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Her whole face brights up whenever she's with other people outside. With friends, she feels complete and content. But when she they all part, that's when she starts to get back to reality.
(Y/n)'s place is just a small little apartment just by the city. It gives a great view of beautiful scenery as well. The apartment itself was neat itself but her room was out of order.
Scattered papers everywhere, shards of glass and broken picture frames were thrown on the ground. Her mirrors were covered with a white cloth, she didn't want to see herself.There are even dirty dishes waiting to be cleaned on the sink, (Y/n)'s life was falling apart. She never had a great relationship with her parents as well, there were lots of yelling and fighting involved so she was forced to run away from them.
At a young age, (Y/n) did everything herself. She even faked her age just to work at a fastfood restaurant for some money and to pay off her tuition in college.
One day, a new transferee was staying in her classroom. He was originally from another city called Liyue and he was staying with his grandmother in the meantime. Zhongli was seen as mysterious, his bag to school consists of only a pen and a paper. No money, no nothing.
Zhongli would always admire (Y/n) from afar. Something about her just makes the transferee mesmerized. He wanted to be friends with her and she waited for a perfect chance to do so. One day (Y/n) forgot her sweater at school..
So Zhongli surprised (Y/n) a visit to her house one day after school.
It wasn't hard to find the apartment where (Y/n) lives, b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶d̶e̶p̶t̶i̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ . He wasn't trying to be a stalker or someone creepy ( but still, it's creepy ) he just wanted to return her sweater and as well be her friend.
Zhongli asked the reception desk to (Y/n)'s room. It almost didn't went well but he somewhat bribed the reception to think he was her family member or something along those lines. He knocked on the door and waited for her to open and meet him but after a few moments, no one answered.
"Maybe she's not home..?" He asked himself while eyeing the sweater on his hand. Zhongli was decided to wait for her, "I'm sure she wouldn't take too long for her to return home"
Hours and hours pass by and it was already 6 in the evening. Zhongli was still waiting for (Y/n) until he heard some keys dangling at a distance. He quickly stood up from sitting on the floor and dusted himself.
A sigh escaped (Y/n)'s lips as she took her keys out of her pocket. She didn't want to return home and she didn't want to be alone too, things can get out of hand if she does. When she looked up, her eyes met Zhongli's golden ones.
(Y/n) didn't know how to react, she just stood there frozen in place.
"I believe this is yours?" Zhongli calmly walked towards her direction and offered her the sweater for she could take. "You left it on your desk earlier so I'd thought I could swing by and give it to you here"
A gentle smile graced the boy's lips as he waited for (Y/n) to take her sweater. The girl only looked at him, as if she's seeing some sort of a creepy vibe around him. She cautiously took the sweater and walked straight towards her door.
Once again, a sigh escaped the girl's lips as she twisted her doorknob. (Y/n) turned her head to face Zhongli and said, "Would you like to come in?"
Zhongli nodded, "If you don't mind.."
(Y/n) was embarassed to say the least since her apartment was too filthy. She placed her bag on top of a small sofa and proceeded to go to the kitchen to grab something to drink. The apartment wasn't unlivable to say the least, its just its dirty.
The boy didn't mind though, he silently looked aroung the small room to check on the girl. He thought that something might've happened that left the girl at this state. But even so, he started to clean around, picking up the shards of glass gently so he wouldn't injure himself.
(Y/n) looked at Zhongli in shock, "Oh you shouldn't be doing that! Please put the shards back on the floor, you might even get injured" she placed the two glasses filled with water on the table and held out her two hands. "Put the shards here, I'll throw them away"
Zhongli nodded and gently placed the shards on her hand, "Be careful.. I'll wash the dishes later. Let's have dinner first.."
The girl looked at the transferee with a quizzical look on her face. She dropped the shards in the garbage and was quite shocked at what the boy said. Zhongli then started to rummage inside her fridge and cabinets, only to find a few ingredients. "U-Umm.. Zhongli..?"
"Ah, these may work" Zhongli grabbed a piece of ham, some shrimp and a lone crab inside (Y/n)'s freezer. He also grabbed some matsutake mushrooms inside the fridge. "Please wait a moment while I cook you some dinner"
It was a good thing that (Y/n) did some grocery, but she doesn't know how to cook complex meals. Instant ramen and some egg is okay to her. The last home cooked meal she had was last month when she visited her grandmother in Qingce Village. (Y/n) questions the transferee in her head, why on earth is he doing these anyway?
On the other hand, the brunette ran his knife on some shrimp for some extra flavor. He cleaned some pots and spoons so he could easily cook the meal. Before anything else, Zhongli sauteed some onion and garlic and of course the minced shrimp meat.
He poured water until it reached halway of the pot then brought them to a boil, he also washed the mushroom and pat them dry before chopping them into medium size pieces and adding them to the pot. Zhongli cracked the crab's shell so he could take the delicious meat. The pork meat is also sliced into a somewhat thick portion before getting added to the pot.
Zhongli added salt and pepper then boiled the soup.
[ this is making me hungry . . . . :( ]
(Y/n) couldn't help but smell the delicious fragrance of what her classmate is cooking. She peeked in the kitchen to see Zhongli adding some butter on the slices of bread before toasting them on the pan. The girl stood next to him and helped him toast the bread.
"It smells nice in here" the girl smiled and flipped the bread on the other side since one of them is perfectly toasted. "It's nice to eat some home cooked meals once in a while.. where did you learn to cook?"
Zhongli took off the lid of the pot and the aroma of the soup wafted in the air. He started stirring the soup so the heat would be equally distributed throughout the pot while cooking. "I learned cooking since I live with my grandmother. She teaches me a lot of things.. you should come by sometime, I'm sure she'd like you"
(Y/n) and Zhongli continued cooking until the soup and the slices of bread were perfectly toasted. The girl cleared the dining table and they placed the the needed plates, bowls and utensils for their dinner. The two continued to eat dinner and started to chat.
Zhongli seemed to brought color in (Y/n)'s lifeless home. The girl felt that she was not alone whenever he was around. The soup made her feel warm and nostalgic, this was just like what her mother made her when she was still a kid.
She definitely missed the warmth of having someone around.
