46 Dont you know about personal space!? (1/2)

Yuan Xuelan was running away. Hurried steps rushed after him and he felt the well of panic alongside the biting stab of anger. The halls were familiar though, so he dashed around the corner and out to the courtyard with the Ivory Sword Saint hot on his heels.

Liu Sumeng left the Organ Eating Dagger back in their room. His mind was focused only on chasing down and capturing Yuan Xuelan. Please don't hate me, he chanted desperately in his mind, but those thoughts could not find their place beyond his throat. He had done so well up till now. He had done everything to make Yuan Xuelan care for him, like him, respect him. And now this- Liu Sumeng couldn't allow something like this wedge a sea between them!

So he followed Yuan Xuelan. From the manor halls to the dimly-lit courtyard. And out they dashed of the Hidden Mist's secret cave and beyond the rumble of the waterfall. They ran and ran through the dense layer of snow. There was only a dribble of moonlight that spilled down through tree branches that trapped them beneath the sky like wiry fingers. Yuan Xuelan's dark robes seemed to melt into the night.

”Why did you follow me?” They finally stopped when there were only trees surrounding them with the eerie rustling of the wind. The flowing river and rushing waterfall were quite far now and Liu Sumeng had no idea where they were.

”I…”

”Don't you know anything about personal space!?” Yuan Xuelan howled at him and the branches around them trembled. Flecks of snow fluttered down.

”Xuelan, I'm sorry.” He approached and reached out but his hand was slapped away.

Yuan Xuelan was wound up like a spring, ”Sorry!? For what!? Just what do you have to be sorry for? For your annoying face? For me being pathetic? Or cruel?” His hands were curled into fists and Liu Sumeng wondered if he was going to get hit. He knew this face of Yuan Xuelan. He was familiar with the emperor and his flaring rage and the uncontrollable yang energy that swirled in his heart.

So Liu Sumeng did what he knew and knelt. Like how he knelt before the emperor who threatened to destroy his golden core. Like how he knelt before the emperor to beg him to end Xu Hexian's suffering.

But this Yuan Xuelan was not the terrible emperor. Not yet. So he only sputtered and screamed even though he didn't know who to scream at anymore. He was a fish out of water, a bird without wings. ”Liu Sumeng! Get up right at this moment! Don't you-! Don't you ever kneel before me ever again! Stop this at once!” He grabbed a fist full of the Ivory Sword Saint's white collar and shook him like he was insane. This Ivory Sword Saint was insane!

Liu Sumeng did nothing and said nothing while Yuan Xuelan shook him. And the young cultivator was reminded of a man dressed in a general's armor who staggered towards him with too much blood loss. Yuan Xuelan released his grip from utter horror.

”Leave.” He bit out. ”I need you to leave.”

”…” Liu Sumeng didn't want to leave.

”I'm tired of seeing your face.”

”…”

”…” And even his words made him feel like he was beating a beaten dog. Yuan Xuelan felt exhausted and couldn't understand how he got himself into this situation. But he really couldn't stand the way Liu Sumeng knelt so desperately before him. Whose eyes, while pitiful, looked at his with pity. He couldn't stand it. He wanted more than anything to hate Liu Sumeng, and reject him with every fiber of his being.

”Sumeng,” he said coldly, ”do you want me to hate you?”

”…!” Liu Sumeng raised his head, an expression both hurt and shocked graced his features. His eyes widened and filled with an emotion that Yuan Xuelan hated to look at.

”…If you don't want me to hate you then you will get up. Now.”

Obediently, Liu Sumeng crawled to his feet and hung his head. Liu Sumeng, who searched for him in the cold and brought him home with an outstretched hand, trembled lightly. But despite his vows, Yuan Xuelan could only repay kindness with mean words and anger. And for the first time, he quietly prayed that Liu Sumeng would one day come to hate him. ”Let's go back. It's cold.”

To Liu Sumeng, Yuan Xuelan offered no outstretched hand and didn't walk next to him to keep him company. Instead, he kept his distance and took long brisk steps to stay in front. One day, he thought, he would grow taller and shield Liu Sumeng from the cold gusting wind. Because apparently, that was the only thing he could do. For Yuan Xuelan was cruel and didn't understand what true kindness was. This was the truth that he had come to realize.

They returned, shrouded in a cloud of gloom. Not a single word was uttered between them.

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