The Night Breeze Whispers Your Name

5. Not Afraid?

When the old guy II told us the old guy I would teach us nature, I didn't think that it was a fancy name for drudgery. Well, it was. The old guy I literally told us to form two groups to bring wood and water!

Noxious, Annoying and I fell to the wood group while Sly and Angry were in the water group. Without making a fuss, I went with my 'lovely' group until we were deep in the forest. Then I dropped my meek attitude.

"You two go to that side," I pointed at the left, "I will go to this side, we can meet here later," I said and without waiting for their reply, I rushed to the right side.

What a relief it was, being alone in the forest! After I was sure that I was away from the other two, I sat under a huge tree to take a short nap. Previous night, I couldn't sleep well again thanks to a certain person. Convulsing with pain, Annoying was active all night long, not giving me a second to doze off. I really wondered if the wounds were that serious or he was just way too fragile, but it was out of question to check them.

He is just too weak, I said inwardly, trying to untie the knot in my stomach and closed my eyes as I leaned my back on the tree. The gentle wind brushed my long black hair which I let loose and lulled me into a peaceful sleep.

However, my peaceful sleep didn't last long. As soon as I heard footsteps, I was ready to attack, sleep leaving my body completely.

"What the hell..." I murmured, seeing Noxious and Annoying coming towards me. Noxious's arm was around Annoying's shoulders and the latter's arm was around former's waist to support his weight while in his other hand, he carried two axes. Noxious was tottering, not stepping on his left foot much, but Annoying's face was paler.

"Hong Huo..." Annoying showed a pained smile, obviously he was relieved to see me, "please help me to take Bai Jin... to the temple... he hurt his ankle," he said in between his panting. As he was injured already and Noxious was almost double his size, he must have been exhausted, dragging him in the forest.

I leered them up and down, "you should have left him there," I said coldly and saw Annoying got tensed while Noxious took a ready-to-attack position as I predicted.

"See?" I said to Annoying, gesturing towards Noxious 'injured' foot which was pressing solidly to the muddy ground.

Noxious changed his posture immediately, but it was too late, Annoying already saw it.

"I... just feel better now," Noxious lied and Annoying shook his head in disappointment.

"You will work alone and bring a pile as heavy as yourself, then I will be silent about your little childish ploy," Annoying declared with a cold tone, but it only made Noxious laugh.

"Who do you think you are? You can't give me orders," he said disdainfully.

"Then you can explain your game to Shifu."

Noxious laughed again, making me want to snap his head off, "who would believe you? You never learn, right?" he said with a smirk as he lifted off his left foot, feigning hurt again, "see? I am really hurt."

"Will you do the work or not?" I asked, threateningly as I cut a thick piece of wood with the axe in my hand.

"I am hurt s-," he wanted to repeat, but I was faster. I swung the wood with an enormous force and hit him hard on his left leg, making him cry out with pain. He fell to the ground, holding his leg and there were even tears in his eyes.

"Now, it is true that you are hurt, but be careful next time because if you do it again, I will break it," I threatened him as I towered him. Then, I grabbed Annoying's arm and pulled him towards the opposite side before he could help Noxious.

"Can you let go of me?" he asked softly after we walked for a while and only then I noticed I was still holding his thin arm with my huge hand.

"Why are you this stupid?" I asked angrily as I let go of him.

He looked at me blankly and shrugged, "I don't know, maybe it is innate."

I glared at him, but he didn't even flinch. How come he wasn't scared of me? While even the old guys didn't dare to look at my eyes, he was staring at my red eye blatantly with his hazel eyes.

"Are you not afraid of me?" my mouth asked before my brain could prevent it.

He frowned, "no, why? Should I?"

"So, you don't find me violent or...?" demonic.

He shook his head, "indeed, it was a bit violent what you did to Noxious, but he kind of deserved it."

"How about the previous time?" I insisted. Surely, he wouldn't find an excuse for my lying, right?

He looked at me intently as if trying to read my mind, "I don't believe you would lie if you knew about the whip punishment."

My mouth dropped to the ground with shock. It was the first time someone wasn't accusing me, but siding with me. As it was something completely unexpected, I didn't know what to say. One part of me wanted to thank him for his understanding, but the other part kept nudging me about the hypocrisy of human beings. Whenever I thought someone was different from the others, I experienced betrayal and it hurt more than others'.

"You are really stupid, thinking everyone is initially good," I said in the end and started with the cutting, trying to hide my confusion.

I heard him sigh, but he didn't say anything. He rather turned his back to me and started to cut as well.

I would like to say that we managed to handle the work and went back, but no. The day turned out to be pretty long and Annoying was... Annoying...