Perhaps because they had already walked a considerable distance earlier, the second half of the path was much less intense.
Long after they had finally exited the haunted house, Xun Jin still hadn’t fully recovered.
He sat on a bench in the resting area, clutching the edge of his shorts and brooding in silence without uttering a word.
Weixin returned after buying water, unscrewed the bottle cap, and handed it to Xun Jin.
“Drink some water.”
Xun Jin took it and murmured a thank you.
After crying, Xun Jin’s voice sounded as though it were infused with moisture softened, gentle, and both thin and hoarse.
His eyes were swollen from crying, genuinely making him look like a little rabbit.
He drank in tiny, delicate sips, stretching a single bottle of water out for a long time.
Xun Jin had never spent time alone with Weixin before. Lowering his head to nibble on the bottle rim, he stole occasional sideways glances at Weixin.
“Those two don’t know where they went off to,” Weixin said.
He assumed Xun Jin kept looking at him because he wanted to ask about this.
“Oh.”
Xun Jin didn’t know what to say. In truth, by the latter half of the experience, he hadn’t even been thinking about Talon and Mann at all.
“Are you done drinking?”
Looking at the lips made damp and red by the ice-cold water, Weixin’s voice turned somewhat husky.
Xun Jin handed the bottle back with both hands.
Weixin screwed the cap back on and placed it on the table right beside his own water bottle. They sat so closely together that, without a careful look, it was impossible to tell whose was whose.
A stray tear was still lingering on Xun Jin’s chin. Reaching out, Weixin used his finger to gently scrape across his chin, capturing the droplet on his own hand where it traced a path down the lines of his knuckles.
Weixin gazed at that tear-stained face. Xun Jin’s cheeks had also turned flushed pink from the earlier running.
Weixin’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Raising his hand, he casually brushed it against Xun Jin’s cheek as if by accident.
“Hey, about those harsh things I said to you before…”
“I’m sorry.”
Xun Jin was somewhat taken aback, never expecting Weixin to apologize to him.
Seeing the sincerity in Weixin’s eyes, he knew the other person meant it.
“…It’s fine.”
Xun Jin’s tone made the response sound a bit reluctant, but in reality, Xun Jin genuinely hadn’t taken those matters to heart.
He had already forgotten what Weixin had even said to him.
“I can…” Weixin trailed off halfway.
He was never one to say things like this ordinarily, and voicing them now felt rather embarrassing.
“Hmm?”
Xun Jin’s post-tear-stained eyes were wet and wide as he stared straight at him.
Weixin felt as though his soul was about to be hooked right out of him.
With his throat tightening, Weixin said, “I can make it up to you. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Really?”
“Provided you break up with Talon first.”
Xun Jin blinked in confusion. “Why?”
“Do you like him that much?” Weixin assumed Xun Jin was unwilling to break up.
“But even if we don’t break up, it shouldn’t affect you making it up to me, right?”
Weixin touched his neck and muttered under his breath, “Not so stupid after all, huh.”
[Make him your boyfriend.]
Reminded by the voice in his head, Xun Jin looked cautiously at Weixin and timidly repeated those words aloud:
“Be my boyfriend.”
“No.”
Weixin rejected him with absolute decisiveness.
Xun Jin froze.
It was rare for Xun Jin to take the initiative, only to be struck down by that resolute and merciless “No,” leaving him so mortified he felt like dying.
He bit down on the inside of his cheek, gripping the hem of his shorts tightly, completely at a loss for words.
So Weixin really did hate him this much.
Xun Jin had actually thought Weixin’s attitude toward him had changed.
Suddenly, Weixin reached out and pinched Xun Jin’s face upward. With one standing and one sitting, and Weixin leaning in close enough that their knees were practically touching, Xun Jin was forced to lift his head and lock eyes with him.
“You won’t break up, and you want to have two boyfriends at the same time?”
“…Is that not allowed?”
Seeing Xun Jin fall silent, Weixin grew even more irritated.
Using two fingers to firmly grasp the lower half of Xun Jin’s chin, Weixin let his trailing fingers rest against Xun Jin’s neck, stroking the delicate skin very lightly and slowly.
Leaning down, he murmured in a deep voice right against Xun Jin’s ear:
“Two of them can you even handle it?”
Weixin gave a light cough, rubbed the back of his hand that Xun Jin had slapped red, and silently watched the person sitting on the bench hugging their schoolbag and zoning out with their head lowered.
The pads of his fingers still seemed to retain that unforgettable texture, feeling as cool and smooth as jade, requiring a long touch before picking up a trace of faint warmth.
He must still not have recovered from the fright in the haunted house.
Was his skin always this cool on the surface, and was his body the same way inside?
“Stop looking at me!” Glaring at Weixin, Xun Jin quickly lowered his head again, resting his chin against his schoolbag.
[You still haven’t made him your boyfriend.]
‘He’s the one who refused!’
[……]
Getting yelled at for no reason how miserable.
Opting to blank his mind entirely, Xun Jin busied himself playing with the straps of his schoolbag while waiting for Talon and Mann to find them.
Suddenly, his face was tapped again by a cold, hard object.
Weixin seemed to have an extraordinary fondness for touching his face.
Thinking this to himself, Xun Jin tilted his head back to look up at Weixin, who was walking over with his phone in hand, and snapped irritably, “What is it?”
“Add me on chat.” Weixin’s gaze drifted slightly. “Next time… I’ll take you out… to play.”
“It wasn’t fun at all.”
Muttering under his breath, Xun Jin nevertheless added Weixin’s contact information since he was in the middle of a task.
However, as he happened to glance at Weixin’s phone lock screen wallpaper a flash of red and white he felt the image looked vaguely familiar.
[Your photo.]
Xun Jin’s hand holding the phone trembled slightly as he looked at Weixin with a new wave of complicated emotions.
Why would he use my photo as his wallpaper? Could he have discovered my identity?
[Is there any logical connection between the two?]
Then why would he do that? Doesn’t he hate me?
Busy adding a custom remark to Xun Jin’s contact profile, Weixin remained entirely oblivious to Xun Jin’s scrutinizing gaze.
Unfazed, Weixin said on his own accord, “Don’t date Talon. He has ulterior motives, he’s a bad person with a terrible temper, and he doesn’t know how to take care of someone.”
Typing “Xiao Jin” into the nickname box, Weixin raised his eyes to look at Xun Jin and delivered his final sentence: “Besides, he only ever makes you cry.”
“Aren’t all those things you just said describing yourself…”
Swiping aimlessly through the boring interface of his phone, Xun Jin muttered under his breath.
Averting his gaze, Weixin fell silent.
With time to spare while waiting for Talon and Mann, Weixin received a phone call that suddenly turned him tense and anxious.
Xun Jin rarely saw the other person look like this, and his intuition told him something must have gone wrong.
When Weixin offered to drive Xun Jin home, the mere thought of running into Zelan back at the house made Xun Jin shrink back, so he asked Weixin to drop him off at school instead.
After getting out of the car, they barely had time to exchange a few words before Weixin hurried off, tossing out rushed instructions to “stay safe” and “text me when you get home,” leaving Xun Jin to watch his car speed away in a rush.
Watching the vehicle disappear into the distance, Xun Jin asked, “Are they going to hunt vampires?”
[Why don’t you ask them?]
“I’d rather not.”
Xun Jin wasn’t stupid enough to expose his own identity.
[Not entirely a fool, after all.]
[Remember to feed on blood today. Even though you drank yesterday, Zelan drained a portion of it away last night. If you don’t replenish your blood supply in time, you’ll feel exhausted.]
Pulling out his phone, Xun Jin wanted to message his prime blood bag, Talon, to ask what was going on.
The moment the message went out, however, his phone was snatched right out of his hand.
Simultaneously, a massive shadow cast itself over him from ahead.