Jessica POV

It was past twelve when we finally arrive at the front of a small, wooden hut. We had a pretty much quiet car trip ever since we left the canola field, with Yuri obviously preferred to be cool and focus driving the car off the highway and down the hilly roads. I dozed a little as I didn’t have enough sleep the night before. To be honest, I still can feel my heart beating so fast and my mind was racing and twirling, remembering how I was being so close to Yuri, feeling her hard, solid body – and it was hard – around my fingers drove me insane. I want to kiss her everywhere. I want to touch her everywhere. I want to explore her everywhere, just like how I explored her seven years ago. I want it again. Badly.

Oh God, what should I do?

With the current reality of both of us venturing to the potentially dangerous situation – encountering criminals and drug dealers and confronting both Jaejoong and my long-lost father, and then Yuri. . . I sigh. Ever since we had our ‘defensive practice’, she’s being very adamant with the boundary – our physical boundary, and very careful to not cross it over even though I’m sure, very sure that she’s still attracted to me.

“We’ll need to park the car here. Hyoyeon’s friend will come over and bring the car back to her.” Yuri says as she turns off the car’s engine and gets out the car, taking out both our backpacks.

“Are we going to stay here?”

Yuri glances at me as we walk toward the house’s gate.”Nope, from now on we’re going to walk. The only way to reach Wuyuan without being caught is by walking through the forest and mountains.”

“W-walk?” My eyes widen in surprise and I halt my steps.”For how long?”

“For a fit person, it will take around three days.” Yuri says, she tosses the car key into the mailbox before continuing,”We’ll definitely need more than three days considering you’re not used to walk or hike.”

Alright, more than three days walking on an unknown, hilly path. How am I going to survive? Throughout my whole life, I have never ever done any hiking or walking up to the mountains. I’m not a fit person. And are we going to have a sleep? A sudden worry slowly creeps up on me.

“We’ll find a place to camp. I bring my tent with me so don’t worry about having to sleep on a mud.”

Oh. I nod at her, feeling slightly relieve. Seeing Yuri under the sun’s light truly exudes her tanned, caramelized skin and her fierce beauty compels my eyes in ways that I am unable to stop staring at her. She glances my way and catches me staring at her. I quickly look away, my cheeks flushed, feeling rather embarrassed.

Soon we start our trip to the village- on foot this time- and we’ve got to undertake a small path through the jungle. The farther we walk, the steeper the steps are as we move into denser and denser rainforest jungle and it’s getting harder to move through those areas. Yuri is moving fast, smoothly and effortlessly and I am having a very difficult time catching up with her. There’s once we’re walking through the clouds and I watch Yuri disappears entirely before my eyes – this freaks me out- despite there being only a small distance between us. I am insanely sweating, my legs are hurting, my muscles are burning and I think I have some blisters on my feet.

After hours of vertical ascent and traversing through thick brushes on dirt trails, I find myself shivering – most probably affected by the high altitude as I follow Yuri while trying to keep her pace. My goodness she doesn’t even show any sign of fatigue. I am breathing harshly, completely exhausted and my knee is weakening.

Just when I think I am going to die, Yuri suddenly halts her step that I almost bump into her back. “Oh,” I say, my focus is kind of disoriented. A hand lightly grabs my shoulder, steadying me.” We’ll camp here.”

Thank God. I say to myself. I almost groan with relief and burst out into tears as I am unable to feel my legs anymore. I definitely need a rest to ease the pain in my legs. Looking at the area surrounds me, I attempt not to grimace. This area is mostly covered by lush trees with few large rocks scatter here and there. Through the gap between the trees, I can see that the sun is almost set and dark night is slowly approaching. Yuri has just finished setting up the makeshift tent and sits on a rock right in front of me. “Here for you,” She hands the water bottle on to me.

“Thank you,” I meet her eyes as I take the water from her. Yuri’s expression remains enigmatic.

I slowly move a step to sit on the rock besides her but can’t help to feel the wince that is rubbing of my blisters. They are hurting so much.”I’ll just go inside the tent.”

Yuri suddenly stands up, surprising me. Her expression is a mixture of anger and tense.”No. Sit down. I will need to see your feet.”

I lie.”I’m okay, Yuri.”

“I say, sit down.” She commands again, her voice is raising. Even though I am slightly taken aback by her tone of voice, I comply to her order and sit down on the rock.

Yuri kneels right in front of me, bringing my legs to her lap and slowly peeling off my socks and shoes off me. I wince again. Then she turns them slightly and I can hear her raspy breaths seeing the blisters on my feet. “Why you don’t tell me about this?”

I hang my head low.” Because I don’t want you to think like I’m a spoiled girl.”

Yuri’s eyes move steadily up until she meets mine. I can see a vein beating at the base of and her jaws are clenching. Her cold brown eyes seeming to warm within minutes. “You must have been in pain for hours.”

“I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not, Sica.” Her eyes meet me again, she’s wearing concern on her face. My heart is beating ridiculously fast at the sound of Yuri’s voice saying myname. Sica. This is the first time I’ve heard her calling me with the name she used to call me seven years ago. She immediately stands up and grabs a first aid kit from her backpack. “It’ll hurt a little, but you will be okay.”

“It’s fine Yul, I’m ok—“

“You should follow my rules. No complain.” Her gaze is stern as she glances at me.

I give her a slow, silent nod response. She’s still looking at me and I can see a vein beating steadily at the base of . Am I still affecting her?

Yuri’s thumbs find the muscle under my ankle bone, and I can feel me pulses. She squirts some of the Tylenol before applying onto my blisters on my feet and I wince in pain. It hurts. Her other thumb quickly rubs over my ankle, giving it a light circle ove