Chapter 74 - The Scar
"You want me to think of you as a sack of potato?"Wan Yi Jun's dark eyes narrowed a little when he repeated Ming Yue's odd comparison.
She is one of the prettiest women he has ever seen and even comparing her with a potato sack was a brutal crime.
However, watching Ming Yue looking at him with the coldest pair of eyes, he couldn't help but think about their first meeting.
"You were literally roaming in a bath towel when you came here for the first time."
"I had no choices at that time but to roam in a bath towel because of someone else's clumsiness." Ming Yue sternly conceded. Well, at that time, she was confident that they will never meet again. However, things are not the same anymore. Even if she wanted to ignore it, she had seen the desire glinting in Wan Yi Jun's eyes for her.
Now that they are alone in this place, she just prayed that nothing goes out of her control.
However, Wan Yi Jun was trying to erase the embarrassing things he did while she stayed at the Wisteria gardens to help him out. Even he was shocked to realize how bad he was at house chores.
"I apologized for ruining your dress that night itself not just once...but multiple times." He gently touched the nape of his neck and hesitated for a moment to speak up, "What do you want me to do now? Get you a new dress? Will that suffice whatever damage I caused that day?"
"Oh please, master. I'm not a materialistic person." Ming Yue let out a chortle and wobbled her head as if she heard something wrong. "Just do whatever you were going to do, or else, I will go to bed."
"This girl!!!" Wan Yi Jun's lips unknowingly twisted into a broad smile at her cocky words as he took a step closer to her, narrowing down the distance between them.
"So shall we start, miss potato?" He stood at an arm's length away from Ming Yue and asked while reaching out for her t-shirt.
However, the very next moment, Ming Yue, who never expected such a blatant move from Wan Yi Jun, reflexively smacked his hand right away.
"What are you doing, master?"
"You asked me to treat you like a sack of potato? Does it matter if I do it from front or back?" Wan Yi Jun flexed his palm and asked in a half-joking tone, only to regret his words the very next moment.
"You can't just do it like that." Though Ming Yue was left speechless due to his blatant question that reeked a dual meaning, she somehow maintained her aloof expression and corrected him.
"Sorry, sorry...what I meant was.... when someone gets hurt during offsite missions, we check the ventral side first..." He quickly explained and shut his eyes in embarrassment.
"Damn!!! What the hell did I just say?" He shook off his thoughts from his mind and pointed towards the bed in the room as a way to escape this awkward interaction.
"Please take a seat and... I... think it is better....if you take off the shirt."
"Hmm." Ming Yue gently hummed and strode towards the bed while tugging at the hem of her t-shirt.
Watching her rumpled form striding in soft steps, with wet hair cascading down her shoulders and eyes swollen red, Wan Yi Jun sighed deeply.
There was something sensual in the way how she basked in the dim lighting, all shrouded in doubt, fear, sprinkled with a dash of hope and trust in him.
"Look somewhere else." She ordered in a soft voice that felt so melodious to Wan Yi Jun's ears and it took a moment for him to shift his eyes to somewhere else.
As he stood there looking at the white wall, Wan Yi Jun heard the rustle of her clothes and the dipping of the bed.
"You can turn back now,"
He slowly turned around to look at the woman who sat on the bed, half-naked revealing the soft and smooth expanse of her back,
From the slender slope of her neck to her petite shoulders, the golden chain over her curvy waist,
It had only been a second, but the moment his eyes fell on her, it felt as though time moved slowly,
As he walked towards her, Wan Yi Jun's eyes travelled further down, following the perfect curve of her back, riddled with blotches of red bruises.
"There is one minor wound and lot of scratches....and a bruise." He reported while checking her wounds. It looked as if his touch would bring Ming Yue to her knees in pain.
Small red patches were littered everywhere on the expanse of her left shoulder blade, down to her waist. It was no wonder why she wailed when he poked her at a random spot.
But the thing which made Wan Yi Jun mesmerized was the long scar on her back.
He found himself amazed by her strength in brushing her injuries as if they were nothing as she continued to refuse to visit the hospital.
"I told you it is nothing serious." Ming Yue who was holding to thick blanket, covering her naked front side, casually said as if it was no big deal.
"Still, let me disinfect the wounds." He suggested and took out spirit and cotton from the first aid box.
His calloused hands came up to her shoulder, caressing her back gently as it trailed towards down, brushing the disinfectant over the wounds and the scratches.
If he had listened to her excuses, she would have hid her bruises and suffered all by herself.
The mere thought of watching her in pain, made an anger-like feeling welling up inside him.
Opting to push it down his unknown anger, his fingers began to lightly apply the medicine over a bleeding wound.
Only then, Ming Yue flinched away from his touches, twisting her body as if she was shielding her vulnerable side despite her state.
Wan Yi Jun hummed in thought, with a frown on his face. It would be difficult to treat her if a slight touch would cause her too much pain.
"Tell me if the pain gets worse."
"No...It isn't." Ming Yue softly murmured. More than pain, she was praying that he would finish faster.
Even though Ming Yue assured him that she is okay, Wan Yi Jun's finger touched the areas around the bruises as if he assessing the extent of her injuries.
Whenever she tensed up beneath his fingertips, or let out soft groans, he would ease up and move to the next area to relax her bit.
It was fortunate none of the glass pieces stuck deep anywhere near her ribs and spine.
The creases on his forehead disappeared as he found himself relieved and quickly proceeded with the treatment.
He took some smoothing salve, before wrapping her bruised shoulder with bandages in silence. Ming Yue sat still like an elegant muse for a sculptor, but deep inside her heard she felt tensed every time he touched her.
"Was he always this gentle and caring?" She couldn't help but wonder.
However, Wan Yi Jun was little bit confused at the long scar on her smooth skin that remained like an eyesore. By its faded colour and stitch marks, the wound seemed bit old.
Wan Yi Jun unknowingly rubbed soothing circles on her uninjured side as he went and wrapped her bruises securely, yet tenderly.
However, even after bandaging up the wounds, for some reason, he wanted to touch her more, she was smooth to the touch, very soft beneath his fingers.
She was such a frail woman indeed, so small and so vulnerable.
While Wan Yi Jun's fingers wandered over her back, pretending to be rechecking her wounds, Ming Yue's eyes were focused on the vague reflection of Wan Yi Jun's face on the glass windows.
A strange feeling came over her, locking her in place as she found herself unable to look away despite the discomfort she was feeling.
However, the very next moment, he unknowingly looked in the direction of the window and tangled his eyes with hers.
"Why? Why are you acting like this now? Why are you being nice to me when I came here to kill you?"
Ming Yue wondered to herself the more she looked at him through window pane, trying to convey the question with her eyes…
So innocent… so clearly looking at him for some sort of explanation as to why this was all happening.
Even though he didn't want to look away, Wan Yi Jun broke his eye contact and looked at her bandages.
He felt too hot and tried hard to control his breath yet as he struggled to wet his parched lips.
But subconsciously, his eyes went back to the windows once more and realized that he had been the one to break the eye contact. In all these years, he'd never once hid away from a woman, but at this moment...it just happened as if his mind got bewitched by her.
"Damn it."
Wan Yi Jun cursed himself for his ineptitude. He felt as though he had been cursed, but only he could feel the way his body grew hotter, breathing out hot air through his mouth.
Before he could let out another sigh, Wan Yi Jun leaned backwards and turned a blind eye to the unfamiliar emotion stirring inside him. He wasn't acting like himself, but he found that didn't mind; not even a little bit.
"It's over." He tenderly whispered while she attempted to turn her body away. His voice dipped down into a husky tone, sending a strange sensation over her body.
She hastily avoided his gaze once more, unable to look any longer in his eyes.
However, when Wan Yi Jun's eyes fell on the faint outline of the traditional annex, his heart stopped for a moment and he unknowingly made a request that he hasn't asked anyone till the moment.
"Sleep with me, tonight."