"What were those dreams...?"
Suddenly gaining self-control, David looked at her and asked. In response, Aami 's eyes met his face. Her eyes, which had just finished a frantic "circumambulation" of his features, finally came to rest on his deep blue eyes.
She couldn't even understand how she was able to compare his eyes to the ones she saw in her dreams. She couldn't fathom the emotion she felt toward this man, who was essentially a stranger. His eyes, too, were fixed firmly upon hers.
David felt his heartbeat quickening again, a sensation he acknowledged with a sense of exhaustion. This was the face he had seen in his dreams, and now it was established so closely before him. He was surrounded by a scent that was incredibly dear to him. The lips he had once tasted with such hunger were now turning a tempting red within the circle of his breath, waiting for him.
His eyes moved down to her neck...
Remembering that there is a place where a sacred bond can be strengthened, the emotional depths within him began to shift completely. Yet, he tried to control himself. He disciplined his mind, telling himself repeatedly not to behave in a way that ignored his duties and responsibilities.
Slowly, he moved away from her and leaned against a nearby rock.
"Mm... you didn't say..."
He repeated, as if expecting an answer to the question he had asked earlier.
"What...?"
In his presence, Aami felt for a moment as if she had traveled to another world. At his question, she returned to her senses. But it was as if she had forgotten everything they had been talking about until that moment.
"The dreams..."
As he repeated it, David's mind was filled with the dreams he had seen many times before. Therefore, he was deeply anxious to know the answer to his question.
"Dreams... sometimes it feels like they have a lot of meaning... and sometimes they seem like mere foolishness... things that never happen...Things the mind just imagines and puts together... then at night, they cross into our sleep as dreams, showing us mirages in the desert for no reason..."
She spoke with a touch of poetic flair mixed into her embarrassment... hoping he wouldn't understand. After all, the things that happened in those dreams were certainly not the kind of things one could easily believe, let alone describe to someone else.
"Even so..." he asked.
"If I give you an answer after you say 'even so,' you'll just make fun of me, won't you?" she said with a hint of a pout.
"No, I won't make fun of you..." David replied.
"Is that the truth...?" When she asked for confirmation, he simply nodded his head.
"Then I'll tell you... okay?"
Saying this, she began to explain the general form of the dream she had seen to the man standing before her. However, she only spoke of things that could be sensed or described...
but for the man who had seen the exact same dream, it wasn't difficult to understand what she meant. A tremor passed through him... why? Within that question itself lay his answer.
He turned his face and looked at Aami . She was looking at him as if wondering whether he believed anything she had said. David stood there, unable to offer a reply. His mind was flooded with a surge of emotions. Beyond all that, he had come here for a purpose... and he intended to return once that goal was achieved. He couldn't allow any other thoughts to interfere with that.
Yet, her gaze, her words, her scent... even without a touch, her presence sharpened his emotions. He felt a sudden, intense longing to experience in reality what he had seen in his dreams, just this once.
"Aami ..."
In the very moment he began to lean toward her, a man's voice reached them, searching for them. When David stood up straight and looked, he saw Alex, the young man who had been with Aami earlier, approaching. He was coming specifically to find Aami . As soon as she heard his voice, Aami slipped down from the rock and stood on the ground.
"Aami , where are you...?" He was asking with a mix of slight fear and great anxiety.
"I'm here..."
Before she could finish her sentence, David grabbed her hand. As she looked at him in confusion, he let go of her hand and bid her a silent farewell,...He turned and walked away without saying a single word.
"Devi..."
She rushed toward him and grabbed his hand. At the same time, she looked at him with utter bewilderment. His eyes, too, were fixed on her—on that beautiful, small face. But then, as if suddenly remembering something, he quickly pulled his hand away from hers and walked forward with haste.
Aami stood there for a moment, watching him in shock. Then, an inexplicable sadness overwhelmed her soul. Her heart throbbed as it followed his figure disappearing into the darkness.
"What are you doing here, Aami ...???"
The moment her footsteps moved forward to follow him, Alex's voice came from behind. When she turned around with a start, she saw that he was in a bit of a temper.
"I... I couldn't sleep... so I just came for a walk..." she said.
She didn't feel like mentioning anything about David. Besides, what was there even to say?
"Aha, a great place to come for a 'night walk'... have you gone mad, Aami ? Just go back properly. This place is full of wild animals..."
He spoke first with mockery and then with a stern seriousness as he grabbed her hand.
"Come on, let's go... she's out here with all sorts of crazy ideas..."
Saying this, he led her away without letting go of her hand. As they walked forward, Aami 's eyes tried to look back one last time into the darkness where David had gone. With a heavy heart, not knowing if she would ever see him again and leaving so much left unsaid, she walked on. She felt her heart sobbing for no reason... as if she were abandoning something incredibly dear to her.