Chapter 56: The Next Morning
"In addition, if you’re blaming yourself for their deaths so much... Why are you not blaming Fredrinn, who was the direct cause of that?"
Rhea instantly looked to see if Fredrinn was listening, before looking back at Andrea with a glare.
"Don’t... Don’t mention him between this..."
Andrea read between the lines, as her eyes narrowed at her innocent younger sister.
"Don’t mention him? What am I hearing, huh?" Andrea said in a low voice.
Rhea tried to avert her eyes, but Andrea didn’t let her.
"Is my baby little sister trying to eye my partner?"
Rhea’s lips parted, her breath coming out in short bursts as she quickly waved her hands, "N-No! Of course not! I wouldn’t do that to you..."
"Oh? So you’re stopping only because of me? Otherwise you would’ve tried? So you admit that you like ’MY’ partner, huh, Rhea?" Andrea hissed, twisting Rhea’s words as she narrowed her eyes at her.
"Y-You’re taking my words in the wrong direction... I didn’t say that at all..."
"Then you’re admitting that you aren’t interested in him?"
Rhea paused.
She lowered her head and clenched her fists.
"It’s not that..." She murmured in a small voice.
"What? Speak louder, Rhea." Andrea pressed on.
"I said it’s not that." Rhea said in a slightly louder voice.
Andrea paused for a moment.
"Don’t you raise your voice at me, Rhea. You dare show me that spunk?"
"Yo– You’re contradicting yourself, sister! You just told me to speak louder!"
Andrea scoffed, "There’s a difference between speaking louder and speaking rudely. I didn’t tell you to give me an attitude, Keep it in check."
"..." Rhea opted to remain silent to not attract her sister’s ire.
After all, she herself felt that she was at fault for getting attracted to her sister’s partner.
’But, they aren’t really a couple, are they? They act lovey-dovey but there’s no label to it! If he’s allowing it, then why is she being mad?’
Of course, Rhea didn’t dare say that out loud, or Andrea would’ve really beaten her up.
Instead, she lowered her head and looked in Fredrinn’s direction.
The breeze passing through their bodies and clothes was slowly subsiding, getting slower and slower until it stopped completely.
On the cue, Fredrinn’s eyes opened.
He glanced at the two sisters, seeing that Rhea didn’t appear to be crying anymore while Andrea looked mad.
"Did you hear anything right now?" Andrea turned to him and questioned with a serious tone.
Although they were speaking in a low volume so as to not disturb others, Andrea wasn’t sure about Fredrinn’s enhanced hearing.
And she was right to be suspicious.
As he could indeed hear the entire discussion during his meditation. He simply didn’t react to any of it and only stored it away for later thoughts.
"No, why?" He lied smoothly.
There was no way he was walking into a catfight out of his own volition.
"Nothing." Andrea hummed, giving him a suspicious gaze but not digging into it as she scoffed and moved towards him.
Then without any warning, she slammed her head right on his thighs, wincing slightly at the hardness of his muscles.
But she didn’t show it on her face. Instead, she feigned a comfortable look and closed her eyes, intentionally looking at Rhea.
She was marking her territory on Fredrinn.
Rhea grit her teeth seeing the actions, but she couldn’t comment on it.
Instead, she huffed and got ready to lay back down for a nap.
Despite the minor fight with her sister, Rhea couldn’t deny that Andrea’s words had managed to uplift her mood significantly.
She understood the thought and remembering the question that Andrea asked earlier, Rhea murmured in her mind, ’Yeah, death was a more peaceful outcome for them. Andrea is right.’
But suddenly, before Rhea could even try to overthink her decision, a calm voice pulled her out of reverie.
"Are you feeling better?" Fredrinn’s calm words rang into Rhea’s ears.
She widened her eyes in surprise, before nodding shyly, "Yeah... thank you."
"No worries. Go to sleep."
"Mhm..."
***
The next few hours went by in surprising peace.
Rhea no longer had a nightmare, while Andrea’s sleep was also not disturbed as Fredrinn was only pulling in the atmospheric mana while keeping an eye on the other humans as well as the infected.
Shockingly, none of the infected had turned into zombies during the whole night.
Jenny and others were also safe and caused no further disturbances.
Soon, an annoyingly loud sound echoed throughout the storage room.
Fredrinn picked up the phone, checking the time and seeing that it was 6:30 AM at the moment.
The annoying sound was coming from Jacob’s phone, who had set an alarm for 6:30 last night.
Finally... It was time to move. To leave this stinking storage room and start a journey towards the safe zone.
One by one, everyone began to wake up, as Andrea dizzily raised her head, rubbing her eyes with the back of palm as saliva dripped down her lips.
Her eyelids were droopy and her hair was a mess.
When she glanced at Fredrinn, he was staring at her, she didn’t realize what was going on all of a sudden. Wasn’t he with her on the bed, making out passionately?
’Dream... It was a dream, wake up Andrea.’ She said to herself in her mind, shaking her head.
But then, she saw Fredrinn leaning close to her, his hand travelling over her cheek and his thumb gently rubbing over her lower lip.
"Haah..." Andrea’s lips parted, her eyes hazy and staring at him in a stupor.
Fredrinn looked back in her eyes, using his thumb to wipe off her dripping saliva before he curled his fingers on her cheek and pulled her in.
Their lips connected for a short kiss as he whispered, "Morning."
"M-Morning." Andrea coughed, blushing slightly as she separated from the kiss, "Did you really stay awake all night?" She asked in a surprise.
He was still sitting cross legged and the fabric of his pants was dented, like he didn’t move the whole night and let her sleep on his lap for the entire time.
’Haah... I can get used to waking up like this daily...’ Andrea’s eyes softened as she gazed at his sharp features and calm expression.