Dining Fun

*Crack.*

Shaking his dizziness off, Xuan Li looks at the man in front of him. His ever present mint-scent woke Li even faster. Flav's gaze was cold and strict.

"So, you still don't want to admit it?"

Helplessly sighing while his head healed, "I told you, I don't want to. You know what I want, so why are you forcing me to do something I don't want!" Li wanted to scream but held back.

"Li. You know what place we are in, right?" Flav asked, his tone serious.

Looking around him, Li checked the room a couple times and scratched his head. "The dining room?" he asked.

"We have tables, food, and a chef. I'm pretty sure this is the dining room."

Wanting to facepalm, Flav looked at Dumdum with helpless eyes. "Say something!" he basically pleaded.

With a cold smirk, Dumdum licked himself before looking at Flav. "Something."

"Sight… why did I even bother?" he muttered to himself and looked into Li's eyes again.

"Li! If you want to eat, you need to try harder! I know you want to die, but you also love food. Cultivate and it will solve all our problems In this Ascension academy, there is bound to be someone who would kill you."

Li shook off Flav's hands, and with an exaggerated sigh, he nodded. "Fine!" scratching his head, he smiled wryly. "How do we cultivate again?"

Flav almost couldn't believe his ears. 'Did he really agree? Is food really that important to him? He would even cultivate for it?'

"Now, how will we find such a person? Before I cultivate, I need to find a person to kill me. It's the sole reason I came here, anyway."

With Li's next words, Flav dispersed all his thoughts. 'Of course it wasn't because of food only.'

Raising his hand, Flav looked at Li. "We'll search."

*Bang!* *Crack.*

Slapping Li again, Flav watched as his head dislocated and, like a disco ball, started spinning. As usual, when Li's head stopped rotating, the light emerged and his head returned to normal.

"Didn't work, thought so." Flav said, while rubbing his head.

Li glared at Flav. "We both know that won't work. So, stop trying to kill me! For fuck's sake, even though I want to die, there is no use if it doesn't work." he yelled.

"Hilarious as always. Since your fiasco appears to have finished, can you sit down?! I want to eat without the stares."

Dumdum pointed around them at Joanna. Joanna looked at the antics amused. She loved such stuff. Yet, when her eyes landed on Li, they weren't nice. Her eyes were fraught with envy and rage.

"Ah, ok.." Flavs sat down and stayed silent.

'If only Miss Iris was here.' Flav wanted to complain but kept his thoughts to himself. 'What would she be doing at this moment? I haven't seen here for a few days already.

"Can you please not complain about dying in front of me?" Joanna suddenly told Li. Her eyes were unnaturally ablaze and her tone cold.

Li looked at Joanna. His expression was weird but still fearful. He nodded. "S-sure." he stuttered.

Joanna huffed and looked away. Li's reaction surprised none of them. They got used to it ever since Li learned of Joanna's identity.

His natural fear of ghosts was unnatural. It didn't seem like he had a beef with their kind, like Flav, but more of an ingrained fear.

'Why though?' Flav wondered like usual, but never asked. If Li wanted to tell them, he would, but since he said nothing, they didn't ask.

After Li's reply, no one spoke. The atmosphere became too heavy for that. After all, an immortal and a ghost's peculiar situations didn't allow otherwise.

One cultivated to live again, the other searched for all methods of death. Their contradicting situations guaranteed some sort of conflict.

Ten minutes later, the group finished eating. Joanna stood up first. After all, she ate nothing. She couldn't. She only sat there to pass the time and see how others enjoyed food.

Even though it deeply hurt her, she still watched what she craved.

The group's eyes followed her as she exited the dining room. The room seemed empty since it was way past dinnertime. The group ate at that time because of their conflicting schedules. Only at such times were they able to find a common timeframe to meet. Other than in the dorms, that is.

Feeling the atmosphere was too quiet, Flav spoke. "I'm picking a mission tomorrow. Do you want to come?" he asked the two.

Hearing what Flav said, his eyes immediately brightened. "A new mission? Of course, we'll come!"

"Don't decide for me, human!" Dumdum intercepted.

"Do you want to come?" Flav asked him again.

Looking at Flav's sincerity, Dumdum sighed heavily. "Yes. If I didn't come, who would take care of you kids? Especially that useless human. He can't even fight."

"Hey! That's not true. Well… it is, but I can somewhat fight now. After training with…" Li stopped as his body perceivably shivered.

'What kind of stuff did that teacher put him through? I wonder what kind of torture this suicidal, bat-shit, crazy guy went through to be so afraid.'

He shook his head as his mind wandered. 'I should ask Miss Iris if she wants to come. This mission is quite good and awards a hefty sum of Ascension points. It will probably interest her..'

'Will she think I'm a creep for suddenly thinking of her?' he felt dispirited. 'Well, as long as she thinks of me… and I can invite that specter too. It would make it seem less weird.'

"Since everyone here wants to go, let's sleep early today. The journey to the place we're going will be long. I will tell you what the mission is, in the morning. Let's meet at the main gate..

Flav looked at Li who was yawning and Dumdum. "You two sleep. I will go check if Miss Iris and the ghost want to come."

The two nodded and left. It seemed like Li wanted to say something but stopped himself and left.