By the time she woke up it was near the middle of the night. As she blinked a few times, the tears that had gathered fell on her cheeks. Noah stared blankly at the ceiling and came to a realization.

“Ah… another dream…”

The minute she had fallen asleep, she had started to dream. It was an extension of her lucid dream that she had thought had ended yesterday. The occurrences of her return to Korea had been visiting her. But she could tell instinctively, this was the last dream. The bond between her body and soul had finally stabilized. After all that time, the imprint of the dragon was finally perfect.

Right. That’s all good… Noah put a hand to her aching forehead. I don’t feel too good.

“Wow. It sure is difficult to retrieve a body…”

Beside her, Muell looked up at her worriedly. As she moved her hand to stroke his black curly hair, the child felt the tremors of her hand.

“Shall we go to Mr. Uncle?”

Perhaps we should.

Noah slithered out of the bed and stood blankly for a while before moving to the right side of the room. Then, she opened the door she had locked with her own hands.

***

Kyle let Noah into the room, while he locked himself in the bathroom like she did a few hours ago. It was because he thought they would need another door for him not to lay his hands on Noah who warned him continuously. After he had finally calmed his heart and exited the bathroom, he felt himself shaken again as he saw the woman sitting on his bed.

Kyle suspected his eyes for a minute. “Miss Noah??

Noah was wearing only a black shirt, and the gown he had tied tightly for her nor the clothes he had borrowed from the owner of the hostel were nowhere in sight. It seemed like she hadn’t even bothered to change. Kyle swallowed as he saw the gown, which had probably fallen off, on the floor.

“And you tell me not to cross the line…”

Noah looked at him silently. The room was dark so it was difficult to make out her expression. Kyle tried his best not to look in Noah’s direction and turned on the lamp on the side table, dyeing the room with a shade of orange. Kyle sighed and started to nag as usual.

“I know you don’t perceive me as a man, but isn’t this too much? I even let you go safely back to bed this morning but if you keep…”

There should have been a reply by now, but Noah was still silent. Instead, a small hand grabbed his. Kyle turned to look at her surprised, then he realised that Noah looked too pale. And the hand that grabbed a hold of him was far too cold.

“Are you alright? Why is your face so…” He bent over, attempting to inspect her, when Noah’s arms wrapped around his neck. Through the thin pieces of clothing, he felt the soft curves of her body. She clinged on desperately that even with her insignificant weight, Kyle lost his balance and was dragged into bed.

“Hold- hold on…Miss Noah?”

He narrowly managed to refrain crushing her by balancing himself on one arm, but even then Noah did not let go. Eventually, Kyle gave up on trying to push Noah away and changed positions to have Noah on top of him. He was worried that he might break the small woman with his weight.

“Miss Noah, what’s wrong. Are you not well? Answer me. Can you hear me?”

Noah seemed like she was still half asleep. She was looking at him but her focus was off. He searched for her small hands and when he grabbed it, it wasn’t only cold, but it was also trembling slightly. She was in an unstable condition, Kyle assumed. A word suddenly crossed his mind: depression.

“Lift up your head.”

He tried to assess her condition but her arms around him wouldn’t let go, as though she didn’t want him to see her face. Kyle called her several times before shifting their positions again. He lay on his sides and finally caught a glimpse of her pale face. Her light brown hair was soaked in cold sweat and stuck to her forehead. Kyle forced her away from him to take a closer look. She must have felt stuffy while she was asleep as a few of her buttons were undone. Kyle didn’t dare turn his gaze to what was below.

“This is driving me crazy…”

He was already worried because of her weak condition, but now she was truly unwell. He wondered what kind of dream she was having to be this unconscious, and was starting to feel lost himself. Kyle tried his best to keep a tight grip around his sanity. He believed he was not a shallow being to think of other things when there was a sick person in front of him… until now.

“Stay here… I think you will need a lot of things right now.”

He couldn’t possibly attempt to do anything in this state.

Kyle looked down at Noah’s side profile with mixed feelings. Her eyelashes fluttered. She must have not been fully unconscious as her lips moved slightly. Kyle quickly lowered himself towards her face. Noah mumbled slowly.

“…Not to pass the door.”

What a brazen person she was, after passing it herself. But instead of replying to her with a blunt answer as usual, he hugged her tightly. Noah did not reject and breathed deeply in his arm.

“Dangerous…”

“I’m glad you’re aware that this is dangerous.”

However, as compared to her fearless approaches from before, this was a great improvement. Kyle let out a deep sigh and stroked the back of her small head, which must have felt nice, as the corner of Noah’s small lips curled upward.