Haochen closed his bedroom door and stood against it. What in the world was he doing? Where did those lies come from?
He sighed and pushed off the door, sour-faced all the while. It was quite irritating seeing Cloud fawn over Calibri like that. But really, even though he really did want to protect Calibri, there was no need to make up something like that just to deter him from being naked around other people. Reaching into his robe, he pulled out Calibri's pouch of herbs and roots and laid in on his bedside table, giving it a lingering look.
All the confusing thoughts about his irrational behavior made him lose his appetite. There was no need to go cook, even though he'd memorized at least a dozen recipes and asked the cooks in the castle to teach him how to make his own food.
With another great sigh, he started to unshrink his belongings and put them away. First, he arranged his weapons, then set up all his books on the shelf, and then started to put his clothes in the cupboard. He wouldn't need to use his robes much apparently, since they'd been assigned robes crafted by the school, for daywear, nightwear, bathing, and for meditation. The robes were of good quality, and upon closer inspection in the cupboard, there were robes of varying thickness, unlike the thin one he'd worn to the hall earlier.
Thinking better of it, he shrunk the robes he'd brought from home and stored the shrunken items at the back of his cupboard.
It was a cool evening, but Haochen was still in his bathrobe as he put his things away.
After an hour, he'd sighed about thirty-eight times as he thought.
He untied his damp hair and sat on his bed, resigned. Yes, it was true that he genuinely wanted to be friends with Calibri, but he didn't want to lie about others to do that.
At the same time, he really didn't want anybody else to see the beautiful prince without clothes. He had no doubt that if he didn't say what he did, then if someone had to try doing something strange, Calibri would look at them with that oblivious, innocent, blank look on his face and think there was some sort of interesting thing they were trying to teach him.
Haochen groaned and lay back on the bed, covering his face. It was like watching an innocent puppy running towards rabid dragons. Quite unbearable to watch.
Squeeeellchhhh….Squelchhhhhh…Squelch…
Under the cover of his fingers, Haochen's eyebrows knitted and he paused his thoughts. There was a strange, wet noise, seemingly in his room.
He removed his hands from his face and began to sit up to locate the source of the sound. It sounded thick and gloopy. Too thick to be water, but not thick enough to be something completely dry. He glanced at his door. Even though it was quite late already, Haochen had not seen this 'Xavier Arachnis' at all. The sound was definitely not coming from outside the door.
It was in the room for sure. Standing very slowly, Haochen closed his eyes and placed his hand on the floor. The Zhang sect was especially skilled in sensing the presence of others using the other person's spiritual energy as a sort of tracker. After years of training, it was even possible to track down a person that you knew well.
After a few moments, the squelching noise became more erratic, but Haochen couldn't place its location. Then suddenly, something slid across the floor. It was so fast that if you blinked, you would have missed it. But with Haochen's abilities, taking in its appearance was not difficult at all.
He knew exactly what it was… But never in his life had he seen one that was black.
It left a few droplets of runny black sludge behind, easy to miss or take notice of if you weren't looking for it. Haochen pursed his lips and his eyes easily followed its speed as it flitted around the room before stopping dead still, right next to Calibri's pouch, as if it were studying it.
Haochen narrowed his eyes at it, trying to figure out what it wanted to do, but after a few seconds of remaining very still, it seemingly disappeared into thin air. But Haochen had seen it hurriedly slide under his bedroom door and slip away.
Haochen blinked and moved towards Calibri's pouch, picking it up and examining it.
What did it want with Calibri's pouch?
O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O
The next morning found Cloud yawning widely and reaching for his morning cup of tea on his bedside table. Of course, after a few moments he realized, there was no servant there to make him a beverage, or food for that matter. He let out a whine. Headmaster Opaque was mean. What about the people who couldn't cook? Was he supposed to starve?
With a huff, Cloud kicked his blanked and comforter, rolling off his bed.
"Ah! I have a roommate!" He said brightly, jumping to his feet and walking to his door. But he soon remembered that Calibri was in seclusion, so he stared at Calibri's door.
'Guess I can't bother him.' Cloud though, leaning against his own doorpost as he stared at Calibri's door, thinking of their conversation the night prior, and what Calibri had said about Haochen.
When he'd asked Calibri if he could see himself with Haochen, he didn't really know why he'd asked, or what he was expecting. The question wasn't even necessary, because he knew that Haochen was straighter than one of those silver arrows he enchanted and shot around…
At least, that's what he thought until he got kicked several times in the face by Haochen whenever he teased Calibri. The next thing Cloud knew, he'd already concocted the thought of the possibility that Haochen liked Calibri in a romantic way.
Cloud smacked the side of his own head. There was no way Haochen would do that. Sure, published research and literature showed men could fall in love in 8 seconds, but Haochen was Haochen. He was such a traditional gentleman, and liking men was too unorthodox. He knew that many Zhangs thought that way. But what did Haochen think?
Cloud was so curious to know. And so with a look of determination, he got bathed, dressed, ate an apple, and marched off to Haochen's room.
Seven knocks on the door and Haochen opened the door with a very irritated look on his face.
"Haochen, why do you look like you only just woke up?" Cloud asked, his grin already blindingly bright.
Haochen narrowed his red eyes.
"Because. It is 6 am. And I was woken up by an imbecile knocking on my dormitory door."
"Really? Who?" Cloud asked, feigning innocence. Haochen stared hard at him and moved to slam the door in his face.
"Ah! Wait, wait! I came to let you know that you shouldn't disturb Calibri this week." Cloud said.
Haochen paused and looked at Cloud with eyes that clearly asked, 'Why not?'
"He's going into self-isolation, wants to meditate and such, so he's going to stick to his own company for the next week." Cloud said.
Haochen continued to stare at him.
"And you took the liberty of coming to tell me this, because?"
Cloud blinked at the condescending look. "Well, you wanted to return Calibri's pouch right? I wanted to let you know so you wouldn't come over."
Haochen pursed his lips.
"Why did you really come here?" He asked, straightforward.
Cloud laughed nervously. Haochen really did know his bullshitting voice.
"I have a question." He said. Haochen remained silent but still stared at him. "What I mean to ask is, well, do you…"
Haochen raised a brow.
"What?"
"Well, it's like this. You're normally very quiet." Cloud said.
"And?" Haochen asked, looking down his nose at him.
Cloud scratched his cheek. He might as well just say it.
"Do you fancy Calibri?"
Haochen did not look pleased with the question.
"If you didn't know, many people become friends with other people with the sole intention of being only their friend because they enjoy their company." Haochen said.
Cloud blinked. "You don't like him like that at all? Not even a little flutter of your heart?"
As Cloud spoke, Haochen thought to himself. In his knowledge, his feelings for the puppy prince were platonic and friendly.
"Are you surprised that not all of us are wandering around in search of an STD?" Haochen asked.
Cloud sighed. "I only wanted to know because you're different around him, even though you barely know him."
Haochen gave him a hard look.
"It isn't your business, but you'd better remember what I said. Don't mess with him. I mean it." Haochen said. Then he slammed the door in Cloud's face.
Cloud rubbed his neck and turned around. "Touchy." He said, glancing back at Haochen's door and walking away.
Haochen was right, it wasn't his business. He had his own problems anyway.
As he walked, he felt a strangely cold presence near him, like someone had placed ice against his neck. He shivered and looked back.
A handsome young man with brooding black robes walked past him. His footfalls were practically nonexistent even though he was almost as tall and built as Haochen. Cloud frowned, feeling uneasy. Something felt wrong, but he felt like he wasn't brave enough to call out to the person and face them.
Or rather, it didn't seem safe to call out to whoever this person was. Not at all.