Karuizawa Kei wiped away her tears and slowly sat up from the cold floor, her back against the wall. One hand clutched her knees while the other slipped beneath her hem, pressing hard against the scar hidden on her lower abdomen.
It was as if she wanted to push the mark that exposed her vulnerable past back into some corner where no one would ever find it.
Silence fell between them. Only the occasional sound of waves outside the cabin seeped into the cramped space.
In the end, Karuizawa Kei was the first to speak. Her voice was hoarse from crying. "Why did you stop...?"
"What are you disappointed about?" Uesugi Hara teased, breaking through the heaviness in her voice.
Karuizawa Kei ignored his joke and buried her face in her knees, wrapping her arms around them even tighter, as if she could hide herself inside a safe shell.
Uesugi Hara folded his arms and leaned against the same wall, his eyes on her curled-up form. "I never planned to do anything. I just wanted to see what you were hiding. You kept saying 'it's okay,' again and again. That's why things went the way they did."
At his words, Karuizawa Kei stiffened, her face—already hot and swollen from the slaps—burning even more. So she'd misunderstood everything that had just happened? She didn't dare look up. Her ears were on fire, and even her breathing had grown uneven.
"Now that you've seen this side of me, are you satisfied?" she asked in a muffled voice, embarrassment and resentment mingling in her tone.
"Shouldn't I be asking if you're satisfied?" Uesugi Hara replied, sounding amused. "You seemed to enjoy yourself just now. You even kept telling me to 'hurry up.'"
"..." Karuizawa Kei fell completely silent, curling in on herself even