Ezekiel suddenly pulled back and told Keira, "You wait here. I'll be right back."

Ezekiel headed outside the room and shut the door. Keira even heard the clicking sound of the lock operating.

She let out a sigh of relief. A headache was starting to resurface. It seem like the hotness she felt in her head was not from directly the bursting emotions but from her residing fever.

Keira looked down at the bloodied soaked bandages and the chain resting on her leg. The chain was a big surprise for her. She felt the headache getting worst by merely observing her situation. Another sigh escaped.

'Would the chain even reach the bathroom? If so, how would she be able to lock the bathroom?'

Before another sigh could escape Keira's chapped lips, the door opened again. Ezekiel was back, bringing a big medicinal box and a bottle of water.

Looking at the hugeness of the box, makes Keira think that Ezekiel had already the necessary tools prepared not just for her current wounds, but also for the future once—like hell she would stay here longer for another one to form.

Ezekiel opened the bottle of water and pushed it toward her mouth. Keira wanted to remain stubborn and refuse but the look on Ezekiel's face made her hesitant.

"Drink."

Keira reluctantly complied and drank the water, giving relief to her burning throat.

After finishing almost the entire bottle, Ezekiel silently took out some rolled bandages, a tweezer, several cotton balls, and some antiseptic from the medicine box. He expressionlessly said, "Strip."

Keira: "?!?!?!"

Seeing Keira's dumbfounded expression, Ezekiel could feel the previous negative emotions from earlier, seems to disappear, and could even find himself laughing.

He gestured with his head, "Just take off your shirt so I could properly dress up your wounds."

Keira, "Oh."

'You should have said that from the beginning!'

Well, it's better to do as he says since her wounds were now getting uncomfortable with the gauze sticking to her wound.

She predicted that it would be painful to remove the gauze, now that the blood was starting to dry. Showing some of her belly fat wouldn't harm her anyway and maybe the male lead had already seen everything if he were the one who changed her bloodied clothes to these comfortable loose shirt pajamas.

Keira lifted her shirt letting Ezekiel freely dress her wounds. Keira hissed while the bandage was being removed, but she could tell that Ezekiel was trying his best to be careful and lessen the pain as much as possible for her. This small action touched a small portion in Keira's heart. Only small though, as this was his entire fault to begin with.

After everything was done, Ezekiel took back the medicine box and brought some light food for her to eat. She was starving, so she didn't deny Ezekiel's food and gladly raised one of her arms to accept the food. Ezekiel rose one of his eyebrows as if he was saying 'what are you doing?'

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Ezekiel put the tray on the nightstand beside the bed. Took the bowl of chicken soup and proceeded to blow the hot soup. Keira found this situation familiar.

'The male lead really likes feeding me.'

Well, it saves her the trouble of lifting her arms. When she return to her original world, Keira believed that she would become lazy from letting the male leads do all the work for her.

Keira ate the food with difficulty as she didn't have much appetite. Ezekiel was patient and kept encouraging her to take one more bite. Until that 'one more bite' emptied the entire bowl.

After finishing the meal, Keira felt full and tired. Her headache didn't go away even after eating, and she still feels hot all over. Ezekiel handed her a pill and a cup of water. Keira looked at Ezekiel with an interrogative stare.

"Fever reducer. You still feel hot when I touched you earlier."

Keira thought, 'What? You paid attention to that when you were munching on my neck earlier?'

Keira peered into Ezekiel's eyes and saw that he was only urging her to take the medicine. She didn't have much choice anyway. She felt like if she were to deny taking the pill, Ezekiel would directly shove it down her throat. With that in mind, Keira tentatively took the pill and drank the water together with the pill.

Ezekiel helped her settle back in bed, tucking her snuggly with the quilt, hiding the now forgotten silver chain on her leg. Ezekiel leaned in, lightly brushed the hair on her face, and kissed her forehead affectionately.

She felt drowsy under the warm embrace of the pillows and blanket. She must have tired herself out from earlier or the fever-reducing pills just have sleepiness as a side effect. Either way, she wants just wants to lay comfortably for now and sleep.

Ezekiel was still gently caressing her hair, and before slumber to her, she heard Ezekiel gently say,

"Sleep well Keira..."

...

In her sleep, Keira dreamt of Leal. She was 23 at that time and just freshly graduated college. Leal was 24 and was working as a manager in a company that Keira planned to apply to. At first, Keira didn't think Leal was her boss because when she met him in the hallways he gave off a cold and aloof feeling like Ezekiel but when Leal approached her, he was brightly smiling like Aster.

Leal wished her good luck with her interview, and because of their interaction, the nervousness she felt seemed to vanish away. She was able to flawlessly pass her interview and directly got the job. They saw each other again when Keira got assigned to his department.

Then that's where things progress. Keira and Leal just hit along well, like they were compatible, to begin with. Leal would for some reason only give cold replies to others, be it her coworkers or Keira's friends. But after interacting with Leal for some time, Keira found out that Leal really just has that kind of personality, and only to her he was different.

This made her feel special but she didn't want to put herself on a pedestal, but she wouldn't lie and say it didn't affect her feelings for him. After working in the same enterprise for 2 years, Leal then decided to start his own company. He said that he had already been planning on having his own for a long time but just didn't have enough resources to.

Keira admired this hardworking part of Leal, where he tries very hard to achieve his goal, unlike her who was so passive and just let the flow of the world naturally take her. Leal offered them to be 'business partners'. Keira laughed and said that she was too lazy to handle business. Leal only said that he just want their names to be together, that's why he offered. He didn't care if he were the one doing everything, in fact, he even stated that he preferred it if she relied on him for everything.

Keira accepted, thinking it was a joke. She didn't even quit her job in the old company. When Leal grew his company at an extremely rapid pace, Leal actually kept his promise. He established the company with them both the 'owners'. Keira even wondered how was that possible. But Leal just creates wonders. People from the business world would often associate him with the words 'clever and dangerous'.

Keira didn't think that their first innocent encounter of them in the hallway would completely turn her life around.

Feeling like she was about to wake up, Keira glanced at the scene in her dreams of the first encounter she had with Leal in the hallway.

This was supposed to be their first encounter.

But something inside her tells her that—this was not.