Human Skin Mask

The familiar knocking sound rang out. The pen in Erina's hand stopped for a few seconds. She sighed and continued to look down at the paper, raising her voice just loud enough for the person outside to hear.

"Young master, come in."

Every night, as a habit from when Henry was young, after finishing his homework, he would go to Erina's room, sit quietly, and watch her for a long time before returning to his room.

Today was no exception, as soon as he entered, he climbed onto the bed, his dark eyes with long, sad eyelashes looking towards the desk where the girl was busy with stacks of books.

Henry sat still and remembered when he was little, he often pretended to fall asleep on Erina's bed. At times like that, she gently lifted his head, placed a pillow under his head, and covered him with a blanket.

If he tossed and turned, she would gently comfort him and sing a lullaby, then quietly spread a small mattress on the floor and sleep.

However, when Henry had just entered the middle school gate, the distance between them suddenly became farther and farther, and the one who created that distance was Erina, not anyone else.

She no longer lovingly comforted him when he was sad or worried and cared for him when he was sick like before.

After seeing her hug her pillow and blanket and go to the empty room next door to sleep a few times, he stopped intentionally staying overnight in her room.

Erina's father, Riley, and Clement's father, Max, were both employees of Hubert. Riley was the assistant to the president of Young Market, while Max was just the director of a small branch.

Hubert favored his close assistant and Max more than other employees. Outside of work, he did not care about their status and treated them as family. His family's luxurious trips at home and abroad always include them.

The incident happened on a summer night sixteen years ago. The luxurious mini yacht at sea suddenly caught fire and burned Riley and Max alive, causing the two children who had already lost their mother to also lose their father.

When the disaster struck, Erina followed Clement to the deck to play, so she and he were lucky to escape the hands of death. As for Hubert, because he went out on a small boat to get a barrel of wine from the staff, he avoided a tragedy.

After completing the funeral for his two subordinates, Hubert took responsibility for taking care of the two poor children, Erina and Clement. He took them both to live with his distant cousin on the Young Market company's grape farm.

A year later, Henry's mother, Miyeon, suddenly fell down the stairs and died. Hubert immediately brought Erina into his house to raise her, or rather, to let her stay by Henry's side to take care of him, who was only six years old at that time. As for Clement, he still stayed at the vineyard with Nelly.

Although there were many servants in the house, since his mother passed away, Henry did not let anyone touch him and did not eat or drink. Hubert saw that in the past, Henry often followed Erina every time she and her father visited the villa, so he came up with the idea of bringing her here.

Entering the luxurious villa as Henry's future wife, Erina always fulfilled her assigned duties, she took care of his every meal and sleep.

Time passed quickly, and the children of the past gradually grew up. In Henry's mind, he considered Erina his wife, he loved her with all the sincerity of a young man who had just begun to experience his first feelings.

The clock's hour hand slowly moved towards eleven, Henry still sat motionless, staring at the desk. He knew that Erina was deliberately pretending to be busy.

He didn't know since when, but even in normal conversations, she was very economical with words, to put it bluntly, she was avoiding him.

"Aren't you going to sleep? It's too late."

"You go to sleep first, I haven't finished studying yet."

"I'm making you uncomfortable, right?"

"Why do you ask that? I don't have any discomfort."

Erina stopped writing and turned her head to look at Henry. It's been a long time since she's looked straight at this handsome face.

"I don't bother you anymore. Go to bed early."

Henry sighed sadly, stood up, and walked straight. When he got to his room, he threw himself down on the mattress, staring at the ceiling. She was close to him, but he felt as if she were on the other side of the ocean.

Every day, he had to witness Erina and Clement walking back and forth together, which made him extremely uncomfortable. She happily sat on the bus with that man but never once shared a car with him to school.

When she was in sixth grade, he was in fourth grade, the two schools were far apart, and he was eager to quickly go to middle school. When she was in tenth grade, he was in eighth grade, so he wished for time to pass quickly.

By the time they entered the same university, Erina registered for classes that were completely out of sync with Henry's class time. He could only arrange his class schedule in the afternoon because in the morning he had to learn martial arts and shooting.

In the next room, Erina was no better, her heart was heavy with thoughts. During the months and days they were together, she loved Henry like a close relative.

The moment she arrived, seeing the little boy sitting huddled in the corner of the room, eyes filled with tears, looking scared, she hugged him and whispered that she would protect and take care of him.

It was not until the day Henry graduated from primary school that Clement suddenly told her that he suspected that their father's death was related to Hubert.

Clement said that once when Max was drunk, he accidentally lamented that Hubert was the reason why he had to raise his child alone, causing his child to lose his mother.

According to Max, he and Hubert were classmates in high school. After a while, they unexpectedly met again and Hubert invited Max to join him in establishing Young Market, a company specializing in the production and distribution of wine.

The agreement between them was very simple: Hubert contributed money, Max contributed labor, and the profits would be split equally.

However, when the company began to reap initial successes and gradually grew, Hubert said that the company's capital was insufficient and asked Max to contribute money, otherwise, he would have to find other shareholders.

Because Max trusted his classmate so much, the agreement when establishing the Young Market company was only verbal, the documents only had Hubert's name.

So, Max had to agree to hold the position of director of a small branch in a province and watch all his efforts be lost at the hands of his close friend.

Clement's mother was so sad when she saw her husband being tricked by his best friend that she became seriously ill and died.

Seeing the small Young Market company expanding day by day in the market made Max unable to accept it. He went to Hubert more than once to negotiate but only received gentle advice that he should be content with his current title and position.

A coincidence that made both Clement and Erina even more suspicious was that Miyeon and the future heir of Young Market, Henry, had not appeared on that fateful yacht from the beginning.

Many times, Erina sneaked into Hubert's study when he was away on business trips but found nothing.

Although she knew that no one would be foolish enough to keep things that would expose themselves, she always hoped to find some clues. As a result, she was disappointed again and again.

There was no other way, she and Clement had to wait patiently together and secretly search for traces of the person who drove the small boat to deliver wine in the past.

But many years have passed, detectives searched everywhere but still could not get any information about this man, not even a little bit. The money she and he inherited from their father was also gradually running out.

The lights in the two rooms next to each other suddenly went out. Erina leaned against the glass window, looking at the distant mountain, which was covered in black, with only a few dim high-pressure lamps. The warm sunshine of her heart was there, she didn't know if he was asleep or not.

While she was daydreaming, the phone in her hand rang softly, the screen clearly showed the number that she knew by heart and even though she didn't need to save the name, she knew it was Clement's phone number.

"Are you not sleeping yet?"

"You too. Missing me, right?"

"Yes." She replied shyly.

"I miss you too. What should I do? Even though we just met each other in the afternoon, I still miss you very much."

"Clement, tomorrow, I'll come to the farm to meet you. Remember, don't go anywhere."

"Okay, I'll wait for you. Erina, good night."

"You too."

Holding the phone close to her chest, she felt her heart beating rapidly. After being with him for so many years, she thought she was very familiar with him, but this afternoon, he suddenly confessed his love, making her so shy that she ran away.

Before, Erina thought that she was the only one who had a crush on him, but now that she knew that he had also secretly loved her for so long, she felt extremely satisfied.

She hopes they will quickly bring the culprit to light, avenge his father and her father, then go with him to a far away, peaceful place, build a home, and live happily together for the rest of their lives.