The shock of seeing that bizarre and grotesque sight was short-lived, as Erhan’s approach right in front of me made my heart race with urgency.

I stretched out my hand, grabbed the bandage, and shoved it back inside. However, in my haste, it all went wrong. Crouching clumsily, I had hurriedly shifted my weight, causing my ankle to twist. Slamming my knee on the floor in pain, I tumbled forward.

“Oscar!”

Erhan, startled, swiftly approached me, but I didn’t turn my gaze towards him.

Falling over was actually an opportunity for me. Although intense pain shot up, as if my ankle had broken, it didn’t matter.

Just before my upper body slammed into the floor, I didn’t let go of the sorcery tool I was holding. The moment I fell, I hurled the bandage I had grabbed into the corner under the bed.

“Ugh!”

Done.

However, failing to properly brace myself, I ended up smashing my face into the floor. Even as I tumbled, I had to make sure the sorcery tool was thrown deep under the bed, and the price was a gash on my face.

‘Damn it. Next time, I’ll secure it tightly with a padlock and even chains.’

As I fell, I noticed that the gap in the box hidden far away in the darkness was slightly open. The sorcery tool itself was very thin, so it must have squeezed through the gap in the box and popped out.

With a loud thud, a belated pain washed over me as I fell. My cheek and jaw hurt terribly from smashing my face into the floor. Erhan promptly lifted me up as I groaned and moaned, clutching my throbbing face.

“Are you an idiot?!”

Erhan, who had pulled me up, had an expression beyond dumbfounded, verging on disbelief.

To him, unaware of my desperate struggle, I must have seemed like a fool who had been sitting still and then fell over. He stared at me as if he had never seen such an imbecile before. Embarrassment surged through me at his dumbfounded gaze, but I was busy checking if there were any other bandages sticking out from under the bed.

“I’m fine. I just fell.”

I kept saying I was fine, but he grasped my chin and examined both of my cheeks alternately. Running his fingertips over the scraped side of my face, he clicked his tongue and suddenly pushed me back slightly. Then, he grabbed my foot.

“Let me see your ankle.”

“My ankle is probably fine too… Ah.”

I thought it was fine, but as soon as Erhan grasped my foot, a tingling pain rushed in. Unconsciously curling my leg, I quickly lowered my gaze. The ankle had already swollen up.

It was just a slight twist, so how could this happen? Well, even as a child, I couldn’t walk much and often sprained my ankle easily.

They say my body is weak, but even my ankles? I was looking at my ankle with a slightly indignant expression. I was startled and widened my eyes at the hand slipping under my leg. Erhan pushed his arm under the back of my knee, and then inserted his arm up to my armpit.

“What are you-!”

Erhan’s face suddenly drew close to mine. As I widened my eyes even more, wondering what this was all about, I felt my body being lifted up. I soon cried out in shock and struggled.

“Let go!”

Erhan had picked me up in his arms.

I struggled, not wanting to be held by him, but it wasn’t a particularly useful movement. Erhan grabbed the back of my squirming neck and spoke.

“Stay still.”

I wanted to resist him, but the startling sensation made me grab my ear.

Was it because his mouth and my ear were close? How could a person’s voice… be this ticklish?

As I reflexively grabbed my ear and frowned, Erhan let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. He then lowered me onto the bed.

I almost let out a groan involuntarily but held it back. Just placing my foot on the soft bed caused pain in my ankle.

“It’s properly sprained. You won’t be able to walk for a while.”

I could tell even without Erhan pointing it out. The ankle had swollen up in an instant. If I didn’t treat it properly, the area around the ankle bone would swell up to the size of a baby’s fist, making it impossible to distinguish between bone and flesh.

“The medicine box.”

It would be ridiculous to insist that it didn’t hurt when my ankle was in this state. Finally, after thinking about whether I had put any sorcery-related items in the drawer, I answered.

“There’s ointment and bandages in the second drawer over there… If you just bring them, I can do it myself.”

Erhan headed towards the drawer as soon as I finished speaking.

He brought over an ointment that was so cold it made my bones chill when applied, along with fresh bandages, and without hesitation, he grabbed my foot. Before I could say anything, he started applying the ointment.

“I can do that myself…!”

Since he disliked being touched, I could apply it myself… I reached out to stop him, but Erhan was faster.

He squeezed out a long strip of ointment onto his fingertips and applied it to my ankle. Erhan’s rough hand directly touched my skin. Wherever his hand brushed, a burning sensation and ticklishness arose simultaneously.

My furrowed brow gradually relaxed as I flinched. Thankfully, applying the ointment made the pain much more bearable than before, but it was sure to be temporary. The pain would persist for several days like this.

It was already troublesome enough, but above all, what made me the most uncomfortable right now was the contact with Erhan. He was now trying to wrap a bandage around my ankle.

“Give it to me.”

I reached out and tried to snatch the bandage from him. Of course, Erhan didn’t allow even this. He escaped from my grasp far too easily. As he finished wrapping the bandage, he looked at the back of my hand, which had turned red and blistered from the candle wax, and smirked.

“In this state? As if.”

Despite his rough tone, Erhan’s touch as he wrapped the bandage was gentle.

His long fingers caught my eye. Like someone who had wrapped bandages many times, Erhan began compressing my ankle with great skill.

As I watched his deft handiwork, I raised my gaze and surreptitiously observed Erhan’s expression. Seeing his relentlessly furrowed expression, I realized that he, too, found this situation extremely uncomfortable. His furrowed brow, creased in irritation, and tightly closed lips stood out, as if nothing about this pleased him.

‘Even though he hates being touched.’

With such a displeased expression while helping me, there was no way I could feel at ease. He was someone who disliked touching others so much that he had even engraved sorcery on his body. I couldn’t just sit back and watch as someone like that applied ointment to my body and even wrapped a bandage.

“That’s enough.”

I pulled my foot away from Erhan’s grasp. Perhaps it was because I had moved my foot forcefully. The pain I had barely suppressed came rushing in like a tide, causing my brow to furrow involuntarily.

“What are you doing right now?”

At the same time, sharp words fell upon me. His eyes, as they stared at me, had grown cold.

Looking at his face, even more contorted than before, sent a chill down my neck. I couldn’t bear to look at it any longer. Averting my gaze, I tried to pull my foot away again, but Erhan wouldn’t budge.

He grabbed my thigh and forcefully pulled it towards him. The strong force made my body slide downward.

“Why are you being so stubborn? I’m trying to help you.”

“It’s not stubbornness-“

“Then. Is it because you don’t want me to touch you?”

His tone, filled with anger, also began to grate on my nerves.

I knew. It was me who had carelessly closed the box, and it was me who had injured my ankle like an idiot. I hated being like this. I hated myself for constantly messing things up despite trying my best, but…

“Aren’t you the one who hates being touched by me?”

I also felt wronged.

I wanted to be considerate of Erhan. I had seen him struggling as soon as our skin touched when we were young. I had directly witnessed the numerous sorcery formations engraved on his body, indicating that it was still the same as he grew up. I had seen everything, from the black gloves he wore on his hands when we met at the banquet to the way he subtly distanced himself when people approached.

“I don’t care about such things, and I have no intention of telling anyone. You don’t need to force yourself in front of me.”

Strangely, he had recently been acting as if he didn’t mind touching me. It seemed to be because of the Duke.

Even though I was a rolling stone, I was still family. He must have been pretending that contact with me was fine out of concern for the Duke’s gaze.

I didn’t know the reason, but from the moment we first met, Erhan had tried not to let the Duke know that he disliked being touched by others. There was no guarantee that he wasn’t doing the same now. However, Erhan’s reaction was different from what I had expected.

“Me, hating to be touched by you?”