The next morning, Shuo woke from the cold-not because he was truly freezing, but because his blanket had slipped halfway down, leaving his back exposed to a chill that made him frown in irritation.
He slowly opened his eyes, squinted for two seconds to adjust, and clicked his tongue. This damned temperature had dropped quite a bit since yesterday.
He turned to look at the opposite bed. Empty. The blanket was folded perfectly neatly at the head of the bed, and the space by the window was empty too, with barely a trace of anyone left.
Shuo pushed himself upright, and Lightspeed Thinking started running automatically, feeding all sorts of information into his mind-the room was nineteen degrees, two degrees lower than yesterday.
The humidity was sixty-five percent, a little stuffy. A faint scent of tea drifted through the air; it had probably been brewed not long ago. The paper bag on the table was still steaming. He knew without thinking that Sai had bought breakfast.
He casually pushed the information into the background, slipped on his shoes, and got out of bed to wash up. While brushing his teeth, he stared at himself in the mirror. There were still faint shadows beneath his eyes, as though he had not slept enough, yet the corners of his mouth were lifted, and he could not press them down.
He frowned, rinsed his mouth vigorously, wiped his face, and pretended not to have seen that little curve.
Just as he left the bathroom, the door opened and Sai walked in, wearing the new dark gray coat. It fit perfectly and made his figure look considerably straighter and taller.
Shuo paused, tiny particles of light gathering at his fingertips before he quickly drew them back.
Sai looked at him, a little uncomfortable. "What?