Wills’s Embrace
~02~
“Hic… hic…”
I sobbed, sniffing uncontrollably as I stumbled out of bed.
The crumpled white sheets spoke volumes of what had happened, and the sight of Wills lying there, stretched across the bed, made the space seem even smaller.
Wills was already awake, lying on his side, silently watching me.
And there I was, crying like a lunatic while gathering my scattered clothes one by one, the only piece of towel that I had wrapped around myself offered me no help.
His sharp, piercing gaze felt as if it was burning into me with every move I made.
Blast…
Why was he not saying anything?
Would one word be too much to ask?
“What exactly are you doing?”
Wills finally broke the silence, remaining motionless.
I had no idea why I was crying.
I had been the one who had initiated this, after all, and had sworn to myself I would not cry, would not regret a thing.
Yet here I was, tears streaming down, while the person who did it continued to glare at me.
“I asked what you’re doing, Wanjan!”
“P…
sob…
picking up my clothes,” I stammered through my sobs.
With that, Wills sat up, resting his elbows on his knees as he propped his chin on his hands, watching me intently.
His hawk-like eyes demanded my attention, keeping me captive.
Why had I chosen him of all people?
There were so many kinder, gentler men.
Wills was selfish, unpredictable, and unreasonable.
I was such a fool.
“And where are you planning to go—back to your boyfriend?”
Wills stood, his powerful frame all too visible.
At least he still had pants on; otherwise, I probably would not have been able to hide my blushing face.
“Your nose is about to bleed.
I swear, being your first guy is terrifying.
You look like you want to devour me whole.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!
No, I don’t.”
I protested, my face flushing as I avoided his gaze, but there was nowhere to look because his tall frame was right in front of me.
“Then why are you staring at me like you’re about to eat me up?” he retorted.
I could not tell if he was teasing or genuinely asking.
“Little pervert.
You practically attacked me last night, and now you’re drooling over me again.
Don’t you have any shame?”
“Wills!”
Why was he so infuriating?
Could not he tell how embarrassed I was?
He was so…
I shot him a furious look, but he only shrugged, grabbed a towel, and disappeared into the bathroom, leaving me alone with the overwhelming emotions swirling inside me.
“What were you even thinking, Wanjan…”
Honestly, I wanted to leave this room the moment Wills went into the bathroom, but it was not exactly feasible in my current situation.
I had not even showered yesterday, and last night…
Just thinking about it made me feel like steam was about to pour out of my ears.
The memories were fuzzy, but I could still vaguely recall some details.
I could still feel the warmth of Wills’s lips, the taste of his kiss, and the way his hands had moved across my skin.
Could it really have been Wills who held me so tightly last night…
Was it really him, who had held me?
Just the thought of it set my skin ablaze as if he were here wrapping me in his arms again, though he was not even close.
And just then, Wills stepped out of the bathroom with nothing but a white towel wrapped around his waist.
I had to mentally talk myself down, repeatedly, so I would not look at him.
Ugh… just watch, he was probably about to yell at me again.
“Go take a shower…”
But instead, he said this, making me frown in confusion.
No yelling…
mind-blowing.
“Oh, wait—I get it.
You probably don’t like showers.
Or maybe you just want to keep every trace of me left on you.
So… how long do you plan to go without a shower?
A few days?
A few months…”
“I’m showering!
Right now.”
I leapt into the bathroom, his mocking laughter echoing behind me, tempting my veins to explode.
No…
I did not remember anything from last night.
Not a single thing.
I stood under the shower until I was sure that any trace Wills had mentioned was well and truly washed away.
Dawdlingly, I turned off the water—what was I supposed to say to him now?
“You’re not drowned in there yet, are you, Wanjan!”
I jumped, startled at the sound of Wills shouting again.
Did he have a megaphone in his throat?
Could not he talk like a normal person for once?
“Guess I’d better come in and get the corpse, then!
Hang on a sec.”
“I’m coming out already!”
This man was going to be the death of me.
And then I realized, in horror, that I had forgotten to bring a towel.
Or, well, anything to change into.
My clothes from earlier were completely soaked through. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
I felt beads of sweat start to break out across my forehead while my head were spinning, as if I still had a fever.
Wanjan…
what the hell were you doing!
“Hey!
You know it wouldn’t be funny if you actually die in my bathroom.
I’m not interested in having some perverted ghost spying on me in here…”
Wills’s taunting went on, and my anxiety twisted my stomach even tighter.
“Fine, I’m coming in right now.”
“Don’t come in.
I don’t have any clothes on!”
“Well, even better.
Saves me the trouble of taking them off,” he replied.
My face flushed deep red with both embarrassment and frustration.
“I forgot to bring a towel!” I shouted, clinging to the bathroom doorknob to prevent him from coming in.
“Oh, so you did remember to bring clothes?”
“They’re outside.
Could you please grab them for me?”
I was losing it.
I could not believe I was here, dealing with this.
“What’s in it for me?” Wills’s voice came back, laced with amusement.
Yes… I had really lost my mind.
“What’s with the suitcase by the door?”
After we finished eating, I was kneeling in front of Wills.
He was sitting back on the sofa bed, one leg crossed over the other, his arm sprawled along the top of the couch, looking like he was some kind of king, while I was just a servant, stripped of any dignity.
Alright… I was just a foolish woman.
With my head lowered, I did not even know how to start explaining everything.
I knew I needed to tell him the whole story, but where to begin?
Everything felt like a jumbled mess, especially after what had happened last night.
I could not even look him in the eyes, not with that look he was giving me.
It made me felt hot…
It felt as though he was peeling away my clothing with nothing but his gaze.
The sensation was almost chilling, and I instinctively lifted my arms to cover myself.
“You absolute blockhead!
I asked about your suitcase.
I’m not going to jump you, so stop acting like that!”
Wills bellowed in his usual volume, a level he seemed to have perfected.
What else could I do?
There was something intimidating about his stare.
“Well?
Or do you actually want me to take your clothes off?
Is that what you’re going for with this little performance?”
Swish…
At that, my hands instantly dropped, but it still did not seem to satisfy him as he yelled some more.
“Hey!
Are you sticking your chest out for me to grab it now?
What do you want from me!”
“Sniffle!” Unable to take it, I burst into sobs, collapsing against the floor.
I didn’t know what I was doing or how to answer him anymore.
No matter what I did, he just got angrier.
I was still scared from last night, my mind was sluggish, and my fever hadn’t gone down.
What more did he want from me?
“You loony!
You’re driving me to insanity, you know that?”
“I hate you.
I hate you!”
“What are you going on about?
All the hugging and kissing last night, what was that?”
“I hate you, sob I hate you…”
“Wanjan, if you don’t tell me what the hell’s going on, with your suitcase, and with last night, I would hit the hell out of—”
“Sob…
Mom, sob Dad” I gasped, the words tumbling out as if I had been fleeing from death and had somehow ended up in the Grim Reaper’s arms instead.
Yes, I was an idiot—everything he had said about me was true.
.
In the end, our attempt at a conversation had not gone anywhere, but we both left the room together anyway.
Wills attended Jonas U, and I was at MU, which was literally right next door; our campuses shared a fence.
So, like it or not, we ended up going out together.
Wills had taken my phone and saved his number, and he now had mine, too.
Last night’s events might have passed, but his demeanor had not changed in the least.
Meanwhile, my heart seemed to race every time I was near him.
If this kept up, I would probably start pumping out a gallon of blood every minute.
Nothing could change Wills, though.
Not one thing…
He drove me straight to my department confidently, then sped away.
I sighed, checking my phone to see the contact he had saved: ’WILLS’.
That did not seem intimidating enough, honestly.
His name should be saved as ’The Grim Reaper’.
That name alone would strike enough fear to get me shaking.
As I walked into the department, a wave of exhaustion hit me when I saw someone already waiting.
’Dylan’.
Dylan was the guy who had declared himself my boyfriend.
He was good-looking—no need for deeper analysis.
To put it simply, he was the campus heartthrob of MU.
It was a bit surreal that someone like him would ask me out in the first place.
But despite all that, he had become a total nuisance to me, and I could not seem to get away from him no matter what.
Today, his chiseled face even had a small bruise at the corner of his mouth—most likely from Wills hitting him yesterday.
It was utterly unfortunate that I would have to face Dylan after making the most colossal mistake of my life.
“I need to talk to you, Wanjan…”
Dylan said, reaching his hand out toward me.
Honestly, this was not unusual for us, we had always held hands.
In fact, he would usually just grab my hand tightly, refusing to let go.
After last night, for some reason, something inside me recoiled.
I felt an odd urge to protect my space and my body, and I pulled back.
Dylan noticed my reaction, so he grabbed my wrist and tightened his grip.
His eyes stared into mine intently.
The gaze that was sharp with suspicion, as if he saw right through me.
It felt suffocating—this watchfulness he forced on me every single day.
“Don’t make me more suspicious or annoyed than I already am.
Tonight, I’m going back to that guy’s room and packing up your things.
You’re moving in with me.” His tone was harsh as his grip tightened, making me wince in pain.
“I don’t want to live with you…” I managed, yelping when he squeezed harder in response.
“But you will.
Your parents left for the U.S.
How can you live alone?”
He was right, and Dylan knew more about my situation than anyone, including me.
“I’ve been waiting for this day for over a year.
Don’t delay it again, or you’ll be the one who suffers, Wanjan.”
His threat was accompanied by a smile, it really puzzled me how he could do this, smiling while wanting to kill me.
With that, he yanked me along, ignoring my hesitation.
This was how it went every day.
But today, something had changed.
I did not want him to touch me like this.
When I tried to pull my hand back, he squeezed it harder, and I could feel the weight of onlookers’ stares.
Do not think the other girls at university were envious of me, though.
Dylan’s fan club mostly pitied me, with a few looking at me with sympathy.
Why…
Because Dylan was too awful for anyone to truly love.
As we reached Wills’s room, I felt close to losing my mind…
There was Wills, leaning against the doorframe, watching me as Dylan pulled me up to the second-floor landing where his room was.
“Why didn’t you answer my calls?” Wills asked, ignoring Dylan.
It seemed like Dylan did not register him either.
And me?
I just wanted to disappear into thin air right then and there.
“Go pack up your things, Wanjan.
You’re coming to stay with me,”
Dylan ordered, as though he were some kind of god.
“Inside, Wanjan.
We need to talk.”
This was from the Grim…
the Reape, Wills, his scythe ready to drag me into the pits of hell.
“Hurry up, now.
You have ten minutes.
If you’re not out by then, don’t bother taking anything with you.
I’ll see to it that you get what you need—for as long as you live.”
“I’m not a beggar, Dylan,” I said, barely holding back my frustration.
What exactly did he see me as?
Just a doll, apparently.
“Of course not…
because you’re my girlfriend.”
Who else in this world could be so unbearably smug and sure of themselves?
Oh, right.
Wills, the one currently facing off with Dylan, matched him in those qualities…
“Get inside, Wanjan.
You don’t look well…”
“Forget about it then; just come to my place.
I’ll buy you whatever you need,”
Dylan snapped, yanking my hand to pull me away.
But Wills was faster, grabbing my free arm in an instant.
“Love, you scratched up my back with those nails of yours last night.
So, help me with a shower, or I’m not letting it go…”
Wills…
What was he even talking about?
I gaped at him, utterly stunned.
Apparently, so was Dylan, because he let go of my hand, giving Wills the chance to pull me into his arms.
“What should I do?
Right now, all I want is to kiss you, Wanjan,”
Wills murmured, still playing this strange game as I finally understood his intent.
“Wills…”
Without another word, he pinned me against the door and kissed me fiercely, leaving Dylan in shock, frozen in place.