Does it hurt a lot?

From where they slowly trailed down to Aria's wrists, palms and fingers, sprayed out on her legs. Aria had first subconsciously tried to ball up her hands into fists, so as to at least hide some of the scars, but she had soon decided against it.

Everyone in the academy, and anyone she met from now on was obviously going to see her scars one way or another. So it was better if she ripped the band-aid off in one swift motion. Plus, balling up her hands into fists stretched her wounds and hurt them.

Aria watched Jacob's eyes as they bounced from one ghastly wound to another, his face devoid of emotion. Aria was expecting many things when Jacob's eyes moved back to her face and he opened his mouth. But she definitely wasn't expecting what came out of it. "Are you . . . are you . . Does it hurt a lot?" he asked.

Aria blinked and frowned in confusion for a few seconds as his words registered. And when they finally did, she let out a snort. "No!!" she exclaimed upon seeing Jacob look very genuinely surprised at her reaction. "Why would they . . ?" she added, with an amused expression.

"Because . . . well . . . . " Jacob struggled for words and finally settled on motioning towards Aria's wounds as a way of explanation.

"Well . . . " Aria searched for words. She could see where Jacob was coming from. She hadn't been able to look past the ugliness of the scars, but they actually did look quite painful, now that she thought about it. "They did hurt." Aria began, "Before. Now, it doesn't hurt as much." "Aria told me that Miss Anhao said that she might be discharged very soon." Helen pitched in. Jacob's face lit up like a lamp upon hearing this, and Aria hurriedly said, "I might. And there's a very slight possibility."

Jacob shook his head and was still beaming when he pulled a chair and sat down. "Still, it means that you are almost well! That is so exciting. Also . . " he added, seeming to remember something, "You said they hurt before. Were they . . . . worse?" he said the last word wincing.

Aria blinked, wondering what Jacob meant. Of course her wounds were worse before. She had been in the recovery ward for the past two months to heal right? So obviously her wounds were better now. Had Jacob hurt his head while coming to the recovery ward? Did he fall somewhere or something? Just as Aria opened her mouth to voice out her concerns, she was hit by the meaning behind Jacob's words.

Of course! Jacob had no idea how badly Aria had been hurt and burnt that night. Helen and Joseph had known the approximate extent of her injuries, Helen was with Aria that day, as she had been told afterwards. And Joseph, well, he had been in the mansion the whole time. Aria had also heard that he had been the one to find Helen. But Jacob! He actually had no idea how badly Aria had been hurt.

He too had been hurt and unconscious when Aria had gotten back to the mansion. And in the following days, he too had been recovering. Jacob hadn't seen her until she was all bandaged up and tucked into a bed in the recovery ward, and it was much easier to assume her injuries were less severe then.