Chapter 101

Chapter 101

White and… Soft…

Noah’s eyes turned to Julianna.

[ Do you think it makes sense for someone to bleed this much all of a sudden? Even if he saw something highly stimulating—… mmph! ]

Noah, blushing furiously, clamped her hand over Julianna’s mouth. It took some time for Noah to calm down and for Julianna to continue speaking.

[ Ahem, anyway, what I’m saying is! This guy is definitely hiding something else! Whether it’s an illness, a wound…! Ah! Look at this. ]

Julianna pointed to Lian’s upper body, and Noah’s face turned bright red. Her gaze wavered, unable to focus, making Julianna click her tongue.

[ It’s not like it’s your first time seeing a man’s body, so why are you acting like this? ]

As Julianna said, it wasn’t Noah’s first time seeing a man’s body. Living in disguise as a man, she had unintentionally seen men casually taking off their shirts.

“How is this the same as back then…!”

Even as she said that, Noah couldn’t understand why she was so flustered. She was worried about Lian, yet her face remained hot. Julianna, seeing Noah’s reaction, smirked like a cat but then continued with a serious expression.

[ You’re too embarrassed to look closely, huh. ]

Julianna pointed with her index finger to Lian’s sternum.

[ All the scars that were here are gone. Completely. ]

“..!”

Noah’s eyes, which had been darting around, settled on Lian’s upper body. As Julianna said, Lian’s torso displayed only sexy lean muscles, with no scars to be found.

“How is this…?”

[ You didn’t hear anything about the scars disappearing, right? ]

“No, I didn’t…”

Julianna let out a small sigh before continuing.

[ Ha, I can’t believe he’s still hiding things from us. ]

Julianna’s sigh and lament pricked Noah’s heart like an arrow. No matter how much she struggled to protect him, Lian was always busy hiding his wounds.

Noah shook her head slightly to clear the sinking feeling. She no longer intended to remain trapped in despair like before.

‘If he’s hiding, I’ll just have to find out.’

Why did Lian keep secrets about himself?

Noah believed it was due to ‘trust’ and ‘faith.’ If Lian saw her as someone he could rely on, he would have willingly shared his wounds and pain.

That didn’t mean Lian didn’t trust Noah. Lian’s faith and trust were different from an equal relationship.

‘It’s like the trust and faith a parent has while caring for a child…’

Just as a parent doesn’t want to share their hardships with their child, wanting to show only the good things, Lian also kept his wounds hidden.

Noah, looking at Lian’s peacefully sleeping face, made a firm resolve within herself.

‘This time, I’ll protect him.’

As Noah solidified her resolve.

Knock, knock, creak!

With a knock, the door opened. Noah immediately recognized who had come in.

“Hyung, are you in…?”

Nero, who had entered without hesitation because they were siblings, froze at the scene before him.

Noah, who was about to scold Nero for barging in, was instead flustered by Nero’s frozen state as if under a spell.

“Nero, what’s the matter…?”

“I’m sorry.”

“What..?”

Bang!

Before Noah could react, Nero slammed the door shut and left. Standing awkwardly with her hand raised, Noah looked at the door, while Julianna covered her mouth and giggled mischievously.

Noah, still not understanding the situation, stared blankly at the door. From outside, Nero’s voice could be heard.

“Lily! Hyung, no, Nuna finally took down Lian hyung!”

“What, wha, what..?!”

Startled, Noah turned to look at Lian. Finally realizing the situation, she saw Lian lying on the bed, shirtless, with her disheveled state from hastily getting dressed.

Only now did Noah realize how easily such a misunderstanding could occur.

“Wait! Nero, wait!”

Her face flushed bright red, Noah flailed and climbed off the bed.

Thud!

“Ouch..!”

In her haste, she tumbled to the floor. Groaning softly, Noah ran to the door and opened it, but Nero was already gone.

She wanted to run out and drag Nero back immediately, but she couldn’t leave Lian unattended. Noah quickly turned to Julianna.

“Julianna! I’ll get Lily, so please take care of Lian!”

Julianna immediately understood that Noah’s command also included ‘deal with Nero.’

“Nero!!”

Slam.

As Noah dashed out of the room, leaving Julianna alone, she waved lightly and looked back at Lian.

[ Sigh… It’s going to take a long time before we see grandchildren. ]

Julianna pouted but dutifully stayed by Lian’s side as Noah had asked.

***

“Where am I?”

I was floating in a strangely white and pink world.

“That’s…”

At the edge of my vision was a large peach, like something out of a fairy tale.

“It’s pretty.”

My thoughts flowed freely as if I were in a daze. The pale pink peach floated by like it was drifting in water.

“Huh..?”

One peach became two, then they gradually increased. It felt like I was swimming through a river of peaches. I naturally reached out to touch one.

“Soft…”

It felt squishy, like a child’s toy. I squeezed it, tilting my head.

“Is it not a peach?”

As I mumbled absentmindedly, I looked closely at the peach. Yes, it wasn’t a peach—

I woke up from the dream.

***

“Ah.”

Lian woke up with a short gasp. He recalled the scene he had seen in his dream with a dazed expression. It was a heaven-like hell.

‘I thought I was going to be crushed…’

The peaches that had surrounded him started pressing down on him like waves, as if to crush him.

‘I survived because they were soft.’

If the peaches had been hard, he would have been crushed to death. As he thought that and blinked blankly, he gradually realized his surroundings.

“This place…”

Lian slowly began to piece together his last memories.

‘I remember… I came to Noah’s room on Lily’s request to keep her occupied, and then…’

As he groped through the darkness of his memory, he suddenly recalled ‘that memory’ and sat up abruptly, covering his mouth with his hand. More precisely, he covered his nose.

Had he been even a second late, he would have had another severe nosebleed. Lian, his face flushed red, looked around aimlessly.

“Oppa! Don’t move suddenly!”

Lily, who had just arrived to check on Lian, grabbed his arm with a worried expression. Seeing Lian covering his mouth as if to stem something, she paled.

“Oppa, are you okay? Do you feel like coughing up blood again?”

“…?”

Lian, still reeling from ‘that memory,’ regained his senses at Lily’s words. He glanced up to see Nero, Noah, and Lily looking at him with worried eyes.

‘What happened?’

Lian’s gaze flickered to Nero, whose cheeks were swollen. His hair was a mess as if he had been in a scuffle somewhere.

He wanted to ask Nero what had happened, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. It was because Noah was standing next to Nero.

‘Ugh… I can’t even look at her.’

The gag filter had worked properly, with dense steam obscuring Lian’s vision. The problem was that Lian and Noah had been too close.

Lian had seen what he shouldn’t have and had panicked.

For someone who had lived in a gag world with its own censorship, it was a shockingly stimulating event.

Why beat around the bush? For the first time, Lian recognized Noah as a ‘woman’ and was rendered speechless. He was like a man blessed by a unicorn’s love.

‘What? I feel like I just heard something incredibly unpleasant?’

Lian felt a strange irritation as if he had been insulted by someone and tilted his head, only to be brought back to reality by Lily’s cautious touch.

The atmosphere had been heavy while Lian was lost in thought. The shift in his focus helped calm the potential for another nosebleed, and he raised his hands to show he was fine.

“Guys, I—”

“Are you really in a lot of pain?”

“Ugh..!”

Before he could finish, Noah approached, filling his vision. Because she was dressed as a man, Lian didn’t get a nosebleed, but he did choke.

“Cough, cough!”

“Oppa!”

“Lian..!!”

“Hyung!”

Voices filled with concern echoed around him as Lian coughed violently as if he were about to vomit blood. His flushed face seemed to be from the coughing, though it was actually due to his earlier thoughts.

Keeping his head down, Lian raised a hand and spoke in a restrained voice.

“I-I’m fine. Really, truly… ugh, cough, cough..!”

Unable to bring himself to look at Noah directly, Lian kept his hand over his mouth and didn’t lift his head.

He had no idea how his actions appeared to everyone else.

End of Chapter.