as night falls , the neighbourhood he lives in gradually falls silent. everyone goes back into their home , going to rest for the night in order to greet the next morning with ease. xiao sits on his bed , a stack of papers in front of him. picking up a piece , he picks up where he left off.
"176 , 177 , 178..."
he continues to fold and fold , till his eyes are hazed over because he kept kept rubbing his eyes to stay awake.
"that's 300.. i should sleep now..."
his words slurs from drowsiness, struggling to keep his eyes open.
gently scooping up the cranes , he walks towards the door where a paper bag hung. carefully , he pours the cranes in , watching them fall into the bag. on the way back , he turns off the lights and crawls into bed.
.
"xiao!! xiaooooo!!!!" a voice calls out.
xiao turns around , trying to find the direction the voice came from.
"yahooo !! xiao , over here !" the voice calls out again.
finally being able to sense the direction of the voice , xiao turns around to see venti, standing in a patch of glowing dandelions.
venti , who stands in between the tall dandelions , waves at xiao to come over. without hesitation , xiao runs over , immediately enveloping venti in a hug which knocked them over in the process. together , they laid in the grass , laughing to their hearts' content.
their laughter soon dies down , hand in hand , they both stare at each other.
"venti.."
"i miss you, so , so much"
venti smiles softly at xiao , his eyes slowly tearing up.
"xiao.."
stretching his hand up towards the sky, he lets out a hollow laugh.
"while birds fly free in the sky, here i am, my wings clipped. how i long to fly with the birds, the feeling of freedom to do what i want." he sighs
venti hesitates , gripping xiao's hand tighter.
"xiao..
.
.
.
free me. "