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LOZ 94
Jiyu blinked her eyes in surprise.
‘Could it be... is Liam flirting with me?’
She looked at Liam with a skeptical gaze.
Until now, the only person who had approached Jiyu with romantic interest was Steven Burlinsky. After the rumors of her being the ‘Triple’s Crush’ spread, there were people who approached her out of curiosity, but even that had stopped at some point.
Thus, she didn't know how to respond in situations like this. Moreover....
[Uh, um... I’m with someone. I was waiting for them to park and come back.]
As Jiyu gave a tactful rejection, Liam’s eyebrows drooped. He looked just like a fluffy red puppy.
[I see, that’s a shame. By any chance, do you have a ‘TokTok’ account? Since we’ve met like this, shall we follow each other?]
Flustered and unsure of what to do, Jiyu bit her lip.
She did have a social media account, but it was an empty one with no content. That kind of thing was for people like Sienna, who had many friends. The only people she followed were Chloe and Joshua, and those two were her only followers.
[Here, this is my account.]
Liam held out his phone to her. Just as she was thinking she should give him hers since he had shared his first, someone placed a hand on her shoulder from behind.
[What are you doing.]
A cool, menacing voice.
It was Hunter.
Jiyu froze, nearly jumping out of her skin. Her heart sank, and she felt a sudden surge of fear despite having done nothing wrong.
When she turned around, he was standing so close that his broad shoulders blocked her entire field of vision.
[...Hunter, when did you get here?]
Without answering, he cast a grim, half-lidded gaze that traced a sharp triangular path from her face, to the phone, and then to Liam’s face. Then, before anyone could stop him, he snatched the phone from Liam’s hand and slammed it back against his chest with a thud.
[Here. Take it.]
[Ugh!]
Caught off guard, Liam clutched his phone and was pushed backward.
[Hunter!]
Jiyu quickly stepped between the two, shielding Liam.
Hunter’s expression was so ominous that she didn't have the capacity to worry about Liam. Having seen it a few times before, she knew exactly what that look meant.
Since they were children, Hunter had regarded her as practically his own possession. Whether it was an object or a person, he could not tolerate anyone touching what belonged to him.
Sometimes the thought crossed her mind that he might be jealous, but this was too urgent a situation to be questioning that.
[Photos! Liam took some photos of me, here in front of the cannon. Do you want to see?]
Jiyu hurriedly blurted out, as if making an excuse.
[...Liam?]
[Uh, I mean....]
That was when Liam intervened from behind.
[I guess the companion you were waiting for was your boyfriend.]
Only then did Jiyu look back. Liam rubbed his chest, glancing back and forth between Jiyu and Hunter.
What should she call Hunter?
Since he had never asked her to get back together after their breakup, she couldn't arbitrarily call him her boyfriend. Furthermore, since she had borrowed money from him, she didn't feel entirely entitled to do so in many ways.
[Ah... he’s not my boyf—]
[Shut up.]
Hunter warned her in a chilling voice. Jiyu quickly pressed her lips together.
With a slightly stiff expression, Liam shrugged at her.
[Anyway, it was nice meeting you, Olivia. See you around.]
He gave a light farewell and walked toward the arched entrance. Jiyu, who had been watching him leave anxiously, turned her head. Once Liam disappeared, the tension eased.
She looked up at Hunter and frowned.
[Hunter, why on earth are you acting like this?]
[Like what?]
He looked down at her, chin tilted up with an arrogant expression.
[He just took some photos.]
[I saw. You smiling like an idiot next to that damn cannon. And I heard everything. That bastard asking you to hang out and wanting your contact info.]
[It wasn't contact info, it was TokTok—]
Jiyu glanced at Hunter, but seeing those deep blue eyes glaring at her with a mixture of betrayal and accusation, she quickly shut her mouth mid-excuse.
She felt it was a bit unfair. They had just taken a few photos.
Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath before grabbing her hand. He gripped it so tightly that her fingers hurt a little, but she didn't pull away.
[Let’s go.]
He strode toward the entrance, pulling her along. After being dragged for a while, she called out to him.
[Hunter...?]
[What. What is it.]
Hunter answered in a blunt voice, glancing down at her from the corner of his eye.
Actually, it was closer to a glare.
[My hand hurts. Not a lot, just a little....]
Jiyu murmured in a tiny, shrinking voice.
[Haa....]
Letting out a sigh that sounded like a lament, Hunter loosened his grip.
[Satisfied?]
Jiyu nodded.
And so, the two of them walked side by side, hand in hand, into the village said to be the most beautiful in Europe.
Saint-Paul-de-Vence felt like a village that had been trapped in a time capsule, frozen for five hundred years before waking up. Narrow sloping paths leading to the fortress at the top were densely packed with small cafes, galleries, ateliers, and unique souvenir shops.
The scent of espresso wafted from old cafes amidst tourists walking by eating colorful ice cream. Red geraniums blooming between old bricks swayed gently in the breeze.
Lost in deep thought, Hunter gazed at Jiyu as if seeing a woman for the first time. She was peering through the glass window of a silver jewelry atelier.
‘Something is strange.’
Jiyu Parker had changed.
This wasn't the first time. He had felt a similar sensation back at Alton School, on the day they had joint classes with Aster School in the gym because of the rain.
The feeling that something had changed, but the frustration of not knowing where or how.
He was feeling that sensation once again.
He felt the need to analyze Jiyu, whom he had taken for granted because she was so familiar, from an objective perspective.
Holding a wide-brimmed hat in her hand, she wore a light blue cardigan draped like a shawl over a white dress with thin shoulder straps.
Her thick hair cascaded down her back to her waist. Indoors, it looked ash-brown, but whenever she stood under the sunlight, the strawberry blonde strands mixed in made the color seem to shift with every movement.
Her fair, clear skin and flushed cheeks resembled the delicate Dresden porcelain dolls displayed in museums across Europe.
He clearly remembered the time when she was like a lollipop—only her face was large and her body was like a skinny stick—but now, her long legs extending below the skirt were sleek, her waist was slender, and compared to her thin frame, her breasts were....
Hunter’s heart tightened ominously.
‘When did she change like that?’
The image of Jiyu etched in his mind was of a faint, frail skin-and-bones girl. Someone so lacking in presence that if she stood against a wall, she seemed as if she would become one with the wallpaper; someone who, if she were to vanish like smoke while walking, no one would even notice.
At some point, she had started catching his eye more often, but because the change had progressed slowly over a long period, it was difficult to pinpoint exactly when it started.
[Hunter, can I go inside and look around for a bit?]
Jiyu asked him, lifting her head from the window she had been peering into intently.
Hunter, who had been observing her while leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, gave a light nod.
[Go. I’ll be here.]
[...It won’t take long.]
She added, glancing at his reaction.
Who said anything?
He didn't like how she hesitated and read the room every time she wanted to go somewhere. Besides, his head was too cluttered right now, and he needed time to think alone.
[I don't care if it takes long.]
He figured he could kill time watching her through the window and then go in to pay when she headed to the counter. Hunter had learned that from watching Jerard as he grew up.
He just hadn't realized he would end up doing the same thing.
Usually, when Jiyu and Hunter stood side by side and presented their cards at the same time, most shopkeepers would gauge the situation and smile while taking his card. Every time that happened, a flustered Jiyu would mutter something in a voice as small as a mosquito, but he would simply wave her off, paying it no mind.
That wasn't what was important right now.
The events at the entrance were playing on a loop in his head.
Because of a minor accident on the way to the underground parking lot, he had been stuck in the middle, wasting fifteen minutes unable to move.
The fact that he had left Jiyu alone had been weighing on his mind.
Timid, naive, and fragile.
She was the perfect target for anyone with ill intentions.
‘It was only fifteen minutes, what could possibly happen.’
Hunter tried his best to suppress his anxiety.
As soon as he parked, he ran up the stairs without even waiting for the elevator. He jogged up the gentle slope and, upon arriving where the entrance to Saint-Paul-de-Vence was visible, he came to a dead stop when he spotted Jiyu smiling shyly in front of the cannon.
‘She’s smiling?’
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