"It was a little."
The old man smiled.
"That's good."
Seeing that the young man seemed even more embarrassed, the old man continued, "Young people should have that kind of energy."
"It's better than how gloomy you were the past few days..."
"And how irritable... much better."
The young man picked at his glass with his fingers.
Again and again...
After a moment of surprise, he nodded.
At that, he felt a little resentful—and even more regretful.
"...Who would've doubted it?"
"You convinced me to stay."
The old man stared at him intently.
"You were surprised."
It seemed hard to accept that those words had become reality so quickly...
He was momentarily stunned.
"...At first, you knew Xiao Xiao had gone out to find the culprit who'd disturbed your sleep and bring him back..."
The old man's tone grew rather mysterious. "The monster making the noise?"
"He was leaving."
"Besides him, none of the rest of you had heard it..."
He nodded.
"Young Friend Xiao Xiao told me..."
"Xiao Ding."
"Because the other one was a monster."
He hadn't fully taken in what Xiao Xiao had said, so he hadn't reacted much.
"A monster..."
He smiled wryly.
"Do monsters really exist in this world?"
A monster...
"Leaving?"
Huh?
"You believed what I said."
The old man was surprised.
"...At the time, I still didn't know the other one was a monster."
"You said too much all at once. This old man's getting on in years, so I'm slow to react..."
"You didn't see it?"
"If I'd let him leave..."
He shook his head immediately.
He would've thought the same thing in Xiao Xiao's place.
The old man nodded.
"At first, I thought it was a wild chicken..."
"He said I was special."