Fragments

The Blood That Binds

There was something about Dong Shancai.

Daoming Si didn't know what had possessed him to issue a Joker card to Dong Shancai. There was just something about the tiny girl that...bothered him? Was that the right word? No, bothered wasn't a strong enough word.... She...she was just irritating, with her holier than thou attitude and her unique brand of loud, self righteous fury. That girl....he had only met her several times, and yet she had still managed to make his blood boil on each and every occasion without fail. In fact, Ah Si would even go out on a limb and wager she was doing it on purpose just to make his life difficult! How dare Dong Shancai of all people have the audacity to yell at him! No female had ever raised their voice to him, with the exception of his mother, sister and Yu Sao of course, but they hardly counted. Where did this tiny tyrant source her bravery from, didn't she understand he could crush her beneath his heel with as little as a snap of his fingers if he so desired? How dare she accuse him of breaking her phone! Even if it was the truth, she should have realised he hadn't broken her phone on purpose, but she was too dense to put two and two together. Idiot girl. Even so, with the way she had blown up at him right off the bat, even if he had been so inclined, he would have been too offended to apologise. And too captivated his traitorous brain supplied wilfully, shocking him to his very core. He must be coming down with a fever, to be thinking crazy thoughts such as that! She wasn't captivating at all, the little pest, she was just...on his mind without his permission.

Ah Si shook his head sharply, disrupting what she had coined his pineapple spikes and attempting to dispel the unwarranted thoughts from his errant brain before they could take root and confuse him. However, it was slightly too late for that; the Daoming heir was already throughly perplexed by the mystery that was Dong Shancai. Daoming Si had, for the very briefest moment before he furiously regained his composure, felt a minuscule flicker of guilt for destroying the Tiny One's property. The only other time he had felt this bizarre sensation was in his youth when he had broken Lei's most treasured toy, but that was different. Lei was his oldest, sincerest friend, of course he had felt remorse for hurting him. However, this tiny speck of a girl was nobody to him. Nobody. So why did his stomach still twist painfully when he recalled her wounded eyes after that disastrous encounter in the hallway? Why did the sight of her wrathful expression make him feel like his stomach had dissolved? Why did it he feel wretched when he learned that he had caused unwanted strife in her life? Why did he feel dejected that she had obviously gotten a bad first impression of him and had formed an opinion about him without bothering to get to know him first? Why did he even want for her to try to get to know him in the first place? Why did he feel this befuddled and conflicted over one insignificant, rude little girl? What was she doing to him, was she a witch, because he hadn't been able to drown her out from the moment he had met her?! His mind was churning with unanswered questions and it was driving him insane.

Ah Si could still recall with crystal clarity the first time he had encountered Dong Shancai, the way her eyes had sparkled with charmingly fearless fury as she stormed up to him with all the might of an angered kitten. He had been taken by surprise, unwillingly intrigued and for the first time in his life, he had actually been rendered speechless. Shancai had stood her ground and he had felt strangely....warmed by the encounter. He wanted to learn more about her. It rankled him. Since when did the almighty Daoming Si lose his tongue? Since when did the almighty Daoming Si let transgressions such as hers slide? He had inflicted severe punishments for far less, and yet, when he thought of tiny little Dong Shancai, he couldn't prevent his heart from leaping; why, he wasn't entirely sure. As he kept telling himself in a desperate attempt to rationalise, there was just something about her that interested him. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, and it was driving him crazy. There was an undefinable quality about Dong Shancai that was messing with his mind, and what annoyed him most was that he didn't exactly despise her playing on his mind. What the hell was that about?! Surely it was just because her brash personality grated on his nerves and he wanted to smack her back into place? He was only fixating on her because she had to learn a lesson, right? Yes, it was surely the only reason. It wasn't because of her large beguiling eyes, it wasn't because of her luminous skin and it certainly wasn't because of the way her nose scrunched up adorably when she screamed at him....no, it wasn't for those reasons at all and nobody could tell him otherwise!