Chapter Text
“Wait,” Jing Yuan can hear Yanqing’s voice from a distance.
“What the—”
Jing Yuan immediately stops.
Both him and Ren turn to the side and are greeted with Fu Xuan, who has just caught them kissing and along with Yanqing standing behind her, who has seemed to try stopping her from going to their direction with the nervous laughter escaping his lips but didn’t manage to.
Jing Yuan has always been careful with their relationship, making sure that it never gets out. At the end of the day, he’s a general and Ren is a stellaron hunter. They are not supposed to be together.
Nonetheless, Yanqing is the one that he trusts enough to know about them. Yanqing wasn’t happy about it at first, but he eventually came to accept it. Besides, he doesn’t seem to hate Ren as much after spending time with him.
With that being said, Jing Yuan has never done things that a couple does with Ren out in the open. Let alone go out on dates. They can’t be seen together.
“I’m sorry,” Yanqing apologizes. He really doesn’t have to, he did nothing wrong.
Jing Yuan may have always been careful, but he wasn’t careful enough.
“D-Diviner Fu, I can explain,” Jing Yuan says.
“We need to talk,” Fu Xuan replies, rather sternly.
Jing Yuan turns to Ren. “I’m sorry. Wait for me in my room. I’ll be there soon.”
Fu Xuan walks in front of Jing Yuan and Jing Yuan follows her from behind until she comes to a halt.
She turns around to Jing Yuan. “Are you out of your mind or something?!” she yells. Of course, of course she’s mad. “What are you thinking? That’s a stellaron hunter. He’s a criminal. And kissing him? Are you for real? What is wrong with you?”
“Please, don’t let this get out,” Jing Yuan pleads. “I’ll do anything you want.”
“Then end whatever you have going on with that stellaron hunter,” Fu Xuan tells.
“Anything—!” Jing Yuan almost finds himself raising his voice. “Anything but that.”
“You do know this is wrong, right?” Fu Xuan asks.
“Yeah,” Jing Yuan can’t deny it.
“Then you should know better than to—” Fu Xuan seems to be having a hard time to find the right words to say about the situation. “How do you think everyone else would think of you if they saw you— You would ruin your reputation—” she interrupts herself, “Don’t tell me,” she pauses for a bit, as if something in her clicked, “Jing Yuan,” she calls out, “do you actually love him?”
“I do,” Jing Yuan answers. “So, please.”
Fu Xuan crosses her arms and cranes her head to the side. “Hah, this is ridiculous.”
She was probably hoping to hear from Jing Yuan that it was just some kind of a silly hookup that Jing Yuan and Ren had and maybe that way they can just end things but Jing Yuan is serious about this. About Ren.
Fu Xuan turns her head to Jing Yuan. “So is that why you let him escape on purpose back then?”
Jing Yuan doesn’t say anything. She was right.
“You— Ah, l knew you let him escape on purpose!” Fu Xuan figures.
Jing Yuan doesn’t say anything, again.
Fu Xuan sighs. “I suppose this has been going on for quite a while.”
Jing Yuan doesn’t say anything, once again.
“Who else knows about this?” Fu Xuan asks.
“You. Yanqing. That’s all,” Jing Yuan tells.
“This is wasting my time. You better control yourself, General. You’re lucky it was me. I won’t help you if you ever get caught by someone else next time,” Fu Xuan seems to have finally let it go. Jing Yuan figures that’s her way of saying that she won’t tell anyone about his relationship with Ren.
Jing Yuan can’t help his blush. He sighs, he can’t believe that he messed up. “I will. Thank you.”
Fu Xuan takes her leave then. Jing Yuan is just glad she got over it fast. It means a lot. He’ll figure how to thank her other than just with words later. That is if she’ll allow it, too.
Jing Yuan walks to his room but stops when he sees Yanqing on the way.
“I tried to stop her,” Yanqing tells. “I’m sorry.”
Jing Yuan smiles, giving Yanqing a pat on the head. “There’s no need to apologize, you did nothing wrong.”
Yanqing nods.
Jing Yuan continues to walk to his room. He told Ren to wait for him there, but he doesn’t know if Ren would actually wait for him. Not to mention that the man always leaves. Jing Yuan tends to find himself waking up alone in the morning every time. They’re both busy, so he doesn’t blame him. Then he figures Ren did wait for him.
“How did it go?” Ren asks.
Jing Yuan gives Ren a smile. “It went well.”
“She doesn’t like me. I listened to everything,” Ren tells.
“Eavesdropping is bad,” Jing Yuan teases.
Ren narrows his eyes. “So what.”
“Ah, well, what did you expect?” Jing Yuan fakes a laugh, attempting to lighten up the mood. “You’re a stellaron hunter, after all.”
Ren looks at Jing Yuan in the eyes. “Then you should just leave me.”
“What are you talking about?” Jing Yuan asks.
“This isn’t right,” Ren reminds, and as if Jing Yuan ever forgot about it one bit. “We both know that.”
Jing Yuan looks at Ren and Ren averts his gaze. He went his way telling Jing Yuan that he should leave him, but he’s the one that looks like he’s about to cry. It’s such a pain.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re right,” Jing Yuan says. “I shouldn’t love you. I shouldn’t care about you. I shouldn’t protect you. What was I thinking? I should hate you. I should let you go. Like you said, I should leave you.”
Ren doesn’t say anything.
“I should,” Jing Yuan continues, “but I won’t. I’ll be with you no matter what, Ren.”
Ren looks at Jing Yuan. “Jing Yuan.”
He seems happy, but he doesn’t want to show it. Jing Yuan travels his hands to Ren’s face. They lock their gaze. He can’t believe he’s risking everything all for the person in front of him, he wonders why he loves Ren so much.
“I’m truly the worst.”
“You are.”
They lean in for a kiss.