"God..."
The girl winced in pain by putting down the pain relief ointment with trembling hands. With a movement as slow as possible, she pulled her pants back up and threw herself on the bed in a prone position. She grimaced again when the silk of her pants again caused a stinging sensation as it rubbed against her bottom.
Ivory raised her head slightly. She tilted her head to the right and stared at the open window of her room. A cold wind blew against the back of her neck. She shivered a little.
She wanted to get up and cover the source of the discomfort but was too afraid to move more. Her mind was racing. Deep in her heart, what she felt the most was pain.
Offended.
She had promised herself not to be too disappointed with the game she was playing. She had warned her feelings to be a little stronger. In fact, the pain is still there. More and more, when he is expected to be by her side prefers to go with the one he loves more.
Aaron only bought medicine for her and gave it to one of the housekeepers at his house. The man asked his maid to deliver pain reliever to Ivory and left late into the night. It has been six hours since Ivory waited for her partner to come home. While enduring the wound and pain in her chest, she still hoped that Aaron would go home tonight to accompany her.
"Am I too stupid to expect you to come home?" she asked herself. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes tightly. "Is it wrong if I expect you to really care about me?"
The clock in the room chimed. It's eleven o'clock at night. She felt hungry, but the food already available on the table did not arouse her appetite. This was the first time she had refused food. It was not a natural thing. Actually, she felt a little guilty because she had wasted the cooking of the kind housekeeper. Something she had never done because she had previously been trained to endure hunger.
Her stomach growled. Ivory gripped it tightly. She immediately imagined eating a bowl of spicy ramen sold at the mini-market near her house. She had tried eating ramen at the convenience store once—when Roger invited her—and it was delicious. The steaming heat and thick noodle soup seemed to be calling her to get up and get rid of the pain in her lower body.
"Do I have to go out on a cold night like this?"
It was so cold outside. At least minus five. Not to mention the snow that fell on the streets. It must be very slippery.
But sipping ramen soup sounds very tempting. At least her desire for hot and spicy food will be fulfilled, right?
Ivory considered for a moment. Even though Aaron had given her a credit card, Ivory didn't want to use it. Besides, she still had some money from selling her apricots a few days ago.
Looks like a bowl of ramen and a milk bottle wouldn't go wrong, right?
"Maybe by eating ramen, my pain will be reduced a little," she encouraged herself.
So that very second, she woke up with a low groan and rushed to take a long coat from the closet.
She realized how empty the house felt without Aaron as she descended the stairs. No household assistant works there. They had returned to their respective homes and rested. After all, their house is only a hundred meters from the employer's house.
Ivory walked with a limp while picking up the boats and wool socks on the shoe rack. She glanced at the boots on the bottom shelf. She stared at it for a few moments before realizing that the shoes belonged to the leader of the Guardians who had come to Aaron's house a few hours ago.
"Gosh." Ivory slapped herself on the forehead. "Why don't I just return it right away, anyway?"
Groaning in annoyance at feeling bad, she opened the house door and came out with her hands in the pockets of her thick coat.
She was correct; the weather was freezing. Her lips would almost freeze if she didn't move them repeatedly. Unfortunately for her because she did not bring gloves. There are no hot packs either. Her hand was currently almost numb.
Ivory decided to quicken her pace. She gritted her teeth and ran a little to get to the mini-market as soon as possible. She had to get inside the room before she froze.
Her feet moved nimbly until she arrived at the door of the mini-market in front of her. Then she pushed hard on the door. Ivory walked into the heated room, shivering violently.
The pain is getting worse. She needs to sit down. As soon as possible before fainting from the pain.
It was only when she was about to pull up a chair by the coffee machine that she saw the figure of the owner of the boots she had in mind. The man sat there alone with a bowl of ramen, a small cup of coffee, and a sausage in his left hand. The Guardian named Cakara ate his food voraciously.
"Mr. Guardian?" said Ivory slowly. Hesitating that the man in front of her heard it, she cleared her throat and called the person again a little louder. "Mr. Guardian?" she repeated.
"Kelana?"
Cakara looked at Ivory wide-eyed before lowering his voice and whispering with a worried look.
"What are you doing here?"
Ivory laughed awkwardly and pointed at the neatly arranged row of ramen to her right. "I wanted to eat ramen. So I came here," she explained.
Cakara immediately got up from his seat and looked out of the mini-market warily. He checked the watch on his left wrist before chuckling in annoyance. "You shouldn't be out this late. It'll be midnight soon. Another Guardian will be doing the sweeping, and you could be in trouble."
Ivory's mouth opened slightly. She tilted her head and glanced outside with a bit of fear. "I've never heard of sweeping before," she said nervously.
Cakara pulled Ivory's hand away from the CCTV. The two of them were standing behind the microwave, covered by a large blue vending machine. "Of course, you haven't heard of it. The activity will be held tonight. There was no prior notification," he explained.
Ivory widened her round eyes.
"Right after the Pre-Checking stage, we plan to have a sweeping activity every day. If you are caught going out alone without your partner, you can be taken by them to the Supreme Council. Especially your status as a Secondary. You could be imprisoned easily."
"Why go to jail? What's wrong with people who want to buy dinner?" Ivory asked excitedly and confused.
"It's hard to explain. It has to do with the riots in the southeast. The Higher-ups think that tightening the curfew will minimize the possibility of triggering chaos in Makara."
"Who's going to make a fuss?"
"Don't ask unimportant questions! Better focus on yourself."
"Does that only apply to Copulation participants?"
"Who else do you think it's for?"
Ivory took a deep breath. Thirty minutes to midnight. If caught, Ivory will be in trouble because any Guardian has never known mercy...
Wait a minute...
Wasn't that man in front of her also part of the Guardian?
"Shit."