Dark Embrace [Hoseok FF] [SOF Prequel 0.2] ✔

Chapter 6

Never did Hoseok pretend to not understand what she said, or was trying to indicate. He simply turned back to watching the window as Aaya wordlessly went on to apply the medicine. His eyes were unfocused as he thought of the things he was feeling, evaluating a slew of actions and thinking on the course he wanted to act on for the future.

The beautiful girl remained unaware of what brewed in the warrior's mind.

He felt the careful and gentle probing of the slender fingers as they went about treating all his wounds. And there had been many.

Stabs and slashes, ruptured muscles to the extent of him being a walking body bag containing leaking blood. He was perhaps on the last vestiges of his strength to hold on for his life when she had found him.

His little Gazelle.

Even as she persisted in helping him selflessly, she had no clue that her actions had triggered a dormant side of him. A side, he himself had been unaware of.

As more days passed and she tirelessly came for him, talking to him in her soft lilting voice, cajoling him while tending to his wounds with a dedication and care which went beyond a healer but still having a steel of uncompromising principle adherent, the more he was becoming entangled. No matter how he reacted, or the reputation that shrouded him, this beautiful gazelle boldly clasped him in her heart.

For beautiful she was. Even though all Hoseok had seen was her hand, to him, there was no other being who could compare.

He did not need to see the skin, nor did he have to rely on his eyes. The beauty he perceived in her soul was overwhelming in his sphere of existence. It was of no importance of how she looked, she was someone he cherished.

Someone he wanted forever by his side.

Someone, who was quickly becoming his religion.

Who was rapidly becoming his obsession.

"That may have come to pass before I knew you." He whispered over the wind that carried away his soft words, preventing them from reaching the ears of Aaya.

Aaya had not only helped him to recuperate with caring attention, she had been worried about him enough to have her little helper come to stay with him from the evening till the dawn when she would come back.

Even knowing him, his reputation, she trusted him for the safety of the boy she clearly cared for.

Not for a second did Hoseok feel it was a blind, Naïve trust. No. he was well aware of the fact that her trust was carefully placed after observing him, understanding him. And it was a trust, which was not misplaced.

She never asked anything in return. The more he got to know her, he remained stunned at the root she had, which he discovered. Her selfless help was not a weak nature to give endlessly to the point of foolishness.

Rather, she gave, while guarding her integrity. She was soft, with a core of steel. She was delicate, with the intelligence of a celestial.

She gave, because she could. She healed because she wanted to.

She cared, because she felt him to be worthy of it.

Hoseok was not a person who could be swayed by gullible fools who were blind to the real world and thought purity meant sacrifice. Nor was he interested in some insipid white angel, too idiotic as to dream that gentle love and understanding could reform him.

No.

His attention was captured by Aaya because she expected him to retaliate, she expected him to sneer at her efforts. She never pretended to be blind to his faults, nor did she entertain lofty dreams of having him humbled by her.