"What's his problem?" Chen muttered, looking around.

"He's not acting like himself," Li Bie noted, concern lacing his voice. "I can understand if he's apprehensive about the trip and being apart from us, but..."

Yuyan contemplated if she should tell the group the truth. There was apart of her that wanted to ask the boys for advice. How could she cheer him up? Was there anything that she could do to mend his heart? But she quickly thought better of it. Lingqi would never forgive her if she did, and the thought of upsetting him any further pained her.

"Yuyan, you should go talk to him," Gao suggested, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You seem to be able to cheer him up."

'I'm the last person that he wants to see'....she thought to herself, biting her tongue. But she couldn't let things end like this. Not before he left.

"Okay, I'll talk to him," the girl nodded, standing up and taking her plate to the trash basin.

"Good luck," Li Bie called after her, the other boys following suit.

"Good luck, Yuyan!"

"Talk some sense into him!"

"Bring him back in a good mood!"

The girl chuckled and nodded, but her smile was a facade. Her heart thundered in her chest, and she chewed on her bottom lip.

Yuyan made her way through the dormitory in search of Lingqi. She figured that he went to his room, and she decided that she would try there first.

The teen was indeed in his dorm, packing his belongings into his satchel. He heard a knock on his door, and he looked up.

"Who is it?" he asked, his voice a mere whisper.

"It's me, Yuyan," She answered, her voice filled with apprehension.

Lingqi didn't answer her at first. He knew that she had come to either apologize or to give him words of pity, and he didn't want any of it.

Perhaps against his better judgment, he decided that he would let her in. Maybe he wanted some closure before he left. Or maybe he knew that she wouldn't take no for an answer. He complied with her regardless, old habits do die hard.

"Come in," he sighed, and the door slowly opened, the girl peeking her head in.

"Can we talk?" She asked, her voice gentle and cautious.

Lingqi didn’t acknowledge her with his gaze. "If it's about what happened last night, I don't want to talk about it," His tone was short and to the point, his attention remained on his belongings.

"Please, Lingqi," Yuyan implored. She stepped closer to the door but quickly halted her advance, not wanting to cross the thresholds without his permission.

"Okay," the boy sighed, his shoulders slumping. "You can come in."

Yuyan entered the room and shut the door behind herself. Lingqi sat on his cot and looked down, unable to meet her eyes. The girl approached him gingerly and took a seat beside him, placing a gentle hand on his.

"I'm so sorry, Lingqi," Yuyan began. "I never meant to hurt you."

Lingqi snatched his hand away from hers. Her attempts to soothe him felt condescending, a testament to her lack of respect for him. Her gestures only served to make him feel small.

"Lingqi, please talk to me," the girl urged, her eyes pleading with him.

"I don't understand what you're sorry for..." His voice trailed off, his throat tight.

"Because I know that I hurt you, and that's the last thing that I ever wanted to do," Yuyan explained, her voice trembling, fighting back the tears that formed in her eyes.

"You don't have to act as if I'm some kid, you know," Lingqi muttered, his head remained low and his eyes downcast. "I'm not some fragile little flower."

"Lingqi, of course I don't think that-”

He gritted his teeth.

"Do you really?!" Lingqi fired back at her, standing up from his cot. He gazed down at Yuyan with hard eyes, his hands furled in tight knots, trembling. "Is that why you lied about the scroll?! Because you didn’t respect me enough to include me in your secret conversation?!" He accused.

"L-Lingqi, it wasn't like that at all," Yuyan said, rising to meet his gaze. Her hands were clasped above her chest as she spoke, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears. "Please, listen to me. I wasn't trying to exclude you. I promise."

The teen took in a deep breath, a cursory attempt to settle his nerves. He couldn't look into her eyes, her beautiful hazel orbs that made his heart melt and his stomach flutter. She was on the verge of tears, he could tell by the watery look in her eyes and the sound of her strained voice.

It confused him - she denied seeing him as just a kid and yet…

"Why would you kiss someone that you don't like?!" Lingqi blurted out.

Yuyan staggered back as if she had been struck in the gut. Her mouth hung open, and her hands rose to cover it. The dam broke and tears rained down her cheeks.

"A-And not just once either...." he added, his voice trembling. "....A-And you let me kiss you too."

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The girl was visibly shaken, her breathing quickened, her breaths came heavy.

"You didn't even think about how I would feel," the boy diverted his gaze from her and rubbed his arm. "Did you?"

The room was silent, save for the soft whimpers that escaped from the girl. Lingqi had finally looked up at her, and his heart dropped at the sight of her stream of tears.

"No..." she shook her head. She could not stomach a glance at him. A weight pressed on her shoulders, one of guilt. She had been a terrible senior to him - for all of Lingqi’s talent, the boundless wellspring of Prana that he possessed within him, the painful trauma that clung to him like a shroud of sorrow…he was still a fourteen year old orphan. And she had taken advantage of him, his sweet and kind innocence…just to fill the void in her heart.

Yuyan lowered her head in shame, her eyes shut and her breathing raced.

“....I treated you like the brother I had lost. I had no regard for your feelings, I only acted for my benefit. I’m the worst….”

She continued to sob with agonizing breaths, her hand covered her mouth to suppress the sounds, but it was too much to bare.

“...And now I’ve lost a friend.”

Silence lingered, and Lingqi felt all the tension leave his body. The pain he saw, the raw visceral hurt, it disarmed him. His frustration, his assumptions, they melded away. They both had allowed their perceptions of one another to morph into something else - into something they felt they needed.

He wanted to recreate the bond that his father had with his mother, and he felt that Yuyan was his best chance to have a fraction of that. In that way, it would be as if he had gotten his family back…

“I…” Lingqi started, stepping closer to his sobbing senior. “...I wanted to have what my parents had..with you…”

Yuyan looked at him, her eyes examined his long ravenous locks, his sweet and kind hazel eyes that always brought her comfort, and she embraced him fully, pulling his head onto her shoulder.

“Oh Lingqi,” Her cheek glistened with tears, but her voice was composed now. “If I could give you that to you, I would. But I can’t. Please forgive me….”

Lingqi held her in his arms, tightly, as if letting go would make the pain and confusion flood back. His breath hitched, the anger and hurt finally dissolving into the embrace. They stayed like that for a long moment, each drawing solace from the other.

In the dim light of the room, the weight of their emotions hung heavy, each breath, each heartbeat synchronized in their shared sorrow. Lingqi pulled back slightly, looking into Yuyan's eyes, searching for something, maybe understanding, maybe forgiveness.

"I forgive you, Yuyan," he whispered, his voice breaking. "I just... I just wanted to belong somewhere. To someone."

Yuyan's tears flowed anew, but this time, they were tears of release. "You do belong, Lingqi. With us. With me. As my friend. As someone I care about deeply."

Lingqi nodded, the knot in his chest loosening. "I'm sorry too. For expecting you to be something you're not. For putting all this on you."

She shook her head, a small, sad smile forming on her lips. "I'm sorry too for doing the same. And for not considering how my actions would make you feel."

The room seemed to breathe with them, the walls a silent witness to their reconciliation. Lingqi wiped his face with the back of his hand, a shaky laugh escaping him. "You know, I didn't think we'd ever have this conversation."

"Neither did I," Yuyan admitted, her smile growing warmer. "But I'm glad we did."

There was a knock on the door, interrupting their moment. It was Gao, his voice muffled through the wood. "Hey, you two okay in there?"

Lingqi and Yuyan exchanged a glance, a mutual understanding passing between them. "Yeah, we're okay," Lingqi called back, a newfound steadiness in his voice.

"Good," Gao replied. "Because we're all heading out to the courtyard. Thought you might want to join us before you leave, Lingqi."

Lingqi and Yuyan emerged from the dormitory and walked to the entrance, the fine summer morning was bright and breezy, and the sun's warm rays shone on their faces.

Everyone stood by the caravan, conversing among themselves, Master Zhang included. Elder Zhu stood by the driver's seat, waiting to take his post.

"Oh, there they are," Gao noted, a grin on his face. He noted that Lingqi's disposition seemed to be back to normal, and that his eyes were no longer puffy.

Lingqi approached the caravan and placed his satchel within the cargo hold alongside Elder Zhu's belongings. He looked to his master, who stood a short distance away, his expression calm and collected.

"I wish you a safe journey," Master Zhang spoke, his eyes shifting to the boy's own.

"Thank you, Master," Lingqi replied with a bow.

One by one Lingqi's friends approached him, each handing him a gift for the road ahead.

"Yi Ming and I made some rice balls for you in case you get hungry. And believe me, you will get hungry," Chen told the boy with a laugh, giving him a package wrapped in cloth. This elicited a chuckle from the rest of the students as they pictured Chen's stomach growling in the middle of the night.

"Thanks, Chen. I appreciate it," Lingqi smiled, putting the package within the cargo hold.

Li Bie offered his junior student a scroll. "I hope this will keep you occupied. It's a copy of one of my favorite books, 'Tales From The Opal Palace'. It'll be quite informative," the senior student grinned, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Thank you, Li Bie," the teen returned the grin, taking the scroll and placing it inside the cargo hold.

"Leave it to Li Bie to give you a boring old scroll," Chen rolled his eyes.

"It's not boring," Li Bie fired back. "Besides, it's a great read."

"Well, this will definitely help you unwind from whatever boring nonsense Li Bie gave you," Gao teased, patting the boy on the shoulder. "Here, it's my copy of 'The Warlords Of Tai.' It chronicles the history of the Warlords that ruled the land before the time of the Sovereignty. The art is really good too," the boy explained, handing his junior student a scroll.

"Thank you, Gao," the boy said gratefully, placing the scroll in the cargo hold.

"Oh, that's a good one," Li Bie admitted. He loved to read about the history of the land, and the time of the Warlords was a fascinating era of conflict and change.

"Well, I guess it's my turn," Yuyan giggled, her cheeks flushed, her hands behind her back. She brought forth her gift, handing Lingqi a small black box. "Don't open it yet," She said as she glanced down, uncharacteristically nervous.

"What is it?" Lingqi asked curiously, taking the box and looking at it closely.

Yuyan smiled, her cheeks a bright red. She could feel the eyes of her fellow students upon her, and she was unsure whether or not she should elaborate.

"It's something that you should have, and also give to someone else, when the time is right," the girl explained cryptically, glancing at Lingqi.

The boy was perplexed, but he could see that the girl was being serious. He tucked the box into his robes and nodded.

"Okay, I will."

Lingqi looked at the other students and smiled. "I can't thank you guys enough. I'll bring back lots of stories to tell, I promise," the boy proclaimed.

"You'd better," Gao laughed, pulling the boy into a tight embrace. The two boys held each other for a moment, that was, until Chen also joined in on the embrace as well.

"Group hug!" Chen exclaimed.

The group laughed and joined in - Yi Ming, Yuyan, and Li Bie all hugging their fellow students, their bodies pressed together.

Elder Zhu and Master Zhang were touched by the display. The two had not seen such affection between the students in a long while, and it warmed their hearts.

The students soon released their embrace and wiped the tears that had begun to well up.

Elder Zhu peered up into the sky and recognized that midday was nearing, and he knew that it was time to depart.

"We should get going," Elder Zhu informed Lingqi.

"Yes, Elder Zhu," Lingqi nodded. He gave his master one last glance, his eyes conveying the words that could not be spoken.

Lingqi took his seat in the caravan, his eyes fixated on his friends.

"Goodbye, everyone," the boy waved.

"Bye!" The other students exclaimed, waving in return.

"May Jade's Blessing shine upon you," Master Zhang blessed his student.

Elder Zhu spurred the horse on, and the wheels turned, the vehicle lurching forward.

Lingqi looked back as his friends faded into the distance.