Chapter Ten

"Wait!"

Rhea did not turn and kept walking. "Wait! Rhea!"

She heard again, but she did not bother to turn her head. She just kept going until he forced her to stop by her arm.

"What is it that you want now, Hugo? My normal quiet life is gone because of you. Do you want to ruin my life even more?" Rhea asked.

"Your normal and quiet life was gone the moment the newspaper published about your stalker. And you don't call me Hugo."

"I do now. I was wrong about your name before. Now, I found the right one," Rhea said.

Rhea never gave enough attention to him or his friends to find out that his name was Hugo, not Hugh. She had known his name wrong her entire life. Even the person himself never bothered to correct her. She thought he went by both Hugo and Hugh.

"… I think you can keep calling me Hugh."

"Why would I do that?" Rhea muttered. "Are you trying to get the girls to go against me? Listen, I am not into this kind of stuff."

"No, it's just that my name is Hugh, my nickname actually."

"What kind of person has a four-letter nickname when having a four-letter name? Ah, nevermind," Rhea said quickly, remembering she also had a four-letter nickname despite having a four-letter name. "I think I will stick to Hugo. Besides, that's not the thing you need to worry about now."

"Right… I'm sorry," he said, bowing his head slightly. "I am really sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

"You know what the problem is with you people? You always understand that you have done wrong after it's done. Just why…?"

Everything happened in a split second. Rhea's hands shot out as quickly as a bolt of thunder to push Hugo out of the way. Hugo fell to the ground, split seconds before a truck ran over the place where he had been standing a while ago.

Hugo's whole life flashed before him. He could have died. He would have been dead already if it was not for Rhea, who pushed him out of the way.

"Rhea!" he yelled. He had hurt his already injured left leg.

He looked for Rhea, on the opposite side of the road where she was supposed to be after pushing Hugo. But she was not there. Rather, she was standing in the middle of the road with her eyes fixed ahead of her.

Hugo got up with difficulty and pulled her away from the road to the side. "What are you doing?" he asked breathlessly.

"The truck's number- I got it," she said. "That said, are you alright?"

Since Hugo met Rhea, he had not heard a good rumor about her except for the fact that she never did badly in her exams. People always called her moody, bitchy, and selfish, whether they knew her personally or not. He had never paid attention to them. And for some reason, his eyes would always look for her in the crowd.

Still, he always wondered if she truly did not care for anything or anyone.

He got his answer one day in his seventeen years of life.

"Yeah. Thank you," he said.

His head was spinning, not because he was hurt, but because he just confirmed one thing. For all those years, he did not look for Rhea just because she was a peculiar person. It was all because of his personal gain, greed that he always ignored. But some things could not be ignored forever. One day, they were bound to burst.

"Welcome," she said. "Let's go to the police station."

"Are you sure it was not just a mistake?"

"What if it's a mistake? You could have lost your life because of the driver's mistake," she pointed out. "Besides, it was not a mistake. This road is basically empty all the time. It's the back of our school and I have never seen more than five trucks in total go this way. If I am not wrong, it was intentional. And I am never wrong."

"Why would someone try to kill me? I mean, I don't have any enmity with anyone…?"

"That's right. You are very kind. That's why I hate you," she said.

"You hate me?"

"We will take the bus and go to the police station to file a report. But first, I need to buy a few plastics and some medicine," she said, not listening to him.

"Don't you have motion sickness?" Hugo asked.

"I do," she said, staring at him suspiciously.

"I heard it from my father. I didn't stalk you. I followed you that day only," Hugo said quickly.

"Haa…," Rhea sighed. "I have to go with you because I need to know more information. And because of my motion sickness, I will buy plastic and medicine."

Rhea bought two plastics and some pills for her motion sickness. Hugo was limping slightly.

"Why don't we go to a doctor?"

"No, we need to go to the police station. Besides, it's not that bad."

"I meant after we go to the police station," she clarified. "We can't have you slow down my plan. It looks like you can at least walk, so it should be fine."

"You really are quite goal-oriented, huh?" Hugo chuckled.

"Thank you," she said nonchalantly. "The next bus is after thirty minutes. Alright, we have plenty of time."

"For what?" Hugo asked.

"To check your leg."

They sat down at the bus stop. Rhea was sorting the things she had bought. Hugo was observing her face.

He felt quite relaxed for someone who had just been almost killed. He was also surprised to see Rhea's quickness. The truck was parked right behind them. But he had not heard someone opening the door which meant someone was inside already. It only proved Rhea's implication that someone indeed tried to kill him.

When the truck drove away, he could only think of Rhea. But rather than being on the ground, she had noted the number already. It was surprising how quickly she could see it even though the truck was moving at a very high speed. She was way too quick.

"Alright, take off your pants," she said.

"… What…?"

"I need to see the wound," she said. "Your jeans look tighter than I thought."

"No, I can just…," he mumbled. "Just cut the part off."

"Is that alright?"

"Yeah. It's an old one anyways," he said. It was way better than taking his jeans off outside and that was also in front of her.

"Okay then," she said and bent down in front of him. Within a moment, she took out her pocket knife and cut his jeans from the place where his wound was. He was surprised at how quick she was.

"You are quick," he said.

"I am," she said knowingly. "Your wound is worse than I thought. Looks like you were hurt from here before."

"Basketball," he said.

"I suspected so. You cut yourself a bit, but I think because you hurt the same place where you were injured, it looks blue. You might want to contact a doctor as soon as possible. I will take care of the cut for now."

"Yeah…"

Hugo usually did not like to touch people because he had a problem with dirty things. He wanted things to be clean, so when someone came near him, he would always worry if they were clean or not. That was the reason, he had soap, handkerchiefs, and necessary water with him no matter where he went.

But he touched Rhea without worrying about any of that. He also did not mind it if Rhea touched him, although it was a thing that he believed would rarely happen. After all, Rhea hated physical contact. He wondered if she even felt anything for the opposite sex, or maybe the same sex. He wished it was the first one.

"You did the bandage like a professional," he said.

"My mom taught me that," she said.

"You also look very comfortable with a knife."

"My mom taught me that too," she said.

Rhea was like her mother, a person who craved independence. Margaret, Rhea's mother, did not like to be dependent on others, and neither wanted her kids to be like that. After her husband's death, though she was lost a bit, she never even thought of giving up on life. She raised her children to be independent. She taught them how to fight, use different types of weapons, and how to lie. She did not want them to be kind; she wanted them to survive, no matter what, and live for their own beliefs, not what society wanted them to believe. Margaret did not fit the ideal mother criteria, but to Rhea, she was the best mother she could have.

"Your mom surely taught you a lot of things," Hugo said. "You must be close with your mom?"

"Not exactly. Both of us like to keep a distance," she said. "But she understands me better than anyone."

"I am really sorry for what happened to your mother."

"… Not to be rude or dramatic, but I don't know what to say when someone says this," she said.

"You just say thank you," he said.

"Well, thank you then."

"You are welcome," Hugo said with a small smile.