Children of the Zodiacs

four

Ren

Ren looks at his reflection in the mirror and pastes on a smile with ease, satisfied knowing how easy it is to fool everyone.
He fiddles with his hair so that it's parted in the right way, then when he is content with how he looks, he leaves the room.

Ren walks past the numerous doors till he reaches the room at the far end of the house. He slides the door open to see his grandfather sitting down behind his large desk with his face scrunched, increasing the lines on his face.

Ren clears his throat to gain his attention. His grandfather hesitantly looks up from his book that he was so absorbed in. Though his grandfather is at first slightly annoyed with the disruption, when realising it is his grandson, his mood changes instantly.
'My boy, why are you standing there for? Come on in.' His grandfather grabs a chair for him and places it next to him, patting it for Ren to sit down.
'Now tell me, how was school?' His grandfather shuffles his chair to face him as though he was eager to know.
Ren can't help but slightly smile at this. 'It was okay,' Ren shrugs, 'I had to get my shoulder checked out because of an injury from training'.
His grandfather responds with a worried expression, 'You need to be more careful from now on, otherwise you may not be able to compete in the race.'
Ren reassures him, 'It's just a small injury, the doctor said it will heal fairly quickly as long as I don't use it too much.'
His grandfather nods.  'So, what information did you gather today?'
'Well, I did some extra training with Hu, I mean the Tiger, today,' Ren corrects himself, 'She is confident and therefore a strong offence, with quick and smooth attacks. However, defense is her weak point.'
His grandfather nods, 'So what can you do with this information?'
Ren pauses for moment before replying, 'I could wait and keep blocking her attacks till she becomes confident that she is going to win, so her defense will go down and that is when I can attack where she would least expect.'
'Yes, that could work,' his grandfather agrees. 'Do you have any other information?'
'Well, I noticed today that the Rabbit favors his left arm because of his previous injury and so his right side is vulnerable, which I can use to my advantage. Although kicks are his main form of attack, so it is hard to get close to him. Oh, and speaking of the Rabbit, it seems that he's becoming closer to the Dragon. I suspect they might become allies in the race.'
'And how is your progress in getting close to the Rabbit?' his grandfather asks him.
Ren hesitates slightly and casts his eyes down, 'It is hard to get close to him as he is very competitive and prideful.'
The smile on his grandfather's face falls a little, then a knock resonates through the room.
Ren turns his head towards the door.
'Come in,' his grandfather says.
The maid walks in and by the time Ren looks back at his grandfather, he sees that his smile is already plastered back onto his face.
'Master Shu,' she bows her head, 'Your presence has been requested by the Emperor.'

                                            🐀

Ren squints and raises a hand to shield his eyes from the harsh sunlight and picks on the well-maintained grass with his other hand. He slightly turns his head towards Jian whose blabbering on.
'... so, my cousin was telling me about this really amazing cakeshop and they have this triple layer cake made of made of four different types of chocolate and..."
Ren feels a nudge on his side and looks to see Hu tilting her head towards a group of girls staring at him and giggling. Ren notices and puts on a flirty smile and gives them a small wave.
Hu rolls her eyes in response.
Realising that his friends are no longer with him, Jiang playfully hits them both across the back of their heads.  They turn in unison and glare.
Having their attention hostage, he says in an exasperated voice, 'As I was saying, we are going to go to the cakeshop today, so let's meet at the entrance after class'.
Ren shakes his head, 'Wait, no I've got – '
Jian interrupts him, 'See you after class!', and strides off before Ren has a chance to finish his protest.

                                             🐀

Jian whistles happily and gazes lovingly at his cake. When he looks up he sees that his friends have left him behind and are walking far ahead of him.
'Slow down! I don't want to drop the cake!', he yells after them.
Jian, realizing that he is being completely ignored, slightly speeds up his pace to catch up to them, tightening his grip on the box that holds the cake.
'If I drop this because of you guys, I swear – '.
Hu suddenly halts and Jian nearly crashes into her. 'Let's go in there'.
Ren looks to the store that she's pointing at and peers at the display which holds a variety of beautifully unique swords.
They open the door and step inside, a bell chiming in response and a girl behind the counter swiftly looks up.
At first glance, Ren sees that she is a relatively average looking girl, but the closer he looks he notices that there is a certain beauty to her. Her unruly dark hair frames her small, slightly pale face which holds almond shaped, hazel eyes.
She puts on a nervous smile,
'Hi, I'm Kai, is there anything I can help you with?'