Chapter 33
As he said, she didn’t know how much he’d ejaculated.
Waiting there silently, she felt the looming threat of potentially dying from sex. Above all, she didn’t want to wait for him there alone after the man left, which prompted the tired Sarin to get up.
With her face flushed and footsteps unsteady, Sarin moved away. She tried not to look at the white fluid on the fur.
“The one who ejaculated will clean it up.”
His taste still lingered in her mouth.
After opening a few doors quietly, she finally found the bathroom. Anticipating Owen’s return while showering, she locked the door and turned on the hot water. She rummaged through the bathroom shelf, found a new toothbrush, squeezed toothpaste onto it, and then sat on the edge of the bathtub, resting her buttocks on it.
“Haah…”
After meeting Owen, she developed a habit of introspection. Whether it was a good habit or whether she should resent him for creating such a habit, she wasn’t sure. Sarin stared blankly towards the door until the warm water from the shower splashed onto her back, finally snapping her out of it.
The door didn’t open.
Knowing this obvious fact but still expecting, or feeling disappointed, she found her bewildered reflection in the foggy mirror. Already having a lifeless face, it now looked even more drained overnight.
Even when Sarin finished showering, Owen didn’t return.
Putting her clothes back on and leaning against the sofa, she looked out the window. Snow had piled up densely between the tall birch trees. It was already fully bright outside, yet the sky didn’t show the sun, like in Eden City.
”Had Hayan arrived safely?”
She didn’t know what Owen planned to do with the child. But he said she would be safe. Though cunning, she somehow found him trustworthy. It wasn’t Pavel she met in the suite, but Owen emphasized that he valued the thoughts of his grandfather, who abhorred bloodlines.
Bang!
As she slumped and her eyelids flickered, a gunshot sounded nearby. Startled by the sound so close, Sarin sprang up from her seat. Her gaze, recalling Owen taking the gun out, turned towards the front door.
Despite waiting for a long time, the front door remained closed.
Sarin looked at the place where one of the two shotguns had disappeared from above the fireplace. Then, hesitatingly, she picked up her coat. Stepping outside, the chilly wind of the early morning greeted her. She couldn’t tell where the sound came from.
Uuuuu.
However, she instinctively knew that Owen was there because of the low howling of animals.
And as soon as she saw footprints, she was confident that her assumption was correct. Following the clear footprints on the freshly fallen snow, she walked.
Her fingers turned red from carrying the quite heavy shotgun. The sound of animals grew closer.
Sarin soon realized it was the sound of a large stag caught in a trap. Between the densely packed trees, a stag twice the size of an adult male was bellowing with its front legs caught.
Below it, Owen was crouching, shoulders broad, and muscles flexing. Even without a shirt, his upper body showed flexible movements as he exerted force.
His profile showed a deeply furrowed brow, and his lips were stained with tobacco.
“Stay still.”
With Owen exerting force on his body and spitting between the gaps of his cigarette, Sarin realized that the stag, sensing his attempt to rescue it, only cried out in pain without thrashing about. He exerted his strength on the huge bear trap and slowly opened it.
Thunk.
When the foot was released enough to be pulled out, Sarin saw Owen’s torso straining with all his might. Large and small scars covered the man’s body. She had never known that beneath his always neat appearance, he had such a body.
As the stag withdrew its foot and thumped its feet on the ground a few times, Sarin, unknowingly, stepped forward and stepped on a twig. Quickly turning around, Owen grabbed the gun he had placed on the ground and aimed it precisely at her.
“Ah…”
By the time the stag had already bounded off into the woods beyond, leaving quite a few bloodstains on the white snow. Sarin stared frozen at the man pointing the gun at her.
Realizing it was her, Owen slowly lowered the shotgun onto his thigh.
“There was a gunshot…”
Sarin opened her mouth as if making an excuse.
Owen sucked harshly on the end of the still lit cigarette. Between his fingers stained with blood, the cigarette filter became wet. White smoke spewed out along with his breath, obscuring his expression for a moment.
“You can walk.”
With a subtle smile, Owen said.
Sarin, who had paused for a moment, realized that the blood on his fingers wasn’t from the deer and approached closely. She noticed that the man’s palm was torn long, probably due to the sharpness of the trap. Wiping the blood off on the snow and extinguishing the cigarette, Owen stood up.
“Your leg isn’t injured.”
“You said it hurt a lot, so I thought you couldn’t walk. Can you do more?”
Leaning his head down into Sarin’s dripping hair, Owen brought his face closer. He sniffed the scent emanating from her silently. He curled his lip like a male not pleased with having picked up a scent other than his own.
“I… can’t.”
In this place where the smell of blood was strong, she felt like he would pounce on her at any moment. Owen’s laughter widened her ears for a moment as his breath brushed against them.
“But why are you blushing?
What are you thinking?”
As he persisted in asking, she avoided his gaze, and then she noticed that the buckle of her pants, barely fastened to his hips, was halfway undone. And as he lowered his head further, she saw the bloody snowfield in the pelvis.
“…Are you okay?”
“Ah, if I die, I die.”
He kicked the bear trap with his foot. Although it was private property, the surrounding area was a hunting ground, so sometimes people would set traps for those who came in secretly.
“I thought I heard gunshots and thought you were dead.”
“Me? Are you saying you came to confirm my corpse?”
With laughter erupting from Owen like someone who heard a funny sound, he asked. Sarin hesitated for a moment before answering. She hadn’t come to confirm his corpse. She never thought he was dead.
“No. If you shot the gun, I thought the other party might be dead.”
“Smelling the blood and getting tangled with other animals.”
So Sarin wondered if the injured stag she mentioned would survive or be eaten. Owen’s gaze reached the spot where the stag had left behind bloody footprints and disappeared into the forest.
Listening silently, Sarin’s mouth opened briefly and then closed.
It seemed more fitting for Owen to kill the trapped deer. Saving the deer even though he hurt himself didn’t match the image she had of the man she had seen.
“I don’t feel like killing defenseless things unless I’m the one hunting.”
Owen answered as if reading Sarin’s thoughts, then reached out his hand to her. When he handed her the other gun he was holding, he took the lead back to the mansion.
Walking behind him, she noticed his scars more clearly. Owen, too, bore traces of a turbulent life that he couldn’t erase.
“Step only where I stepped and follow me.”
Because she didn’t know how many traps were left.
His added words sent a chill down her spine. She felt foolish for following him here without any thought. Silently, Sarin followed in Owen’s footsteps.
As they returned to the mansion, he went into the bathroom where Sarin had bathed. Standing still and listening to the sound of water, Sarin noticed the fur clumped with bodily fluids and neatly rolled it up and set it aside.
She couldn’t bring herself to clean it up due to her sore waist. When she straightened her back, hunger suddenly rushed over her to the point where it was unbearable. All she had eaten was peach tart yesterday morning.
”Is there anything to eat here?”
Sarin, suddenly worried about what to hunt and eat among all this abundance, found her way to the kitchen.
Even if she said she was hungry, Owen, who seemed like he wouldn’t be bothered by it, would probably tell her to find and eat something herself. Seeing the spacious kitchen with no moisture, she didn’t have high hopes, but still, with a hopeful heart, she opened the refrigerator.
“Wow….”
The food was stocked to hotel standards and neatly arranged as if it had just been tidied up yesterday. It seemed like it was prepared at any time to avoid any discomfort when he arrived.
Sarin grabbed her sore stomach and first took out yogurt, nuts packaged for one serving, dried fruits, and other snacks from the refrigerator, filling her plate at the table.
“I really don’t know anymore.”
Then Sarin reluctantly moved her legs, which kept trying to unravel, and put down the spoon. Owen had joked that she walked well, but it was so difficult that she would hesitate to sit down if she didn’t put all her strength into her legs.
Yet, she got up just to find the first aid kit.
She didn’t know why she, not even the homeowner, had to do this, but the cut on his palm seemed too deep to just pass by.
“Just putting the first aid kit, that’s all. Well… if he kicks it again, I won’t know what to do.”
Muttering to herself, she searched the house. Seeing food stocked in the refrigerator like this, there would obviously be a first aid kit too.
Thinking about Owen walking around with his palm torn if he didn’t take care of it, she sighed. Finally, Sarin found the first aid kit in the closet to the left of the fireplace and brought it back to the table, placing it across from where she sat.
