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"You're the reason I'm a hero, you know." He tilted his head back, gazing out at the steel-gray sky. The clouds churned, dipping dangerously low. The punishing chill bit into his exposed skin. The rain pelted down all around him, soaking the ground and splattering against his face. It ran down his face in freezing rivulets. He pulled the yellow cardigan tighter around him, shivering.
The air itself was so heavy he wondered if he could drown in it.
Rain on wet ground. Rain splashing against leaves. Thunder rumbling in the distance, slowly inching closer across the sky.
"…I think you do know that, actually." He tightened his grip around the bouquet. The plastic crinkled underneath his hands. He took a breath and relaxed. He lowered himself to his knees. The ground squelched underneath him. The mud seeped into the legs of his pants. His knees grew cold and wet. He didn't care. "I think you always knew that, even before I was."
"You believed in me long before I knew how to." He placed the bouquet on the rain-slicked ground. Water droplets caught on the white rose petals. The yellow chrysanthemums weaved among the white flowers, sticking out like a sore thumb. They were messy and imperfect, yet still beautiful. The silence lingered for a moment as he watched the petals dip under the weight of the rain. "You always knew I'd be something great one day, and were willing to do anything to make it happen. I'm sorry I didn't appreciate that enough."
He took a breath. The air clustered in the bottom of his lungs, heavy as a physical weight. "…I'm sorry I hesitated." He said it quietly at first, his voice barely stirring the air. His breath shuddered out of him. He tried again, louder this time. "I'm so, so sorry I hesitated, Shang Chao. I know I can't make up for it. I know nothing I can do can ever make up for it, but- I'm sorry."
Nobody answered.
Water droplets caught in his hair. They dripped down his face. He let out a strangled noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob.
"I think you'd like those flowers, actually. They're a lot like you. You never did like things perfect, did you?"
A long, quiet time passed.
"If you had, you wouldn't have liked me. I'm anything but perfect."
A second.
"Shang Chao."
Time dripped past, sliding through his fingers like droplets of rain.
Silence filled the world. Thunder rumbled. His clothes were soaked. His skin was soaked all the way down to his bones. His whole body shuddered, shivering uncontrollably from the cold that tore at his skin. His hands had long since numbed.
He slowly leaned down, pressing his forehead against the muddy ground. It clung to his skin. Breathing felt like stabbing his lungs with a thousand tiny particles of ice. His throat had been scraped raw, as if he'd been screaming for hours on end.
"Come back. Please."