Chapter Text
November 29
6:39PM
A winter cold evening met Xinyi's apartment's front building. The stone stairs that led to the glass door that's the entrance of the building. His boots dragged through the snow, creating a shallow path. He huffed and opened the glass doors and dusted off his boots. Once he saw that the snow had been shook off, he moved to the elevator and pressed his floor.
The ground floor was busy, evening chatter and people that have arrived just like him. Many talked of their dinner, others—the news that an artist may be playing for the local festival. Most people were there to hurry home and relax. And Xinyi is one of the many.
He tapped his shoes, a habit he makes when he patiently waited for the elevator to come down. The elevator made a "ding!" as it landed to their floor. He hurried in as many of the few others, pressing the button that had a number 3 on it. Xinyi pulled out his phone out to check his socials on the way up to his floor, elevator doors closing.
One of the messages was from Sam. His friend from university, asking if he'll be attending the concert tonight. Xinyi swipes the message to reply, "No, I'm busy tonight." He double checks any other messages that may need attention. Once he's assured, he turns off his phone and tilted his head slightly up and formed a sigh. He's particularly tired tonight and he couldn't pinpoint as to why.
'I wonder what I should eat for dinner..'
The elevator secured its cue, making another "ding!" sound, indicating he was already in his floor. The doors opened and he made his way to the swarming people inside the elevator to exit.
He sagged his feet down the hall to reach his room. "ROOM 307". He reached for his keys in his pockets, rummaging through it, feeling different kinds of texture.
"Hm, must've left trash here when I was snacking at the library."
Finally fishing out his keys, he took them out and entered it throught the keyhole. Making a distinct clink sound, unlocking his apartment door. As he entered, his cat, Scruffles welcomed him with a rub to his ankles. Xinyi chuckled gently, crouching down to give her a gentle scratch.
He took off his shoes, placing them near the door mat and headed to his bedroom, placing his bag down at his bag rack. He began to open his closet, finding a pair of sleepwears and heading inside his bathroom to take a quick, warm shower.
___________________
She blinked, blindsided by the stinging pain from earlier. Her heart raised as he doddered towards her. She cusp the centerpart of her shirt, her hair messy, and unkept as days pass by.
She just wished they could make it out of here. Her heart pounded, another hand was raised. Her nose catching the hint of alcohol from the man in front of her.
SLAP!
His palm landed on her cheeks, creating the loud echo. She whimpered, moving her hands to cup her cheeks. The man watched as her whole body trembled uncontrollably.
"You're useless!" He shouted. "It's just fucking alcohol and you couldn't even get it right?! You god damn brat!" He thrashed around the room, knocking down the can of alcohol from the table. He reached one of the glass bottles that she had just bought, the jazz of the alcohol bubbling up, waving it to her face.
He wobbled, waving the bottle in front her. "You call this a drink?!" He sneered, glowering at her.
"This little drink is as pathetic as you huh? You thought you finally made something right?" The man slurred at his words. "Well, let's be clear, hm? You have never ever been right."
...
"Never been right. Never done a damn thing even worth remembering." He waved the bottle too close to her face. His grip shaking. "You never do anything right!"
The man raised his arm weakly but focused then he threw the bottle. The bottle came at the wall, it's glass shards spreading as it had reached its impact. This caused the alcohol inside to spill at her long, black hair.
The girl gasped as the liquid spilled on her hair. Her hands were raised, covering her head and trembled as the glass shards made contact at the back of her palm, some on her wrist. Despite the quick cover, she cried out in pain when she glanced at her hands, blood forming on them.
"One more. I'm telling you. If you make the same fucking mistake all over again, I'm kicking you out." He huffed out, kicking a pile of trash and canned bottles at her way. "Get started on cleaning, brat!"
The man stomped out to the living room, his steps getting farther away from the bathroom door. She glanced at the state of the bathroom, breathing in ragged and heaving gasps.
There were too much things to clean. The pile of trash bags, the broken glass bottle, and herself.
Her arms were becoming numb from the pain. She let out a sigh, relief washing over for a moment. "He'll be back in shape tomorrow. It's alright." She felt shaken by the event that just occurred, trying to reassure herself that this was all just another night that will pass.
She inhaled sharply and picked herself up. Mustering enough strength to stand on her feet. She glanced at the state her hand was in and knew it wouldn't be good if she cleaned in this shape.
She made her way across the bath room, moving up from the tiled floor where pieces of glass laid down, to the sink and reached out to the cabinet on top. It's handles were metallic, giving her hands a sensation of coldness. Forgetting that she had scratches on her hands, she let out a strained cry and jerked her hand away from the cabinet's handle.
The girl realized that this might become more troublesome. She held her wrist, looking at the throbbing, swelling part of her palm. She let out sharp sigh, blowing the throbbing palm then continued again to reach for the cabinet's door handle. But this time, she did it cautiously.
After opening the cabinet, she reached for the medical bag and opened it to look for a bandages, alcohol, cotton balls and tweezers. She glanced at the mirror and saw how she was a wreck.
It felt like looking at something.
'Am I even something?'
She stared at her reflection, black eyes staring back. Her figure stood there. She could see the bruise coming forming below her undereyes. A black eye. Earned it when her father was angry about something. Something about her again. What was it that he said?
"Stop staring at me you freak."
Ah, he was angry about the way she looked at him. She made sure not to repeat the same mistake again. Speaking of mistakes, she made another mental note that he didn't like that kind of alcohol.
' I won't buy that alcohol again.'
Her reflection stared at her. The curls of her untidy hair ran down to her knees. It's gotten long without cutting it for so long. It was the only thing she could revel and get lost in. The proof that she's still alive. Maybe. Her eyes may look as if it's spark were gone, contrasts with it. Perhhaps she still clinged to the memory of that person.
Her hair laid down at the top of her pinkish shirt, now turned dirty and wrinkled. She sniffed, her eyes felt dry from the tears. There were still visible marks of tears on her face. She's pale. Her lips were too. She didn't feel tired, of course not. She could never be tired taking care of her father.
So she grabbed what she needed, lowered her hand down to the sink and washed away the glass shards. Removing them one by one with the tweezers and washed her hand again after removing them. With each shard being removed, she grunted. An occasional hiss would emit from her.
She started to apply some ointment through cotton on each wound. Lightly dabbing it on each and every one. After, she cut some bandages and clumsily wrapped it around her arm.
She sighed, sitting down on the toilet lid. She scanned at the broken glass bottle, the alcohol that's once inside of it sullied the cold tiled floor. Knowing it might stain the floor, she forced herself up to grab some cleaning supplies then walked over to clean the mess.
_________________
Xinyi was getting ready for bed after ordering and eating hotpot. Stretching out in front of the sink after washing the dishes, he shuffled his way to his room. He opened it's door revealing a tidy, loft bed. Under it, sat his desk for work and a gaming chair he recently purchased.
He had just cleaned his room before leaving to buy some coffee and heading into campus this morning. Xinyi mentally thanked himself for that as now, he can lie down on his soft mattress bed, with his cotton, chekered patterned blankets—a few of his winter blankets he bought one year after moving in.
He looked at his phone, opening his notes app to see if there's anything he had to get done before getting some rest. After assuring that he's free to do anything for tonight, Xinyi takes cover in his blankets.
30 minutes passed and... Xinyi lies awake in his bed. The air conditioning dawning on him, it was starting to get cold. There weren't any particular events that needed waking up early, but for him, it was normal to get knocked out the sooner he gets on his bed.
His mind wanders for a brief moment. Reminiscing about his hometown in Xinzhou. He wonders if he misses to live there. Does he? He tried to remember what others would find enjoyable. Him and his family went out the beach once. He could only remember how the hot sand tickled the soles of his feet. He didn't like the hot sand anymore.
Another memory flashed in his head, it was when one of his friends asked him to play with him in the cold, snowy fields of Moon gate Village. He didn't really want to go out as the sun weren't visible at that time, but he'd rather take this than do over bearing chores inside his house.
Bi'an was one of his friends he was acquainted with, at least, he wouln't call them close. They would often play cricket battling whenever they would go to the beach and find crickets near rocky caves and build rock-like ring to make the crickets fight. Xinyi would always win concidentally, not even caring if his cricket looked fine or strong enough to take on Bi'an's crickets, that were usually much bigger than his.
At that thought, Xinyi chuckled quietly. Then blinked back to his room. He let out an exasperated sigh. In that moment, he felt like his life was monotoned. After the incident at his family house, he resorted to this. To moving to Tasmanica Plains. He couldn't bear to live in that house anymore.
After about 20 minutes of the reminiscing and possible past horrifics, he was suddenly brough back to reality when he heard a glass shatter above his apartment. He didn't really know where it came from except that it was from above.
...He waited again, a shout erupted from the ceiling. Although the voices were incoherent, from the way the person was talking, it was a distant rumble. Xinyi panicked. What should he do? Go up and potentially face danger and interfering with a stranger's business?
But what if someone was in there? What if they were in trouble and needed help? Xinyi sharply inhaled, practically muttering "I'm just checking... I'm just checking."
He got up quicker than expected, grabbing his phone then, getting down from his loft, and rushing to his room's door. He dashed to the living room and opened his front door. It shut quietly with the door closer on top of it, making it a clean close and no neighbor gets disturbed.
He rushed to get to the left side of the hall, climbing the tiled stairs to get to the fourth floor. He was panting heavily. That whole thing made his heart rate suddenly jump into rapid mode. Xinyi made it to the fourth floor, still heaving.
He wiped his sweat while looking through the room numbers. 'If it's coming from my ceiling, then it must be 407 right?' He looked through the room numbers, getting his breath back slowly. He sneaked a peek at his phone and saw the time. It was 10:00 PM already.
He finally found the room after a couple of steps. The floors of the apartelles had a carpeted hallway rugs that had intricate patterns. The interior of the hallway had white walls and plenty of linear fluorescent lights. He glanced at both sides of his view, overthinking if he'd just overeacted to the sounds.
His head began to spiral with thoughts; if there weren't anything actually wrong, then he'd just embarrassed himself. But if something did happen, then...
What exactly would he do? 'I'll just have to call the police then... Probably?' He exahled, then released. His shoulders were slumping and made his effort in straightening them. He raised his hand, rang the door bell and waited.
....
Xinyi was beginning to feel stupid by the minute he waited. But he still couldn't shake the distant feeling of concern and dread of what's about to face him. Footsteps scurried to enter the door password.
The door made a ding sound, indicating it had been open. Xinyi's blue eyes were met with pure black eyes that blinked back at him, cautiously examining him. Her black hair had wavy, and curly parts. On her right eye, he noticed she had a bruise. And on her left cheek, had a square adhesive patch that looked like it was put in a rush.
"Um... Do you need anything?" She spoke with a hoarse voice, it sounded like she had been crying. Xinyi observed her undereyes, it had dark circles under them and it looked like her eyes were swelling.
"Oh.. Uh... Good evening, I heard somebody was yelling and a glass shattered from here. I wanted to check if everything's alright?"
He mentally face palmed. 'Dude she looks like that and you're going to ask if everything's alright? Are you okay??' She'll totally think he's an idiot now. He face palms mentally, again.
"Ah, yes.. everything's alright. But I didn't hear anything...? I'm pretty sure it must've been the wind." Her eyes were kept low, she kept glancing around their surroundings, seemingly nervous. Xinyi realized how she's bit smaller than him, giving him a chance to look at her surroundings. He could barely see anything inside, only a blue light, presumably emitting from the television in their living room.
He quickly formed a thought. Clearly she's in a state where she can't get out of the apartment room, someone from the inside would suspect she's gone and it might endager her further. One thing he could do is to call the police, but that'd be too risky for the girl. Especially meeting someone for the first time.
"The wind is quite loud hm?" He hums, trying to look thoughtful. He notices how visibly nervous she becomes from his statement. Clearly panicking about the current situation.
"Could I have your name then?" A steady, reassuring smile plastered around Xinyi's face. This sparks the girl's curiousity for a brief moment, her eyes gleaming then suddenly back to this tense expression. "...Fillus. M-my name's Fillus." She mutters, tapping her finger at the door handle, appearing to be impatient.
"Nice to meet you Fillus, I'm Xinyi. I live from the room down to your room. If you um, need someone to talk to uh..." He trails off for a bit. "Have you got a phone, Fillus?" She shakes her head slowly. "I-I'm not supposed to talk to um.. strangers."
"That's quite complicated." He thought out loud. Startled by his own voice, he glances at Fillus, looking at him curiously but still wearing a visible worry on her face.
"Oh uh, I mean, I want to become your friend but if we can't contact each other, then we won't get closer wouldn't we? That way, we won't be strangers." Xinyi gently smiled at her. Fillus quietly stared at him. Her mouth opening for just a brief moment.
"No, I-it's okay..." She muttered, awkwardly fidgeting. Before Xinyi could tell her his way for them to contact each other, a voice erupted from inside. This earned a flinch from Fillus.
"Brat! Did you finished cleaning up?!" A man's voice shouted loudly. Fillus hesitates, her brows creasing, making a tensed expression. She panicks and looks over to Xinyi for a brief moment.
"I'm half done father!" She yells from the hall, her hands squirming. Xinyi stood there and observed the interaction. He thinks slightly that they might be close from the way she yells to notify him but he betrays this thought when he noticed how seemingly frightened Fillus was and how quick she was to flinch when her Father called for her.
Xinyi narrowed his eyes inside the hall briefly, then looking back at her. "Then get onto it quickly! The detergent is stinging my nose... Fuck." He curses then stands up to get to his own room.
"I um.. really have to get back." She quietly told him, holding the door handle to almost close it.
"Do you have any free time?" Xinyi reaches out his hands to stop her, "I'd like to hang out with you if um, you're okay with it." He tries to ease her by giving her a subtle smile.
She gives him a cautious stare, trying to think it over quickly, she blurts out, "At night. When h-he's asleep." She whispered the last sentence then continued to close the door.
The door closed on Xinyi, his hand still hovered over to the door handle. He exhaled hard, not realizing that he sucked in a breath. He plays it cool, opening his phone and looked at the time.
"10:05 PM.." He muttered under his breathe while walking down the stairs. He certainly didn't realize that it was quite short for the way they conversed each other. For him, it had felt like it'd been hours. He closed his phone and placed it on his pocket while also putting his hand in. He continued to walk until he reached his apartment door and entered inside.
He slid in his room and climbed to bed. The whole walk to his apartment room, he had only one thought: "What the hell did I just do?" He was laying in bed, arms on his forehead with his eyes wide open. He was questioning himself, wondering what's going to happen with him in the next few days.
He internally cursed himself. 'I shouldn't have been so nosy' His eyes scrunched shut, brows knitting together as he turned himself over. The bed quietly creaked and the sheets blend with his movements, wrinkling under his body. 'No no, it's alright. This wouldn't hurt, would it?' Xinyi blinked his eyes open, staring at the blanket beneath him.
He wonders if she's really okay. Their interaction flashes back on his clouded mind. He remembers her slurred words, her small and trembling frame. He goes back to the unsettled atmosphere she had, wondering if she's well rested tonight.
Come to think of it, she referred to the man inside her apartment as her 'father' right? Xinyi became more suspicious. She seemed beaten up, and the way her father referred to her as a brat in a condescending tone instead of an endearing one really made Xinyi concerned for his... newfound friend.
Nevertheless, he still wanted to befriend her despite whatever situation she was currently facing. 'I'm the one that asked to be her friend. It's my responsibility.' He knew he had to be careful in interacting with other people. Because he knew small, seemingly invisible actions could lead to strained relationships with them.
He knew that.
So when he realized that Fillus is in a difficult situation, he knew that he'd need to be a reliable friend. But for now, he'd need to get some sleep and find a way to get to his friend to open up to him and possibly help her with her unspoken troubles.
He tossed to face the ceiling, the air colder than before creeping up his feet. His eyes began to feel heavy. He begun to scrape the blanket from the sheets, moving sideways and placing his hands under, between his pillow and his head to lie on it.
It seems the cold, winter wind would slip through the unseen gaps settling inside the room—lingering, unwilling to leave just yet. It would remain for a little while longer, it will hold in it's place before inevitably yielding to the next seasons.