internally panicking she fastened her pace.  She exhausted herself which resulted in making her feel more light headed. Mark quickened his pace to match up with her. Aera tried keep herself awake but slowed down as she felt her vision getting blurry.

Mark sensed something wrong after looking at her. He saw how her steps started went in a zigzag motion. They were just a few steps away from Aera's house. She couldn't take it anymore, exhaustion took over as her body gave up and her vision blacked out. Mark noticed and ran towards her. He took her head on his lap and tried waking her up, "Aera, Aera wake up!" He got no response. He moved his hand and touched her forehead, she was burning up. "Shit" he mumbled. He carefully placed his one hand under her neck to support her head and another one under her knees to pick her up.

Mark brought her inside her house and took her to her room. He placed her on the bed and went to bring a damp towel. He returned with a damp towel and a glass of water. Gently trying to wake her up, he took out the medicines and fed her. Keeping the empty glass aside, he placed the towel on her forehead.

He sat quietly near the bed. While scrolling through the phone, he heard a whimper. Mark turned and noticed the girl whimpering and mumbling something. He moved closer to her as he couldn't hear what she was saying. " p-please don't k-kill me, I w-won't say anything," a faint whisper left her mouth. Mark furrowed his eyebrows as he understood she was having a nightmare.  "She is probably having a dream about what happened yesterday," he said to himself.  He felt bad for Aera as she had witnessed things which she shouldn't have and now that's bothering her. Mark pitied her.

Aera groaned as she woke up. She felt some weight on her forehead. Her eyes wandered around the room and met with a pair of another brown eyes. She immediately recognized who it was. She started panicking and grabbed the lamp which was placed beside her table. "Y-you come near me and I won't hesitate to hit y-you," she stuttered.

Mark started walking towards her, she gulped. "Hey, no need to shout, no need to yell. Calm down. I'm not going to harm you," Mark stated. She calmed down a bit. She don't know why but she felt like trusting the stranger in front of her. "Then why are you here? What are you doing in my house?" Aera questioned him placing the lamp back on the bed. "For your information, I'm the one who saw you getting blacked out, so I brought you home and did that" Mark said nonchalantly pointing out to the damp towel.

Confusion was written all over Aera's face. Many thoughts were running on her mind. Why? was all she could think about. Why was he helping her, taking care of her? Endless number of questions arose in her mind. All she remembers is him threatening her to death yesterday and today he was saving her and taking care of her. His actions baffled her. She blankly stared at Mark trying to interpret what his actions and words meant.

"Why? Why are you here and most importantly why are you taking care of me? I don't even know you. Heck, I don't even know your name. All I can think about is you literally threatened me to kill yesterday and now you're here giving me medicines and stuff. How do you even know that I was sick." She gasped and said, "Were you following me? Oh my god, all I can know you can be a pervert," Aera bombarded Mark with a bunch of questions as she ran out of breath.  She silently pulled her duvet till her chin just incase he was a pervert.

Mark rolled his eyes at her actions. "First of all, I AM NOT A PERVERT, do I look like one? NO. Second thing, I was following you because I don't trust you. You might spill out what happened yesterday to someone so I had to keep an eye on you.  I was following you when I saw you getting blacked out on the street so I just brought you home. I'm still human you know I don't like killing innocent people for no reason!" he stated.

"You still didn't tell me what's your name? Well, my name is Aera. Min Aera, and you are?" Aera questioned him. Mark hesitated to answer her but gave in anyway. "I'm Mark Lee," he replied to her in a cold tone.

They sat there awkwardly facing each other when they heard some noise downstairs which alerted them.