Chapter 163. Let’s Let Him

June POV

The male nurse had left twenty minutes ago, and somehow I was still sitting beside Hermes on the bed—close enough to touch, far enough to pretend it didn’t break me.

I kept sneaking glances at him, trying to read his expression while he sketched absentmindedly in a notebook the hospital provided.

Why didn’t he want me to go?

Did something in him remember?

Did he feel something?

Or was it just Hermes being… Hermes?

I exhaled and stared at my hands. “Hermes— I mean, Mr. Grande, why am I not allowed to buy lunch for the nurse?” I asked carefully, watching him from the corner of my eye.

He didn’t look up. Didn’t even blink. He just kept drawing lines—long, dark, tense ones that made no artistic sense but somehow felt loud.

“Mr. Grande?” I tried again, rubbing the back of my neck, which suddenly felt too exposed. I needed him to remember. I needed him to call me June the way he used to—like he was saying something forb