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“Dites ‘Ouistiti’ (Say ‘Wistity’!)”
Daisy giggled and shouted, “Wistity!” Following her, Lauren and Jerard also beamed and shouted along.
[Wistity...?]
Jiyu murmured the word in a small voice, caught up in the moment. The moment Hunter let out a chuckle upon hearing her, the employee quickly snapped the photo and gave a thumbs-up.
“Très bien (Very good)!”
And so, the two-week trip to the South of France began.
[Hunter, you go with Olivia in the other car.]
Lauren pointed to one of the two sedans parked side by side.
While the employee who had greeted them at the airport loaded the luggage into the trunk, Hunter opened the rear door of the sedan and nodded toward Jiyu.
[Get in.]
As Jiyu climbed in and sat down, he closed the door for her, then opened the opposite door to enter and sit. Manners, instilled more thoroughly than any law, had become second nature to Hunter.
As the sedan pulled away from the airport, an uncomfortable silence filled the backseat.
Leaning back with his elbow against the window, Hunter lightly tapped his thigh with his fingers. It was a sign that he, too, was not in a pleasant mood. Jiyu’s gaze lingered on that hand.
The long, thick fingers covering his thigh, the veins protruding on the back of his hand.
It was the hand of a grown man.
That night, that hand and his lips had awakened strange sensations in her body. Whenever she recalled that shuddering thrill and pleasure, her thighs instinctively tightened.
It had certainly been shameful and miserable, but separate from that, it was an undeniable fact that she had experienced the peak of pleasure for the first time in her life. In that moment, every other thought had vanished from her mind.
Jiyu pressed her knees together and swallowed hard.
Hunter had witnessed every secret, private moment of her losing control of her body and writhing in pleasure. Just thinking about it made her ears throb as if they were on fire.
However, Hunter had exposed himself just as starkly. The sight had been so shocking that it remained vivid even if she closed her eyes and covered her ears.
The sight of that massive, veined penis rapidly sliding in and out of her thighs. The sound of wet flesh rubbing together, the violent breathing.
The expression on Hunter’s face when he came... was intense, fierce, and desperate.
Jiyu fanned herself with her hand and pressed the back of her hand against her flushed cheeks. Whenever she thought of it, it was hard to look Hunter straight in the face. She wanted to hide somewhere, but there was nowhere to hide in the backseat of a car.
Since that day, she had secretly worried that Hunter might call her out frequently using the Jinx as an excuse. Just in case, she had received a prescription for birth control and started taking it, but the thing she feared never happened once.
‘Does he not want to do it with me anymore?’
It was entirely possible. Though they hadn't gone all the way, perhaps his curiosity had been satisfied after having something similar to sex with her once. Or perhaps he had lost interest, thinking it was nothing special.
She felt strange. While she felt a sense of relief, she also felt inexplicably discouraged.
Jiyu shook her head vigorously as if to shake off the useless thoughts. Ae-jeong had paid back the debt and repeatedly promised she would never harbor bad intentions again. That was enough.
Since she had received a hundred thousand dollars, she intended to keep her promise to be Hunter's Jinx. But if he no longer needed her... that wouldn't be a bad thing either.
‘Maybe Hunter will be the one to let me go from this debtor-creditor relationship first?’
The serve she had hit had already crossed into his court. How he chose to return it was entirely up to him.
Hunter had said again that he hated her. He had also said she drove him crazy.
When she was young, she believed the harsh words pouring from his mouth were his true feelings. But now it was different. She already knew that he spat out such words on purpose because he was angry.
If Hunter truly hated her, far from keeping her by his side, he would have maintained a state of complete indifference, treating her like a transparent human being.
So, she could simply ignore it when he said such things, yet she was a hopeless fool for getting hurt every single time.
It would be nice if she could just hate Hunter with a clear heart.
But her feelings for him were too complex to simplify. The contradictory emotions that had piled up layer by layer as they grew up together since childhood were a realm that even she could not interpret.
It was Hunter who had held her while she cried when her father passed away, and Hunter who had come to sit with her and eat lunch when she was being bullied at school. After she was separated from Ae-jeong, she lived hiding behind Hunter's broad back, much like her old habit of hiding behind the hem of Ae-jeong's skirt.
That was why, despite hating him, she felt safe when they were together; why she felt grateful even while feeling miserable; and why, despite wanting to escape, she felt anxiety at the thought of actually leaving.
Jiyu let out a silent sigh. While her body had nowhere to run, there was a place to escape the endless chain of rambling thoughts.
She stealthily pulled a book from the bag resting on her lap. It was a guide to the South of France she had borrowed from the library. She had brought it instead of paying for expensive phone roaming.
Flipping through the book, Jiyu looked up and paid attention to the highway signs passing by. She had only heard that the villa was about a 30-minute drive from Nice Airport; she didn't know its exact location.
One thing was certain: a luxurious trip to the South of France like this would be the first and last in her life. Therefore, she wanted to have as many experiences and leave as many good memories as possible.
After hesitating for a long time, Jiyu scraped together every bit of courage from the bottom of her heart. She didn't want to spend the entire two weeks in an uncomfortable atmosphere with Hunter.
Surprisingly, he wasn't the type to hold a grudge or stay angry for long. When they were children, he had flown into a rage upon finding out she had a separate playdate with Rex; she had fled home first, but when she cautiously spoke to him the next day, he had cooled off effortlessly.
As the saying goes, the thirsty dig the well; Jiyu decided to be the first to extend the olive branch of reconciliation. Since she had received a hundred thousand dollars and mortgaged the next four years of her life, she wanted to maintain as amicable a relationship as possible during that time.
Just as Ae-jeong had advised her two years ago... since her goal was still just to survive and endure.
[Um... Hunter?]
When Jiyu called him, he merely shifted his eyes from the window.
[...What.]
His voice was indifferent.
[What's the name of the town where the villa is?]
[Èze.]
[Ah, Èze. Where is it? I can't seem to find it no matter how much I look...]
Jiyu fluttered the tourist map she had brought from the airport, pretending to search for Èze. In truth, her heart was beating so violently from the effort of summoning courage that the map wasn't even registering in her sight.
Seeing this, Hunter let out a short sigh and tapped the area next to Monaco with his index finger.
[Here. We're almost there.]
Jiyu quickly found Èze in the guide book's table of contents and flipped to the page. Half a page was all there was about Èze. After hesitating, she asked in a small voice.
[There's some tourist information about Èze here. Do you want me to read it to you? Though you probably know the place well already...]
Without even looking at her, Hunter let out a small snort.
In an instant, Jiyu's cheeks flushed hot at the thought that she had said something stupid.
Why did she do that? Hunter wasn't a child. Even Daisy didn't ask to be read to these days. She must have been momentarily insane.
Hiding her face by bowing her head deeply, Jiyu felt like jumping out of the moving car.
[Go ahead.]
[...Eh?]
She slowly raised her head and looked at Hunter. He gestured with his chin toward the guidebook.
[You said you'd read it.]
Flustered, she swallowed hard and hurriedly lifted the book.
[Ah, right. Èze... Èze is a medieval village located on a coastal cliff 429 meters above sea level, a beautiful tourist destination overlooking the deep blue French Riviera. A village where old stone houses line the winding streets as if time has stopped... Oh, we're here!]
Jiyu stopped reading and pressed herself against the window to look outside.
As soon as the guard verified the car, the wrought-iron gates, with the Hamilton family crest in the center, opened to both sides. The gold torch-shaped ornaments decorating the top of the imposing, arched iron gates looked majestic.
As soon as the sedan passed through, the gates closed behind them with a clank. To her, that sound felt like a warning never to think of leaving this place.
Between the tall palm trees lining the driveway, exotic plants such as hydrangeas, wild orchids, and cacti filled the space densely. In the center of a Japanese-style pond stood a gazebo covered in white rose vines. A giant marble chessboard and a gravel field for Pétanque were also visible.
After driving for about ten minutes through the exotic garden dotted with statues and benches, a mansion built on a coastal cliff shaped like a small peninsula came into view.
The Hamilton family villa, called ‘Cap H,’ was a house built in the Italian Neo-classical style by Hunter's ancestor in 1900. Like a perfectly symmetrical three-tier cake, the floors narrowed as they went up, with wide terraces attached to each level.
With its fresh cream-colored exterior and terrace railings lined with columns that looked like strung beads, it exuded a noble and glamorous Belle Époque atmosphere.
[Wow...]
As soon as the sedan stopped at the entrance and she stepped out of the car, Jiyu let out an involuntary exclamation of awe.
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