17 TROUBLE YOU

"She's so troublesome." Yue blinked her eyes in dubiety at the derision, sceptical at first if whether or not she heard it right. A voice definitely echoed through the hall and the words reached her ear.

"I am troublesome for him?" She scoffs at his cynicism. 'He's so full of himself.

How am I troublesome!?'

Her self-esteem induced an inflammable fury. She didn't voluntarily fall or jump off the cliff, she did not ask him to rescue her through the depths of the chilling water.

She didn't ask him to perform his magical effects on her, he offered to help himself! Yue merely gave her consent to his targeted activities.

She didn't command him to go get her some warmer clothes, it was the outcome of his authorization, not her.

'How am I supposed to be the troublesome one here?' She pouts forlorn at his conception about her.

'I am always the burden wherever I go, which is precisely why I stay isolated now, away from the flamboyant life I could lead with ease akin to Lucy's.'

But Yue thought that she was nothing but surfeited of the inconvenience for all.

She took herself as the bearer of the rationale for her parents not being by her side. She hadn't been capable of forgiving herself of what had occured, she had only been overlooking her past. And Xuan Wu's entitling her as 'troublesome' had simply dug out the self condemnation which she was running away from.

"Hey, I found this-" he refrains his words halfway as he stands against the door frame. He watches her softly nibble on her bottom lip, that was such a turn on for him but she wouldn't know of it. For her it was more of a habit.

His orbs suddenly dilate momentarily as a shiny liquid eludes her eye, he gulps in horror as his hand clutches the fabric at hand as a precipitous feeling of culpability spreads through his chest. It only as much took an instant for him to realize that she had heard what he said. A tear involuntarily slips past her eye and she snaps her gaze away from his.

She bit the insides of her cheek as she struggled to hold back her tears. 'I will, absolutely not cry in front of him. I rebuff to any longer be reliant on this ruthless imbecile.'

He ceases in his words as their eyes meet. It only as much took an instant for him to realise that she had heard what he said.

She keeps her eyes fixated at the luscious window as she sees him walk towards where she sat, through the corner of her eye. She swallowed hard. She could feel the hot sting of tears behind her sore eyes. She couldn't perceive why the liquid eroded her eyes. Why was a suffocating feeling beginning to take shelter within her chest. She shouldn't be affected by the words of some man she knows nothing of. Then why, why did her heart stated otherwise, why did her eyes speak at variance.

"Hey, I didn't mean it that way-" His hand advances forward intending to tap her shoulder presumably so as to obtain her attention since she wasn't in the least looking at the man guilty of his charges.

But from the corner of her eye on seeing his hand advancing towards her she herself swiftly turns her head towards him, her gaze is indignant enough to make him gulp and his hitherto lingering stare wavers away from hers. She collected her scattered demeanor and wiped off her teary eyes, making the back of her hand useful in the process.

Standing idly beside the offended lady, the offender inhaled a breath of contrite and clenched at the cloth at hand. He right after letting her gain composure proffers a fleecy black sweatshirt and regardless of dying to grab the woolen fabric in those lowly harsh temperatures, Yue pushes his dulcet offering aside abrasively.

He clicks his tongue against the surface of his mouth at her brat-like behavior. But she was resolute in her resolve as well. His lamenting feeling are instantaneously superseded by a mischievous comportment. The selfsame emotions gleam blatantly in his onyx orbs.

"Keep it. I wouldn't want to TROUBLE you." Yue narrows her eyes at him, emphasizing the word 'Trouble'. It was evident by the quirking of his eyebrow that he didn't like the note of sarcasm in her tone. Not a single living soul within the immeasurable bounds of the empire had the audacity to talk back to him, and the girl before him was all but respectful towards him.

Her heart raced against her accord as she rose to her feet, standing right in front of him, slightly tilting her head upwards to face him. 'Damn, he's tall.' The height difference between the two of them was enough for him to have to look down to meet the frail girl's gaze.

He simply glared down at her, grinding his jaw negligibly as though he was chewing on a gum, which he evidently wasn't but all of these little actions of his only added up to his intimidation. Though the girl had answered defiantly, he wasn't displeased or offended. He merely found the entire event to be on the contrary, entertaining.