Cutie looked at Kaya, his expression softening in the moonlight. "You know, there was a time I wished death would just come to me. I really wished to die."

Kaya paused mid-sip and nodded. "Uh-huh."

She wasn’t surprised. She’d met thousands of people who wished to die. She knew that feeling intimately. There had been moments when she’d wished for it too.

Cutie smiled sadly. "But then those hyenas were chasing me. I was frozen for a second, ready to let it happen. But then I started running." He looked down at his cup. "And I started wishing—I don’t want to die like this. I want to meet someone. I want to travel the world. I want to fall in love. I want to die being loved, not alone, not without ever knowing what that feeling is."

Kaya smiled slightly, almost laughing. "Love, huh? So, did you find it? Or are you still waiting?"

Cutie turned to look at her, his gaze gentle and unbearably honest. "I found it that same night."

Kaya’s breath caught. She looked at him, and she wasn’t naive—she knew what Cutie felt. It was written all over his face every time he looked at her, every quiet gesture, every patient moment. And she knew her own feelings weren’t invisible either.

But she didn’t want to say it. Didn’t want to shatter whatever fragile thing existed between them by naming it.

"I’m a really bad person," she said quietly.

Cutie smiled and lowered his head, looking at his cup. "Well, what can we do? Looks like I’ve fallen for a bad person."

Kaya’s jaw tightened. "I’m married now. Twice."

"I know," Cutie said softly. "I didn’t get the chance to be the second one. But I’m fine with being the third."

Kaya paused, something painful twisting in her chest. "I don’t believe you."

Cutie just lowered his head further, voice barely above a whisper. "Well, I don’t believe myself either."

Kaya looked at him, then said firmly, "I don’t believe in love."

Cutie paused. Then he lifted his head and met her eyes—those calm, steady blue eyes that had seen her at her worst and stayed anyway.

"Maybe," he said gently, "it’s because you haven’t fallen for someone yet."

Kaya paused, looking at his eyes, then at the moon. "I don’t want to feel love."

Cutie’s smile froze for a moment. He looked at her, then said gently, "Maybe it’s because you’re scared."

Kaya turned sharply to look at him.

Cutie’s smile softened. "I don’t think this world is filled with only good people. There are many bad people. But it doesn’t mean there aren’t good people too." He paused. "You don’t believe in love. You’re scared of it. Maybe it’s because you haven’t loved the right person yet."

Kaya just stared at him.

"Maybe you don’t even need to love just one person," Cutie continued. "Loving one person might be tiring for you. So you could love many people together. You know, females in our world do this."

Kaya paused. "World."

Cutie smiled. "Well, that’s what we say."

Kaya knew that by "world," Cutie was implying something else. Maybe he knew she wasn’t from here. But she didn’t want to ask and shatter the quiet understanding they’d just found.

She sighed and looked at the sky, at the bright stars scattered above them. "Don’t you men get tired of loving only one woman?"

Cutie smiled and shook his head with a slight laugh. "Well, most of us don’t even get chosen our whole lives. And women have the right to choose whoever they want. Yeah, I’d be jealous. Others would too. But the thought that someone would be there to protect the one you love—that’s bigger than jealousy."

He looked at the sky. "If someday I were to die, I wish that someone would be there to protect you."

Kaya knew this was a love confession disguised as casual conversation, but she didn’t know what to say.

Cutie suddenly paused and added quickly, "Well, it’s not meant like that exactly. I mean, every male thinks that way. That if they’re not there, at least someone would be there to protect their female. So they don’t care if their females marry five times or ten times." He paused. "You know, there’s a female who married eighteen times. It’s not a big deal."

Kaya let out a soft breath, almost a laugh. "Eighteen."

"Eighteen," Cutie confirmed. "She’s a healer in the southern territories. Lost most of them to wars and hunts. Each one chose her knowing the others existed. And when she cries for the ones who died, all the living ones comfort her together."

Kaya stared at the stars, processing that. "That sounds exhausting."

"Maybe," Cutie said. "Or maybe it’s less lonely."

They sat in silence, the night wrapping around them like a blanket.

Finally, Kaya spoke, voice barely above a whisper. "I’m not good at this."

"At what?"

"Being loved. Loving. Any of it."

Cutie turned to look at her, moonlight catching in his blue eyes. "You don’t have to be good at it. You just have to be willing to try."

Kaya’s throat tightened. "And if I’m not?"

"Then I’ll wait," Cutie said simply. "Until you are. Or until you tell me to stop."

Kaya looked at him—at this beastman who’d followed her across territories, who’d stayed when leaving made more sense, who loved her without demanding anything in return.

"You’re an idiot," she said quietly.

Cutie smiled. "I know."

And under the bright moon, surrounded by stars and silence, Kaya let herself feel something she’d been fighting for weeks.

Not love. Not yet.

But maybe the possibility of it.

And for now, that was enough.

"Oh, having love affairs right under my nose?"

Kaya heard the familiar teasing tone and turned around slightly. "Well, it must be because you’re not charming enough. Your married wife is about to have an affair."

Veer walked forward with a grin, leaning down to rest his hand on Kaya’s shoulder as he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "Well, what can I do? It’s not that I’m not charming enough. It’s that my wife is too awesome—I can’t keep these rivals away."

Kaya laughed out loud, the sound echoing across the quiet mountainside.

Veer sat down beside her, sandwiching her between himself and Cutie. "What are you doing outside? Isn’t it cold?" He draped a soft hide shawl around her shoulders.

Kaya caught the furry fabric and smiled. "Nah, it’s too beautiful tonight. I just can’t believe I got married again."

Veer smiled and bumped her shoulder lightly with his. "Oh what, now you believe you’re in heaven? Feel like you’re among the stars? Want to jump around the world and shout that you married such a handsome vulture?"

Kaya paused, looked at him seriously, and said, "Well, I really need to pray to God."

Veer’s smile widened. "Uh-huh, because you got such an amazing husband."

Kaya shook her head. "Nah. I need to pray that I won’t kill you too soon."

And with that, Kaya laughed—loud, genuine, free—while Veer pretended to look wounded and Cutie smiled quietly into his cup.

The three of them sat under the bright moon, surrounded by stars and cool mountain air, and for that moment, everything felt right.

Chaotic. Complicated. Uncertain.

But right.