Temple of Truth

Chapter 60

"Sure" Wu Xi mumbled as an answer and started to turn and crawl over the rubble.

His mind still racing in his head – that cold stare, it just wouldn't let him go. The way there seemed to be complete detachment between Zhang and its target.

The ice cold – and for lack of better description murderous aura.

The cold seeping in his bones, making him shudder and stumble – but not fall – while making his way back to the camp.

And he couldn't help but wonder, what if Zhang was also looking at him like that? What if, he was just used to hiding it – it was there one moment and the next it had already vanished – like an illusion.

What if – being friends was only his imagination?

Was that the reason why the always disappeared as soon as a job was over – no goodbye, no wave just gone. Why he always vanished during an expedition. And probably why his mood had been so odd.

What if Zhang was only trying to peacefully co-exist with others he meat again, and again?

What if being friends was only his imagination? After all, he was the one who wanted – wished to be even more. He was the one who wanted to kiss and curl up in his arms.

His feet quivering with the prospect he just made himself face – making him almost stumble and fall over his own foot.

Wu Xi took a deep but shaky breath, telling himself to calm down – to take it slow. He would just be another problem if he couldn't coordinate his own feet properly. He couldn't stumble all over the place without burdening others.

Calm down – Wu Xi told himself. Trying to concentrate where he put his own feet he – semi-successfully walked further. His head facing the ground. He couldn't properly see it – nor could he command his head to think about something else.

He was just breathing against the pressure, that so suddenly seemed to press his lungs together as if trying to suffocate him. He couldn't even tell I he was numb or in pain – only that now was certainly not the time to deal with his new fears and that he didn't want to burden him.

He didn't want to burden Zhang with this – his emotional self – with all the fears and anxieties he had picked up.

He didn't want him to see him cry over the realization, that they might never had been as close as Wu Xi had hoped them to be. He didn't want him to know how perthetic and scared he felt without Zhang close by.

He didn't want to burden Zhang more than he already did – and he certainly didn't want him to think about his feelings as problems and disappear again.

Wu Xi was so trapped in his mind, he never really noticed that the stone under his feet had turned to earth, and he was just standing at the campsite dazed. Head hung low, trying to get his bearings together.