"Zhang Shun, are you sure you want to date Jun Ling? According to your memories, she doesn't seem to be the most sane person around. She has a downright unhealthy obsession with you, in fact."

You know, I might be a bit insane for saying this but I think it's alright. All the things she has done to right those wrongs have more than made up for it, in my opinion. She risked her own life to rescue me. I believe that is more than enough.

"Well, when you're being carved up for Thanksgiving, don't say I didn't warn you."

She's only half serious.

Cause we don't even celebrate Thanksgiving here...

Seriously though, it's fine, Ai. If she were that insane, she would've tried to justify her actions as some sort of twisted love. But she didn't, she admitted that what she did was wrong. Clearly she understood the consequences of her actions. Plus ever since high school, she's cut back on the insane stuff quite a bit.

"Too optimistic, 3/10 character. Will end up dying, being served as turkey."

Pfft... Just try not to say stuff like that while we're in the town of dreams. You might end up actually cursing us.

I was kidding of course. But the unsettling possibility of us being cursed lingered in the back of my mind. The thought must have unnerved Ai as well because I felt waves of uneasiness from her. Eager to change topics, I hopped back to our comedy routine.

So, Jun Ling and I plan on going on vacation for a couple of days to the town of dreams, what will the third wheel, Miss Ai be doing?

"Hey! It's not as if I'm being a third wheel on purpose. I have no choice but to be dragged along with you."

Wait, I just had an epiphany. Could you really be considered a third wheel then? A third wheel is someone considered unnecessary and tagging along with a couple, disrupting the mood. But in our case, you're only ruining the atmosphere for my side and Jun isn't even aware of your presence. Wouldn't it be more like two and a half of a wheel? Being half of a wheel would be even more useless than just an extra third wheel now that you think about it.

"Zhang, I get that this is our double act but the fact that you compared me to being half of a wheel, really hurts my feelings."

Heheh... you caught on. You're smarter than I thought.

"What kind of impression did you have of me before?!... Pfft. Hahahaha~"

Hahahaha!

She couldn't contain her laughter and caused the both of us to crack.

We can't be a successful act if we're both stooges constantly laughing at each other's jokes. How about Jun be our straight man? We'll be a triple act then.

"Triple act? That sounds like an innuendo for something dangerous."

Oi, don't turn my innocent suggestion the opposite direction. Besides it wouldn't be possible anyways, you don't have a body.

"But I am sharing yours so I'd be able to..."

Our minds must have conjured up indecent thoughts becase the link started to convey our embarrassed feelings to each other. Have you ever wondered what would happen if two embarrassed people could feel how embarrassed the opposite party was as well? Let's just say that it's a vicious cycle. We both spend the rest of the walk trying to clear our thoughts and reset ourselves. I wish I had a pillow to bury my face in. She must be having it worse than me, being able to literally read my mind.

"I'll take a nap, Zhang Shun. Wake me when we arrive at the town, to go sightseeing."

Ah yeah. Sure thing.

Can't be embarrassed if you're not awake for it...

Once I arrive at Jun Ling house, I attempt to forget about what occured earlier by talking to her.

"Zhang Shun, you're here!"

"Yo, when's the taxi arriving?"

"It should be here in a few minutes."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Are you bringing along any of your books-"

Awkward... I can't tease her about her books like I usually do because the earlier incident popped up inside of my mind again. Jun Ling noticed the look on my face too...

"Did something happen?"

I should tell her about Ai. This is a pretty serious matter, I should come clean before she finds out that I decided to share my body with a shui gui. She'd probably be really mad if I didn't.

"... I never told you how I got my body back, did I?"

"Yeah. I was curious but you seemed bothered whenever the topic came up so I didn't want to pry..."

"It wasn't bothering me in a bad way, in fact I didn't even have to resort to drastic measures like drown the shui gui in my body to get it back. But... well things happened and now I'm actually sharing my body with the shui gui."

"A-Are you okay? Is the shui gui fighting for control?"

"No, you see. The shui gui, she surrendered control of my body back to me."

"Eh? She?"

"Yes. Her name's Ai. She can read my mind and I can kind of tell how she's feeling at any moment. And well, we kind of got into a dispute of sorts earlier. Well not really a dispute... It's complicated."

"..."

The expression on her face, while it was of concern a mere second ago, it was now completely blank. I couldn't garner a guess as to what she was thinking. Maybe she is just processing the information she had just gotten?

"Why is she sharing your body might I ask?"

Jun Ling asked that innocently enough but I could tell by her fist clenching her purse and her lowered head. She was trying to conceal her expression. She was furious.

I don't want to get Ai in trouble.

"Well, I was in a pinch and I needed a quick way to re-enter my body. So she struck a deal with me, that'd allow her to stay in my body and in exchange I'd get full control of my own body."

"Why couldn't you just force her out after? Why do you allow her to stay in your body?"

She's clenching her purse even harder now and is still refusing to meet my eye.

"That wouldn't be a very nice thing to do after all. I don't want her to be forced to wander the river as a shui gui like I did. Besides I don't think I could, in good conscience, drown someone else just so that I could regain my body."

She met my gaze with her fiery eyes.

"I understand, Zhang Shun. You're a nice person, you couldn't do horrible things like that to someone. But I'm not happy with it. You planned on going on our date today, with her along?"

Ah. I did. This makes me look like a terrible person, doesn't it. No, not terrible. Just thoughtless.

"She's not going to get in the way..."

"But she is! Earlier you couldn't talk like the way you usually do because of something that happened between you two."

In a way, she isn't wrong...

Briefly, I thought about bringing up the topic Ai and I were joking about but I kept my mouth shut. If Jun Ling finds out that we were joking about semi-indecent things, there's a high chance she'd get even angrier.

"Well so what can we do?"

"I want to talk to her."

"Ai, wake up. Jun wants to have a talk with you."

"Hnn...? Ah the jealous girlfriend... What did you do this time? Ah. Wait this is about me. Damn it, Shun! You just had to keep your mouth shut about me and this would never have happened. Well do you want me to speak to her myself or do you want to repeat after me?"

You can talk to her but try to be more considerate with your words. You can read my mind so hopefully this'll be fine.

"Alright, I'm Ai. You can start asking your questions now."

"Ai, why are you forcing Shun to share a body with you? Shun is a nice person but he always tolerates things like this. You know that and you're abusing his kindness."

"You're right. I am. But I want to stay in this world with my mother as long as I can. I'll do anything for that."

I have never seen Jun Ling make an outright resentful face at someone else before. When she glared at Amelia, it was more a joking, exaggerated, pouty faced glare. But this was genuine anger, directed at me or specifically Ai who was currently the main pilot for the vessel carrying both of our souls.

"Do you have romantic feelings for Shun?"

"No." A quick response by Ai. No hesitation whatsoever. It's obvious that that neither of us would have feelings for each other. We never talk about it but Ai and I understand that.

"I hated her for taking my body but I couldn't bring myself to drown someone else just so I could be human again. I'd lose my humanity if I did that."

"I could have held onto full control of Zhang Shun's body but I decided not to. Because I'd have lost my humanity if I let him die due to my decision."

"I wanted to be human again but I pited the situation Ai was in."

"I pitied Zhang Shun for the situation I put him in but I couldn't let go of being human."

"So she came up with a way for both of our wishes to come true. And we are happy with the outcome."

"I'm happy just being able to stay and talk with my mother."

"I'm happy just being human and doing normal things again."

"And we are both happy to have a companion who can instantly tell how the other's feeling. But that doesn't mean either of us have any sort of special feeling towards each other. It's precisely because we can tell how the other person's feeling that we know we don't have any romantic feelings."

Without realizing it both of our minds had connected to utter the same words. Neither of us were in the passenger seat, both of us were the pilots. What a weird feeling.

"I understand... Zhang Shun, Ai, you two have been through a lot. I got jealous at the thought you were spending time with another girl. I'm sorry for-"

I cut Jun Ling off. I don't want her to apologize for being honest and open about her feelings.

"It's normal for girlfriends to get jealous if their boyfriends get too close to other girls. I'm just glad that you aren't angry anymore. I don't like seeing you upset, Jun Ling."

That day, after Jun Ling found out about me sharing my body with the shui gui, Ai, we still decided to continue with our vacation plans.

And finally, we've arrived at the next town. The town where Amelia saved me from my own monster, the place that allowed Jun to come back to life. The place which has caused a lot of trouble but has also saved me at times. A place with a lot of memories for me.

The atmosphere's still a bit awkward but it's fine. This is something that will be resolved in time.