"Oof!," Zhen Liu grunted in pain, "Good to know that you can still throw a mean punch..."
Around the time Zhen Liu was under scrutiny for being a talented cripple, Jin Fang was found to have an unusual, but powerful aether expression as well. The only difference being that they could cultivate her talent.
Under the insistence of Zhen Liu's mother, Jin Fang was cross-trained with the family soldiers, with plans for her to become Zhen Liu's bodyguard in conjecture with her being his attendant. Although, it was mildly humiliating that his attendant/bodyguard was a couple inches shorter than him.
Zhen Liu began to rub his stomach in an effort to massage away the pain. He was already feeling sick from summoning Nepherage earlier, the sudden impact caused by Jin Fang's fist did not help.
Unusually, Nepherage did not fly to Zhen Liu's aid like she did when Fergus had insulted him. She just dutifully knelt there and watched.
"Any particular reason why you didn't prevent her from punching me?," Zhen Liu asked the kneeling kaijin using telepathy.
"She's not a threat to your life nor an enemy," Nepherage answered.
"What?"
"You do not perceive her as such," she added.
"Huh...so that's how that wor-GAH!"
"Do not ignore me while I am reprimanding you, young master!," Jin Fang scolded as she grabbed his ear and twisted it.
"Ow, ow, ow. Did you go up a ring? It feels like you went up a ring," Zhen Liu cried in an attempt to distract her and diffuse the situation.
Instead of answering, Jin Fang began to interrogate him while torturing him. In essence, pulling his ear while asking questions.
"Why didn't you tell anyone where you were going? "
"I left a letter! Ow!"
"Who or what is this monster?"
"Her name is-ouch!"
"My name is Nepherage," the red horned monster lady answered verbally while raising a hand in greeting, before quickly taking a knee again.
"Nice to meet you. Why did you fake your death?!"
"Ow. Wait, I didn't fake my-"
"Why. Did. You. Leave. Me. Behind!," she said while punctuating every word in time with her pulling of his ear. At the very last word, she finally decided to let his ear go after giving it one last twist.
"Okay!," Zhen Liu exclaimed after rubbing his ear in pain, "I need to get something straight before you-."
But before Zhen Liu could begin defending himself, Jin Fang had suddenly threw herself into his arms and hugged him.
"What the slap-slap-kissing hell?," Zhen thought to himself.
"Why did you leave me behind?," Jin Fang repeated again in a softer, sad-sounding tone.
Zhen Liu was rather confused at Jin Fang's sudden change in demeanor, until he looked down and noticed that she had buried her face in his chest and was now quietly sobbing. At that moment, several memories that he hadn't fully integrated yet had suddenly come to the surface, and it became very clear as to why she was acting this way.
"Zhen Liu, you are an absolute tosser," Zhen Liu thought to himself as the Thomas Lee part of him rose up in response to these memories.
Apparently the old Zhen Liu and Jin Fang were somewhat of an item, sort of. It was complicated.
Due to Jin Fang and Zhen Liu being childhood friends and basically in close proximity with each other practically all day every day, the two of them had developed feelings for one another. These feelings actually came to a head when she had kissed him unexpectedly and he reciprocated, rather passionately. Thomas had a bad case of secondhand embarrassment from remembering it.
However, they couldn't really pursue any outward expressions of romance due to his status as a young master and her status as his attendant. As a result, their interactions didn't progress much further than chaste hand-holding in secret and kissing under the pale moonlight. It was enough for these two lovebirds though...for awhile.
Despite their fondness for one another, as time went on Zhen Liu developed a bit of an inferiority complex. His "gifted crippled" status combined with Jin Fang's budding talent slowly blossoming made Zhen Liu realized just how painfully weak he was. He couldn't help but feel useless and a bit of a parasite, especially in the moments Jin Fang had to protect him. He wanted to be the one to protect the girl he cared for, or at least fight by her side.
Evidently, it was this complex, on top of everything else, that drove the original Zhen Liu to run off to a wandering ruins in the dead of night, with nothing but a letter to explain his sudden disappearance.
"And now I have to pick up the pieces...great...," the current Zhen Liu thought to himself. He was about go about answering and comforting the crying Jin Fang, when he finally recalled that Nepherage had been kneeling there and watching the whole time this was happening. Before he could continue, he had to send her away.
"Nepherage, I need you go hide on the rooftops of the main complex. I might be paranoid, but I think I'm gonna need you to do something violent depending on the situation," he instructed telepathically.
"As you command my lord, I shall be off."
After receiving her orders Nepherage disappeared from the alleyway. Whether it was high speed movement or teleportation, Zhen Liu wasn't sure. Right now, he had a broken hearted girl to comfort.
"Jin Fang," he began to say in a comforting tone, "I didn't mean to hurt you, you know that right?"
"...yes," Jin Fang replied softly.
"I promised I'd come back and I did, just...much later than I had promised," Zhen Liu said with care. He didn't know if those were the right words, but it was the best he could do.
"Sniff...but...you were dead," Jin Fang said while wiping her tears, "Moka said he saw you enter the wandering ruins, sniff, and disappear. He brought back your seal."
"Moka?," Zhen Liu asked with a strange look on his face, "but he wasn't..."
At that moment, something in Zhen Liu's mind just...clicked.