Symbiosis - Chapter 15

This time, a long silence answered me. After a while, he said, “It’s gone.”

His arms tightened, holding me closer as though he were unconsciously seeking something to lean on. “It was with my parents when the accident happened.”

He didn’t continue. Of course I knew what came afterward.

Five months ago, a merchant ship had sunk in the waters near Jinque Bay. Fewer than half the people aboard survived. Xie Zhao was one of them. His family and his pet hadn’t been so lucky.

Most of my fear and drowsiness disappeared at once. I stared into the darkness, wanting to apologize but unable to speak.

After a long time, I stiffly raised my hand and touched the back of the hand around my waist.

Then I rolled over to face him.

Forcing a change of subject, I asked coldly, “Does your hand still hurt?”

I couldn’t clearly see his expression in the dark, but he seemed startled.

“…It does,” he answered softly.

“Then stop talking.” I put one arm around him and pressed my other hand to the back of his head, drawing it against my chest. “Go to sleep. You won’t feel it hurting when you’re asleep.”

He nodded gently against me, curled up a little more, and pressed closer. Before long, his breathing became slow and steady.

I kept holding him. After a while, I stroked his hair very lightly.

For the first time since my mother, I slept on a rainy night with someone holding me while I held them.

For the first time, a thunderstorm didn’t seem quite so frightening.

…

The rain didn’t begin easing until late in the night.

It was still dark when I got up. After washing, I left without breakfast to help unload deliveries and stock shelves at the small supermarket at the entrance to Qingteng Lane.

Usually I went straight to school after my morning shift. Today, just two steps out of the supermarket’s back door, I remembered Xie Zhao sleeping in my bed when I’d left. I wondered if he’d woken yet.

For some reason, I wanted to see him again right now.

I checked the time. Classes started in about half an hour, so I turned around and went home.

He was still asleep.

I opened the curtains, went to the bedside, and pinched his cheek gently.

His brow drew together at my touch. His long, thick lashes trembled like butterfly wings. After a while, he opened his eyes slowly but didn’t move. Still half asleep, he gazed at me in confusion.

He was so beautiful, and his cheek felt lovely to pinch. Such a soft, endearing child.

I’d intended to tell him to hurry up and get out of bed.

But faced with that sweet expression, I suddenly couldn’t say anything harsh.

“You…” I paused. “Get up.”

“Don’t you have school too? You’ll be late.”

He blinked twice, slowly, sat up, and climbed out of bed. Like a sleepwalker, he went mechanically into the bathroom and washed. Then he came out and abruptly draped himself over me, burying his face against my shoulder and nuzzling gently.

“What are you doing?” Startled, I patted his back. “Let go.”

“I don’t want to go to class.” A trace of shampoo scent drifted from his hair. Unlike last night, his voice was soft and clingy.

“Shen Yi,” he murmured. “I’m so sleepy.”

Where had this spoiled little prince come from?

Apparently getting up required clinging to someone and asking for affection first.

I meant to grab his hair and peel him off. Somehow, I didn’t. By the time my hand reached the back of his head, the force had gone out of it. I only ruffled his hair.

We barely knew each other, yet here we were hugging first thing in the morning. How could he cling so freely to a near-stranger?

It was strange. He had no sense of caution at all.

Of course, I wasn’t much better.

I’d brought him home. Now that he was pressing close, I wasn’t pushing him away. I’d even put my hand on him of my own accord.

I had to admit that I didn’t dislike Xie Zhao. Everything in Jinque Bay was so terrifyingly cold and chaotic that I couldn’t help longing for last night.

That night when I’d held someone tightly and been held in return. When, at last, thunder hadn’t kept jolting me awake, leaving me terrified, curled cautiously in the corner of the bed with only my own pounding heart for company.

Perhaps… perhaps I needed him.

Besides, he seemed very attached to me too.

Why shouldn’t we live together?