the moment xiao sat next to venti the next day, venti bombarded him with questions.
"are you okay now?"
"i'm sorry for being so quiet to you for the past few days! do you wanna talk?"
"oh oh, and did zhongli help a bit?"
"venti, calm down... my school life has always been like this, i can deal with it."
people in the class were wondering why venti had the guts to talk to xiao.
"see, everyones looking at you wondering why you would talk to me. i'm used to this, don't worry too much about it, really."
"but xiao~ being so lonely isn't the best. i will try my best to help you boost your confidence!"
"this guy is REALLY persistent... i wonder why." xiao thought to himself.
"alright... whatever."
"hooray!"
venti was always so cheerful, and xiao admired that part of him. but if xiao were to be like venti people would avoid him even more. people would be weirded out by such a personality change.
he was stuck, but decided to let venti do what he wanted.
"i'll do my best to help you!!" venti said cheerfully, followed by a giggle.
xiao felt something funny in his chest. he didn't know what it was, and decided to brush it off. he was about to go back to daydreaming, but...
"XIAO! that's the first time i've seen you smile so far!!!"
what?
xiao didn't even realise he wore a smile on his face when he heard the words from venti. he became really flustered and hid his face with his hands, his ears visibly red.
"hehe, you're soooo shy!"
venti continued to tease xiao, but xiao surprisingly did not mind.
"what is this feeling? it feels... nice."