26 #2
Jude was not sure what to do next. He turned back toward the waterfall, searching for Sky, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
Not a trace. His heart began to race in panic.
A few seconds later, Sky resurfaced, easing some of Jude’s growing worry.
Jude exhaled deeply, trying to steady himself and calm his nerves.
Unknowingly, his gaze drifted back to Sky again.
He hated himself for not being able to look away.
God fairies knew how to tease Jude when Sky shook his head as he surfaced from the water, trying to rid his damp hair of the clinging droplets while his eyes remained closed, his head slightly facing the sky.
Everything seemed to turn in slow motion.
Sky’s well-defined biceps stood out as he moved, especially when he slowly raked his hair.
The hairs of his armpit were strikingly hot and sexy.
Armpits were Jude’s very weakness. When he got a boyfriend, the first thing he would do was bury his face in his armpit.
He always fantasized about it. The sharp line of Adam’s apple was visible against his neck, very sexy when it moved up and down as he swallowed.
Small droplets of water splashed from his hair, catching the light as they fell.
He looked like a fallen angel cursed by the gods, becoming devilishly cruel, something beautiful yet dangerous, as if he had lost his wings somewhere between heaven and hell.
“Done ogling again?” Sky asked, snapping Jude out of his own world once more.
Internally, Jude scolded himself, mentally berating his own stupidity and obviousness.
“I’ve heard from the locals around here that if you visit this waterfall and don’t swim, a ghost will come after you, and you’ll be dead by tomorrow,” Sky said suddenly, as if it were nothing.
A wave of fear instantly washed over Jude.
The hairs on his skin stood up again as unease crept back into his chest. It was a superstition Jude had never heard from the locals or read before.
Still, since he was not very familiar with the place, he had no way of knowing whether Sky was telling the truth.
Either way, the warning sent a chill down his spine, leaving him uneasy and afraid.
In the end, he decided there was nothing to lose by simply going along with it.
Swallowing hard and blinking twice, Jude looked away from Sky and glanced at the clothes sprinkled on the ground, only to realize they were all there. Which meant Sky was completely naked. Flustered, Jude quickly turned his gaze back up, nervously forcing himself to only look at Sky’s face.
“I d-don’t have e-extra clothes,” Jude managed to say, a globus sensation stuck in his throat.
“That’s why you have to swim completely naked. I thought you were clever?” Sky scowled out of patience.
“It’s o-okay…I will just watch you here. I’m not afraid to die any—”
“Are you going to take your clothes off and swim, or should I carry you over there and drown you myself? You choose,” Sky said, his tone deadly serious and irritation clearly rising.
Sky’s mood had shifted again. He was a very sensitive and grumpy bastard.
Inside, Jude almost wanted to choose the second option out of stubbornness, but he knew it would only make Sky even angrier.
Whatever small bit of bravery and sarcasm he had would not work on him anyway.
Jude looked down and pinched his hands apprehensively.
“Then, don’t look,” Jude gave up.
Jude was reluctant to get into the water because he had no spare clothes, yet his heart desperately wanted to experience the waterfall for himself. Sky understood what he meant because when Jude gazed up at him again, he was now swimming with his back facing toward him and—
Oh my!
Jude immediately held his breath, caught completely off guard.
His heart abruptly lurched hard in his chest as his eyes widened in shock.
For a moment, he felt completely frozen, like his body had stopped responding.
Panic shot through him as he quickly looked away, his face burning with embarrassment at what he had accidentally seen.
Sky’s butt.
It was his first time seeing an actual ass of another person, but in those few seconds, he witnessed that his butt was perfectly toned and well-defined. It was sculpted in perfection.
Jude’s feet wobbled. He was flabbergasted.
The image of his butt never left his mind, despite Sky already being submerged in the water.
It took Jude several seconds before he finally forced his gaze away.
He was completely stunned and at a loss for words.
As much as he wanted to erase the image from his mind, it kept replaying helplessly.
He swallowed hard, struggling to steady himself.
Blinking twice, Jude hurriedly took off his clothes before Sky resurfaced and caught him completely exposed.
Unlike Sky, Jude hated his own build. His body was small and slender, his bones slightly visible beneath his skin.
Bruises and faded scars marked almost every part of him.
After tossing his clothes aside, Jude carefully placed his glasses on top of his worn-out shoes.
He hesitated for a moment, debating whether to go through with it, but the moment his foot touched the water, a cold sensation rushed through him.
The moment he noticed Sky beginning to resurface, Jude quickly dunked himself into the water.
Relief washed over him when Sky did not get the chance to see him exposed, and to his surprise, the water was not nearly as freezing as he had expected.
Jude’s feet could still touch the rocky ground beneath the water, though the water already reached up to his shoulders.
But he knew that if he swam farther toward where Sky had gone, he would not be able to reach the bottom anymore.
Sky dived underwater again, disappearing completely without leaving a trace of where he might resurface next. Jude glanced left, then right, even turning to check behind him, but Sky still had not appeared.
Worry crept into him. He easily got worried.
He was also worried that Sky might see his bare skin underwater.
The water was somehow clear in his area, so if Sky opened his eyes underneath, he might see his naked body.
Flustered by the thought alone, Jude instinctively lowered his hands beneath the water to shield his private part between his legs.
Almost three minutes had passed, yet Sky was still nowhere to be found. Jude almost started to cry in worry.
“Stop worrying about me,” Sky said out of nowhere, nearly making Jude shriek in surprise.
Jude quickly turned around and found him standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, his expression as stoic as ever. They looked into each other’s eyes. It was as if their eyes alone were communicating.
“How are you feeling?” Sky suddenly asked, the abrupt change in topic catching Jude off guard.
Sky’s moods were impossible to predict lately. Jude could even catch a glint of softness in his eyes.
It took Jude a moment before he finally answered.
“Okay…I guess,” he answered quietly as he glanced at the water under his face. “To be honest…right now, I’m happy.”
Jude gazed back at him and saw he was not satisfied with his answer. Sky remained silent, his serious gaze fixed on Jude, thoroughly reading his expression as he waited for his next words.
“I’m happy that I finally got to experience one of the things I’ve always wanted to do. Visiting a place like this has always been on my bucket list, Sky. Thank you for bringing me here…” Jude admitted honestly, surprising even himself with how steady his voice sounded.
Their eyes remained locked on each other, and Jude was startled by the realization that he could now prolong Sky’s gaze without immediately looking away.
“I wasn’t asking about your goddamn bucket list,” Sky said seriously. “I was talking about your family situation. How do you feel about it?”
“I don’t know what I feel…” Jude lied.
No one could understand how shattered and devastated he truly was unless they had lived in his shoes. He stared into Sky’s deep green eyes, and somehow, they silently seemed to tell him that everything would eventually be okay.
“But it really hurts…deep down here,” Jude admitted honestly, pressing a hand against his chest.
He knew he should have lied again, but there was something about those intense green-gold orbs that made him want to tell the truth instead.
“What are you going to do now?” Sky asked.
Maybe Jude was imagining it, but he thought he could hear genuine concern hidden beneath Sky’s voice.