Winter Wind (YiZhan)

29. Earnest

"I like you."

The cameras are rolling, and Xiao Zhan has just come out of the restroom. This is preceding the previous scene where he had had to get away from her. From the pain permanently etched in her eyes as she spoke casually to him, and downed the drinks that he made her.

He'd made sure to make them light, much less strong than she had requested and he'd made sure to keep them coming, sometimes without her even realizing it.

She'd turn away for a glimpse at the band that was playing in the corner of the bar, and he'd exchange her empty glass for a new one. She'd be about to knock the glass over with her elbow as she moved around, the alcohol making her increasingly restless and clumsy, and he'd move the stem out of the way before the spill could happen and it startled her.

Her history and sorrow and devastation, he knew it all.

But she didn't realize that he did.

To her, he was just the cute, young bartender that seemed to have taken her as his sole customer for the night. No one else attended to her and he attended to no one else.

Little did she know that he owned the bar, and that he had bought it because of her.

Because of the vague hope that someday she would return to it, and he would once again meet the woman who had changed his life. The woman he had been searching for for the last seven years.

Unfortunately, she was still as broken at all the loss that she had suffered, although now she had become quite adept at hiding it.

Her eyes were void of light, and her smile a shaky and painstaking effort at cordiality.

So he'd excused himself to go to the bathroom... for the moment to recover and to push back the emotions that were threatening to spill out of his heart and reveal themselves on his face.

His eyes are reddened and misty, and the last thing he wants is for her to see this.

It was however unavoidable because she also left her stool at the bar, and headed into this narrow hallway in search of the restroom.

She recognized him instantly, and giggled softly in excitement as she pointed at him.

"You!" she slightly wobbled, and he had reached forward to catch her.

Now she is in his arms, and staring straight into his eyes. Her smile is soft, and her gaze hazy with intoxication.

"I like you," she repeats, and Xiao Zhan allows the emotion of his heartache at those words to show on his face.

She had said this exact words to him seven years earlier when she had first met him as a delinquent, and it had changed the course of his life.

"Let's get you home," he says and contemplates lifting her into his arms so that she doesn't have to stagger her way out of the bar.

Before he can do this however, she reaches forward and gently rests her hand on the side of his face.

He freezes, as he is meant to, his skin slightly flushing at the unexpected and most welcome touch.

"So," she continues, her eyelids heavy and her words slurred as she tries to remain coherent. "I'm g-going to giiii-ve you the most impor... tant advice that you will everrrrr receive."

She smiles. "Are youuu ready... f-for it?"

Xiao Zhan is too choked with sympathy for her to speak, so he only nods his head, his heart in his throat simply at the presence of the woman in his arms.