mental note to self | meteor garden [REVAMPING]

11 | 星

"Xinxin? I think Ah Si's gone insane."

"Wha—?"

"He's lost it! Just completely lost his shit. Please say you'll help."

"Meizuo," Yuxin sighed. "Ah Si is unhinged on a good day. Give me a good reason to leave my agar plates behind."

"Have you been living under a rock for the past two days? It's all over the school—" A loud crash in the background, the sound of something shattering. "Shit! For fuck's sake, Ah Si, not at me— Is that reason enough?"

"...Already out the door. Don't die."

"My hero."

‒∙◇❀◇∙‒

"Ximen? What happened? Where is he?"

Ximen motioned for her to follow him, scrubbing one hand tiredly down his face. "Someone posted a photo of Shancai leaving a motel with some random white guy she met at a bar. There's a picture of him smiling with her asleep. Shancai insisted nothing happened, but..."

"But what?" Yuxin asked sharply. "You think she's lying?"

"What? No, no. Meizuo and I think someone posted it to deliberately hurt Shancai, we've been looking into it. It's Ah Si that doesn't believe her."

"Right. Sorry, I..." she sighed. She was probably the least close to Ximen out of all of them, and she would be lying to herself if she denied that his philandering ways sometimes influenced her prejudice of him. "You're a good friend, Ximen."

He squeezed her shoulder in lieu of thanks. "Meizuo's just downstairs sorting out the broken furniture with the housekeeper."

"I didn't—"

Ximen rolled his eyes and gave her a knowing look. "You would have asked sooner or later. You two are gross and predictable."

"Fuck off," she mumbled, poking him in the ribs where she knew he was ticklish so she could open the door to Ah Si's room.

She had to scan the room (ostentatiously large, even by her standards) a few times before she found him huddled in one of the corners, hidden partially by his king-sized bed. "Ah Si?" she called, cautiously creeping towards him. She sank down on her knees in front of him, but his red-rimmed gaze was unfocused and he gave no indication of hearing her. He might as well have been staring through glass. His hair was ungelled and messy, loose strands sticking out in every direction. 

"Ah Si," she said simply. "I'm going to hug you now." Slowly, as if approaching a wounded animal, she wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders. For a second, she though he'd fling her off, throw something, yell at her. But then the great and almighty Daoming Si slumped against her, burying his face into her shoulder with a low groan.

"Yuxin," he gasped.

"Hmm?"

"It hurts. So much. I don't know why, I don't know what to do about it, I don't—"

"Oh, Ah Si." Growing up in the Daoming household, Ah Si was probably never shown how to process and express his feelings. The Daomings had a cold beauty to them, never showing emotion in public. Yuxin wondered how much of himself he had been forced to bottle up inside. In any case, it was no wonder why he was always so quick to lash out, why his feelings seemed to only leave him in bursts. "You're falling for her, aren't you?"