Awkward silence resonated in the car after Ilyan said what he did.
"What do you mean by that?" Irene shifted on her seat, turning toward him to keenly inspect his expression.
"I mean what I said." He shared a serious momentary eye-lock with her before he chuckled and looked ahead. "Is it wrong to not like someone being troubled?"
"Uh… no." What else was she supposed to say on that? The dude seemed to have reasoning for everything and the kind of reasoning that she had no idea how to counter… the kind of reasoning that she didn't occasionally get to hear.
From that second, the journey went in silence. She called Grace to get the latest update regarding Ayden but it turned out that Grace and her father were stuck at the restaurant near their home because of the storm. Grace was grateful to Irene for stepping out to help. For them, getting out from where they were seemed impossible.
"We will have to start checking from here, you cover that side, I will cover this one," Ilyan suggested as they reached the beginning of the Bridgeway Street.
Irene hummed, dropping her phone in her lap, and focussed her gaze outside the window to look for Ayden.
As they were going forward and there was no trace of humans in that anyway abandoned place, Irene couldn't help the anxiety that was gripping her.
"I think we got him..."
Irene looked at Ilyan's face and then in the direction he was looking in and what came in her sight scared the wits out of her. She could see Ayden right in front of her eyes. Lying on the road, his knees curled up a little, and his hands clutching a small puppy to his chest. Every bit of the duo was shivering.
She watched a car stopping near Ayden while they were still away from him. Ilyan pressed on to the accelerator and stopped beside them. With that, Irene was able to take a closer look at the lady who had stepped out of the car.
"Kiara," Irene mumbled, certainly not expecting to meet her there.
"You know her?" Ilyan asked while unbuckling his seatbelt.
"Hmm." Of course, she knew her. She had known her for long enough.
"You stay here. Please," he urged, his gaze automatically going at her feet, "let me check up on what's happening."
She did not want to listen. She was not in the mentality to listen. Her heart was thumping loudly in her chest. Having Ayden lying in front of her in that condition was traumatizing to her but despite all of it, she found herself nodding at Ilyan.
"Thank you," he uttered and got down the car. By then, Kiara was already on her knees. She had been slowly shaking Ayden's shoulder but as Ilyan bent down, he realized that Ayden had lost his consciousness.
He was about to inform the girl in front of him of the same but her distraught self seemed too consumed by Ayden to understand it but he had to try. "He needs to be taken to the hospital."
Startled, Kiara looked beside her only to find a stranger whose advice made sense. "Ye...yes." It had been not more than two minutes since she arrived there and coming across Ayden's state which was absolutely unexpected dreaded her. Had it not been Ilyan breaking her trance, she had no idea how long it would have taken her to respond. She quickly thanked him and began to lift Ayden to get him to her car. His body was freezing cold and it freaked her out.
Ilyan brought his palm to ask her to hold on. "Wait. Let me help."
Kiara readily agreed. Him, her or anyone else - all that was important was getting Ayden to be treated. Ayden would not let go of the puppy. Ilyan decided to let it be the way it was. Kiara rushed to open the door of her car and Ilyan helped make Ayden get inside her car right away.
Kiara was absolutely not bothered by who Ilyan was, what he was doing there at that moment, and above all, why he was helping them. She just did not care. The bulb of her mind did not light until her head that was shifting from her right to left constantly out of her panic stopped at the car behind her.
'Irene?' Even from a distance, she discerned Irene in it. Something was terribly off. Ayden calling 'her' tocome to his aid was the last thing Kiara could ever think of so when she received his call a while ago asking her to come over stating he was stuck, she was left taken aback. But she had kept all her questions to herself and left her home right after he disconnected. And now, seeing Irene there but not stepping out to even check upon Ayden confirmed her suspicion. Things did not just seem complicated but also serious.
She thought of walking up to Irene and having a word with her but her eyes that fell upon Ayden's unconscious self lying on the back seat of her car did not let her take a step ahead.
Ayden was her priority at that particular moment and probably at a lot of other ones too. "Thank you," Expressing her appreciation to Ilyan, she got into her car and disappeared from there within seconds.
On returning to his car, Ilyan was met with the girl lost in her own world. Her eyes stared in the void in front of her almost in a daze. The sound of opening the door immediately pulled her back to reality. As acknowledgment dawned in her eyes, she uncomfortably shifted in her seat.
"I felt she wanted to take care of… Did I do anything wrong?" Ilyan did not know how to put it better. The intense emotions that he had seen in that girl's form had not allowed him to take Ayden along with them but he did not consider what Irene's take would be on that.
"No, you didn't. His safety and well-being... that is all that matters regardless of who is taking care of it."
Relief slowly washed over him as he heard her but with her next statement killed the smile forming over his lips.
"And I believe she will anyway take care of him way better than I could ever do. "