The Two Girls

As the setting sun slanted in, the two finally rose to their feet. Ye Lingling's legs were still a little weak, and Tang Yin steadied her. At the door, she suddenly stopped and looked back at the pothos growing wildly all over the room, then at Tang Yin.

"What happened today," she said, "I won't tell anyone."

"I know."

"And-" She bit her lip, as if she had finally made up her mind about something. For the first time, a glimmer appeared in her ever-quiet eyes, one that belonged not to the "healer," but to Ye Lingling herself. "That part of your heart I can't understand-I'm in no hurry to see it."

She paused.

"After all, we still have a long time."

Tang Yin looked at her and suddenly felt something in his chest that had always been wound tight loosen by an inch.

He nodded.

The two walked out of the treatment room side by side. The setting sun stretched their shadows long across the academy's bluestone path, close together.

Tang Yin and Ye Lingling had just reached the entrance to the treatment room when they nearly bumped into someone coming around the corner.

Dugu Yan was walking toward them with her sword in her arms. She looked up, saw the two coming out side by side, and paused. Her gaze traveled from Ye Lingling's still somewhat pale face to Tang Yin, then back again, and her eyebrows slowly rose.

"Well, well." She drew out the words. "You two hid in the treatment room all afternoon?"

Ye Lingling was uncharacteristically ill at ease, but she answered frankly, "Teacher Qin arranged it. Coordination between two support types."

"Oh?" Dugu Yan put eighteen twists and turns into that one word as she looked the two up and down, her eyes clearly saying, "Like hell I believe you." She reached out and casually hooked her arm through Ye Lingling's, pulling her closer. Leaning toward her ear, she lowered her voice, though Tang Yin could still hear her perfectly well. "Look at you. Usually you can go half a day without saying a word, and here you are, hiding away to get close to someone."

"Dugu Yan." The tips of Ye Lingling's ears turned red, and she gave her a gentle push. "Don't talk nonsense."

Tang Yin stood to the side, unsure whether to leave or stay.

Only then did Dugu Yan cast a sidelong glance at him. She had meant to say something cutting, but when she met the solemn face of an eight-year-old Tang Yin, the words on the tip of her tongue took a turn and came out as an annoyed:

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"You wore our Lingling out like this today." Dugu Yan huffed. "Whenever she gets a headache, she can't eat dinner. Then I'm the one who has to bring her food."

Tang Yin froze for a moment, then said earnestly, "...Sorry."

"Who wants your apology?" Dugu Yan rolled her eyes, but she reached into the embroidered pouch at her waist and tossed out a small porcelain bottle. "Catch."

Tang Yin raised a hand and caught it.

"You finished that bottle of wound medicine from last time ages ago, didn't you?" Dugu Yan turned her face away and stared at the carvings on a corridor pillar, her voice growing quieter and quieter. "This is a new bottle. I made it myself. It works better than what the academy gives out. Don't read too much into it. Sister Yan has more than she can use."

Watching her from the side, Ye Lingling suddenly laughed out loud.

"What are you laughing at?" Dugu Yan glared at her.

"Nothing." Ye Lingling shook her head, unable to suppress the amusement in her eyes. "I just think you're really good to him."

"Who's good to him?!" Dugu Yan's ears turned bright red, and she tightened her grip on Ye Lingling's arm. "He saved my life! I'm settling that debt!"

Tang Yin held the little porcelain bottle, still warm from Dugu Yan's body, and fell silent for a moment. Then he said earnestly, "Sister Yan." At the same time, he found it funny. "Purification is what I practice, and yet, Sister Yan, you really..."

The words "Sister Yan" made Dugu Yan stiffen all over, and she nearly jumped. "Y-you, who are you calling that?!"

"Thanks."

Dugu Yan opened her mouth, but in the end, nothing came out. She simply gave Ye Lingling a hard tug. "Come on, come on, let's go eat! If we're late, Shi Mo will snatch all the chicken legs again!"

Pulled along by her, Ye Lingling looked back at Tang Yin. There was laughter in that look, as well as a hint of helplessness that said, "Don't mind her, that's just how she is." Tang Yin stood where he was, watching the two walk away arm in arm. Dugu Yan muttered in Ye Lingling's ear the whole way, complaining about who knew what, while Ye Lingling kept laughing and occasionally gave her a gentle pat.

The setting sun stretched the two girls' shadows long, close together.

Tang Yin looked down at the little porcelain bottle in his hand, then up at the two figures walking away, and suddenly understood one thing clearly.

These two girls were truly good. So good that he wouldn't have to feel torn between them; so good that even if the relationship between the three of them went a step further in the future, they wouldn't tear into each other over it-because they had accepted each other before he ever came into the picture.

He tucked the porcelain bottle inside his robes and followed them.