Thorn Year (가시연) (ENG)

(가시연 ) Thorn Lily: Main Story - CHAPTER 7

The rain had finally stopped. Soon, the collision of the trees with the warm sunlight and refreshing breeze was making a gentle tune on the wind.

I was getting sleepy having sat with my knees bent underneath me for such a long time. My eyelids felt so heavy that it felt as though it was taking at least a few seconds to blink.

I repeatedly forced open my eyes as they drifted shut; but I finally gave in, wanting to block out the bright world that lay beyond the windows. The bright afterimage of the sun burned at my eyes even through my closed eyes.

I hated bright days like this.

"What are you doing over there when you're so weak to sunlight? Come here."

A towel was dropped down over my head, covering my eyes and shielding them from the blinding glare. A droplet of water travelled down a lock of hair and landed on my shoulder.

I once again opened my eyes in response to the hair raising coldness. I saw his feet approach me; he was sitting, crouched down in front of me soon after.

Upon seeing my unfocused eyes, staring back at him blankly, he tapped his index and middle fingers against my cheek as if to wake me up.

But I continued looking at him with my goldfish like expression, blinking stupidly. At this, he sat down completely on the ground, chuckling in response.

I buried myself in his chest, mumbling softly as if to myself, "I'm cold..."

He gladly offered up his arms to my bare, chilled body. Bringing me in towards him, he draped a gown over my shoulders.

As I rubbed my bottom against his thighs that were pressed against the glass of the windows, he let out yet another chuckle...And yet another as I buried my hair, that wasn't even yet dry, against his chest.

It was only after he had told me to stay still while he was drying my hair that my child-like playfulness finally calmed down.

"Why didn't you do anything that time, even though you remembered?" I sat, with my eyes closed, enjoying the feel of his fingers as they dried my wet hair, through the fabric of the towel. I could detect the scent of the same body spray that I used, every time he moved.

My exhausted body and my peaceful mind both were making me slip even further into a listless stupor. I felt full, despite the fact that I hadn't eaten anything.

Ignoring his fingers that were drying my hair, I once again laid my head against his chest.

Tossing aside the towel, he combed my tousled hair with his fingers.

"You looked too pretty—like a drugged up little baby chick swooning under the sun"

"You're so mean...You're always messing with me..."

Just as I suspected, he hadn't had the slightest intention of casting me away, even from the very beginning.

"Yeah but, compared to what you do to me, what I do is nothing." "What...I never did anything to you..."

Undoing the tie of his robe, I freed him from its confines entirely. I ran my eyes over his nude form that I could never seem to get enough of. The end of my nose tickled with the need for his scent at the sight.

I rubbed my face against the base of his neck. The sweet yet spicy scent of his breaths that entered my lungs, spread out into the tiniest of my capillaries.

I loved it. I curled up my body in satisfaction and wormed my way a little deeper still, into his chest.

"Appearing in my dreams and dancing around in front of me every time I close my eyes...If that's not called giving someone a hard time, I don't know what is."