Our Summer Isn't Over Yet - Chapter 18

“Dylan, the dress you ordered might be hard to wear.”

Hearing Mia’s words, Dylan asked with genuine curiosity, “Why?”

“With my body like this, that dress is revealing.”

She could cover the scars, but not the marks Dylan had left. He had kissed areas larger than the scars themselves, so there was no way such a dress could hide them.

“Why don’t you try it on first?”

He was already close, handing her the dress as he asked.

It felt like a waste of time, but as always, Mia didn’t refuse and put on the dress. The dress, which had been fitted before, fit her body perfectly without a single gap.

Dylan stood behind Mia and fastened the dress as he had done before, slowly tightening the white dress around her body.

When he finally buttoned it all the way up, Mia realized that none of the marks he had made on her were visible.

“Did you know from the start?”

“If not this dress, you would have worn the same one as last time, wouldn’t you?”

To think he had calculated such things even while they were rutting like animals. It was just like Dylan.

Still, she didn’t feel bad. The white dress she had admired fit her perfectly, bringing her a moment of happiness that made her forget her reality.

She also felt grateful to Dylan. Of course, she was unhappy with his forceful proposal and the fact that he had kept her here, but she decided not to dwell on that part anymore.

Regardless, she still didn’t welcome the time she spent entangled with Dylan.

‘If we keep getting involved like this, I might develop feelings.’

She already felt emotions towards Dylan that she couldn’t quite define, so it was even more so.

‘I don’t need to think too deeply about it now.’

Mia shook her head, trying to dismiss it as unnecessary thoughts.

“I should call the servants outside to fix my hair and then we can leave. Can you wait a moment?”

“Sit down.”

Dylan grabbed her shoulders and sat her down in front of the vanity. Then, he slowly combed and arranged Mia’s long hair.

“What are you doing?”

“You can see, can’t you?”

“You don’t need to do my hair.”

“It’s faster for me to do it than for the servants to come in and take their time. We need to get ready quickly to arrive on time.”

She couldn’t argue with that.

“Then, I’ll leave it to you.”

As Mia relaxed and answered, Dylan’s face, visible in the mirror, seemed to relax as well. Thinking she might have seen it wrong, she turned her head, but his stern voice struck her ear.

“Mia, look forward.”

“Dylan, can you refrain from talking to me like I’m a child?”

“Do you not like it?”

He asked, his gaze still fixed on Mia’s hair. The rustling sound of hair and hands brushing against each other tickled Mia’s ears.

“Sometimes I feel like you forget my age.”

“That can’t be.”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“You might as well get used to it.”

Having finished arranging her hair, he grabbed Mia’s shoulders and met her eyes in the mirror.

In the vanity mirror, a man and woman dressed in matching pure white outfits were visible. Dylan, with his hair neatly combed back, and Mia, with her hair tied up in a neat bun by his hands.

It was like a painting.

“What do you think? Am I a decent husband?”

“If you have a daughter later, you’ll be a very good father.”

“I won’t be disliked wherever I go.”

The pure white dress, the jewelry around her neck, the earrings on her ears, the tied-up hair. She was a woman who had been touched by Dylan from head to toe.

Even though she wore almost no makeup, the subtle blush gave her a lively appearance. It was an unfamiliar sight.

She also had a strange feeling of nausea.

“It suits you well.”

Dylan leaned down and brought his face close to Mia’s. As Mia turned her head to the side with a reluctant look, he kissed her lips familiarly, as if he had been waiting for it.

Thump, thump, her heart beat wildly. The eyes that held the sea she hated stared directly at her. Feeling as if she would be swallowed and sink at any moment, Mia closed her eyes.

As her vision was blocked, the irregular heartbeat rang loudly in her ears.

The kiss was overwhelming, and as she placed her hand on the vanity, her hand bumped into a glass. The glass fell and shattered into pieces.

The space became silent in an instant.

The lips that had been touching parted, and Mia was finally able to open her eyes and look around. Looking down at the broken glass, Mia felt as if she had been splashed with cold water and finally came to her senses.

“Ah.”

Guilt washed over Mia’s face as she realized that she had momentarily forgotten her desire to return to her hometown and the people who had died because of her parents and herself.

As if nothing had happened, Mia slowly pulled away from Dylan, becoming a calm lake once more.

“It’s best if we leave now.”

Dylan, who had been silently watching Mia’s actions, nodded as if nothing had happened, and the previous commotion came to an end.

Mia’s first memory of Murad was the salty smell of the sea.

She eventually fainted from the pain of being beaten all over her body, but that smell was especially vivid.

When she opened her eyes again, Mia’s body was wrapped in bandages. Naturally, she looked for her parents, and a warm, soft hand covered her eyes.

“Mommy’s here. It’s going to be okay now.”

Hearing the affectionate answer, Mia finally sobbed.

She didn’t remember exactly what had happened, but the moment the ship capsized remained vividly in her memory.

Realizing that Mia was trembling, her mother carefully patted Mia’s back.

“Mia, do you remember Murad that your uncle mentioned last time?”

Knowing full well that Mia disliked her uncle’s stories because she was always uncomfortable with his actions, Mia whined softly at her mother, who asked anyway.

“It seems we’ve arrived there. It’s hard to go back to Pilat right now, and Murad said they’ll contact your uncle, so don’t worry too much.”

“Can’t we really go home now?”

Her mother soothed Mia with a troubled voice.

“Let’s go home when Mia’s body gets a little better.”

The steady patting and her mother’s calm voice quickly brought sleep.

The seven-year-old girl’s voice began to fade.

“Mommy, when we go home, let’s not go to the sea for a while.”

“Okay.”

“Mommy, I think I’m going to start hating the sea now.”

“That’s okay.”

“But we have to take a ship again to go home, right?”

Being shipwrecked and surviving it was a pretty traumatic event even for an adult. So it was definitely too much for a mere seven-year-old child to experience.

As Mia’s whining subsided, the patting also slowed down. Her mother, who had stopped patting, asked Mia.

“If our daughter doesn’t want to take a ship, should we just keep living here?”

“Can we do that?”

“We can find a way.”

“Uh-huh, but I want to go home. I can endure it.”

“That’s my girl.”

The hand that had been covering Mia’s eyes disappeared. As the light she hadn’t seen rushed in at once, Mia frowned. After blinking a few times, she could see her mother’s face.

Her mother stroked Mia’s eyes as if she loved even that.

“I love you.”

A light kiss landed on Mia’s face. Mia responded with a bright smile and asked back.

“How much?”

“—-, as much as there is.”

If she had known that would be the last moment to feel each other’s warmth and talk, she would have talked longer.

She would have told her to run away from there right away.

Mia was able to escape from her reverie in the fading red sun.

The silence continued as they headed to the party, and the memories naturally came to mind. The thoughts that rushed in as if they were a punishment for momentarily forgetting her parents were like very high waves.

They swept away the emotions that had been building up in Mia’s heart in an instant and disappeared.

Her heart, which had been beating shamelessly, found its original rhythm. Feeling the movement of the diligently rolling car, Mia calmly erased the thoughts that were shaking her mind.

“Hoo.”

As she let out a faint breath, the chaos evaporated.

Leaning her head against the window, Mia recalled sending letters to an unspecified number of people after the war to organize her confused thoughts. It was a letter she sent to the families of the Hippolyte hostages who had been captured while she was living in Murad.

She wrote down the words they desperately wanted to convey to their families before being indiscriminately killed and delivered them.

She sent letters to the families of everyone she remembered, but she could not find the son of just one woman.

‘There’s no way to find him except for the last name Dabi.’

So many families disappeared during the war that the Dabi family seemed to have followed a similar path. She hadn’t left a trace for the past four years.

‘But I’ve bought myself a year, so I have to find him and deliver it in the meantime.’

It was a request from a woman who had stayed by Mia’s side for a long time when she was completely dried up, so she wanted to do whatever it took to grant it.

She thought about asking Dylan for help, but she thought it would be better not to get too involved with him. If she couldn’t find the name ‘Dabi’ even a year later before she left, she thought it would be better to ask him for help then.

Her worries continued until the moment she arrived at the party.

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