***

As Asha, who was in Tamon’s arms, tried to get out, Tamon grabbed her tighter and wouldn’t let her go.

“Tamon.”

Come on, let go of this hand.

Tamon shook his head sharply at the sound of a voice that came out of nowhere without realizing it.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t release you right away. This isn’t my intention.”

“What do you mean?”

Tamon sighed and said to Asha who asked with widened eyes.

“After holding you for so long, my body… … .”

“Your body? Ah, you have a cramp!”

Once again, embarrassment swelled.

But thinking about it, it was natural.

Asha had been asleep for hours in his arms, which meant Tamon had not moved in that state.

As she tried to pull her body away quickly, in her bewilderment, Tamon frowned slightly and moaned briefly.

“It hurts? I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

“It’s not painful, just a little…”

He frowned and smiled softly. Somehow the smile was suspicious.

“Because I’m numb.”

“You’re numb? Do you want me to massage you? Please, Tamon. Let go of me.”

As Asha fidgeted constantly, Tamon eventually let her go.

Every moment she moved, his expression twitched subtly.

Asha, who came down carefully from him, raised her hand awkwardly to give him a massage, but Tamon immediately grabbed her wrist.

“No, Asha, don’t do it.”

“But…….”

Watching her faltering, Tamon smiled mischievously and shook his head.

“I’d like to leave it in your hands if I could.”

“But?”

“But I thought that would make it hard for you to take care of me.”

Asha’s eyes, who were frowning and wondering what he meant, moved downwards towards Tamon’s center involuntarily. (*Tamon wasn’t numb, his manhood got hard lol.)

Seeing the purple eyes that grew rapidly, Tamon grinned.

“Are you going to keep looking at me like that?”

“Oh no!”

Startled, she quickly turned her head, but her face had already turned bright red.

With her eyes closed, she heard Tamon’s laughter in her ears.

It was Tamon who showed shame, but why was she embarrassed?

Thanks to this, all of the remaining lukewarm sleepiness ran away.

“Why all of a sudden?”

As it was nothing, Tamon ran the back of his hand across her cheek.

Asha, who slapped his hand down, glared at him, but it didn’t seem to have offend Tamon at all. Anyway, he must have been a natural villain.

He was a very gifted man when it came to teasing her.

As Asha turned away, glaring at him with her brash eyes.

Knock. Knock.

Someone came where the two of them filled with sweet air.

“…Asha, it’s me. Can I talk to you?”

It was Anna.***

“…Monstein?”

“It will take another two or three days, but I was wondering if it would be better to stop by there. Monstein is a pretty big city, so there must be a lot of doctors and pharmacists.”

Monstein was a small town about a day and a half from the current location. It was a city located on the central road extending to the center and the provinces under the Aokis Mountains, so it was not small, but the city has been in stagnation due to frequent occurrences of ‘gap’ for the past two or three years.

It was information that came out while Anna was looking through the characteristics of the cities to be passed before leaving for the journey.

Asha thought deeply and shook her head.

“It’s too far from here. It’s not on our way, and we have to get back to this road again, so at least 5 days or more of the schedule will be delayed.”

“But Asha, we have to go to a city of that size to have a good doctor.”

At Anna’s words, Asha looked at her quietly and responded with a smile.

“I’m okay. It’s not bad enough to delay like that. Look, I’m still fine.”

Thankfully, the dizziness and nausea that seemed to pour out of the intestines had subsided as if washed away. Perhaps it was because she slept soundly in Tamon’s arms, and she thought she could proceed with the trip without difficulty.

Of course, that didn’t mean she was energized, but Asha didn’t want to delay her schedule with Anna whom she parted with for too long.

“Motion sickness is common, Anna.”

Asha dismissed her symptoms as ‘common motion sickness’.

But Anna, sitting face to face with her, didn’t think so.

Anna looked at Asha with a complicated face, and sighed softly.

She (Anna) had a hard time figuring out how to verbally convey her guess to a friend who was wise but a bit naive in this regard.

“I’m really glad you’re not sick, but….”

Anna remembered Asrel’s voice last night.

“She can’t eat anything at all. Asha’s symptoms are exactly the same as when I had my first child.”

Those words that were whispered.

It stuck in her mind and never left.

“Okay, Asha. As you said, motion sickness is common. But you, whom I have been watching, have never experienced motion sickness since childhood. But I think it’s kind of strange to suddenly have such severe symptoms. If you don’t want me to worry, I’d like you to see a doctor and hear that you’re okay. Just in case…”

“Just in case?”

At Anna’s remarks emphasizing something, Asha asked back as if puzzled.

For some reason, Anna’s expression was unusual to just pass by.

Anna bit her lip nervously and then opened her mouth with difficulty.

“…it may not be. But I’m saying this because I think that if there’s even a slight possibility, it’s definitely something to consider.”

What the hell is Anna trying to say?

Asha nodded her head with a serious face, unable to imagine what was to come. After a brief sigh, Anna asked.

“Do you remember when your last period was?”

What do you mean?

Asha was momentarily stunned, wondering why Anna was asking such a question.

But soon, Asha’s face began to change as she followed Anna’s words and traced her last menstrual day.

Just before she met Gillotti again, she sensed that her period was running late.

Even then, it had already skipped a month, and a month and a half had already passed since then…

“ah..………….”

Asha was momentarily dazed at the thought of suddenly brushing her head.

A possibility she had never thought of pounded hard in her heart.

“Asha?”

“……It’s been over two months.”

When Asha said in a trembling voice that two months have passed, Asha and Anna looked at each other at the same time.

Neither of them could speak aloud, but their eyes showed

the same possibility. As Asha’s eyes shook violently with nervousness, Anna spoke first, gently wrapping her hand.“Let’s see the doctor. That comes first.”

“Anna, I…. No, I hope….”

“Shh. Don’t say anything yet. I won’t say anything either.”

Anna spoke calmly, but her cheeks were also burning with excitement.

Anna hugged the absent minded Asha for a long time.

Her small but powerful hug comforted Asha’s thin shoulders for quite some time. And her cold body turned warm again.

Asha was lost in thought for a moment after Anna left.

She didn’t know if it was because of confusion or if she was hungry or nauseous.

She vowed a few times not to be pounding in haste, but she couldn’t stop her trembling fingers going to her flat stomach.

‘Really..Is it possible that there’s a baby in here?’

She couldn’t breathe properly because of the complex emotions that couldn’t be defined in words.

Somehow, it felt like the night was too long.

***

That night, Asha dived deep into Tamon’s arms, avoiding his gripping hands.

Tamon, who had no intention of tormenting her because she was sick, embraced her, who had dug into his arms, and comforted her by telling stories in silence.

Perhaps because of the nap, Asha kept tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

Tamon continued to rub Asha’s cold hands and feet, constantly chatting about his childhood.

Asha sometimes laughed as she listened to his story, and sometimes looked up at him with a blank stare.

A child brought from outside.

A boy who didn’t get enough love because of his sick brother.

Tamon from a young age had to become an adult early because of his extraordinary talent and brain.

Asha, who listened attentively to the story of the dry past as if it were a precious story, was simply lovely to Tamon.

Asha, who had been hesitating, asked cautiously.

“Weren’t you lonely?”

“Well, not much. I wasn’t that sentimental.”

“Still. You were a child.”

At Asha’s additional words, Tamon quietly raised the corners of his lips and smiled instead of answering.

Was he lonely?

To fall into such sentiments, he thought his position was too precarious.

A family was a family, but he was not a complete member.

His mother, who gave birth to him, had already done her duty and had gone away, and his father, who gave him birth, loved his mistress terribly.

What was she like?

Her blue eyes, which looked just like Cassion’s, always looked at Tamon with a complicated gaze.

It was the eyes of a person who wanted to hate but couldn’t hate, who wanted to love but couldn’t love.

So, her attitude towards Tamon was always distant.

Neither too close nor too far.

Tamon had never been pampered by such a mother. Because that was crossing the line.

Tamon, who was cautious, did not enter the boundary she had surrounded.

He always tried to keep a distance that she wouldn’t close.

It wasn’t difficult, but… Yeah, it was bittersweet at times.

Although it was a family, it was not complete, and although it was inherited, he did not think that it was completely his family.

His world was always so halfway.

‘…Was that why I was lonely?’

***

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