Page 67 of His Untoward Hate

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.

“I was planning to move out,” Jude said without hesitation. “I’m already nineteen. I should start taking care of myself now. I may depend on others sometimes, but I can be independent too, you know,” he said as if he really could. “I need to be strong and learn how to live on my own…because at the end of the day, I only have myself.”