Everyone was fast asleep, dreaming whatever stupid dreams they could, it was their time to rest. However, for someone who couldn't sleep like Shinji their gorilla like snores were torturing —it was an orchestra!
After finishing his meeting with Lucien, he came back, but left again.
'That day I didn't sleep, I was in a state between death and life,' Shinji ponders, walking towards the east end of the camp, 'That felt refreshing... I don't think I ever had such good rest before.'
A weary smile grew on his lips, 'Having that again means... I might die.'
Dropping the worries for the next time something similar happens, he took a clay pot hidden in between a group of bamboo trees. Coughing blood in there until it was nearly filled.
Walking around for a minute, he takes a sit at a large rock, before drawing on it with his brush. His art was crude, after all, he taught himself. Nonetheless, he kept on drawing, if he didn't have the talent, better make it up with lots of effort and dedication.
As the moon got to its peak, a gentle palm suddenly takes his left hand. Instantly, Shinji's complexion paled, his eyes wide opening.
"I've seen people with this similar birthmark before..."
There was a slight pause in the voice, and Shinji breathes a sigh of relief since it was a different person than the one in his mind —Tsukino.
"...yet, they're all Tama-Artist."
Seeing his hand being let free, he stands up, saluting to the guest with a vibrant smile:
"Greetings Tama-Artist-sama. May you please enlighten this crone about these individuals."
'How cute of him...'
The young maiden thought. She didn't know why his voice gave her the butterflies; however, this made her omit to tell him that there is no need for formalities, among them...
"There is my crazy brother, a young teacher with a sickness similar to yours but worse, and the other is being kept in the White Room."
'White Room.'
Shinji pondered the words. It sounded like a place various inhuman experiments could take place.
Dropping the issue, the young man raises his head to look at the beauty with thin lips and a nose slightly on the side of Greeks.
Smiling, he takes hold of her chin; she didn't push him away. Getting closer to her, he says: "A sickness similar to mine... looks like you have been tailing me. I know, I'm the most handsome person alive, but never in my wildest dreams did I ever had a stalker."
"Absurd!" Lila refutes the accusations.
However, deep down, she knew he was right. Ever since their last meeting together, Lila couldn't get the Main Character out of her head, inciting her to spend 90% of her time stalking him to satisfy her desire.
Not trying to get caught, she places her index finger on his lips the moment they were an inch away from hers.
"Mmm... sorry I'm into girls."
Shinji could tell it was a lie. That being said, he was saved from a grand humiliation as someone who doesn't know how to initiate a kiss.
Shrugging his shoulders, he lets go of her chin, taking a look at the stars. Sighing, a gloom shadow emerged on his face, inciting the cold night breeze build tension between him and the girl.
"If you look closer at our beautiful galaxy, they're two stars which sometimes become one, before going to be two after 21 days. According to research, it's called constellation heart fusion. The matter in those stars would be merged to form something beyond a star like..."
He pauses slightly, putting his hands on his back.
"...what I thought we would be one day."
'Lila you idiot! You made him sad!'
The girl flinched, stepping back in panic. Little to her imagination did she know that Shinji was telling crap to make her feel bad.
Clearing her throat, she struggles to produce words:
"...you're...you're smart."
"Yes, I'm," Shinji shamelessly replies, taking an apathetic look at the girl who did everything to avoid his glare, "I even know another language."
Lila face tensed up in coldness, her glare turning darker. As someone who had a high rank, she knows that only one culture and language should exist in the world, as dictated by the officials long ago.
With no hint of playfulness, she takes a step forward, demanding, "Tell me the language you know mortal; I'll decide what do with you depending on your answer."
'It's a pity... I'm going to kill him either way.'
Shinji twitched, sweating at the back of his neck. Never in his life did he expect to meet someone with bipolar disorder like himself!
'Why is it always hard for the Main Character to get the Female Lead? Did I do something wrong to make her this indifferent?'
—Maybe she noticed I was lying about the stars.
Positive in his last thought, he acts nonchalant, placing his warm hands on her shoulder, inciting to twitch in her indifference.
"The language above the stars,
The language from the heavens;
The language that's killing my heart,
The languages that gives my soul bliss,
You, the language in my heart,
You, the language with heavenly hieroglyphs."
During the process, Shinji's hands were caressing her tender back gently; by the end, Lila was in his arms, her small head resting on his frail shoulders.
Shinji's body was nothing short of cold, but Lila felt warm by the way he embraced her so tightly. It was so warm that she started tearing. Although it's embarrassing for someone of her caliber, but Shinji felt like her fate —something that transcended the realms of all the norm intimate relationships she had in the past.
"I'm sorry..." She pauses to taking a sob, "I didn't mean to scare you."
Hearing her crying, Shinji didn't have much of an emotion to it, and a conversation he heard with Akane a while back played in his mind.
'You look like a player, the type to make girls cry!'
'They usually come crying to me!'
He lied, he doesn't have a social life; worse, a romantic one.
'Then comfort them, be a man!'
'But, I look like a woman!'
'Shut up!'
Thinking about it, Shinji got creeps all over —it ended up getting physical. However, at the moment that's all the advice he could get.
"You can talk to me, I'll listen." He said, trying hard to make a forlorn tone. "Think of it as talking to a wall that won't judge."
"You're bad at comforting people." Lila judged.
After a minute if taking in his raspberry scent, she adds, "Mortal, life is full of surprises. Just know, I ended up this way because of my decisions. I can't blame my parent, he has his life to take care of."
Shinji instantly breaks his promise.
"Do you know, the sins of your parents make your life ten times harder? Mostly, if they put pressure on you because of expectations. They make you a slave to their accusations, binding your mindset to theirs. So, sometimes they need to be blamed for making us monsters. Parents should care and support, not control and manipulate."
"I thought you said it was like talking to a wall."
"Sorry."
"Shut up."
The young maiden started releasing sobs, she knew that Shinji couldn't sleep; hence she wasn't worried about disturbing his night. Occasionally, she would play with his nape. This, however, made the young man touch somewhere he shouldn't, prompting him to receive a slap as a goodbye.