What It Means To Be King

Chapter 19: The Oddities He Posed, Questioned But Ignored

The moment Livio knocked on Shao Long's door to call him for dinner, he had already figured out that something was slightly wrong. No one answered the door, though years of his training gave Livio the ability to hear what was on the other side of the wooden board. He heard laughter, the first real laugh he had heard from Shao Long since like...ever? 

He knocked again, louder this time to gain the attention of the boy, but again, no one answered. Shao Long was conversing with someone, presumably on the phone from the sound of his voice. Livio didn't want to breach his privacy, so he chose not to try to hear what he was saying. 

But after the third round of knocking, Livio figured that he was legally allowed to enter anyway. So when he stepped into the room, what greeted his sight was somewhat....different from what he had expected. Shao Long was on his bed (this one wasn't all that weird), wearing casual clothes, the room was disturbingly messy and on top of it all, Shao Long did not seem to notice that he was even there. Now the thing that Livio had expected was for Shao Long to chat normally with someone on the phone, but this was clearly not the case. 

Shao Long looked....happy. 

Not that he was saying Shao Long looking happy was strange and all that, but the guy had been the angry dork just a few hours ago, and a depressed emo the whole week. That aside, he lost to his emotions a lot more than any of his previous times, suddenly addicting himself with cheap candies, and was disturbingly careless with his words. 

Livio thought for certain that today, Shao Long was going to continue with his tantrum a little bit more, and maybe he'd skip meeting tomorrow as well, but now the guy was actually all sweet and bubbly and childish and..... was Shao Long....blushing there? 

Indeed, there were dusts of pink on both his cheeks when he smiled, and Shao Long actually covered half his face with the back of his hand, as if holding back from laughing. 

"Aww, don't cry. Don't cry, Ru-er, Shao Ge is here. Shao Ge loves Ru-er too, you know." 

Ah, when Livio heard this, he just suddenly felt like he was in a completely different planet, and felt like he was trespassing a forbidden territory. 

Damn, Shao Long was actually coaxing someone from crying, and dare Livio say, from his tone, it was apparent that whoever this Ru-er was, Shao Long clearly loved them wholeheartedly. A childish tone, childish coaxing, overly sweet and comforting words, and the slight pink on his cheeks. Not to mention the very fact that Shao Long was finally laughing after all this time.

Livio concluded that Shao Long had a girlfriend, and this Ru-er lady is currently being comforted so gently by the same guy that just cursed at an inanimate door some time ago. 

Silently, Livio closed the door, making sure that his steps and movements made no sound at all as he made his way to the dining table, where the food was prepared and Shintarou was already waiting with Gion. 

When the two princes saw him there, and without Shao Long whom they had been waiting for, Gion couldn't help but tilt his head with a questioning look, and Shintarou groaned a little too loudly. 

"Ugh, what did he do now?"

Apparently, since the day Shao Long arrived to now, there wasn't a time that the four of them had had dinner together, it's always that Shao Long could not eat with them, for reasons that vary from day to day. One time, he was doing overtime at the meeting room, another is that he visited a teacher in the teacher's headquarters for homework reason (so he says), and the other day, it was because he wanted to sleep through it all.