Soon it was the morning as Taya stirred awake, feeling as if she had the best sleep in a long time.
In fact, she had the most pleasant dream in a long while where she relived her past experiences that involved the man she loved the most and the happy times she spent with him during her younger days.
However, she wondered why the pillow felt so familiarly warm and comfortable.
But just as she opened her eyes, her eyes widened upon seeing two long legs in front of her, and her hands were intimately hugging the manly thigh of the same person.
Her entire body froze as she realized whom she was hugging and whose thigh she was resting upon.
She grimaced as she desperately tried to remember what happened yesterday night. But all she remembered was drinking so many drinks to drown her stress and worries.
She also remembered Eva telling her to stop but ignored all her protests and continued to drink on till her mind completely drowned in some other world.
After that, everything was blank, but suddenly she remembered flashes of memories where she saw a blurry figure of a man laying her down on the bed, and she grabbed his hand to not leave her alone.
She thought that it was a dream, but only now did she realize it was all real and she was the one who made Viktor stay with her here all night, making her face redden.
She tried her best to make the subtlest motions while silently and slowly getting up to see Viktor leaning against the bed with his eyes closed.
'Did he stay like this all night?' Taya felt warmth spreading across her chest, seeing how he stayed like this to let her have a comfortable sleep.
She then closely observed his flawlessly handsome face, his pale, beautiful features, and chiseled jawline, making him look like an immortal prince that fell from the heavens.
No matter how many times she had seen his face or how familiar he was to her, she couldn't help but feel that his looks were bewitchingly charming even if he was sleeping.
She then saw how he covered her body with the quilt to keep her warm while he didn't cover himself.
She silently picked up the quilt and covered it till his legs even though she knew he wouldn't get affected by the cold. Still, because of her habits, she did it to make him feel comfortable and also wanted to place a pillow behind his back but didn't since she didn't want to wake him.
She then decided to silently get off the bed to take a bath and felt embarrassed, wondering if Viktor had to bear with the stench of alcohol from her all night.
As someone who was leading an elegant and dignified lifestyle for so many years, the last thing she wanted was to appear disorderly before him.
She felt that next time she shouldn't let herself get carried away by drinking.
But just as she was about to silently get off the bed, a hand grabbed her wrist as a playful voice sounded from behind, "You can stare at my handsome face for longer, you know. I don't mind."
Taya's face reddened, and she grimaced, seeing that she got caught red-handed just as she expected. She knew Viktor would probably have noticed her getting up, and unless he was really in a deep sleep, she would have no way of evading his senses. Still, she couldn't resist not waking him up.
"I just didn't want to wake you," Taya said in a calm voice without turning around and continued, "And...whatever happened yesterday night, forget about it. That wasn't me. It was the alcohol."
"Oh, okay. Blaming it on the alcohol now, are we? But some say alcohol is like a truth serum. So could be your desire for me to stay with you."
Taya's eyes fluttered slightly in panic and harrumphed, "Hmph, that's nonsense. Being drunk can make you vulnerable and lower your guard. But it won't make you say the truth necessarily."
Viktor chuckled as he let go of her wrist and sat beside her, "Alright, you are the expert."
He then wanted to ask something else, the most burning question he had in his mind but didn't, unsure of whether she would deny it or avoid his question for now, or in the worst case, she would avoid him even more.
He could see she was trying to put distance between him and herself for some other reason, and he wanted to find out what it was to confront her with the proof so that she can't deny him.
He knew how absurdly stubborn she could be about things once she sets her mind on something, and he wanted to know what was occupying her mind by finding out things himself.
Still, he wanted to ask why she got drunk and decided to ask another question to lighten the mood, "Do you remember the day when I first taught you to dissect a frog for your school biology project?"
Memories of those times flashed in Taya's mind since that day was like a turning point for her.
Viktor continued, "You were only 15 at that time, and you hated biology the most. But when I helped you dissect the frog and explained how all the answers to its inner workings, including its aging, lies in its DNA, you got very interested for the first time and took up medicine as your stream right after. Isn't it astonishing how simply dissecting a frog changed your whole life?"
Even though Viktor said it casually, he was also replaying those memories in reminiscing. But he didn't notice the ripples in Taya's eyes since the main reason she even took up medicine was because of what he said that day. That one word which interested her the most and made her pour all her efforts and hard work to try and change her destiny.
Taya subtly turned her head towards his direction but didn't look at him, remaining silent as various thoughts flashed across her mind, wondering why he suddenly brought up this and if he caught on to something.
Viktor looked at her and asked in a serious tone, "Now tell me what kind of stress you are going through to make you drunk like yesterday?"
---------------------------------
A/N: From now on Golden Tickets would be the criteria for bonus chaps since I noticed that the powerstones count were being purposefully boosted from multiple alt accounts just to reach the target I had kept and it just feels wrong.
So for every 100 Golden Tickets, I would release 5 bonus chaps.
But fret not, I would release last week's promised 5 bonus chaps before the end of this week.