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Stelle twisted and turned onto the hotel bed. She couldn’t sleep. No matter how hard she tried, she kept thinking about Tingyun. The charismatic guide who had helped the trailblazers navigate the Luofu had turned out to be a traitor and the real Tingyun was nowhere to be found. Where was she? Was she even alive? Those questions haunted her mind. No one knew the predicament she hid under her calm expression as she kept on doing errands for everyone at the Luofu. Whenever she did fall asleep, she’d instantly get woken up by a nightmare about Tingyun and Phantylia. All of those emotions she kept to herself kept her awake.
Eventually, she couldn’t take trying to fall asleep anymore and decided to just sit on the bed, looking at the wall. She wanted someone who could comfort her during this time and thought about coming into March’s room. March’s kind attitude always cheered her up during tough times. However, Stelle quickly realized March was asleep due to all the snoring she was hearing from the room next to hers. She then thought of Dan Heng before realizing he wasn’t even in this hotel in the first place, due to him having a meeting with Jing Yuan.
Wanting someone to keep her company during the night, she went out of her room, still wearing her pjs, her hair being an absolute mess. She knocked on Mr. Yang’s door, the only other trailblazer who was sleeping at the hotel. To her surprise, he actually opened the door.
- “Stelle? Is there anything you need, or perhaps, you can’t sleep?” Mr. Yang spoke as he opened the door.
- “Yeah, I just can’t sleep at all.. I was wondering if I could stay here for now..” Stelle explained as she rubbed her eyelids.
- “Has something been preventing you from sleeping? Perhaps something relating to the incidents that happened lately. If it is, I understand it’s tough to handle.” He comforted her with a gentle voice as he placed his hand onto her shoulder.
At that moment, Stelle’s overwhelming emotions got the better of her and she jumped to hug him, resting her head on his chest. She felt like he just read her mind. She stayed like this for a couple minutes. Welt did not pull away, understanding she was feeling down and just wanting a bit of company. He started to pat her head as she stayed there with her arms around him, snuggling against him. Stelle didn’t say a word. She simply stayed glued to him, a slight smile appearing on her face as soon as he patted her head.
- “Listen Stelle, you should probably head back to your room.” Mr. Yang said in a concerned voice.
Stelle shook her head and stayed glued to him. Realizing she was going to stay like this for a while, he sat onto the bed, with her deciding to sit onto his lap.
- “Can we.. stay like this?” Stelle asked, looking at him with puppy dog eyes.
“Alright, just stay here until you feel better.” Welt answered as he put his arms around her and gently patted her back.
In response, Stelle put her arms around his neck and snuggled against him again as he gave her headpats. She rested her head on his shoulder, feeling warm in her stomach. Being near him like this made her feel much better than she was before.
- “How are you feeling right now?” Mr. Yang asked her as he stopped the headpats for a while.
- “I feel a bit better.” Stelle replied, staying still.
- “If you want, we can talk about it.” Welt kindly suggested.
Stelle felt a bit hesitant but in the end decided to tell him all about how she felt about the Tingyun situation. Mr. Yang listened intently to what she had to say, waiting until she was done before replying.
- “These kinds of situations often happen when you go to places facing a crisis. It’s common to see people go and for someone new to this like you, I know it can be especially hard to push through. And that’s okay, you can talk to me or any other member of the express about it.”
- “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience again.” Stelle said in an almost sad tone.
Welt simply nodded at that.
They continued to talk and hug for a bit. Eventually, Stelle’s eyes began to feel weary and she slowly drifted off to sleep right in his room, onto his bed.
Welt sighed before moving her to a more comfortable spot on his bed. He didn’t want to wake her up after she expressed to him how much she was struggling to fall asleep. He decided to let her sleep in his hotel room for the night, making sure the young trailblazer could get a good night of sleep.
As he sat next to her on the bed, he eventually fell asleep too.