Chapter 12 — Turns Out You Actually Like Me

The mountain air was remarkably pure and crisp, with wisps of white morning mist curling in the distance, casting a veil of ethereal vapor over the entire courtyard garden. My older brother strode briskly along the pebble-strewn pathway, bounding ahead like an unleashed husky thrilled to be running free. Dinner was a buffet affair, and my brother marched back to the table carrying three separate plates piled high with food, forming a veritable mountain of delicacies. Sister Huyen tapped the back of his hand with her chopsticks and chided, "Do not eat so much all at once. You will easily feel dizzy later when you go soak in the hot springs." He slapped his chest with a hearty thud and declared, "My constitution is exceptionally strong." I sat diagonally across from Triet, spending the entire meal secretly observing Huyen's facial expressions. She chatted animatedly with my brother, wiped a stray speck of sauce from the corner of his mouth, and scolded him with a playful smile for never being serious—behaving in every way just like her usual self. When her gaze happened to land on me, her eyes remained utterly serene, revealing no hidden meanings or subtle implications whatsoever. I let out a profound sigh of relief, though a persistent trace of guilt still lingered in my chest.

Once we had finished eating and rested for a brief moment, my brother was the very first to leap up, demanding that we immediately head over to the hot springs. The resort was divided into several bathing pools of varying sizes, featuring both open-air pools and smaller indoor bathing chambers. He grabbed Huyen by the hand, pulling her straight toward the largest communal pool, but halfway there he suddenly remembered something, spun around, and bellowed at the top of his lungs:

Dao, you and Triet head over to that smaller pool just around the corner. The water there is comfortably warm and there are hardly any people, which makes it ideal for a hopeless swimmer like you. Triet, if you have no desire to splash around, keep a close eye on my little sister and do not let her wander off doing reckless things.

Triet, who had been staring down at his smartphone, raised his head upon hearing this and replied simply, "Understood." Huyen, being dragged along by my brother, deliberately glanced back over her shoulder and asked, "Are you certain about this?"

"Certain about what?" My brother scratched the back of his head, perplexed. "It is merely a hot spring soak, what could possibly go wrong?"

Huyen sighed softly as she pressed onward. "Very well then, let's go." She tossed another backward glance, giving us a conspiratorial wink. "Have a wonderful time, the two of you."

Once they had vanished into the distance, Triet lowered his gaze toward me and asked, "Shall we go?"

I nodded, stepping in right behind him. He led me away from the main avenue, guiding me along a narrow footpath that wound straight through a dense bamboo grove deeper into the resort grounds. Streetlamps were sparse here, leaving the flagstone path illuminated solely by the brilliant silver glow of the moon. The bamboo leaves rustled gently in the nocturnal breeze, and the air carried a faint, soothing scent of sulfur mingling with the crisp fragrance of fresh foliage and earth.

After walking for a few minutes, the space ahead suddenly opened up. It was a secluded little hot spring pool encircled by a delicate bamboo fence—not particularly large, yet spacious enough to comfortably accommodate four or five people. The surroundings were profoundly tranquil, with the distant murmurs and laughter from the main pool drifting over faintly like echoes on the wind. Triet crouched down to test the water temperature with his hand and asked, "How does this spot look?"

I gave him a nod of approval. He stepped into the small wooden cabin nearby to change into his swimwear first. I lingered sluggishly for a moment before finally changing into my bathrobe and emerging. The water temperature was absolute perfection, and as I slowly lowered myself in, the steaming water rose up to my shoulders, melting away all my tension until my entire body felt wonderfully limp. Every single shred of annoyance and anxiety was instantly cast to the wind.

With a soft splash, Triet entered the water as well. He sat directly across from me, his figure partially obscured by the wavering veil of white steam. Feeling rather self-conscious under his steady gaze, I instinctively ducked half my face beneath the water's surface and grumbled, "Why do you keep staring at me like that?"

"You look beautiful."

The tips of my ears burned bright crimson, and I muttered under my breath, "Why must you suddenly go saying things like that..."

He let out a low chuckle but offered no further explanation. After a brief moment of silence, I could no longer suppress my curiosity and asked:

"Triet, tell me honestly... do you think Sister Huyen is going to tell my brother?"

"Tell him what?"

"About the two of us, of course."

He inched a little closer to where I sat. "And what if she does?"

"What if he gets furious?"

"He loses his temper over trivial matters half the time anyway."

"That may be true, but I still cannot shake this guilty feeling, as if we've committed some terrible mischief and are terrified of getting caught by our parents..."

Midway through our conversation, Triet had already slid through the water until he was sitting right beside me.