Chapter 12
“There isn’t. There is, but there isn’t.”
“Do you want me to throw you out right now?”
“There really isn’t!”
There is! There definitely is! Just because I talked back a little, look at how openly annoyed his brow is. If you take the gentleness out of a gentle, obsessive male lead, he’s just an obsessive male lead. What I was expecting was the ‘gentle’ part. But at this point, what’s the use of nitpicking over that.
“You know. I’m sturdy.”
I decided to brazen it out.
Chase closed his mouth as if I wasn’t even worth responding to and looked down at me coldly.
“And I’m going to get even healthier from now on.”
“Healthy?”
Chase let out a low, incredulous scoff and suddenly stepped right up to me. Remembering how he had grabbed my face earlier, I flinched without thinking, squeezing my eyes shut and hunching my shoulders.
“I’m not going to eat you, so open your eyes.”
When I opened them, Chase lifted his hand and slowly brushed my hair back.
My nape, which I had hidden behind my dry, rough hair, was exposed.
He’ll feel the bones…
I grew uneasy, afraid that the hand holding my hair would touch the back of my neck. When I subtly leaned back, Chase clicked his tongue lightly. Then, with a gaze so indifferent and cold, he slowly swept his eyes over me. Starting with my eyes, which were avoiding his, then my cheeks, my neck, and down to my collarbone.
Soon, Chase let out a faint sigh and clicked his tongue again.
“Where, exactly?”
Letting go of my hair, Chase grabbed my right hand. Perhaps he was controlling his strength properly, because I didn’t feel any pain at all.
Holding my hand, he grabbed the sleeve of my clothes, hesitated for a moment, then made eye contact and spoke.
“If you don’t like it, say so now.”
As if he wouldn’t check anyway even if I said I didn’t like it.
“Why are you insisting on checking?”
“Do I have to answer that? I told you, whatever I do here is my choice.”
“…”
Fine. You’re great.
If I showed him my wounds and got even a bit of sympathy, it would be more than satisfying, but I couldn’t just hand my arm over so carelessly.
The skin beneath my sleeve would be covered in wounds, and it would only prove how weak I am. Besides, showing my injuries in a room flooded with such bright sunlight felt a little embarrassing.
If he wanted to check my condition, the marks on my nape and cheeks he had just seen should have been enough. Yet he was even checking beneath my clothes. That was too thorough.
When I stayed silent, my cheeks flushing as if I’d overheated, Chase slightly raised his eyebrow, then lowered it and narrowed his eyes.
“I said I can’t stand it.”
“Huh?”
“I’m telling you not to expect anything. I have zero interest in a woman like you who’s nothing but bones.”
“W-who said anything? I’m not expecting anything at all!”
“Then that’s that.”
At least laugh while saying it! His expression was so serious that it felt like I’d been rejected without even confessing.
Sure, it was true that I’d felt momentarily embarrassed because such a handsome face was so close. But my cheeks weren’t red because I was interested in you or anything like that!
“I gave you a chance. I told you to say it if you didn’t like it.”
Without waiting any longer, Chase briskly pulled up my sleeve.
My arm is bruised in several places, and traces of old wounds were left as they were. It looked like my immunity and everything else had hit rock bottom, because the injuries didn’t seem to heal well either.
Honestly, even I was a bit shocked. I’d roughly checked my wounds back when I was shut in that small room, but this was the first time I’d examined them so plainly in such bright light.
With an annoyed scoff, Chase furrowed his brow and released my hand.
Then, in an instant, he pulled down the shoulder of my dress.
“W-wait a second!”
Resistance was meaningless.
The dress had already slipped down far enough to reveal my cleavage, and skin bearing wounds far worse than those on my arm got exposed.
“Do you really have to check this far?”
I shouted as I hastily pushed him away.
“Looking like you could drop dead at any moment, and you call that healthy?”
As if utterly dumbfounded, Chase irritably raked his hand through his hair.
“It doesn’t look like you’ll ever be sturdy, now or in the future.”
I quietly hid my arm behind my back.
“Th-these wounds are just from being hit.”
I looked at the paper in front of me that listed my information. There’s nothing written about abuse, but if they investigated this thoroughly, they must have noticed already. Even so, his coldness was frightening.
I met his eyes directly. There’s no need to hide it anyway. It would all come out.
“You investigated, so you must know that my family abused me.”
“So?”
“If I go back, my brother will kill me.”
Chase’s mouth shut tightly.
“It’s true. He said he’d kill me if I ever returned to the family.”
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