If the Deep Sea Forgets You

Mo Han did not listen to her as he threw her on the bed at once. He then covered her with a blanket, “Don’t worry. I won’t go out until I see you sleep nicely tonight.”

“I can’t sleep even more with you here!”

“You definitely would not sleep properly on the bed if I go out.” Mo Han said as he said down at where Xia Qingyi had sat before. He relaxed slightly at the sight of Xia Qingyi lying properly on her bed.

“I can’t fall asleep. Even if I did fall asleep, I’d wake up in a while because of nightmares. That is why I don’t dare to sleep on the bed.” Xia Qingyi said, having decided that she should just be honest.

Mo Han started to chat with her. “What kind of nightmare?”

Xia Qingyi said, “I dream about sleeping in the depths of the sea. There’s a force behind me that keeps pulling me further down. The surrounding was sticky and uncomfortable. The bottom was also dark and I couldn’t see anything. I’ve been having this dream when I was still in a coma in the hospital.”

Mo Han made use of the small ray of light shining in from outside to open the drawer. He took out a bottle of medicine and poured a few pills out, before he gave the pills to Xia Qingyi for her to eat.

“What?”

“Flu medicine. It has some soporific content in it. Eat it.”

Xia Qingyi took the pills unwillingly as she took the glass of water on the table to swallow the pills. She then turned her head towards Mo Han and said, “You can go out now. I’ll sleep properly on the bed. I’ll continue to sleep even if I’ve woken from a nightmare.”

Mo Han merely sat at the bedside, “I’ll go out after you’ve fallen asleep.”

Xia Qingyi rolled her eyes and turned away from Mo Han instead of looking at him. She wanted to fall asleep when her head was feeling drowsy.

Mo Han watched Xia Qingyi’s back from the side. He spoke in the gentlest tone he had ever spoke in, “Go to sleep. I’ll be here protecting you.”

“You don’t have to be afraid even if you have a nightmare. I’ll always be here.”

Unknowingly, Xia Qingyi felt slightly at ease with her eyes closed. The discomfort she felt being wrapped by the soft blanket on the bed had also slowly weakened.

It seemed as though that she did not need to worry about anything with him around.

It was alright to have a nightmare since there was someone accompanying her when she woke up.

Maybe, it was alright to try to believe for once.

It was already two A.M. when Mo Han had finally returned to his bedroom. His legs were slightly numb from being sat on the floor for too long. He moved out of the room cautiously without a noise. He spent some time waiting for the numbness to go away slightly before he returned to his bedroom.

His bedroom was pitch black without a light. He thought that Shen Rou had already fallen asleep as he kept his movements to a minimum, not wanting to disturb her. He merely took off his jacket before he got into bed to sleep.

The moment he got into bed, however, he heard Shen Rou, who had her back facing him, asking softly in the dark and lonely night, “Will you do this to me too?”

Mo Han said, “Don’t think too much. Go to sleep.”

Shen Rou resisted the urge to turn to look at him. She resisted the urge to cry as she said while holding herself back, “Do you know, Mo Han, that I had thought that it would be great if I could be your girlfriend in the future when I saw you in my second year of university. All I needed was to put a little effort for you to be mine since I was beautiful and talented. Afterwards, I made friends with all your close friends and appeared in front of you everyday at appropriate times until graduation. You only became my boyfriend when we graduated. But now, I suddenly had the thought that wouldn’t it be great if I was your younger sister, like Xia Qingyi is.”

Mo Han said, “You don’t have to think that way. She is her and you are you.”

Shen Rou lay down straight as she stared at the air in darkness. She said, “But why do I feel that if you were to choose between your younger sister and I, she would be the more important one?”

Mo Han said, “Stop getting your thoughts into a dead end, Shen Rou. There’s no meaning in this.”

Shen Rou smiled. It might be due to the cover up from the dark, but she felt undoubtedly braver than usual. She asked a question that she had been wanting to ask for a long time, “Mo Han, do you really love me?”