What It Means To Be King

Chapter 41: Principle Of Human Emotions

Yea I miss you too. Let's see how many chapters I can write within these 24 hours. 

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"With every flicker set ablaze, there was always one flicker of movement that swept it away. He gave you one inch, then retreated a mile. One act of care, hidden by a glare."

Leo felt like he should write it down, somehow. Poetry was such an odd thing that he had come to have an attachment to despite not being able to see most beauties described by the people around him. The happiness in people's smiles, the excitement they felt upon reunions, he didn't understand the change in their hearts that caused their expressions to morph. Why do people smile? Why do they laugh? Or cry, or yell, or fight? Leo couldn't understand. 

Oh, and the thing about Shao Long? Ridiculous. Six years of their friendship is quite literally just him trying to unravel this riddle named Xi Shao Long. Like, for example, how his emotions seemed to swerve between one another like a typhoon. The guy could be crying one second and laugh on the next. It fascinated Leo at some point and annoyed him for the remaining time, but he stayed. He stayed with him, talked to him, and befriended him for a few weeks since they had first met, and then no matter how hard he tried to step further away, he found himself unable to. It was at that moment in his life that he realized the first emotion he ever felt in his whole life. The first tightening sensation in his chest, the first frown he unconsciously gave others. 

He told himself that it was 'care' because according to the emotion recognition manual he had borrowed from one of his college's many theses, whenever he was around Shao Long, he naturally wanted to make him smile, naturally wanted to get rid of what was bothering him, naturally wanted to keep him safe. That was care, as he had read. And it had been odd then, but not so now, because Leo had realized that sometimes a person would unconsciously develop the same feeling that someone had exposed them to. Hatred creates hatred, anger creates anger, and care creates care. And the few weeks of spending time with the Chinese? The emotion Shao Long had showered upon everyone he met? It was care.  

That was when it all started. Before he knew it, his monochrome view of the world suddenly regained hues he thought weren't possible. In a world of black, grey, and white, there was red, then gold, then blue. And amidst the busy crowd dragging their feet across the city, there had been one dancing soul with a smile, so blinding, so dazzling that it was impossible to look away from. And then there was a pair of eyes, a sudden ebony amid vivid gleam. They belong to Shao Long. 

The passion he saw sometimes on Shao Long's face, sometimes were brief, sometimes lasted far too long for his own good. It was fascinating though, so so fascinating to watch every single detail that went through his eyes as if it was an open book, an open window towards his heart. Sometimes the passion lasted for only a second, and Leo wondered which creature dared to leave him hanging, leaving him unable to watch for a little bit longer. And when he got his answers, all he could do was sigh in frustration, not that anyone would notice. 

Frustration was also getting quite common these days, for a reason undeniably persistent. 

Anubis, the King of Egypt. No known surname, though Leo wished he knew what it was so that he could at least curse him half to death during occasions like.....like this one.