Don't Ask, It'll Hurt If You Know - Chapter 16
She had naturally assumed it would be Aaron, but Ian? Chloe’s mouth fell open at the appearance of this completely unexpected person.
Why is he here? Could it be that he came to visit after hearing about my coma?
Before being rivals, Ian was a friend and academy classmate, and their families were well acquainted. So it wasn’t strange at all for Ian to come visit her, but it still made her uncomfortable.
She felt embarrassed to show him her unconscious self who had fallen from a horse.
For similar reasons, she didn’t want to show her transformed self as Bianca either, so Chloe covered her mouth and curled up as much as possible.
Thump thump, her heartbeat, unusually loud today, was bothering her.
Seemingly unaware that someone was hiding under the sofa table, Ian stood motionless in front of the bed. From her position, she couldn’t see what expression he wore. Not that she particularly wanted to see it.
‘I wish he would leave quickly.’
She massaged her increasingly numb legs while hoping for Ian to disappear. The numbness in her legs was a problem, but she was more worried about Aaron returning. Once he came back, she wouldn’t be able to keep hiding.
Chloe inwardly groaned as she vividly imagined what expression Ian would make when she suddenly emerged after hiding like a thief all this time.
Though she desperately hoped and prayed for Ian to leave quickly to avoid such an unfortunate situation, sadly, he seemed to have no such intention.
After standing there so long that she began to wonder if he had turned to stone, Ian suddenly sat down at the bedside.
Now able to see his face, Chloe’s eyes widened as she noticed something transparent glistening beneath his eyes.
‘What? Is he… crying?’
Ian MacMilden, who sometimes seemed barely human with his cold-bloodedness, came to visit me and is crying?
She couldn’t believe it. No, she refused to believe it. Chloe thought her numb legs were making her see things.
She rubbed her eyes and looked again, but nothing changed. His eyes still glistened, and were even slightly red. Anyone would recognize it as the face of someone who had been crying hard.
“Impossible…….”
Momentarily forgetting that she shouldn’t be discovered by Ian, Chloe muttered in shock, then quickly covered her mouth and watched his reaction. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have heard her.
Just as Chloe was sighing in relief, the gold coin she had been holding fell and rolled toward Ian.
‘Oh, no!’
A silent scream erupted within her. Chloe quickly reached out, but the coin had already rolled far away, coming to a precise stop against Ian’s shoe.
“…….”
“…….”
And Chloe’s eyes met exactly with Ian’s as he turned his head toward the direction the coin had come from.
A heavy silence fell between them, but Chloe’s mind was louder with screams than ever before. Among all the scenarios she had imagined, this was absolutely the worst.
How should she handle this crisis? Even as she pondered this, his distinct tear stains kept catching her attention.
More distracted by the tear stains than by the fact that Ian had discovered her hiding under the table, Chloe stared openly at his face.
At this, Ian’s eyes hardened even more coldly than when he first discovered her. Though she had known him for well over eight years, she had never seen such an icy expression.
It was both chilling and slightly hurtful to see such a frightening expression from Ian, who had never even furrowed his brow when she pestered him for duels.
“Who are you?”
His low voice was even colder than his gaze. The atmosphere was so intense that Chloe felt as if she’d been struck dozens of times, if words could physically hit someone. She couldn’t manage any response.
But she couldn’t stay like this forever. She needed to say something to clear up this misunderstanding.
“Ouch.”
Before clearing up the misunderstanding, Chloe tried to stand up first, but her numb legs gave way and she slumped back down.
More than her knee that had hit the floor hard, the embarrassment of showing such an undignified sight to Ian was worse. Chloe sat still, unable to even lift her head, let alone stand up.
“You…….”
Just as Ian, who had been looking at Chloe either pathetically or suspiciously, was about to speak, the bedroom door opened again.
