5 He Was The Yin To My Yang (1)

YinYang, a classic philosophy about two different natures that balance each other. One of them, Yin was symbolized as female, the moon, negative force, hidden or concealed, the night, and the winter. On the other hand, Yang was the male, the sun, positive force, open, the day, and summer.

The philosophy was intended to explain the contradicting sides of the nature, although people more than often used the term for others.

Although in their case, no one knew exactly which was which.

Yang YueChen's grades were falling.

He would fail his classes.

Not only that, other sorts of troubles rapidly burdened him.

To put it simply, whether by Yuan Ji or other factors, YueChen was about to face the gates of hell.

Fiddling around as he glanced the clock from moment to moment, YueChen finally put down his pencil. The stack of homework before him was left unfinished, nearly untouched.

The teen had given up trying to make any sense studying again.

In his class, Yang YueChen's performance was the worst. He excelled only in biology and English while failing all other studies.

"No, take that pencil and start doing the homework." A command came from the thin air.

"But," the boy pouted, "I don't understand any of those."

YueChen lightly scratched his cheek, trying to find another excuse to save him from sitting there forever.

"Flip through the books, search the answer in internet, ask a friend, do anything except this."

The second year of junior high school could be said as hell. YueChen barely had a friend, didn't have a tutor, and being bullied again.

At least he met Huang OuLin in the first few month.

If they were to describe OuLin in minimum words as possible, Yuan Ji would go for 'geeky otaku' while YueChen would say something along the lines 'cool smart guy'.

Huang OuLin was two months older than YueChen, his hair brown and straight, always wearing glasses, friendly and outgoing. OuLin could easily get himself a handful of friends in less than three days, which was plausible as YueChen struggled to get a friend in a year.

Long story short, OuLin found the local hobo of disaster and quickly befriended him. Said hobo was YueChen, obviously.

The nerd and the dork, the smart and the fool, truly an odd combination.

To Yuan Ji, Huang OuLin was only a replacement if not a problem. This boy easily gained his vessel's trust, even more easier than others. In case one day YueChen discarded him after finding a happiness and friends, things would be difficult. He would never ascend that way.

"Say, what do you desire the most?" YueChen tried to change the topic, pulling Yuan Ji out of his thoughts.

Upon hearing that one question, the deity's heart ached lightly for no reason at all. He coughed a few times, saying "My only desire is to return to where I belong to."

The boy let out a silent, "Aah..." and nodded his head.

In that one exchange of words, he had distracted Yuan Ji from noticing that he had put all the books back into his bag.

What he did expect was the answer, not his own question being thrown back to him.

Yuan Ji stared at him, waiting for YueChen.

"That.... I really don't know."

But, after a moment of thought, he corrected himself, "Well, maybe becoming smarter, less bullied, a real friend, or even just deleting painful memories."

"Or, or just you." YueChen continued.

The second year of junior high school was boring, no special incidents or anything worth telling. The third year, however, was memorable enough. That year set a firm foundation to their future relationship.

Time flew quickly, in a blink of eye, it was the first of September again.

"Let me form a contract with you." Said YueChen, calm and composed looks, as if he had the thought for a long time already.

The imaginary food in Yuan Ji's mouth dropped at once. Well, not exactly imaginary, since it was an offering from the mortals sent to him this day. Even Gods couldn't live without food.

"What?!"

Speaking to loudly and suddenly, the deity choked and coughed, his face gradually reddened of the lack of air. The surnamed Yang reached out to pat his back.

Only after a few minutes did Yuan Ji finally calmed down. The deity turned and shot a deadly glare at the boy.

"Where the hell do you know about contracts??! Do you think I am a demon?! A god isn't allowed to form a contract with random person you know!" Yuan Ji then proceeded to ramble about it, sometimes straying a little from the topic.

YueChen, on the other hand, only turned a deaf ear and smiled at him. He had had enough rants to listen, he wouldn't try to waste his time to take all the information rawly into his mind. Five sentences of Yuan Ji's rants were enough.

"I figured that maybe all beings, living or not, might be capable of forming a contract. Just a passing thought." Replied the teen half-lyingly.

The deity's glares were scalding hot, but they gradually cooled down. He mulled over the fact that Yang YueChen might not be a normal teen with average intelligence. No, he might be a genius for his age. However, if he really was smart enough to guess that contracts could be formed, why did he act dumb?

The vessel sat there patiently waiting for an answer. The smile on his face had dropped, the expression had changed into a downcast thoughtful look.

When Yuan Ji had finally decided to not underestimate the boy, his host had long deep travelling in his own mind.

A barely visible vein popped on his forehead. Before he could say or do anything, YueChen opened his mouth first. "Just say what you need to say, I'm listening." His gaze was still downcast, fixed on the mattress under him. His arms folded in front of his chest.

The growing temper was trampled down by that one sentence. Flusteration took its place instead.

"Well, it's like this..." came from his mouth as a start. Yuan Ji knitted his brows as he tried to find the best and easiest way to explain the matter.

"You see, Gods and other celestial beings could form a contract. The ways of said contracts were far strayed from the basic contract you know. No, Gods don't take lives like Infernal beings do. Gods grant powers and wishes, in a cost for something."

"And what is it?" YueChen's tone was that of mild interest, but he didn't move his gaze.

The room became quiet for a short while, the silence was only to be broken by the deity's two words: "It depends."

Followed closely by, "Some wanted offerings and worships, some only aimed for spiritual energy and ascension, some might actually pursue your life-span to extend their own."

This time, YueChen raised his head, properly looking into the onyx pair of eyes. He noted that a swirl of blue, like water, danced in the darkness. Taking in a deep breath, he spoke, "What about you? What do you want?"

Even though he had expected this, Yuan Ji was still taken aback at the boy's straightforwardness.

Coughing once or twice, he said, "State your wishes for this contract first. I'll let you know what I want as exchange then."

"A friend." YueChen said, concealing a smile.

"You already got one, if not two. Next." Yuan Ji shook his head, taking out a bun from his sleeves. The deity tossed and caught the bun a few times, not having any intent to eat the meat-filled bakery.

"I want knowledge, happiness, and romance."

"Typical prayers, improve it."

"Fine. Delete my memories, the painful ones. I don't want any reminder of those."

"Too complicated, another."

"Grant the god who dwell inside my body the power to manifest himself physically when he wants to. Give him back his abilities."

"Nonsensical—Wait, what??" He gave another offhand reply, before realizing what YueChen just said. The bun in his hand was once more tossed up, but he didn't caught it.

"You heard me." YueChen rose up to catch the bun, and sat back down. "Don't waste food, and that."

YueChen took a bite and another, ignoring the deity's shocked stare.

"That—that..." He pointed at the boy shakily. "Don't eat ghost's food!* You're not a ghost!"

"But I am." YueChen continued to munch on the bun. "It's not like you're going to eat this anyway, if you throw this away, it'll only be a waste."

It was an irrefutable logic. Yang YueChen was raised in a family where wasting food would be punished.

"Just... just what do you desire for real?"

"The last one is the purest desire I have for this contract. Please state the payment here, if possible not money or any mortal currencies. I'm too poor to afford your help in that case." YueChen finished eating the bun and produced a piece of paper from his pocket, took a brief look at that and handed it to the deity.

".... This is a blank paper." Yuan Ji flipped the paper and held it in front of his vessel.

YueChen tilted his head, raising an eyebrow. "So?"

"What's written on it?"

"Nothing. Don't expect me to write anything. My calligraphy is clumsy and ugly, remember?"

That's right. YueChen's calligraphy could be compared to a kindergarten's. Messy and sloppy, often mistaken as a totally different character. His writing style was no different.

No wonder teachers disliked him a little. A line of his essay was enough to make a person's eyes sore. No wonder his grades were so low. They couldn't make out any of that nonsenses!

Yet, somehow, his biology assignment got rather high scores and his English studies had perfect scores.

One time he tried to write the character Yuan from Yuan Ji's name and ended up writing Ai (love) with three waters in front of the character. That character didn't exist at all.

"I no longer trust you in writing contracts." The deity gritted his teeth. He produced a brush from thin air and began to state whatever he had in mind onto the paper.

"Saves me from troubles." YueChen thanked him, observing the dancing brush on the snow-colored paper.

Yuan Ji took about five minutes to write the contract, yet to the restless child, it seemed like only a second had passed.

"Can I look at that?"

Yuan Ji lifted his head, and said, "No. You can't."

With only three words spoken, YueChen easily deduced that the deity had added few details that he wouldn't want anyone to notice.

"Okay, then. What about the payment?"

"The contract is a balance for your wishes. You could say that you don't need to pay at all, as you already gave me a shelter. But this way may backfire if you violated the contract."

"Sounds fine for a starter contract. Will this affect your being too?"

Yuan Ji grinned, "As much as yours do."

•

Life started to become easier, YueChen got few friends and Yuan Ji got parts of his powers back.

Other than that, nothing really changed. The two still argued, fought, and complained at things. YueChen was still too kind and sweet for the world, Yuan Ji was still snarky and witty like before. The other changes were that there were no longer tales.

Until the second semester of the ninth grade, when YueChen's life was turned upside down.