Sharti gritted her teeth.
She couldn’t bring herself to hit the back of the man covered in scars and small wounds.
“I thought you had no fear.”
The clicking tongue carried a tone of reproach.
The man changed his posture and embraced her with one arm.
“Hold on tight.”
“…?”
Before understanding the man’s words, Sharti instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck.
For a moment, the muscles in the man’s neck and shoulders twitched.
“…doing it.”
The man plunged the shovel with all his might towards the ceiling area Sharti had been aiming for.
Bang!! A deafening metallic sound spread throughout the cave.
Rumble-. At that moment, the entire cave shook as if an earthquake had occurred.
“…!”
He quickly ran towards the cave exit.
Crumble… Thud! Crumble rumble-! As the sound of the cave collapsing in earnest was heard, Sharti tightly shut her eyes.
Crash!!! The small cave completely collapsed.
“…ha, ah…”
“…”
The man who had been holding Sharti with both hands exhaled in relief.
Sharti opened her eyes at the hot breath. Turning her head, Sharti confirmed that no trace of the cave remained before finally taking a deep breath.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“…!”
At the man’s question, Sharti became aware of her position and quickly unwrapped her arms from his neck.
The man carefully set Sharti down.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, Sharti pressed letters onto his palm.
“…Hah.”
The man exhaled briefly. Seemingly unaware of his dangerous actions, Sharti was consistently checking on him first.
The man’s lips curved up crookedly, his heart having sunk. His eyes looking down at Sharti glinted coldly.
“Is that something to say from someone who recklessly tried to collapse the cave ceiling without warning? We both could have been seriously injured.”
Sharti frowned as he pointed out her recklessness.
“How can you be certain of the accumulated amount? If your calculations were wrong, we’d both be buried down there right now.”
Sharti understood the man’s reaction.
‘I didn’t explain, and from his perspective, the bomb exploded with just one impact from his shovel. He has reason to be angry.’
However, strangely, Sharti couldn’t control the surge of emotion. In the urgent situation, as the conversation went awry, emotions jumped and intensified.
The man was the same.
“Is that… something to say right now?”
Instead of kind words, they could only blame each other.
Sharti and the man growled at each other.
“…”
But the moment he saw the bright red eyes shining from beneath the disheveled hood, the man couldn’t think of anything. At some point, long wheat-colored hair had flowed out from under the hood, revealing half of Sharti’s face.
Sharti was looking at him. She was facing him with clear eyes. The moment he faced her emotions, previously hidden by the thick hood, his thoughts stopped.
A faint tremor arose.
The man’s lips moved.
“…I was worried.”
The man hadn’t been angry and scolding Sharti for moving recklessly without explanation.
Both he and Sharti had been in danger.
Yet as soon as they left the cave, she checked his body first, putting her own safety last.
“Just as you worried about my body, I was equally worried that you might have been hurt.”
When they had just escaped the collapsing cave, his heart had been pounding madly.
No thoughts entered his mind. He only saw Sharti before him.
He only saw Sharti, who neither wanted nor needed his help.
The man admitted that he had become upset because of this.
‘You… were worried about me…?’
Sharti’s mouth opened and closed repeatedly. She was at a loss for words at the man’s utterly honest confession.
“If a patient gets hurt, a doctor can treat them, but if a doctor gets hurt… the patient can’t do anything.”
“…”
“…I wasn’t sneering. Really.”
Only then did Sharti begin to properly see the man’s face.
Seen from outside the cave, the man’s dark brown hair seemed to absorb the darkness, while his blue-green eyes stood out in vivid color.
He was a man with different atmospheres by day and night.
“…”
Sharti bit her lip firmly.
Sharti rummaged through her bag and pulled something out. Among the simple items and herbs gathered from the cave, she pulled out a black robe.
“…Is that my clothes?”
The man received the robe. It was a short-length robe.
“…Hmm?”
The man, who was putting on the robe, slightly bent his waist at Sharti’s gesture.
After putting his hood on, Sharti took his hand.
After hesitating several times, the letters written on his palm were quite small, carrying embarrassment.
A tickling sensation traveled up his palm, and the corners of the man’s mouth turned up.
The words added at the end were hastily scribbled and not properly readable, but the curve of the man’s lips deepened.
His heart, which had been pounding along with the collapsing cave, now beat to a slightly different rhythm.
“…”
The man, wiping the smile from his face, obediently nodded.
As the atmosphere lightened, the briefly surged emotions calmly subsided. Sharti, waiting for her rapidly beating heart to settle, finally exhaled deeply.
She closed her eyes and listened to her surroundings.
‘Fortunately, I still can’t hear anything nearby.’
Only the sound of trees and grass swaying in the mountain wind filled the air.
Sharti suppressed the rising sense of urgency.
She had to avoid the shortcuts she usually took.
Tough grass, mud, and dense trees.
Sharti knew the geography of this mountain as well as any villager.
‘Still, just in case.’
Sharti clutched the herbs in her bag tightly.
In the darkness that had settled on the mountain, Sharti had often lost her way and become isolated many times. Each time, she had somehow survived and found her way.
The last time Sharti had been helplessly cornered was five years ago.
“…”
The man watched Sharti resolutely gripping her bag strap.
He realized when he saw Sharti collapse the cave.
Right now, the man was a burden to Sharti.
“Yes.”
Nevertheless, he had no choice but to take Sharti’s outstretched hand.
Shamelessly, brazenly, he had to follow behind Sharti. To avoid being abandoned, left behind, he had to cling and chase after her with all his might.
The man gripped Sharti’s hand tightly.
‘You’re very tense.’
The hand held by him tingled.
‘Well, we could be caught by soldiers.’
Sharti patted the back of the man’s hand to reassure him, then moved to the back of the cave.
The man nodded greatly.
The two climbed the mountain, hunched over as much as possible.
Due to the dense trees, even looking up, neither moonlight nor sky was visible.
‘He’s following well? It must be hard to see.’
The man followed behind, holding Sharti’s hand, without stumbling once. He seemed to have good night vision.
‘Maybe it’s because we’re near the stream. It feels cool.’
With the eerie mountain energy added to the coolness, her body shivered. The man tightened his grip on her hand.
His body heat transmitted through his large hand.
It was warm.
In the darkness, the writing wasn’t very legible, but the action mattered more than the content.
“…”
“…”
“…?”
There was no response from the man.
Sharti stopped walking and turned to look at him.
Whoosh-. The wind blew strongly, making the man’s hood flutter as if it would come off.
“It seems we should let go of hands as we walk, in case we encounter soldiers. …Ma’am.”
As if he had never held it tightly, the man let go of Sharti’s hand without hesitation.
Sharti blinked in surprise.
‘Why is he suddenly acting like this?’
They hadn’t encountered any soldiers yet, and there were no sounds nearby.
Sharti frowned at his inexplicable behavior.
“The soldiers will be armed, and we’re not. …Ma’am. So it’s either flee or surrender… Neither choice would benefit you, doctor. …Ma’am.”
Strangely, his voice lacked strength.
Sharti stared blankly at the man.
‘Is he saying he wants to minimize the harm I might suffer if we encounter soldiers?’
Her chest stung for no reason.
Once again, his negative assumptions contained concern for her.
‘And yet when he asked for help…’
He was such a strange person.
Sharti relaxed her expression and pulled the man’s wrist. Fortunately, he didn’t shake off her hand.
‘He must be anxious after losing his memory.’
So inevitably, all his imaginings flowed only negatively.
After walking quietly for a while longer, a small stagnant spring appeared.
‘Ah, fortunately, nothing’s here.’
Sharti, after checking the surroundings, let go of his wrist and quickly approached the spring.
The man stood still without moving.
Suddenly, a lump of mud flew and hit the man.
“What is this…”
Splat! Splat splat! Even as the man staggered backward, the mud lumps showed perfect accuracy.
Eventually, the man, his whole body covered in mud, looked at Sharti with a slightly disgruntled face.
Sharti, holding mud lumps, shrugged at his gaze.
She too had smeared mud all over her robe.
“…What’s that for? No, then why to me…”
The man approached cautiously, wary of more flying mud lumps.
Sharti wiggled her fingers, and the man held out his palm.
“…Idiot?”
The man’s eyebrows rose at the first word written.
Sharti cleared her throat, suppressing a laugh.
“Let’s say that’s the case. …Ma’am.”
“Are the soldiers’ noses that good? …Ma’am?”
The man tilted his head at Sharti’s words. Then, realizing they had come quite deep into the mountain, the man furrowed his brow.
“Don’t tell me…”
Interrupting the man’s words, Sharti pressed her index finger firmly onto his palm, writing distinctly.
“So if we confirm we’re not involved…”
Sharti lightly hit the man’s palm with her fist.
Perhaps because she had already decided to help the man.
Sharti’s writing of the word ‘accomplice’ was unhesitating.
‘Even if it really means being an accomplice, I can’t make excuses.’
Sharti still regretted, felt burdened by, and worried about her choice, but there was nothing she could do.
What could she do about something already done?
‘To put it bluntly, I even showed my face to this person.’
Maybe because she had even collapsed the cave, she felt bolder.
_____
In This Life I Love You Again (Modern Female-dominant)
Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.
Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.
The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”
When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…
The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced
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