"What would you two lovebirds like to order?"
Yen Lifeng sat across from Li Tanrin, and she scrunched up her nose.
"Eh, I'll just have a Chongqing Xiao Mein."
The waiter looked towards him. "I'll just have the same."
Yen Lifeng rolled her eyes. "You have no decision capabilities."
"Neither do you."
"Touche."
They sat in a comfy little resteraunt not a kilo away from their school. It was one of those local shops that only someone who'd lived here for years could find it. Thankfully Yen Lifeng was a Beijing local, unlike him, who'd come here to study all the way from back in Xi'an.
"So." Yen Lifeng nudged him with a toe. "What're you planning to do once exam season ends?"
"I could just stay here. That's if the school allows me to stay in the dorm."
She blushed very suddenly.
"Or you know, I could just stay with you."
"Nah, you're the worst sleeper I've ever been with. You toss and shout like a madman."
Li Tanrin smiled and sat back, enjoying the boredom of everyday life. It was true what Yen Lifeng said. It would appear the ten years spent in Iverssorn had given him some sort of trauma. Now a knife seldom left his bedside, thanks to the sleepless nights when they'd been afraid of ambush, and thanks to his friends.
He know stared at the girl across from him. He thought he caught a hint of malice in her stare, but that'd be just another side effect of the curse he'd brought back. What a shitty adventure.
He reached for his Mevius.
Fuck.
He'd left them back in the lecture hall.
"Wait for me. I'll be right back, I left my cigs back in the classroom."
"Sure." She began scrolling through her phone.
The walk back he took slow, breathing the crisp cool night air of autumn Beijing. The wind had just picked up a bit, ruffling through his hair, something he enjoyed doing now just for the sake of it.
He was tired.
That was his conclusion of the adventure to Iverssorn. It left him with a deep fatigue, sunken deep within his bones and left him often incapable of simple things. Simple pleasures, and simple boredoms.
If only he hadn't went. If only he'd sayed no to that pissy God in the first place.
Crossing under a bridge he caught a silhouette in a puddle, instantly sending him into hyper awareness. He turned around and saw Thomas behind him, standing there, with that cruel, baby-animal-torturing smile.
"Sup? How you doing, Chink?"
He sighed and turned back to walk.
Thomas appeared in front of him again, pushing him back. "I know you want to fight back, you damn faggot coward. Fight back! Where's your rage gone, huh? You pussy."
"Not you again. Please. It's my date night." He avoided the phantom apparition from his past and kept walking.
"So, that's how it's going to be? I killed you. Remember that blade across your throat? Touch it. I bet there's still a scar left. Though you tossed aside the corpse of that brat Ewan Sorrenswal, you've never shaken me. Never. I now live with you."
"Whatever."
He climbed the now dark stairs and retrieved his Mevius from behind the desk.
"I'm sorry."
He stiffened at Kiyoko's pathetically weak voice, but relaxed with a breath and left the classroom without a word.
Outside downstairs he found all five of his crewmates waiting there, standing in a semicircle.
"I see. It's a full reunion tonight, huh? I thought today I'd be more at peace."
Thomas grinned his jackel-like grin. "Never. Because you know it. You're changed. You're not the man Li Yifeng think she's dating. You're not the student of this university. The more you pretend, the less at peace you'll be at. And if you do nothing, you'll just fall to despair. Face it. You're dead inside because I killed you for real.
"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP! WHY? WHY? FUCK YOU ALL." He grabbed instinctively for his staff, but of course it wasn't there.
He laughed. "You know what. You're right. You killed me. For real. Fuck you."
He lit a cig.
"And you know what else? I'm coming back for you. Because I am changed. And this time you'll be the one lying on the ground, pathetically weak, and guess what, with your pertinence, you'll be begging for your life. Not even your real life. You'll be begging for life in some random-ass fantasy world where you can be some fake god."
"Are you ready to return then?" The figures were gone in a blink, and instead, God stood next to him, a doorway glowing behind him.
He inhaled a deep lungful of smoke and turned to God.
"Fuck you. Remember. I'm coming back."
"Always an option."
Before stepping into that cursed doorway again, he sent Li Yifeng a text.
I'll be right back.
He smiled. He had died for this. And he had lived for this.
He crossed the threshold.