Well, although it seems like they hit him where it hurts, he had avoided that. He was way faster than their eyes and he blocked each of their strikes and the only reason he was in pain was due to that stressful movement.

‘Perhaps taking the hit from them would have been less painful’, he sucked in a deep breath as he thought inwardly. After sitting down, he once again drinks from the wine jar in his hands, but this time around, the two girls just kept silent with no reply. They didn’t want to do any more things that would put him in greater pain.

During the period when he was drinking from his jar, there was absolute silence in the room and only the sound of Andrew drinking and smacking his lips could be heard. His solemn composure as if contemplating something became more profound on his face.

He was contemplating various kinds of stuff though, like he was finally in the capital, what he should do from this moment henceforth, which direction he should take, and how would the future be based on his decisions. Although he knew things don’t always follow plans, he has already taken a liking to formulating plans for the future and although it wasn’t a detailed plan like a schemer of any such, it was at least something in that regard which he could fall back on.

What was going on in the minds of the girls was different though, they couldn’t help but wonder how Andrew was capable of smuggling these wines into the room and at various times their eyes connected as if they understood what each other was thinking, a glimmer of light could be found flashing across. They also tried asking Andrew about how he did it but seeing his contemplating face, they hesitated.

But Marian being the closest to Andrew couldn’t hold it in any longer as she asks, “Andy, how were you...”. But she was bound never to ask as Andrew says, “I want to rest for a while”. After saying that, he drops off the empty jug of wine and lies down on his bed with the help of the girls.

Smiling wryly, they both let him rest off while they both cleaned the room. While they were cleaning though, Sophia came in for her checkups and was shocked to find the jugs of wine on the floor. Seeing Andrew resting, she calls the girls to her office thinking they were the ones who brought the wine for him and starts scolding them.

After relenting her anger towards the misbehaviour of the girls without letting them speak from which the girls didn’t know whether to cry or laugh from being wrongly accused, the girls finally had their chance to explain all that happened.

Sophia was shocked after listening to their explanation and thought about how he could have gone out to buy wine. But after thorough thinking, she didn’t find it plausible for Andrew to do that.

Even though the girls have explained further that he could stand, standing was different from walking entirely. And to walk while carrying such loads was something she couldn’t believe. Even if he was able to do it, he would attract the attention of people around and straining his body too much would be bad for him as it would delay his recovery very much. Thus the only way she thought he could acquire such a huge amount of wine was if someone smuggled it in for him.

Thinking about this stuff wouldn’t get her anywhere though, so she had to stop thinking about it and decided to just continue with her work and try her best to prevent such a thing from occurring again.

She just ended the matter here and goes forward to perform her routine check-up on him, but on getting to the room, she was nothing but shocked as Andrew who was thought to be resting was sitting on the bed once again drinking another jar of wine. Sophia couldn’t be angrier with Andrew and started scolding him.

Throughout her scolding session though, Andrew doesn’t seem to care and just continues drinking while staring at her plastering spittles on his face. Anyone who saw Andrew this way would be angry but he doesn’t seem to care as his eyes were dull. What was going through his head was, ‘Is she a virgin or not?’. Nothing she was saying was going through his ear as if there was a barrier blocking it.

His eyes raked through her body at a time which gave Sophia a very profound expression like a lecherous man who was eyeing a woman he found satisfying to him. This makes Sophia angry and she stops berating him, and after performing her checkups, she storms out of the room without so much of a word.

The time came to change his bandages and clean his wound. But it wasn’t any of the nurses who usually did it. The person whom he saw, made Andrew’s heart skip thousands of beats. He didn’t have a good feeling seeing her here.

Sophia has volunteered to help change his bandages. “Erm, where are the nurses?”, Andrew couldn’t help asking. “They are busy with other stuff and since am free, I just came around to help with it”, replies Sophia with a sweet smile on her face. But if everyone thought that it was a sweet smile on her face, Andrew didn’t think that way one bit. The smile that she flashes at him could be likened to that of the devil which made him fearful, hence he stammers while saying, “Don...don...don’t worry. I will wait for them”. “It won’t do good to delay such things. It should be done early on to prevent any infection”, Sophia says with a smile on her face. Andrew hurriedly replies as if not saying anything quickly would seal his fate, “I don’t mind it at all. It would just be a short wait. Nothing serious could happen at that time”. “Well am here already. There is nothing like being too early when it comes to the matter of the body”, Sophia just speaks randomly.

Andrew tries to shrink back but he didn’t have anywhere to go and excessive movement would just worsen his injuries and put him in greater pain which could be worse than that which could be inflicted on him by Sophia. And trying to push Sophia away wasn’t an option, from the way he saw her, she wasn’t someone who was strong enough to take a push and didn’t want to injure her accidentally.

Seeing Andrew this way made the two girls amused but at the same time worried about the fact that Sophia wanted to harm him.

Gritting his teeth, he screams, “Alright then, do as you like”. He closes his eyes as he resigns himself to his fate. Sophia slowly gets closer to him and as her footstep resounds, it seems like the sound of the grim reaper who was about to take his life. But he steeled his heart that no matter what would come, he wouldn’t make any sound of pain. Sophia starts her work swiftly and the pain which Andrew expects no matter how long she did her work, he didn’t feel it. He was shocked at this revelation but decides to hold on, but instead of the pain, he felt like he was being submerged in a cool bath with the way Sophia did everything with experience. Although there were pains, they were negligible and could be regarded as mere bites by small insects. But overall, Andrew felt comfortable as her hands went through his body even going as far as massaging his body.

It got to a point that he almost moaned in pleasure but he held fast to himself and stopped such sounds from escaping from his mouth. It was at that time that he opened his eyes and the girls who were initially in the room were now nowhere to be found. He then turns to look at Sophia who was almost through with cleaning and changing his bandages. She was doing her job with utmost care and seriousness. It was at this point that she raised her head as if noticing Andrew’s gaze on her and their eyes met which seems to cause a reaction. Her eyes were filled with warmth, and her voice sounds out at this moment, “You don’t have to be worried about being hurt. I can differentiate between my work and personal grudges, and don’t worry I would get back to you for that”. “Huh”, Andrew didn’t quite understand what she was trying to tell him.

“Maybe you are in that rebellious state, where you don’t see anything wrong with what you do and if your actions would affect other people”, Sophia continues saying.

At this point, all the light diminishes from the eyes of Andrew and he became dull. There was a flash between gold and blue in his eyes, but it was just for a moment though, which Sophia didn’t notice after all she has resumed her work and was just putting the finishing touches.

“Your actions hurt those around you which you don’t seem to care about and you keep up with those silly attitudes. If you continue that way, you could lose everyone who ever love you though and become so lonely that you start regretting your mistakes but by then, it would be too late”, she finally completes her work and at the end of the sentence looks towards Andrew whose eyes has regained their former blue beautiful colour.

The first set of words that gets out of his mouth were, “Are you a virgin?”. This question throws Sophia off trail and she was stumped for words. Not knowing what to say for a good while. Andrew smiles lewdly before saying, “Seeing how you are taking your time to reply, I would go with the fact that you are still a virgin, which goes to show that you are my type”. He pauses for a while ignoring the distortion in the facial expression of Sophia, before continuing down, “And as for a reply to all that you just asked. It’s not that I don’t know what would happen if I continue down this line. But I wish for it all to happen as soon as possible”.

The lewd expression has vanished from Andrew’s face and the air surrounding him was nothing but seriousness which goes to show that he was ultimately sincere in all he has just said. On listening to his reply though, Sophia was shocked. This wasn’t what she has expected after telling Andrew all that she wanted to. She had expected him to think deeply into the matter and start turning out for the better and although it might take a while, it doesn’t matter as long as he changed. Baby steps were after all needed when taking some drastic changes in one’s character that leans towards the good side. A villain can’t suddenly turn into a good guy and throw off all of his previous bad characters and actions. He/she is bound to stumble some time on the way and needs someone to guide them during that hard part and she had been prepared to be that someone and start treating him as a child.

But only if she knew what Andrew has been through and how he didn’t want to take another person as a parental figure. And if adding together all the years he had lived in his previous life and this present one, he wasn’t too far off from the age of Sophia and he was damn sure he had much more experience than she could ever hope to have. Hence, her trying to advise him about this life seems more like a farfetched dream to her. Something that he had in his heart that she won’t be ever able to accomplish. So it was a great necessity for her to dash that dream of hers or find someone whom such advice could at least have a little effect.

Sophia just stares at Andrew for a while and at this time, Marian and Eve were by the door leaning hard to listen to what was being said inside.