Chapter 4

Is it really a good idea? 

He suddenly lose track of his friend, leaving all by himself in the part of Slump that almost burned his skin. 

“Edward!” he search around, only the woods a far meet his gaze.

Nothing's there, no souls, just him. 

Then he remembered before he even freak to the silence, the slump people have reunited in the central town. No choice, he have to walk through the woods he saw a far, searching his friend there rather than a wife that he still assumed have ran.

How's the possibility of her being in the Slump anyway? Only if his friend not so unusual at all, he shouldn't have wandered and walk in it alone.

But he never expect to met an unusual beauty in the Slump, and worst, that beauty tried to jump in the Cliff. How damn stupid a person could be? 

But he never realize, his world suddenly changed. Just in snap, they have the moment in the abandoned house made of woods. Hate it or gross it, he have to show the woman that he's not at all just about charms and sensitivity to the burning sun.

“Um, so...” he tried to say but couldn't initiate the conversation. 

“Yes?” she seated at the woods across him, smile as if realize his utterance. “You're free to talk... Now that there's no sun to burn your skin.” That's sounds more teasing than just assurance.

Moment later, he have thought: the woman is not at all deserved to live in the place like the Slump, not at all. She has the kind of beauty that the town outside the slump never has. Even wearing a rotten clothes, no one can compare her beauty, especially when she smile like nothing much more to prove right.

“Why are you here anyway?” she snapped away his thought, “I mean, are you...” she observed him from head to toe as he recover from shock.

Instinctively, he covered his body from the unusual gaze, “W-what are you doing...?” he trailed off.

She blushed to the question, realized what that's even meant. “No, no... I didn't meant to...” she give up, how can she know what he thinking anyway?

“No, that's fine,” he assured her, but at back of his mind, he scream: not fine at all! 

He smiled then, the idea of her liking his body is priceless. “I think it's not the time to want something from someone you just met?”

“Right,” she nodded, “I just think...” She gotten serious, “what a man like you doing in this kind of place?” 

He tense to the sudden question, “That's-” 

“I didn't mean it in a bad way,” she added. 

“I know...” but he couldn't bring himself to say something, the reason he have to walk in the Slump. 

***

“How can I say that I go there because of a run-away wife?” he muttered between his breathed, “I mean a soon-to-be...” he hissed to the mistake. 

Not that he want the idea of having a wife, or not having so at all.

The thought of it makes him, somewhat, weird. He don't understand anymore his self, after he meet that woman in the Slump, he have lose the idea of being a good husband to a Soner. 

“What really happened to me?”

“R-ryeo!” 

It was Edward, running like his life is done for, he sweat all over his face, as usual but no, he trembling and was looking around like searching for the culprit of his unusual behaviour.

Ryeo almost forgot him and was shocked to realize how he looks so mess up. “Edward...?” unlike before they ventured to the slump, his friend is as more disturbed than then.

“I'm glad you're safe!” he looks so worried and tired. “I'm glad...” 

“Why are you...so sorry?” he asked, ignored what he felt and seen.

What could have go wrong? It couldn't be aboout the Slump people, right? 

He can't forgive them!

“I was looking around after I realized you have gone,” he said, ignoring the trembling lips but smiled ineffectively, “and the next thing I know...” he freaked out and pulling his hair for an answer, “I d-don't know anymore! I was afraid for unknown reason back then... I don't have idea of where you are, I don't know what to do... I don't know where I am...there's many of them...” he sobbed and trembled more.

He hold him, trying to hold his tears from falling. 

“Edward, please...” He begged for the first time, as sincere as he sounds like when he tried to stop him from stepped foot to the Slump. It was his friend, the only one, but how damn he don't know a thing about him? 

“Tell me, please, what happened?” he added, so confused and feared for his friend's sake, “Why are you trembling and sweating all over your face...?” His eyes teared up, he can felt the fear and the worry in his friend voice, but he don't have any idea of what to do. 

“Ryeo, I-I think...” he sounds so tired as he stuttered the words he said, “I s-should've listen...” he added in despair, “y-you are right...!”

“What?”

He smiled but his eyes wear out as he continued, “The slump people...” he said, skaken; “I feel like they have secret hidden beneath our feet.”

***

No news about the slump the next morning. It is the time Ryeo have wish gossip about the slump commotion, or if there really commotion that happened. 

He trusted his friend more than himself, the way he narrated what he seen, he experience in the slump the moment they lost sight to each other. It scream no more than reality that, for unknown reason, he have never experience when she wonder to the woods, even in the edge of the town. 

But he never so sure about the whole part of the slump. 

“Who knows what really is happening?” 

Everyone's shocked is priceless as he entered the grand entrance of Darkspot, bowed in fear as they realized who it was walking in confindence and authority to the company he will surely own someday. 

“Those people,” he added with silent curse in his breath, “who knows what inside their head?” he must really be careful more than he used to. Now that the engagement he have to a Soner is still the talk of the town, everyone still not get over with their doubt. How they feel bad for a poor Soner to marry a devil?

“The devil,” Whispered from the people inside the close door who don't know their place. “How can we enthrusted the Darkspot to an anti-social freak?” 

He stopped and freezed his gaze to the golden door. He felt a presence of fool that tried to bring him down with their usual gossip, the trategy used to make him suffered in embarrasment. Too bad for them, he is immune to those kind of trick.

“Watch your words, Denever,” another voice behind the close door said, “You have no power nor right to talk like that, especially here. Don't you think I'm-?”

He stormed inside before they finished their childish game. How dare they let their voice reach outside the room?

“You both have guts to talk sh*t behind my back, hm?” he coldly said, ignoring the shock as if a dirt in their faces. He smiled, not reaching his eyes, a warning to their inappropriate display in a sacred golden room, “You're ignorance to even secured the place for damn talk-shit is what's make you both a powerless. Bare in mind, you're not the devil here, it's me!” 

He looked at the young man, a very man of Denever who immediately recover from shock.

“So the devil-” he gritted his teeth when he realize the glare coming from the woman who lecture him earlier. He laughed like a madman and stood highly, forgetting the reason of why he even here this moment. 

“Spotlight never failed to be reliable as ever,” he said, narrating a damn thing. “You, for sure has decide to show that despicable horns of yours, Coplete.”