When Ji Yunhuai clearly heard Lu Xiaoxiao say the words "comfort you," his body went momentarily rigid.
The girl's low, slightly indistinct voice seemed to turn into a weightless butterfly the instant the words left her lips, fluttering toward his heart.
Ji Yunhuai lifted his head slightly, looking past the messy strands of hair she had tousled over his forehead to find Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes.
In that instant, the habitual amusement and casual indifference in his eyes vanished completely.
He simply studied Lu Xiaoxiao with an intent gaze that held a faint tremor of surprise, almost losing his voice for a moment.
How strange... Lu Xiaoxiao's first instinct was actually to comfort me.
She seemed to imagine he was terribly delicate.
After a moment of silence, Ji Yunhuai's Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily. He reached up and caught the wrist of the hand Lu Xiaoxiao was using to pet his hair, and when he spoke again, a rare gentleness had entered his voice.
"I'm not upset," he said. "It's just a game. I'm not that much of a sore loser."
But before he could finish, Lu Xiaoxiao raised her voice and interrupted him. "But I am!"
Ji Yunhuai curled his lips in amusement as he looked at her. "Why are you upset again? I've spent all this time taking you out to have fun, and you've sent me right back to square one in a single second?"
"If I'm upset, I'm upset! It's because you're not upset... that I'm upset!" Lu Xiaoxiao glared at him solemnly, seeming to grow a little angry all of a sudden. "How could you... how could you talk about your own life like it's someone else's story? You don't even spare a little sympathy for yourself! You're just... just so stupid! Seeing someone as stupid as