"Rüzgar?"
He looked at me like he was waiting for me to continue and lifted his coffee mug to his lips. After a moment of hesitation, I blurted it out.
"Do you like Kerem?"
He sprayed the coffee out before he could even swallow, and I cursed my timing internally. I grabbed a paper towel from the table, wiped up the mess, and held one out to him too.
"What did you just say?" The look he gave me made me want to sink into the floor.
"It sounded totally logical before I said it out loud, though." When I muttered to myself, he burst into laughter.
Honestly, I wouldn't have been that shocked if he'd said yes.
His laugh was prettier than I expected, and seeing him like this was… strange. For a brief moment, being able to glimpse the sweet, fun person behind his icy walls made me happy.
Of course, knowing my stupid question was the reason wasn't exactly pleasant.
I covered my face with my hands and groaned.
"Do you have to laugh like that? This is so embarrassing!" When he kept laughing, I smacked his arm. "I'm serious, stop!"
When he finally nodded and paused, I was still grumbling in irritation.
"Sometimes you look so much like her."
The words came out in a voice barely above a whisper. It felt like he hadn't said it to me, but to himself.
And in his eyes was that same sadness and longing I'd seen the night Kerem disappeared.
I didn't know why, but the way he looked at me like that made me feel guilty.
"Like who?"
Within a few seconds, he slipped back into his usual serious expression and returned to his ice castle, and I knew I wasn't going to get an answer.
Whoever he thought I resembled, he clearly didn't like talking about that person—at least not with me. He'd probably said it without thinking.
"You're not fully recovered. You should go back to bed."
"But I'm not sleepy."
Just then, the sound of a phone ringing cut our conversation in half. He pulled his phone from his pocket, checked the caller, then looked at me and answered.
As if the person on the line had something to do with me, he didn't take his eyes off me the entire time he spoke.
"Yes… No… Yes… Just now… Fine… One hour… Okay."
This guy forming full sentences should've been considered a sign of the apocalypse.
He hung up and shoved the phone back into his pocket.
"I have to go."
Of course he did, right after a conversation that mysterious.
I stood with him and nodded like I understood. As I headed for the cabinet where I kept my snacks, I muttered,
"Thanks for your help."
Before I could even open the chocolate wrapper, a hand reached from behind and snatched it out of mine. I spun around, annoyed. "Hey! That's my last chocolate!"
"Not before breakfast. Your medicine time is coming up."
As I tried to grab my chocolate back, I kept complaining.
"Rüzgar, give me my chocolate. I'm a twenty-two-year-old grown woman. I'll eat whatever I want for breakfast. Give it back!"
He was one ninety tall, and the second he lifted his hand up, I automatically had to jump like two and a half meters.
"Look at that height! Are you even human?"
"What are you doing at the crack of dawn, for God's sake?"
I turned toward the voice behind me just as I smacked his arm in frustration.
When I pointed at Rüzgar and said, "Sapphire, tell him something! He stole my chocolate and won't give it back," Feyza put both hands on her hips. I grinned triumphantly and looked at Rüzgar.
He was about to get a proper scolding.
"Duru Ulusoy, you are going back to bed right now! You're not even recovered and you're already jumping around and tiring yourself out. And look at you—you don't even have socks on."
I had been absolutely crushed.
When my face fell at Rüzgar's smug look, I turned to Feyza in protest.
"But Sapphire—"
"I said bed!"
I slumped my shoulders and trudged toward the door. Then I turned back, narrowed my eyes, and pointed at them.
"Don't you dare eat my chocolate."
Feyza, exhausted, took the chocolate from Rüzgar's hand and put it back in the cabinet.
"Okay? Are we good now?"
I nodded and left the kitchen in peace.
When I entered the bedroom and grabbed my phone off the nightstand, a sneaky idea hit me, and I quietly returned to the living room.
Thank God none of them had changed their sleeping positions much.
"Smile, guys."
After whispering that, I was laughing at the photos I'd taken—at the best angles possible—when I saw Aylin starting to stir. I immediately ran back to my room.
Once I got into bed and pulled the blanket over myself, I set my phone aside and grinned to myself.
A short while later, Feyza came in holding a tray. She set it on my lap and eyed me suspiciously. With a cute smile, I patted the empty space beside me, inviting her to sit.
When she sat down without questioning it, I looked at the food on the tray, tore off a piece of bread without appetite, and put it in my mouth.
Rüzgar came in to grab the shirt hanging on the chair, and I turned to Feyza to tell her I didn't have an appetite, already tired of poking at my plate.
But seeing my friend—her cheeks flushed, her face turned toward the blanket, one hand kneading my comforter—made me forget about food entirely.
While Rüzgar was buttoning up his shirt, I kept looking from him to her, trying to figure out what I'd missed.
Aside from Feyza's sudden, pointless shyness, nothing seemed different on the other side. Still, I was sure something had happened, and I needed to wait until Rüzgar left to satisfy my curiosity.
When he was ready, Rüzgar looked at Feyza and me briefly, then walked out and closed the door behind him.
I waited a little more, and the moment I heard the front door shut, I set the tray on my nightstand.
Then I turned to Feyza, excited.
"Tell me everything. What happened while I was asleep?"